How Hunter-Gatherers Persisted in Northwestern Europe’s Wetlands

LEIDEN, THE NETHERLANDS—According to a report by the Anadolu Agency, descendants of western Anatolian farmers traveled through Thrace and the Balkans and mixed with local hunter-gatherers in Europe, resulting in a 70- to 100-percent turnover of the ancestry of the European population between 6500 and 4000 B.C. This new group became known as Early European Farmers. But Iñigo Olalde of the University of the Basque Country, and Eveline Altena, Quentin Bourgeois, and Harry Fokkens of Leiden University, also determined that in the wetland, riverine, and coastal zones of northwestern Europe, hunter-gatherer populations survived for another 3,000 years. In these areas of the Netherlands, Belgium, and western Germany, women with Anatolian ancestry joined local hunter-gatherer communities. The wetlands would have been a good source of wild resources but unsuitable for farming, the researchers explained. For more on hunter-gatherer population dynamics throughout Europe, go to "Ancient DNA Revolution: Danish Turnovers."