Ancient DNA and Neolithic transition in southern Italy
Roberta Lelli1, Cristina Martínez-Labarga1, Cecilia Conati Barbaro2, Alessandra Manfredini2, Olga Rickards1
Centro di Antropologia Molecolare per lo studio del DNA antico, Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Roma “Tor
Vergata”, Roma, Italia, e-mail: robertalelli@yahoo.it.; martine@uniroma2.it; rickards@uniroma2.it; 2 Facoltà di Scienze
Umanistiche, Università di Roma “La Sapienza”, Roma, Italia, e-mail: cecilia.conati@uniroma1.it;
alessandramanfredini@libero.it
1
In the previous Congress on Cultural Heritage held in Cairo, we faced the question of Neolithic transition in south-eastern
Italy performing stable isotope analyses on human and faunal remains excavated from Early Neolithic sites of Apulia and
Basilicata and pre-agricultural sites of Calabria and Sicily. This approach revealed useful to shed light on dietary habits and
mobility of early farmers from this area and economic change associated with the arrival of agriculture. With the present
study a more complete survey of farming diffusion through a further biomolecular investigation based on ancient DNA
analysis was performed with the aim to assess the degree of genetic change, if any, associated with the arrival of agriculture
and the genetic contribution of early farmers to extant Italian gene pool. Samples showing the highest collagen yields were
selected for ancient DNA analysis since the preservation of other biomolecules, such collagen, could be an indicator of a
good sample conservation and consequently of a more likely DNA survival. Genetic characterization of Neolithic
individuals from south-eastern Italy and subsequent inter-populations analyses revealed a major genetic affinity of early
farmers with extant populations rather than Palaeolithic individuals. This could give support for a demic model of farming
diffusion, i.e. a movement of people already devoted to farming and breeding practices from the Near East which could
have caused a genetic change extended until nowadays.
Keywords: Neolithic transition, ancient DNA analysis, demic diffusion.
Oral presentation