System disruptions
There are recurring service disruptions on some of the search portals due to high traffic. We are working to resolve the issue, you may temporarily encounter an error message.
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Genetic relatedness mattered in the co-burial ritual of Neolithic hunter-gatherers
Stockholm University, Faculty of Humanities, Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies. Centre for Palaeogenetics, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-6702-8724
Show others and affiliations
Number of Authors: 112026 (English)In: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Biological Sciences, ISSN 0962-8452, E-ISSN 1471-2954, Vol. 293, no 2065Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Kin relations among past societies can offer valuable information about the social dynamics of the population. Genetic data from prehistoric human remains can reveal genetic relatedness, and when combined with archaeological information, shed light on social factors shaping ancient communities. However, accessing such information on ancient hunter–gatherer societies has been challenging owing to the scarcity of temporally overlapping multi-burial sites. Here, we focused on the Pitted Ware Culture (PWC) cemetery from Ajvide (Gotland, Sweden), one of Stone Age Europe’s largest and best-preserved hunter–gatherer burial grounds of the European Stone Age. We generated new genomic data from 10 individuals, primarily from co-burial contexts, and combined these with published genomes from 24 individuals across four PWC sites on Gotland. The genetic analyses revealed dual ancestry of the Gotlandic PWC, showing approximately 80% ancestry associated with earlier Mesolithic hunter–gatherer groups and 20% with farmer groups. We also identified close genetic relatives between the different studied PWC sites on Gotland, indicating mixing of the groups. All individuals buried together were closely related to one another, including first-, second- and third-degree relatives, and showed significantly elevated genetic relatedness. This demonstrates that genetic relatedness played a defining role in the co-burial ritual and extended beyond first-degree relatives.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2026. Vol. 293, no 2065
Keywords [en]
admixture, ancient DNA, human populations, kinship, Neolithic, Pitted Ware Culture, Scandinavia, social structure
National Category
Archaeology Genetics and Genomics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-253062DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2025.0813ISI: 001692780300001PubMedID: 41705298Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105030415353OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-253062DiVA, id: diva2:2044135
Available from: 2026-03-09 Created: 2026-03-09 Last updated: 2026-03-09Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full textPubMedScopus

Authority records

Krzewinska, MajaIvarsson-Aalders, MariekeGötherström, AndersStorå, Jan

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Krzewinska, MajaIvarsson-Aalders, MariekeGötherström, AndersStorå, Jan
By organisation
Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies
In the same journal
Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Biological Sciences
ArchaeologyGenetics and Genomics

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
pubmed
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
pubmed
urn-nbn
Total: 42 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf