Further Issues with DNA
The work of Haak and his colleagues will no doubt need additional data. The parts of the puzzle that have yet to be explored include where did the N1a branch originate? Will DNA from skeletons from the eneolithic Balkan states match the central European Neolithic populations? Are the individuals within the LBK sites who don't match the N1a sequence representatives of the original hunter-gatherer bands or simply non-related Neolithic migrants? What does the DNA from the Paleolithic hunter-gatherers look like? Does stable isotope analysis support the migration theories established by Haak et al.?If the adoption model of the origins of agriculture in central Europe is supported, that does not mean adoption was necessarily the primary diffusion method for other innovations or even other agricultural crops. It does, however, suggest a fruitful pathway for discovering just how the spread of technology may have occurred in the past.
The innovative research of mitochondrial DNA has spread far more rapidly than did agriculture; but the extraordinary changes it has wrought in archaeological studies promise to revolutionize the study of the past.
