Papers by Marjan Mashkour
PNAS, Vol. 118, No. 25, 2021
The Aceramic Neolithic (∼9600 to 7000 cal BC) period in the Zagros Mountains, western Iran, provi... more The Aceramic Neolithic (∼9600 to 7000 cal BC) period in the Zagros Mountains, western Iran, provides some of the earliest archaeological evidence of goat (Capra hircus) management and husbandry by circa 8200 cal BC, with detectable morphological change appearing ∼1,000 y later. To examine the genomic imprint of initial management and its implications for the goat domestication process, we analyzed 14 novel nuclear genomes (mean coverage 1.13X) and 32 mitochondrial (mtDNA) genomes (mean coverage 143X) from two such sites, Ganj Dareh and Tepe Abdul Hosein. These genomes show two distinct clusters: those with domestic affinity and a minority group with stronger wild affinity, indicating that managed goats were genetically distinct from wild goats at this early horizon. This genetic duality, the presence of long runs of homozygosity, shared ancestry with later Neolithic populations, a sex bias in archaeozoological remains, and demographic profiles from across all layers of Ganj Dareh support management of genetically domestic goat by circa 8200 cal BC, and represent the oldest to-this-date reported livestock genomes. In these sites a combination of high autosomal and mtDNA diversity, contrasting limited Y chromosomal lineage diversity, an absence of reported selection signatures for pigmentation, and the wild morphology of bone remains illustrates domestication as an extended process lacking a strong initial bottleneck, beginning with spatial control, demographic manipulation via biased male culling, captive breeding, and subsequently phenotypic and genomic selection.
Biology Letters
Mummified remains have long attracted interest as a potential source of ancient DNA. However, mum... more Mummified remains have long attracted interest as a potential source of ancient DNA. However, mummification is a rare process that requires an anhydrous environment to rapidly dehydrate and preserve tissue before complete decomposition occurs. We present the whole-genome sequences (3.94 X) of an approximately 1600-year-old naturally mummified sheep recovered from Chehrābād, a salt mine in northwestern Iran. Comparative analyses of published ancient sequences revealed the remarkable DNA integrity of this mummy. Hallmarks of postmortem damage, fragmentation and hydrolytic deamination are substantially reduced, likely owing to the high salinity of this taphonomic environment. Metagenomic analyses reflect the profound influence of high-salt content on decomposition; its microbial profile is predominated by halophilic archaea and bacteria, possibly contributing to the remarkable preservation of the sample. Applying population genomic analyses, we find clustering of this sheep with Southw...
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), Apr 1, 2023
Oxbow Books, Apr 30, 2020
Mummified remains have long attracted interest as a potential source of ancient DNA. However, mum... more Mummified remains have long attracted interest as a potential source of ancient DNA. However, mummification is a rare process that requires an anhydrous environment to rapidly dehydrate and preserve tissue before complete decomposition occurs. We present the whole-genome sequences (3.94 X) of an approximately 1600-year-old naturally mummified sheep recovered from Chehrābād, a salt mine in northwestern Iran. Comparative analyses of published ancient sequences revealed the remarkable DNA integrity of this mummy. Hallmarks of postmortem damage, fragmentation and hydrolytic deamination, are substantially reduced, likely due to the high salinity of this taphonomic environment. Metagenomic analyses reflect the profound influence of high-salt content on decomposition; its microbial profile is predominated by halophilic archaea and bacteria, possibly contributing to the remarkable preservation of this sample. Applying population genomic analyses, we find clustering of this sheep with Southw...
Science (New York, N.Y.), Jul 6, 2018
Current genetic data are equivocal as to whether goat domestication occurred multiple times or wa... more Current genetic data are equivocal as to whether goat domestication occurred multiple times or was a singular process. We generated genomic data from 83 ancient goats (51 with genome-wide coverage) from Paleolithic to Medieval contexts throughout the Near East. Our findings demonstrate that multiple divergent ancient wild goat sources were domesticated in a dispersed process that resulted in genetically and geographically distinct Neolithic goat populations, echoing contemporaneous human divergence across the region. These early goat populations contributed differently to modern goats in Asia, Africa, and Europe. We also detect early selection for pigmentation, stature, reproduction, milking, and response to dietary change, providing 8000-year-old evidence for human agency in molding genome variation within a partner species.
Cell, 2019
Horse domestication revolutionized warfare and accelerated travel, trade, and the geographic expa... more Horse domestication revolutionized warfare and accelerated travel, trade, and the geographic expansion of languages. Here, we present the largest DNA time series for a non-human organism to date, including genome-scale data from 149 ancient animals and 129 ancient genomes (R1-fold coverage), 87 of which are new. This extensive dataset allows us to assess the modern legacy of past equestrian civilizations. We find that two extinct horse lineages existed during early domestication, one at the far western (Iberia) and the other at the far eastern range (Siberia) of Eurasia. None of these contributed significantly to modern diversity. We show that the influence of Persian-related horse lineages increased following the Islamic conquests in Europe and Asia. Multiple alleles associated with elite-racing, including at the MSTN ''speed gene,'' only rose in popularity within the last millennium. Finally, the development of modern breeding impacted genetic diversity more dramatically than the previous millennia of human management.
Damage patterns for novel and previously published ancient livestock genomes
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2021
Significance Goats were among the first domestic animals and today are an important livestock spe... more Significance Goats were among the first domestic animals and today are an important livestock species; archaeozoological evidence from the Zagros Mountains of western Iran indicates that goats were managed by the late ninth/early eighth millennium. We assess goat assemblages from Ganj Dareh and Tepe Abdul Hosein, two Aceramic Neolithic Zagros sites, using complementary archaeozoological and archaeogenomic approaches. Nuclear and mitochondrial genomes indicate that these goats were genetically diverse and ancestral to later domestic goats and already distinct from wild goats. Demographic profiles from bone remains, differential diversity patterns of uniparental markers, and presence of long runs of homozygosity reveal the practicing and consequences of management, thus expanding our understanding of the beginnings of animal husbandry.
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2021
International audienc
Description of SourceTracker2 datasets and MIDAS outputs for novel ancient samples
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2019
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2021
The paper presents the first results of an ongoing study on the characterisation of the technolog... more The paper presents the first results of an ongoing study on the characterisation of the technological and socioeconomic aspects of bone objects from the Iranian Early Neolithic period. The systematic study of hard animal material products on large collections from the Iranian Plateau is lacking while larges series exist for iconic Early Neolithic sites of Tappeh Sang-e Chakhmaq and Tepe Abdul Hosein, stored at the National Museum of Iran. The advent of a new way of life with the domestication of plants and animals has undoubtedly introduced new transformation sequences (chaîne opératoire) in the exploitation of raw material, namely bone and shells. We present here case studies, on osseous materials from these two sites, and highlight the technological characterisation of the Early Neolithic industries based on the exploitation of animal resources, wild and domestic. Some technical peculiarities of the Early Neolithic industries are illustrated (debitage schemes by bipartitioning and fracturation) that indicate adaptability of techniques to the morphological features of raw material blocks for the production of certain tool classes (awls, smoothers, intermediate objects etc.). These preliminary results are important to establish the state of technical knowledge of prehistoric communities of Iran and to initiate a debate on the technological evolution for the hard animal mater (bone and shell) during the Early Holocene of the Iranian Plateau.
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), Apr 6, 2021
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), 2021
HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), Apr 1, 2023
Edinburgh University Press eBooks, Jun 27, 2017
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Papers by Marjan Mashkour