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AbstractMajor migration events in Holocene Eurasia have been characterized genetically at broad regional scales1–4. However, insights into the population dynamics in the contact zones are hampered by a lack of ancient genomic data sampled at high spatiotemporal resolution5–7. Here, to address this, we analysed shotgun-sequenced genomes from 100 skeletons spanning 7,300 years of the Mesolithic period, Neolithic period and Early Bronze Age in Denmark and integrated these with proxies for diet (13C and 15N content), mobility (87Sr/86Sr ratio) and vegetation cover (pollen). We observe that Danish Mesolithic individuals of the Maglemose, Kongemose and Ertebølle cultures form a distinct genetic cluster related to other Western European hunter-gatherers. Despite shifts in material culture they displayed genetic homogeneity from around 10,500 to 5,900 calibrated years before present, when Neolithic farmers with Anatolian-derived ancestry arrived. Although the Neolithic transition was delayed by more than a millennium relative to Central Europe, it was very abrupt and resulted in a population turnover with limited genetic contribution from local hunter-gatherers. The succeeding Neolithic population, associated with the Funnel Beaker culture, persisted for only about 1,000 years before immigrants with eastern Steppe-derived ancestry arrived. This second and equally rapid population replacement gave rise to the Single Grave culture with an ancestry profile more similar to present-day Danes. In our multiproxy dataset, these major demographic events are manifested as parallel shifts in genotype, phenotype, diet and land use.

AbstractMultiple sclerosis (MS) is a neuro-inflammatory and neurodegenerative disease that is most prevalent in Northern Europe. Although it is known that inherited risk for MS is located within or in close proximity to immune-related genes, it is unknown when, where and how this genetic risk originated1. Here, by using a large ancient genome dataset from the Mesolithic period to the Bronze Age2, along with new Medieval and post-Medieval genomes, we show that the genetic risk for MS rose among pastoralists from the Pontic steppe and was brought into Europe by the Yamnaya-related migration approximately 5,000 years ago. We further show that these MS-associated immunogenetic variants underwent positive selection both within the steppe population and later in Europe, probably driven by pathogenic challenges coinciding with changes in diet, lifestyle and population density. This study highlights the critical importance of the Neolithic period and Bronze Age as determinants of modern immune responses and their subsequent effect on the risk of developing MS in a changing environment.

International audience; Investigation into the nexus of human-environmental behavior has seen increasing collaboration of archaeologists, historians, and paleo-scientists. However, many studies still lack interdisciplinarity and overlook incompatibilities in spatiotemporal scaling of environmental and societal data and their uncertainties. Here, we argue for a strengthened commitment to collaborative work and introduce the “dahliagram” as a tool to analyze and visualize quantitative and qualitative knowledge from diverse disciplinary sources and epistemological backgrounds. On the basis of regional cases of past human mobility in eastern Africa, Inner Eurasia, and the North Atlantic, we develop three dahliagrams that illustrate pull and push factors underlying key phases of population movement across different geographical scales and over contrasting periods of time since the end of the last Ice Age. Agnostic to analytical units, dahliagrams offer an effective tool for interdisciplinary investigation, visualization, and communication of complex human-environmental interactions at a diversity of spatiotemporal scales.

Discussing the current AHRC/LABEX-funded EyCon (Early Conflict Photography 1890–1918 and Visual AI) project, this article considers potentially problematic metadata and how it affects the accessibility of digital visual archives. The authors deliberate how metadata creation and enrichment could be improved through Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools and explore the practical applications of AI-reliant tools to analyze a large corpus of photographs and create or enrich metadata. The amount of visual data created by digitization efforts is not always followed by the creation of contextual metadata, which is a major problem for archival institutions and their users, as metadata directly affects the accessibility of digitized records. Moreover, the scale of digitization efforts means it is often beyond the scope of archivists and other record managers to individually assess problematic or sensitive images and their metadata. Additionally, existing metadata for photographic and visual records are presenting issues in terms of outdated descriptions or inconsistent contextual information. As more attention is given to the creation of accessible digital content within archival institutions, we argue that too little is being given to the enrichment of record data. In this article, the authors ask how new tools can address incomplete or inaccurate metadata and improve the transparency and accessibility of digital visual records.

The portal connecting the invisible and visible sectors is one of the most natural explanations of the dark world. However, the early-time dark matter production via the portal faces extremely stringent late-time constraints. To solve such tension, we construct the scalar-controlled kinetic mixing varying with the ultralight CP-even scalar’s cosmological evolution. To realize this and eliminate the constant mixing, we couple the ultralight scalar within 10$^{−33}$eV ≲ m$_{0}$ ≪ eV with the heavy doubly charged messengers and impose the ℤ$_{2}$ symmetry under the dark charge conjugation. Via the varying mixing, the keV – MeV dark photon dark matter is produced through the early-time freeze-in when the scalar is misaligned from the origin and free from the late-time exclusions when the scalar does the damped oscillation and dynamically sets the kinetic mixing. We also find that the scalar-photon coupling emerges from the underlying physics, which changes the cosmological history and provides the experimental targets based on the fine-structure constant variation and the equivalence principle violation. To ensure the scalar naturalness, we discretely re-establish the broken shift symmetry by embedding the minimal model into the ℤ$_{N}$-protected model. When N ~ 10, the scalar’s mass quantum correction can be suppressed much below 10$^{−33}$eV. Journal of high energy physics 11(11), 031 (2023). doi:10.1007/JHEP11(2023)031 Published by SISSA, [Trieste]

International audience