Julian Koelman: Intertwined lives across parallel worlds: Ancestry, kinship, mobility, and disease in Neolithic southern Scandinavia

Abstract

The Neolithic of southern Scandinavia was shaped by migration, continuity, and long-term interaction between groups with different subsistence strate-gies, material traditions, and mortuary practices. In this thesis, genomic, metagenomic, isotopic, and archaeological evidence is integrated to investi-gate ancestry, kinship, mobility, and disease, with particular focus on the Funnel Beaker Culture (FBC) and the Pitted Ware Culture (PWC). Genomic and isotopic data from the Alvastra dolmen, Korsnäs, and Fagervik extend archaeogenetic research on Neolithic south-eastern Sweden. Individuals from the Alvastra dolmen fall within the broader genetic variation of previ-ously studied FBC groups, expanding the geographical basis of this pattern. In contrast, mainland PWC individuals from Korsnäs show much lower levels of farmer-related ancestry than previously published PWC individuals from Gotland, suggesting stronger continuity from Scandinavian hunter-gatherers in parts of mainland eastern Sweden, while Fagervik indicates regional variation within the PWC. At the Alvastra pile dwelling, skeletal elements from the same individuals were recovered from different parts of the site, showing that human remains had been distributed across the site rather than deposited intact in one place. The analysed individuals fall with-in FBC-associated variation, with limited close relatedness, a strong male bias, and some evidence of non-local childhood origins. Kinship structured mortuary practice in different ways in different settings. At Ajvide, co-burial practice was strongly associated with young individuals and close biological relatives. In Falbygden and adjacent regions, four multigenera-tional pedigrees were reconstructed, the largest spanning six generations, and a strongly patrilineal social organisation with direct evidence of female exogamy was identified. Metagenomic analyses further showed that Yer-sinia pestis was widespread in Neolithic southern Scandinavia, with at least three distinct infection events within around 120 years. Together, these results show that the Neolithic of southern Scandinavia cannot be reduced to a single model of migration or social organisation, but was shaped by regionally variable intersections of ancestry, kinship, mobility, and disease.