First European Farmers Traced Back To Anatolia

Researchers found that the first European farmers were traced back to Anatolia. In their study, the researchers used human material from the Anatolian site Kumtepe, which provided sufficient DNA to assess the demography that is connected to the spread of farming. The study was led by Ayca Omrak, a doctorate student, who conducted her work at the Archaeological Research Laboratory Stockholm University. Even though the human material was heavily degraded, it still provided efficient DNA that was used to conduct the research.

"I have never worked with a more complicated material. But it was worth every hour in the laboratory. I could use the DNA from the Kumtepe material to trace the European farmers back to Anatolia," Omrak said in a news release. "It is also fun to have worked with this material from the site Kumtepe, as this is the precursor to Troy."

Jan Stora, who is an associate professor in osteoarchaeology and coauthor of the study is on the same page as Omrak. The results of the study confirmed Anatolia's importance to Europe's cultural history. Stora claimed that the material from the location requires additional research.

"Our results stress the importance Anatolia has had on Europe's prehistory," said Anders Gotherstorm, who is the head of the archaeogenetic research at the Archaeological Research Laboratory. "But to fully understand how the agricultural development proceeded we need to dive deeper down into material from the Levant. Jan is right about that."

The researchers' study is shedding light on understanding the process that led from a hunter-gatherer society to a farming society.

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