Biological Relatedness and Prehistoric Population Structure in Southern Germany in the Light of High Resolution Palaeogenomes from Caves of the Franconian Jura
Final Report Abstract
The project aims to reconstruct the prehistoric population history and structure of this settlement area using genetic analyses, with a focus on the Iron Age. The analysis of kinship between the individuals buried in caves should allow to draw conclusions about the possible use of the caves, and population genetic analyses serve to characterize the population dynamics of the pre-Christian millennia in southern Germany, also in comparison to neighboring regions. Therefore, 62 genomes of individuals found in a total of 6 caves and 17 genomes of individuals from regular burials from 9 grave fields were generated. The genomes of the individuals from Franconia show a strong diversity within the individual sites as well as when grouped chronologically. In the entire data set, only three cases of familial relationship (1st-3rd degree) could be found, so that there is no indication that the caves were used as family burial sites. However, as there are more distant connections found between the individuals, the caves could have been burial sites of a larger community. Compared to the regular burials of the contemporaneous grave fields in the region, the individuals buried in caves show no clear anomalies in terms of sex ratio, haplotype diversity and location on the PCA and there is therefore no genetic evidence that they are selected individuals (ritual burials, sacrifices, marginalized groups).
