Important gaps remain in our understanding of the spread of farming into Europe, due partly to apparent contradictions between studies of contemporary genetic variation and ancient DNA. It seems clear that farming was introduced into central, northern, and eastern Europe from the south by pioneer colonization. It is often argued that these dispersals originated in the Near East, where the potential source genetic pool resembles that of the early European farmers, but clear ancient DNA evidence from Mediterranean Europe is lacking, and there are suggestions that Mediterranean Europe may have resembled the Near East more than the rest of Europe in the Mesolithic. Here, we test this proposal by dating mitogenome founder lineages from the Near East in different regions of Europe. We find that whereas the lineages date mainly to the Neolithic in central Europe and Iberia, they largely date to the Late Glacial period in central/eastern Mediterranean Europe. This supports a scenario in which the genetic pool of Mediterranean Europe was partly a result of Late Glacial expansions from a Near Eastern refuge, and that this formed an important source pool for subsequent Neolithic expansions into the rest of Europe.

Department of Biological Sciences School of Applied Sciences University of Huddersfield Queensgate Huddersfield HD1 3DH UK

Department of Biology CBMA University of Minho Braga Portugal

Department of Genetics University of Leicester Adrian Building University Road Leicester LE1 7RH UK

Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie 'L Spallanzani' Università di Pavia Pavia Italy

Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade do Porto Porto 4200 319 Portugal

Faculty of Biological Sciences University of Leeds Leeds LS2 9JT UK

General Department of Forensic Sciences and Criminology Dubai Police General Headquarters Dubai 1493 United Arab Emirates

ICVS 3Bs PT Government Associate Laboratory Braga Guimarães Portugal

Instituto de Investigacão e Inovacão em Saúde Universidade do Porto Porto 4200 135 Portugal

Instituto de Patologia e Imunologia Molecular da Universidade do Porto Porto 4200 465 Portugal

Institutul de Cercetari Biologice Iasi Romania

Laboratoire d'Anthropogenetique Department de Biologie Universite Chouaib Doukkali El Jadida 24000 Morocco

Laboratory of Genetics Immunology and Human Pathology Faculté de Sciences de Tunis Université de Tunis El Manar Tunis 2092 Tunisia

Life and Health Sciences Research Institute School of Health Sciences University of Minho Campus de Gualtar 4710 057 Braga Portugal

Medical Faculty in Pilsen Institute of Biology Charles University Pilsen Czech Republic

Tunis and High Institute of Biotechnology University of Monastir 5000 Monastir Tunisia

Vavilov Institute of General Genetics Moscow Russia

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Archaeogenomic analysis of the first steps of Neolithization in Anatolia and the Aegean