It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, March 25, 2024
Persian plateau unveiled as crucial hub for early human migration out of Africa
GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY
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PEBDEH CAVE LOCATED IN THE SOUTHERN ZAGROS MOUNTAINS. PEBDEH WAS OCCUPIED BY HUNTER-GATHERERS AS EARLY AS 42,000 YEARS AGO.
A new study combining genetic, palaeoecological, and archaeological evidence has unveiled the Persian Plateau as a pivotal geographic location serving as a hub for Homo sapiens during the early stages of their migration out of Africa.
This revelation sheds new light on the complex journey of human populations, challenging previous understandings of our species' expansion into Eurasia.
The study, published in Nature Communications, highlights a crucial period between approximately 70,000 to 45,000 years ago when human populations did not uniformly spread across Eurasia, leaving a gap in our understanding of their whereabouts during this time frame.
Key findings from the research include:
The Persian plateau as a hub for early human settlement: Using a novel genetic approach combined with palaeoecological modelling, the study revealed the Persian Plateau as the region where from population waves that settled all of Eurasia originated.
This region emerged as a suitable habitat capable of supporting a larger population compared with other areas in West Asia.
Genetic resemblance in ancient and modern populations: The genetic component identified in populations from the Persian Plateau underlines its long-lasting differentiation in the area, compatible with the hub nature of the region, and is ancestral to the genetic components already known to have inhabited the Plateau.
Such a genetic signature was detected thanks to a new approach that disentangles 40,000 years of admixture and other confounding events. This genetic connection underscores the Plateau's significance as a pivotal location for early human settlement and subsequent migrations.
Study co-author Professor Michael Petraglia, Director of Griffith University’s Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, provided a much clearer picture of these early human movements.
“Our multidisciplinary study provides a more coherent view of the ancient past, offering insights into the critical period between the Out of Africa expansion and the differentiation of Eurasian populations,” Professor Petraglia said.
“The Persian Plateau emerges as a key region, underlining the need for further archaeological explorations."
First author Leonardo Vallini of the University of Padova, Italy, said: “The discovery elucidates a 20,000 year long portion of the history of Homo sapiens outside of Africa, a timeframe during which we interacted with Neanderthal populations, and sheds light on the relationships between various Eurasian populations, providing crucial clues for understanding the demographic history of our species across Europe, East Asia, and Oceania.”
Senior author, Professor Luca Pagani added: “The revelation of the Persian Plateau as a hub for early human migration opens new doors for archaeological exploration, enriching our understanding of our species' journey across continents and highlighting this region's pivotal role in shaping human history.”
The study ‘The Persian Plateau served as Hub for Homo sapiens after the main Out of Africa dispersal’ has been published in Nature Communications.
PERSIAN PLATEAU, THE MOST LIKELY PLACE WHERE THE ANCESTORS OF ALL PRESENT DAY NON AFRICANS LIVED FOR THE 20.000 YEARS THAT FOLLOWED THEIR MIGRATION OUT OF AFRICA. A PERIOD DURING WHICH THEY ALSO MIXED THEIR GENES WITH THE ONES OF THE NEANDERTHALS.
CREDIT: CREDITS: THE AUTHORS OF THE ORIGINAL PUBLICATION
All present day non African human populations are the result of subdivisions that took place after their ancestors left Africa at least 60.000 years ago. How long did it take for these separations to take place? Almost 20.000 years, during which they were all part of a single population. Where did they live for all this time? We don’t know, yet.
This is a conversation that could have taken place one year ago, now it is possible to give clearer answers to these questions thanks to the study recently published in Nature Communications (1) led by the researchers from the University of Padova, in collaboration with the University of Bologna (Department of Cultural Heritage), the Griffith University of Brisbane, the Max Planck Institute of Jena and the University of Turin.
The ancestors of all present day Eurasians, Americans and Oceanians, moved Out of Africa between 70 and 60 thousand years ago. After reaching Eurasia these early settlers idled for some millennia as a homogeneous population, in a presumably localized area, before expanding their range across the whole continent and beyond. This event set the basis for the genetic divergence between present day Europeans and East Asians, and can be dated to around 45 thousand years ago. On the one hand, the dynamics that led to the broader colonization of Eurasia have been already reconstructed by some of the authors in a previous publication in 2022 (2), and occurred through a series of chronologically, genetically and culturally distinct expansions. On the other hand, the geographic area where the ancestors of all non Africans lived after the Out of Africa and that acted as a “Hub” for the subsequent movements of Homo sapiens has been the matter of a long standing debate, with most of West Asia, North Africa, South Asia or even South East Asia having been listed as potentially suitable locations.
In their latest work, the authors deployed a novel genetic approach and identified ancient and modern populations from the Persian Plateau as the ones carrying genetic traces that most closely resemble the features of the Hub population, pinpointing the area as the likely homeland of all early Eurasians. “The most difficult part” says Leonardo Vallini, first author of the study, “has been to disentangle the various confounding factors constituted by 45 thousand years of population movements and admixtures that took place after the Hub was settled”.
The multidisciplinary study also investigated the paleoecological characteristics of the area at the time, and confirmed it as suitable for human occupation, potentially capable of sustaining a larger population than other parts of West Asia. “Identifying the Persian Plateau as a Hub for early human migration opens new doors for archaeological and palaeoanthropological research” added co-author Professor Michael Petraglia of Griffith University in Brisbane.
In fact, the Persian plateau will be the focus of the ERC Synergy Project 'LAST NEANDERTHALS', recently awarded to co-author Stefano Benazzi, professor at the University of Bologna (Department of Cultural Heritage). "In line with the results of the study," says Benazzi, "this ERC project aims to explore and unravel the intricate biocultural events that occurred between 60,000 and 40,000 years ago, focusing also on the Persian Plateau".
“With our work we found a home to 20,000 years of shared history between Europeans, East Asians, Native Americans and Oceanians. This leg of the human journey out of Africa is fascinating, since it is the one where we also met and mixed our genes with the ones of Neanderthals” concluded Professor Luca Pagani, senior author of the study.
References
Leonardo Vallini, Carlo Zampieri, Mohamed Javad Shoaee, Eugenio Bortolini, Giulia Marciani, Serena Aneli, Telmo Pievani, Stefano Benazzi, Alberto Barausse, Massimo Mezzavilla, Michael D. Petraglia, Luca Pagani, The Persian Plateau served as Hub for Homo sapiens after the main Out of Africa dispersal, Nature Communications [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-46161-7]
Leonardo Vallini, Giulia Marciani, Serena Aneli, Eugenio Bortolini, Stefano Benazzi, Telmo Pievani, Luca Pagani. Genetics and Material Culture Support Repeated Expansions into Paleolithic Eurasia from a Population Hub Out of Africa, Genome Biology and Evolution, Volume 14, Issue 4, April 2022, evac045, https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evac045
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