History of Violence

COVER STORY HISTORY OF V IOLE NCE SIMON PEMBERTON Neolithic Europe was subjected to a devastating conquest. Colin Barras discovers the untold story hidden in ancient DNA T HE iconic sarsen stones at Stonehenge people who replaced them is emerging. were erected some 4500 years ago. The migrants’ ultimate source was a group Although the monument’s original of livestock herders called the Yamnaya who purpose is still disputed, we now know that occupied the Eurasian steppe north of the within a few centuries it became a memorial Black Sea and the Caucasus mountains. to a vanished people. By then, almost every Britain wasn’t their only destination. Between Briton, from the south coast of England to the 5000 and 4000 years ago, the Yamnaya and north-east tip of Scotland, had been wiped out their descendants colonised swathes of by incomers. It isn’t clear exactly why they Europe, leaving a genetic legacy that persists disappeared so rapidly. But a picture of the to this day. Their arrival coincided with > 30 March 2019 | NewScientist | 29  Ancient DNA Kristiansen calls “mega-settlements” analysis reveals with populations of up to 15,000 people. that Corded Ware In other words, Neolithic Europe appears to people, who made have been prosperous, community-minded these pots, were and relatively peaceful. Then everything Yamnayan in origin changed. Starting about 5000 years ago in south-east Europe – a region bounded today by Ukraine in the east and Hungary in the west – a new style of burial custom appeared. The dead were interred alone in what archaeologists call “pit graves” rather than in communal structures. The body was decorated with a red pigment called ochre, and the grave chamber covered with wooden beams and marked by a mound of earth a few metres tall, dubbed G. DAGLI ORTI/DEA a kurgan. This distinctive burial custom originated on the Eurasian steppe where it was associated in particular with the Yamnaya. According to archaeologist Volker Heyd at the University of Helsinki, Finland, its appearance profound social and cultural changes. Burial build large stone structures. “It looks like in Europe indicates a traumatic shift that practices shifted dramatically, a warrior class these people were quite communal,” says disrupted existing social patterns. appeared, and there seems to have been a Kristiansen. And that community spirit The disruption soon spread. In subsequent sharp upsurge in lethal violence. “I’ve become continued into the afterlife: many of their decades, Yamnaya-like artefacts and increasingly convinced there must have been megalithic monuments served as shared behaviour started popping up elsewhere on a kind of genocide,” says Kristian Kristiansen graves – some containing the remains of the continent. By 4900 years ago, the Corded at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. up to 200 people. Ware people – named after their distinctive As he and others piece together the story, They were also innovators. Patterns of pottery and adopting many Yamnaya one question resounds: were the Yamnaya wear  on ancient cattle bones suggest they had customs – began to appear in central and the most murderous people in history? worked out how to use livestock to pull heavy northern Europe. The big question is: how Before about 5000 years ago, Neolithic loads. They probably had wheeled vehicles and why did Yamnaya practices spread so Europe was inhabited by people much like and there may even have been proto-roads far and so fast? those who raised Stonehenge. They were connecting communities. It looks like Until about five years ago, most farmers with an urge to work together and they were coming together to live in what archaeologists were convinced that this EUROPE IS NOT ENOUGH Almost all people of European how this happened. Using define the ancestry of most the University of Huddersfield, descent can trace their DNA samples from the remains people living in the Indian UK, and his colleagues found paternal origins back to of hundreds of people who subcontinent today. What’s that maternally inherited inhabitants of the Eurasian lived across south Asia more, incomers from the mitochondrial DNA sequences steppe. In recent years, it between about 7000 and steppe may have brought changed relatively little when has become clear that these 3000 years ago, the team major cultural changes. they arrived. By contrast, people, known as the Yamnaya, found evidence that Yamnaya- Speaking at New Scientist Live between 60 and 90 per cent of and their descendants related DNA began appearing in September, Reich pointed men now living in the area can travelled across the continent there between 4000 and out that people in the Indian trace their paternally inherited during the Neolithic replacing 3000 years ago. subcontinent today who carry Y chromosome to Yamnaya- locals – particularly the men – Those steppe pastoralists the largest amounts of Ancient related migrants. as they went (see main story). mingled with people who North Indian ancestry tend to “Indigenous males seem to Now we have discovered the may have been related to the speak similar languages to one have been marginalised by the Yamnaya also migrated east. inhabitants of the famous another, and often (but not new arrivals much more than A study by David Reich at Indus Valley Civilisation. In always) belong to upper castes. the women and were unable Harvard Medical School and doing so, they formed an As in Europe, it looks like the to have children to the same his colleagues posted to the “Ancient North Indian” steppe migrants were largely extent,” says Richards. “This bioRxiv preprint server in 2018 population, one of the two young, male and violent. A seems unlikely to have been gives us an idea of when and ancestral populations that study by Martin Richards at a wholly benign process.” 30 | NewScientist | 30 March 2019 largely reflected the movement of ideas and technology while people stayed put – in much the same way that Nokia mobile phones swept across Europe in the late 1990s and early 2000s. But, in 2015, geneticists suggested an alternative. Teams led by David Reich at Harvard Medical School and Eske Willerslev at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark announced, independently, that occupants of Corded Ware graves in Germany could trace about three-quarters of their genetic ancestry to the Yamnaya. It seemed that Corded Ware people weren’t simply copying the Yamnaya; to a large degree they actually were Yamnayan in origin. Disease, warfare and death Many archaeologists found the idea implausible. It is one thing to accept that the Yamnaya migrated from the Eurasian steppe to the steppe-like environments of south-east Europe, says Heyd, but quite another to argue for onward migrations into the heavily forested central and northern Europe. This implies that they spread into an environment they didn’t have experience exploiting, that they somehow displaced large numbers of people who were adapted to that environment – and that they did all of this in a just a few generations. To this day, Heyd struggles to understand how and why such rapid migrations could have occurred. Kristiansen, however, believes it is now possible to reconstruct a likely scenario. His model involves disease, warfare and death. The first thing to appreciate, says Kristiansen, is that Neolithic Europe was environment for plague to emerge. From so rapidly, morphing to become the Corded in crisis just before the Yamnaya’s arrival. there, the disease could have spread rapidly Ware people. He thinks the sheer speed of Using the pollen record from archaeological into central and northern Europe via the this change hints that the Yamnaya migrants sites as a proxy for levels of agricultural wheeled vehicles and proto-roads appearing were dynamic and aggressive. This might activity, archaeologists have concluded that at this time. “These mega-settlements were suggest they were mainly young male populations in northern and central Europe beginning to be abandoned and burned down warriors, riding into new territory. Most began shrinking about 5300 years ago. a little after 5700 years ago,” says Kristiansen, Yamnaya women don’t seem to have joined In December 2018, Kristiansen and his which would make sense if they were the migration until later. geneticist colleagues suggested an becoming centres of death and disease. In line with this idea, a controversial 2017 explanation. Examining the teeth of Neolithic “By 5400 years ago, they were gone.” genetics study concluded that the DNA signal people who lived in what is now Sweden about This means that when the Yamnaya arrived left in ancient European bones from the time 5000 years ago, they found plague-causing a few centuries later, they were entering a is easiest to explain if there were between bacteria – the earliest known relative of the Europe with a small and weakened indigenous five and 14 male migrants for every female Black Death. Further analysis suggested the population that could offer little resistance. migrant. Archaeological evidence also points disease began spreading across Europe Even so, says Kristiansen, this on its own to most immigrants being men. For instance, perhaps as early as 5700 years ago. cannot explain why the Yamnaya spread a 2017 analysis of Corded Ware burials across Kristiansen thinks it is no coincidence that a vast region from north-west Denmark to this is also when the settlements of south-east Europe reached their greatest size. Within “The sheer speed of south-east Czech Republic concluded that male graves were very similar in style to one those settlements, thousands of people change hints that the another – but female graves showed local lived in unhygienic conditions and in close variation. That would fit with the idea of male contact with livestock, providing a perfect Yamnaya were aggressive” migrants with a shared sense of identity > 30 March 2019 | NewScientist | 31 “The genetic analysis showed that the Britons who built Stonehenge all-but disappeared within a few generations of the Yamnaya’s arrival” SIMON PEMBERTON having children with Neolithic women analysis. Nevertheless, it hints at an upsurge shape to fight too. Ancient DNA suggests they who still retained some local traditions. in violence about 5000 years ago. And there were unusually tall for the time. And they If the Yamnaya migrants did behave as are other signs. “We do see a rather high had a highly nutritious diet. “It looks like Kristiansen suggests, Neolithic Europe’s men number of trepanations [holes drilled in they lived mostly on meat and milk products,” are likely to have objected, setting the stage for skulls],” he says – people may have undergone says Kristiansen. “They were healthier and violent encounters. Some evidence that this this procedure as a therapeutic measure after probably physically quite strong.” was the case comes from a remarkable Corded bad head injuries. This scenario of young warriors moving Ware site called Eulau in Germany. Here, through the landscape makes sense to Heyd. a handful of unusual graves each contain However, he cautions that it is based on between two and four bodies – mostly women Axe-wielding warriors evidence snatched from a few isolated sites. and their children. Analysis of isotopes in the However, if Eulau is an example of the It is still far from clear, he says, that such a women’s teeth reveals that they did not grow violence that accompanied an influx of simple model can explain the spread of the up locally. And injuries on five of the 13 bodies Yamnaya and their descendants, it is arguably Yamnaya and the rise of the Corded Ware indicate that they met a violent end. not particularly representative. Kristiansen people in its entirety. Kristiansen interprets this as evidence of a suspects it was the migrants who usually came Indeed, many archaeologists think the brutal raid by Neolithic men taking revenge out on top, judging by the fact that Corded wider narrative emerging from genetic studies on migrants who had stolen “their” women. Ware groups quickly multiplied and spread. oversimplifies things. The trouble, according The absence of male burials suggests they There may have been good reasons for this. to Martin Furholt at the University of Oslo, waited until the village’s men were out Some archaeologists argue that the Yamnaya Norway, is that geneticists divide prehistoric tending their cattle before making the attack. were accomplished horse riders. Even before Europe into a series of large cultural blocks – This sort of mass killing wasn’t unheard of they left the Eurasian steppe, some had Yamnaya in the south-east, Corded Ware in in Neolithic Europe, says Christian Meyer at become axe-wielding warriors – as depicted the north and so on – each of which represents the OsteoArchaeological Research Centre, on ancient standing stones in the steppe a population with a shared sense of self. Germany, who was involved in the Eulau landscape. They were also probably in better “The idea that archaeological units of 32 | NewScientist | 30 March 2019 classification represent human groups of a In fact, there is much stronger evidence that shared social, or ethnic identity has been these Yamnaya Beakers were ruthless. By about proven wrong many times during the history 4500 years ago, they had pushed westwards of research,” says Furholt. Ethnicity is founded into the Iberian Peninsula, where the Bell on shared ancestry, whereas identity is more Beaker culture originated a few centuries about culture. “Geneticists are basically earlier. Within a few generations, about looking at ethnicity. But archaeologists are 40 per cent of the DNA of people in the region foremost looking at identity,” says Heyd. could be traced back to the incoming Yamnaya A striking example of this distinction is a Beakers, according to research by a large team discovery made near the town of Valencina NATALIA SHISHLINA/ UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN including Reich that was published this month. de la Concepción in southern Spain. More strikingly, the ancient DNA analysis Archaeologists working there found a reveals that essentially all the men have Y Yamnaya-like kurgan, below which was chromosomes characteristic of the Yamnaya, the body of a man buried with a dagger and suggesting only Yamnaya men had children. Yamnaya-like sandals, and decorated with “The collision of these two populations was red pigment just as Yamnaya dead were. not a friendly one, not an equal one, but one But the burial is 4875 years old and genetic where the males from outside were displacing information suggests Yamnaya-related local males and did so almost completely,” people didn’t reach that far west until perhaps Reich told New Scientist Live in September. 4500 years ago. “Genetically, I’m pretty This supports Kristiansen’s view of the sure this burial has nothing to do with the Yamnaya and their descendants as an almost Yamnaya or the Corded Ware,” says Heyd. “But Individual graves containing a body unimaginably violent people. Indeed, he is culturally – identity-wise – there is an aspect decorated with ochre are a hallmark about to publish a paper in which he argues that can be clearly linked with them.” It would of Yamnayan culture that they were responsible for the genocide appear that the ideology, lifestyle and death of Neolithic Europe’s men. “It’s the only way rituals of the Yamnaya could sometimes run western Iberia,” says Heyd. It is in that region to explain that no male Neolithic lines far ahead of the migrants. that the earliest Bell Beaker objects – including survived,” he says. Geneticists are now beginning to realise just arrowheads, copper daggers and distinctive Surprisingly, this isn’t a new idea. Some how complex things were, says Heyd. This was Bell-shaped pots – have been found, in prominent 20th century archaeologists were highlighted in a study published last year – the archaeological sites carbon-dated to convinced that migrants from the steppe one that suggested the ancient Britons who 4700 years ago. Then, Bell Beaker culture arrived in Europe about 5000 years ago. One built Stonehenge disappeared, as few of their began to spread east, although the people of them, Marija Gimbutas, even argued that genes survive to the present day – which more or less stayed put. By about 4600 years they were exceptionally aggressive individuals brought together an enormous group of ago, it reached the most westerly Corded Ware who brought violence and social change to the geneticists and archaeologists including people around where the Netherlands now continent. Her ideas were deeply controversial Reich, Willerslev, Kristiansen and Heyd. lies. For reasons still unclear, the Corded Ware in her lifetime. “But ironically, the geneticists There has been talk in the popular press people fully embraced it. “They simply take are now coming quite close to what Gimbutas recently about geneticists marginalising their on part of the Bell Beaker package and become was writing about in the 1960s,” says Heyd. archaeological collaborators in such studies. Beaker people,” says Kristiansen. What’s more, it is now emerging that the This wasn’t Heyd’s experience. “David [Reich] Yamnaya didn’t limit their sights to Europe. listened. He is listening,” he says. The latest genetic evidence reveals that they The collaboration was an attempt to shed Genetic wipeout also went east into the Indian subcontinent light on another group, the enigmatic Bell In other words, there were now two types of (see “Europe is not enough”, page 30). Beaker people, who emerged in Europe Bell Beaker people: one with roots in Iberia Even if they weren’t the most murderous slightly later than the Corded Ware people. In and one with Corded Ware (and ultimately people in history, there is no doubting that some ways, they were similar to the Yamnaya: Yamnaya) roots. Kristiansen thinks the they spread far and wide. This may be another they buried their dead in single graves, had Yamnaya Beakers then took advantage of the reason the Yamnaya story is gaining traction recognisable warriors and celebrated these maritime know-how of their Iberian friends now. A few decades ago, mass migration was warriors by occasionally carving their and voyaged to Britain some 4400 years ago far from our minds, says Heyd, but the present images on standing stones. As a result, the (see map, page 31). The fact that the genetic social and political environment has changed geneticists suspected that Bell Beaker people analysis showed the Britons then all-but that. Now we are acutely aware of the many descended from the Yamnaya. However, the disappeared within a couple of generations forces that can spur huge groups of people archaeologists convinced them this was only might be significant. It suggests the capacity to traverse the globe. ■ partially true. for violence that emerged when the Yamnaya The collaboration revealed that the origin lived on the Eurasia steppe remained even as Colin Barras is a writer based in Ann Arbor, Michigan and initial spread of Bell Beaker culture had these people moved into Europe, switched little to do – at least genetically – with the identity from Yamnaya to Corded Ware, To see David Reich’s talk “The truth expansion of the Yamnaya or Corded Ware and then switched again from Corded Ware about us, and where we come from” people into central Europe. “It started in to Bell Beaker. go to newscientist.com/David-Reich 30 March 2019 | NewScientist | 33