The Pan-European Impact of the Balkan Hunter-Gatherers

The last glacial maximum, spanning 26 to 19 thousand years ago, left three ice-free refugia in Europe: the Iberian, Italian, and Balkan peninsulas. While the genetic data from the Iberian and Italian refugia have been explored, the Balkan refugium's ancestry remained elusive. In a breakthrough study, genome-wide data were collected from nine newly identified individuals representing various periods and regions.

These individuals included three Epipaleolithic from Romania, one from Bosnia and Herzegovina, three from Greece, one from Southern Italy, and one from Sardinia. The Romanian Epipaleolithic population, yet to be sampled, emerged as the primary source for subsequent European hunter-gatherers. As these people ventured westward into the Italian Peninsula, they mixed with a minority from pre-LGM Italians, forming a population that subsequently expanded westward, eventually becoming the primary ancestry for western European Mesolithic people.

Meanwhile, the Balkan Epipaleolithic individuals made a northeastward expansion, bypassing Italy, which contributed to the European ancestry of Scandinavian and Eastern European hunter-gatherers. Additionally, southeastward migration to the Aegean resulted in mixtures between Anatolian and European lineages, preceding the spread of farming across the region.