The genomic origins of the world’s first farmers

The precise genetic origins of the first Neolithic farming populations in Europe and Southwest Asia, as well as the processes and the timing of their differentiation, remain largely unknown. Demogenomic modeling of high-quality ancient genomes reveals that the early farmers of Anatolia and Europe emerged from a multiphase mixing of a Southwest Asian population with a strongly bottlenecked western hunter-gatherer population after the last glacial maximum. Moreover, the ancestors of the first farmers of Europe and Anatolia went through a period of extreme genetic drift during their westward range expansion, contributing highly to their genetic distinctiveness. This modeling elucidates the demographic processes at the root of the Neolithic transition and leads to a spatial interpretation of the population history of Southwest Asia and Europe during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. [Display omitted] •European HGs diverged from SW Asian HGs during the LGM•Low genetic diversity of European HGs is due to a strong LGM demographic bottleneck•Ancestors of western early farmers emerged after repeated post-LGM admixtures•EFs strongly diverged from SW Asians during their expansion through Anatolia Ancient DNA analysis and evolutionary modeling have allowed for the ancestral tracing of the Neolithic populations of Southwest Asia and Europe to resolve the genetic origins of the world’s first sedentary farmers.