Evidence concerning the travels and ultimate success of the LBK has been addressed through the use of mitochondrial DNA, discovered in the skeletons of Neolithic farmers; Upper Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic hunter-gathers; and modern humans in Europe. A study reported in 2005 (Haak et al. 2005) investigated LBK skeletons recovered from sites like the one illustrated here. They discovered that mtDNA from the LBK skeletons didn't seem to match modern European residents. They hypothesized that Mesolithic hunter-gatherers might have DNA more closely aligned with current Europeans, and tentatively concluded that the LBK didn't represent a massive in-migration, but rather small groups that were ultimately absorbed into the Mesolithic hunter-gatherer population.
However, the archaeological data doesn't seem to indicate a transition of a handful of people from southwest Asia; the sites are too numerous. A report published in 2009 by the same research team (Bramanti et al.) suggests that the Upper Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic hunter-gatherers of Europe were also not very closely related to current Europeans, but they were definitely distinctly different from those of the LBK. This lends support to the notion that the LBK was a result of a large-scale population movement into central Europe from central Asia who did not, at least at first, intermingle with the hunter-gatherers.
The fact that modern people who live in Europe don't seem to have a clear relationship to either the hunter-gatherers or the Neolithic farming is probably, scholars say, the result of later population movements that may or may not have left archaeological evidence.
This burial is from the Halberstadt site in Germany. The pots included as grave goods are classic LBK.
Sources and Further Information
Bramanti, B., et al. 2009 Genetic Discontinuity Between Local Hunter-Gatherers and Central Europe’s First Farmers. Science Express 3 September 2009
Haak, Wolfgang, et al. 2005 Ancient DNA from the First European Farmers in 7500-Year-Old Neolithic Sites. Science 310:1016-1018.
- Transition from Hunting to Farming in Europe, summary of Bramanti et al. 2009
- European Mesolithic
- Linearbandkeramik culture
- LBK Bibliography
- The Origins of Agriculture in Central Europe: DNA, LBK, and the Origins of Agriculture (summary of Haak et al. 2005)
- Domestication of Pigs and the LBK
