The Neolithic transition in west Eurasia occurred in two main steps: the gradual development of sedentism and plant cultivation in the Near East and the subsequent spread of Neolithic cultures into the Aegean and across Europe after 7000 cal BCE. Here, we use published ancient genomes to investigate gene flow events in west Eurasia during the Neolithic transition. We confirm that the Early Neolithic central Anatolians in the ninth millennium BCE were probably descendants of local hunter-gatherers, rather than immigrants from the Levant or Iran. We further study the emergence of post-7000 cal BCE north Aegean Neolithic communities. Although Aegean farmers have frequently been assumed to be colonists originating from either central Anatolia or from the Levant, our findings raise alternative possibilities: north Aegean Neolithic populations may have been the product of multiple westward migrations, including south Anatolian emigrants, or they may have been descendants of local Aegean Mesolithic groups who adopted farming. These scenarios are consistent with the diversity of material cultures among Aegean Neolithic communities and the inheritance of local forager know-how. The demographic and cultural dynamics behind the earliest spread of Neolithic culture in the Aegean could therefore be distinct from the subsequent Neolithization of mainland Europe.

A A Kharkevich Institute for Information Transmission Problems Russian Academy of Sciences Moscow Russia

Department of Anthropology Hacettepe University Ankara Beytepe 06800 Turkey

Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies Stockholm University Lilla Frescativaegen 7 Stockholm 114 18 Sweden

Department of Archaeology Classics and Egyptology University of Liverpool Liverpool L69 7WZ UK

Department of Biological Sciences Middle East Technical University Ankara 06800 Turkey

Department of Biology and Ecology Faculty of Science University of Ostrava Ostrava Czech Republic

Department of Health Informatics Middle East Technical University Ankara 06800 Turkey

Department of Settlement Archaeology Middle East Technical University Ankara 06800 Turkey

European Molecular Biology Laboratory European Bioinformatics Institute Wellcome Trust Genome Campus Cambridge Hinxton CB10 1SD UK

Institute of Parasitology Biology Centre Czech Academy of Sciences České Budějovice Czech Republic

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The genomic origins of the world's first farmers