Paleogeneticists have analyzed the DNA of two newborn children whose remains were found during excavations of the Western Hill of Çatalhöyük. Scientists have concluded that these children, who lived at the beginning of the sixth millennium BC, were not close relatives, despite the fact that they rested under the floor of the same house. The preprint of the study is posted on the website bioRxiv.org.
In the Turkish province of Konya there is one of the most famous archaeological sites dating back to the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods – Çatalhöyük. It has survived to this day in the form of two hills (Eastern and Western), which are multi-layered remains of settlements that existed around 7100–5600 BC. Over the long years of excavations, which began in the middle of the last century, archaeologists have discovered the ruins of numerous houses built of mud brick and wood, the walls and floors of which were decorated with paintings and carved images. And under the floors and platforms of such buildings, the remains of numerous residents of this settlement often rested (read more about it in the article “The Mistress of the Double Mountain”).
In recent years, the remains of the Çatalhöyük people have occasionally been the subject of paleogenetic studies. However, scientists have mainly focused on the bones and teeth found in the older East Mound. Now, Ayça Doğu of the Middle East Technical University has presented the results of DNA analysis of two individuals from the West Mound, where archaeologists excavating a structure found the remains of two newborn children who lived around 6000–5700 BC, that is, in the Early Chalcolithic.
Paleogeneticists read the children's genomes at low depth of coverage and found that they were two girls. Even though their remains were buried under the floor of the same dwelling, DNA analysis showed that they were not closely related to each other - at least not cousins or closer. Researchers had noted something similar before when they analyzed the genomes of the East Hill people.
Previous studies have shown that the gene pool of the Central Anatolian population changed significantly in the sixth millennium BC. At that time, there was a gene flow from more eastern populations, which probably lived in the Caucasus, Upper Mesopotamia or Zagros. However, the genomes of the children from the Western Hill of Çatalhöyük lacked this “eastern” admixture and were similar to the genomes of the people from the Eastern Hill, who lived in the Neolithic era. According to the scientists, either the gene flow from the eastern populations reached Central Anatolia after these children were alive, or the population of Çatalhöyük remained isolated. Other genomes from the early sixth millennium from this region may provide an answer to this question.
Research at Çatalhöyük continues, so scientists periodically report new discoveries. For example, at the beginning of the year we reported that 8,600-year-old bread was discovered at this settlement, and last year, fragments of ropes and textiles made from bast fibers.
