Origins of Agriculture in Central Europe: Diffusion, DNA and the LBK

A recent study in Science magazine argues that the origins of agriculture in central Europe 7000 years ago were the result of the adoption of new techniques by the hunter-gatherers living there. Using DNA data from Neolithic Linear bandkeramik cemeteries in Hungary, Germany and Austria, researchers say mtDNA differences between modern and Neolithic populations indicate that diffusion was a matter of adoption, rather than wholesale migration.