R ES E A RC H

POPULATION GENETICS

The genomic history of the Iberian
Peninsula over the past 8000 years

We assembled genome-wide data from 271 ancient Iberians, of whom 176 are from the
largely unsampled period after 2000 BCE, thereby providing a high-resolution time transect
of the Iberian Peninsula. We document high genetic substructure between northwestern
and southeastern hunter-gatherers before the spread of farming. We reveal sporadic
contacts between Iberia and North Africa by ~2500 BCE and, by ~2000 BCE, the
replacement of 40% of Iberia’s ancestry and nearly 100% of its Y-chromosomes by people
with Steppe ancestry. We show that, in the Iron Age, Steppe ancestry had spread not only
into Indo-European–speaking regions but also into non-Indo-European–speaking ones, and
we reveal that present-day Basques are best described as a typical Iron Age population
without the admixture events that later affected the rest of Iberia. Additionally, we document
how, beginning at least in the Roman period, the ancestry of the peninsula was transformed
by gene flow from North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean.

T

he Iberian Peninsula, lying at the extreme
southwestern corner of Europe, provides
an excellent context in which to assess the
final impact of population movements entering the continent from the east as well
as interactions with North Africa. To study the
genetic impact of prehistoric and historic events
in Iberia, we prepared next-generation sequencing libraries treated with uracil-DNA glycosylase
(UDG) (1) and enriched them for ~1.2 million

Olalde et al., Science 363, 1230–1234 (2019)

single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (2, 3)
to generate genome-wide data from 4 Mesolithic,
44 Neolithic, 47 Copper Age, 53 Bronze Age,
24 Iron Age, and 99 historical-period Iberians
(Fig. 1, A and B, and tables S1 and S2). We also
generated 26 radiocarbon dates (table S3). We
co-analyzed the new genomic data with previously reported data from 1107 ancient individuals, including 132 from Iberia (Fig. 1B) (2, 4–9),
and 2862 present-day individuals (10). We filtered

15 March 2019

1 of 5

Downloaded from http://science.sciencemag.org/ on March 14, 2019

Iñigo Olalde1*, Swapan Mallick1,2,3, Nick Patterson2, Nadin Rohland1,
Vanessa Villalba-Mouco4,5, Marina Silva6, Katharina Dulias6, Ceiridwen J. Edwards6,
Francesca Gandini6, Maria Pala6, Pedro Soares7, Manuel Ferrando-Bernal8,
Nicole Adamski1,3, Nasreen Broomandkhoshbacht1,3, Olivia Cheronet9,
Brendan J. Culleton10, Daniel Fernandes9,11, Ann Marie Lawson1,3,
Matthew Mah1,2,3, Jonas Oppenheimer1,3, Kristin Stewardson1,3, Zhao Zhang1,
Juan Manuel Jiménez Arenas12,13,14, Isidro Jorge Toro Moyano15,
Domingo C. Salazar-García16, Pere Castanyer17, Marta Santos17, Joaquim Tremoleda17,
Marina Lozano18,19, Pablo García Borja20, Javier Fernández-Eraso21,
José Antonio Mujika-Alustiza21, Cecilio Barroso22, Francisco J. Bermúdez22,
Enrique Viguera Mínguez23, Josep Burch24, Neus Coromina24, David Vivó24,
Artur Cebrià25, Josep Maria Fullola25, Oreto García-Puchol26, Juan Ignacio Morales25,
F. Xavier Oms25, Tona Majó27, Josep Maria Vergès18,19, Antònia Díaz-Carvajal28,
Imma Ollich-Castanyer28, F. Javier López-Cachero25, Ana Maria Silva29,30,31,
Carmen Alonso-Fernández32, Germán Delibes de Castro33, Javier Jiménez Echevarría32,
Adolfo Moreno-Márquez34,35, Guillermo Pascual Berlanga†, Pablo Ramos-García36,
José Ramos-Muñoz34, Eduardo Vijande Vila34, Gustau Aguilella Arzo37,
Ángel Esparza Arroyo38, Katina T. Lillios39, Jennifer Mack40, Javier Velasco-Vázquez41,
Anna Waterman42, Luis Benítez de Lugo Enrich43,44, María Benito Sánchez45,
Bibiana Agustí46,47, Ferran Codina47, Gabriel de Prado47, Almudena Estalrrich48,
Álvaro Fernández Flores49, Clive Finlayson50,51,52,53, Geraldine Finlayson50,52,53,
Stewart Finlayson50,54, Francisco Giles-Guzmán50, Antonio Rosas55,
Virginia Barciela González56,57, Gabriel García Atiénzar56,57, Mauro S. Hernández Pérez56,57,
Armando Llanos58, Yolanda Carrión Marco59, Isabel Collado Beneyto60,
David López-Serrano61, Mario Sanz Tormo†, António C. Valera62, Concepción Blasco43,
Corina Liesau43, Patricia Ríos43, Joan Daura25, María Jesús de Pedro Michó63,
Agustín A. Diez-Castillo64, Raúl Flores Fernández†, Joan Francès Farré65,
Rafael Garrido-Pena43, Victor S. Gonçalves30, Elisa Guerra-Doce33,
Ana Mercedes Herrero-Corral66, Joaquim Juan-Cabanilles67, Daniel López-Reyes68,
Sarah B. McClure69, Marta Merino Pérez70, Arturo Oliver Foix37,
Montserrat Sanz Borràs25, Ana Catarina Sousa30, Julio Manuel Vidal Encinas71,
Douglas J. Kennett10,69, Martin B. Richards6, Kurt Werner Alt72,73,
Wolfgang Haak4,74, Ron Pinhasi9, Carles Lalueza-Fox8*, David Reich1,2,3*

from the analysis datasets individuals covered by
<10,000 SNPs, with evidence of contamination,
or first-degree relatives of others (table S1). We
analyzed the data with principal components
analysis (PCA) (Fig. 1, C and D), f-statistics (11),
and qpAdm (12) and summarize the results in
Fig. 1E. We confirmed the robustness of key
findings by repeating analyses after removing SNPs in CpG dinucleotides (table S5) that
are susceptible to cytosine-to-thymine errors
even in UDG-treated libraries (1).
Previous knowledge of the genetic structure
of Mesolithic Iberia comes from three individuals from the northwest: LaBraña1 (2), Canes1
(5), and Chan (5). We add LaBraña2, who was a
brother of the previously reported LaBraña1
(figs. S1 and S2 and table S6), as well as Cueva
de la Carigüela (fig. S10), Cingle del Mas Nou,
and Cueva de la Cocina from the southeast. In
northwest Iberia, we document a previously unappreciated ancestry shift before the arrival of
farming (Fig. 2A, fig. S5, and table S7). The oldest
individual Chan was similar to the ~19,000-year-old
El Mirón, whereas the La Braña brothers from
~1300 years later were closer to central European
hunter-gatherers like the Hungarian KO1, with
an even more extreme shift ~700 years later in
Canes1. This likely reflects gene flow affecting
northwest Iberia but not the southeast, where
individuals remained close to El Mirón (Fig. 2A).
More data from the Mesolithic period, especially
from currently unsampled areas, would provide
additional insight into the geographical impact
and archaeological correlates of this ancestry shift.
For the Neolithic and Copper Age, we model
populations as mixtures of groups related to
Anatolian Neolithic, El Mirón, and KO1 (Fig. 2A
and table S8). We replicate previous findings of
the arrival of Anatolian Neolithic–associated ancestry in multiple regions of Iberia in the Early
Neolithic (7, 8, 12); however, sampling from this
period remains limited and studies of larger sample sizes and additional sites will be important
to shed further light on the interaction between
the incoming farmers and indigenous huntergatherers. For the Middle Neolithic and Copper
Age, we reproduce previous reports of an increase of hunter-gatherer–related ancestry after
4000 BCE (6, 7, 12, 13), with higher proportions
in groups from the north and center. Using our
observations about population substructure in
the Mesolithic as a reference frame, we show that
the hunter-gatherer–related ancestry during those
periods was more closely related to later northwestern (Canes1-like) hunter-gatherers than to
the El Mirón–like hunter-gatherers (Fig. 2A), providing clues about the source of this ancestry.
Our Copper Age dataset includes a newly reported male (I4246) from Camino de las Yeseras
(14) in central Iberia, radiocarbon dated to
2473–2030 calibrated years BCE, who clusters
with modern and ancient North Africans in the
PCA (Fig. 1C and fig. S3) and, like ~3000 BCE
Moroccans (8), can be well modeled as having
ancestry from both Late Pleistocene North Africans
(15) and Early Neolithic Europeans (tables S9 and
S10). His genome-wide ancestry and uniparental

R ES E A RC H | R E PO R T

cestry on the X-chromosome (table S14 and fig.
S7), a paradigm that can be exemplified by a
Bronze Age tomb from Castillejo del Bonete
containing a male with Steppe ancestry and a
female with ancestry similar to Copper Age
Iberians. Although ancient DNA can document
that sex-biased admixture occurred, archaeological and anthropological research will be needed
to understand the processes that generated it.
For the Iron Age, we document a consistent
trend of increased ancestry related to Northern
and Central European populations with respect
to the preceding Bronze Age (Figs. 1, C and D,
and 2B). The increase was 10 to 19% (95% confidence intervals given here and in the percentages that follow) in 15 individuals along the
Mediterranean coast where non-Indo-European
Iberian languages were spoken; 11 to 31% in two
individuals at the Tartessian site of La Angorrilla
in the southwest with uncertain language attribution; and 28 to 43% in three individuals at
La Hoya in the north where Indo-European
Celtiberian languages were likely spoken (fig. S6
and tables S11 and S12). This trend documents
gene flow into Iberia during the Late Bronze
Age or Early Iron Age, possibly associated with
the introduction of the Urnfield tradition (18).
Unlike in Central or Northern Europe, where
Steppe ancestry likely marked the introduction
of Indo-European languages (12), our results
indicate that, in Iberia, increases in Steppe ancestry were not always accompanied by switches
to Indo-European languages. This is consistent
with the genetic profile of present-day Basques
who speak the only non-Indo-European language

in Western Europe but overlap genetically with
Iron Age populations (Fig. 1D) showing substantial levels of Steppe ancestry.
In the historical period, our transect begins
with 24 individuals from the 5th century BCE
to the 6th century CE from the Greek colony of
Empúries in the northeast (19) who fall into
two main ancestry groups (Fig. 1, C and D, and
fig. S8): one similar to Bronze Age individuals
from the Aegean, and the other similar to Iron
Age Iberians such as those from the nearby nonGreek site of Ullastret, confirming historical
sources indicating that this town was inhabited
by a multiethnic population (19). The impact of
mobility from the central/eastern Mediterranean during the Classical period is also evident
in 10 individuals from the 7th to 8th century CE
site of L'Esquerda in the northeast, who show
a shift from the Iron Age population in the
direction of present-day Italians and Greeks (Fig.
1D) that accounts for approximately one-quarter
of their ancestry (Fig. 2C and table S17). The same
shift is also observed in present-day Iberians
outside the Basque area and is plausibly a
consequence of the Roman presence in the peninsula, which had a profound cultural impact
and, according to our data, a substantial genetic
impact too.
In contrast to the demographic changes in the
Classical period, movements into Iberia during the
decline of the Roman Empire had less long-term
demographic impact. Nevertheless, individual
sites—for example, the 6th century site of Pla de
l'Horta in the northeast—bear witness to events
in this period. These individuals, archaeologically

1

Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. 2Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA, USA. 3Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School,
Boston, MA, USA. 4Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany. 5Departamento de Ciencias de la Antigüedad, Grupo Primeros Pobladores del Valle del Ebro
(PPVE), Instituto de Investigación en Ciencias Ambientales (IUCA), Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain. 6Department of Biological and Geographical Sciences, School of Applied Sciences,
University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK. 7Centre of Molecular and Environmental Biology, Department of Biology, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal. 8Institute of Evolutionary Biology,
CSIC-Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain. 9Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria. 10Department of Anthropology and Institutes of Energy and
the Environment, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA. 11Research Center for Anthropology and Health, Department of Life Science, University of Coimbra, Coimbra,
Portugal. 12Departamento de Prehistoria y Arqueología, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain. 13Instituto Universitario de la Paz y los Conflictos, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain.
14
Department of Anthropology - Anthropologisches Institut and Museum, Universität Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland. 15Museo Arqueológico y Etnológico de Granada, Granada, Spain. 16Departamento
de Geografía, Prehistoria y Arqueología, Grupo de Investigación en Prehistoria, (UPV-EHU)/IKERBASQUE-Basque Foundation for Science, Vitoria, Spain. 17Museu d'Arqueologia de CatalunyaEmpúries, L'Escala, Spain. 18Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES), Tarragona, Spain. 19Àrea de Prehistòria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Tarragona, Spain.
20
Departamento de Prehistoria e Historia Antigua, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Valencia, Spain. 21Departamento de Geografía, Prehistoria y Arqueología, Universidad del País
Vasco, Vitoria, Spain. 22Fundación Instituto de Investigación de Prehistoria y Evolución Humana (FIPEH), Lucena, Spain. 23Área de Genética, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Málaga, Málaga,
Spain. 24Institut de Recerca Històrica, Universitat de Girona, Girona, Spain. 25SERP, Departament d’Història i Arqueologia, Facultat de Geografia i Història, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona,
Spain. 26PREMEDOC Research Group, Departament de Prehistòria, Arqueologia i Historia Antiga, Universitat de València, València, Spain. 27Archaeom. Departament de Prehistòria, Universitat
Autònoma de Barcelona, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain. 28Universitat de Barcelona-GRAMP/Museu Arqueològic de l'Esquerda, Roda de Ter, Spain. 29Laboratory of Prehistory, Research Center for
Anthropology and Health, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal. 30UNIARQ, Faculdade de Letras, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal. 31CEF, Department of
Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal. 32Cronos S.C. Arqueología y Patrimonio, Burgos, Spain. 33Departamento de Prehistoria, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de
Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain. 34Departamento de Historia, Geografía y Filosofía, Universidad de Cádiz, Cádiz, Spain. 35Departamento de Geografía, Historia y Humanidades, Universidad de Almería,
Almería, Spain. 36School of Dentistry, University of Granada, Granada, Spain. 37Servicio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas y Prehistóricas de la Diputación de Castellón, Castelló de la Plana, Spain.
38
GIR PrehUSAL, Departamento de Prehistoria, Historia Antigua y Arqueología, Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain. 39Department of Anthropology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA,
USA. 40Office of the State Archaeologist, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA. 41Departamento de Ciencias Históricas, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas, Spain.
42
Mt. Mercy University, Cedar Rapids, IA, USA. 43Departamento de Prehistoria y Arqueología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain. 44Departamento de Prehistoria y Arqueología,
Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid, Spain. 45Departamento de Medicina Legal, Psiquiatría y Anatomía Patológica, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
46
INSITU S.C.P., Centelles, Spain. 47Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya-Ullastret, Ullastret, Spain. 48Instituto Internacional de Investigaciones Prehistóricas de Cantabria IIIPC (Universidad de
Cantabria-Gobierno de Cantabria-Santander), Santander, Spain. 49Arqueología y Gestión S.L.L., Fuentes de Andalucia, Spain. 50The Gibraltar National Museum, Gibraltar. 51Department of
Anthropology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada. 52School of Natural Sciences and Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK. 53Institute of Life and Earth Sciences,
University of Gibraltar, Gibraltar. 54Department of Life Sciences, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK. 55Paleoanthropology Group, Department of Paleobiology, Museo Nacional de Ciencias
Naturales (MNCN)–Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Madrid, Spain. 56Departamento de Prehistoria, Arqueología e Historia Antigua, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras,
Universidad de Alicante, San Vicente del Raspeig, Spain. 57Instituto Universitario de Investigación en Arqueología y Patrimonio Histórico (INAPH), San Vicente del Raspeig, Spain. 58Instituto
Alavés de Arqueología, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain. 59Departament de Prehistòria, Arqueologia i Historia Antiga, Universitat de València, València, Spain. 60Museu Arqueológic Vicent Casanova,
Bocairent, Spain. 61Estrats, Treballs d'Arqueologia SL, El Campello, Spain. 62Era – Arqueologia, Oeiras, Portugal. 63Museu de Prehistòria de València, València, Spain. 64GRAM Research Group,
Departament de Prehistòria, Arqueologia i Historia Antiga, Universitat de València, València, Spain. 65Museu i Poblat Ibèric de Ca n'Oliver, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain. 66Departamento de
Prehistoria, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain. 67Museu de Prehistoria/SIP, Diputació de València, València, Spain. 68Arqueovitis sccl., Avinyonet del Penedès, Spain.
69
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA. 70Unitat d'Antropologia Física, Departament de Biologia Animal, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona,
Barcelona, Spain. 71Junta de Castilla y León, Servicio de Cultura de León, León, Spain. 72Center of Natural and Cultural Human History, Danube Private University, Krems, Austria. 73Department
of Biomedical Engineering and Integrative Prehistory and Archaeological Science, Basel University, Basel, Switzerland. 74School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia.
*Corresponding author. Email: inigo_olalde@hms.harvard.edu (I.O.); carles.lalueza@upf.edu (C.L.-F.); reich@genetics.med.harvard.edu (D.R.) †Independent researcher.

Olalde et al., Science 363, 1230–1234 (2019)

15 March 2019

2 of 5

Downloaded from http://science.sciencemag.org/ on March 14, 2019

markers (tables S1 and S4) are unique among
Copper Age Iberians, including individuals from
sites with many analyzed individuals such as
Sima del Ángel, and point to a North African
origin. Our genetic evidence of sporadic contacts
with North Africa during the Copper Age fits
with the presence of African ivory at Iberian
sites (16) and is further supported by a Bronze
Age individual (I7162) from Loma del Puerco
in southern Iberia who had 25% ancestry related to individuals like I4246 (Fig. 1D and
table S16). However, these early movements
from North Africa had a limited impact on
Copper and Bronze Age Iberians, as North
African ancestry only became widespread in
the past ~2000 years.
From the Bronze Age (~2200–900 BCE), we
increase the available dataset (6, 7, 17) from 7 to
60 individuals and show how ancestry from the
Pontic-Caspian steppe (Steppe ancestry) appeared
throughout Iberia in this period (Fig. 1, C and D),
albeit with less impact in the south (table S13).
The earliest evidence is in 14 individuals dated to
~2500–2000 BCE who coexisted with local people
without Steppe ancestry (Fig. 2B). These groups
lived in close proximity and admixed to form
the Bronze Age population after 2000 BCE with
~40% ancestry from incoming groups (Fig. 2B
and fig. S6). Y-chromosome turnover was even
more pronounced (Fig. 2B), as the lineages common in Copper Age Iberia (I2, G2, and H) were
almost completely replaced by one lineage, R1bM269. These patterns point to a higher contribution of incoming males than females, also
supported by a lower proportion of nonlocal an-

R ES E A RC H | R E PO R T

interpreted as Visigoths, are shifted from those
at L'Esquerda in the direction of Northern and
Central Europe (Figs. 1D and 2C and table S18),
and we observe the Asian mitochondrial DNA
(mtDNA) haplogroup C4a1a also found in Early
Medieval Bavaria (20), supporting a recent link
to groups with ancestry originally derived from
Central and Eastern Europe.
In the southeast, we recovered genomic data
from 45 individuals dated between the 3rd and
16th centuries CE. All analyzed individuals fell
outside the genetic variation of preceding Iberian
Iron Age populations (Fig. 1, C and D, and fig.
S3) and harbored ancestry from both Southern
European and North African populations (Fig.
2D), as well as additional Levantine-related
ancestry that could potentially reflect ancestry
from Jewish groups (21). These results demonstrate that by the Roman period, southern Iberia
had experienced a major influx of North African
Olalde et al., Science 363, 1230–1234 (2019)

Eurasian individuals (gray dots), with ancient individuals from Iberia and
other regions (pale yellow) projected onto the first two principal
components. (D) Section of the PCA in (C) marked with the dashed box.
(E) Schematic representation of events documented in this study.

ancestry, probably related to the well-known
mobility patterns during the Roman Empire
(22) or to the earlier Phoenician-Punic presence (23); the latter is also supported by the
observation of the Phoenician-associated Ychromosome J2 (24). Gene flow from North
Africa continued into the Muslim period, as
is clear from Muslim burials with elevated North
African and sub-Saharan African ancestry (Fig.
2D, fig. S4, and table S22) and from uniparental
markers typical of North Africa not present
among pre-Islamic individuals (Fig. 2D and
fig. S11). Present-day populations from southern Iberia harbor less North African ancestry
(25) than the ancient Muslim burials, plausibly reflecting expulsion of moriscos (former
Muslims converted to Christianity) and repopulation from the north, as supported by historical sources and genetic analysis of present-day
groups (25). The impact of Muslim rule is also

15 March 2019

evident in northeast Iberia in seven individuals from Sant Julià de Ramis from the 8th to
12th centuries CE who, unlike previous ancient
individuals from the same region, show North
African–related ancestry (Fig. 2C and table S19)
and a complete overlap in PCA with present-day
Iberians (Fig. 1D).
Our time transect allowed us to track frequency changes of phenotypically important variants
over the past 4000 years (fig. S9), a period that
has been minimally sampled in the ancient DNA
literature not just in Iberia but in Europe more
generally. Before this work, it was known that
the lactase persistence allele at rs4988235, which
is present at moderate or high frequencies in
most European populations today and is one of
the strongest known signals of selection in
Europeans (26), occurred at extremely low frequencies in Europe through the Bronze Age (2),
raising the question of when it became common.
3 of 5

Downloaded from http://science.sciencemag.org/ on March 14, 2019

Fig. 1. Overview of the ancient Iberian genetic time transect. (A)
Geographic distribution and (B) dates of new and previously reported
samples. Random jitter is added for sites with multiple individuals. Sites
mentioned in the text are labeled. (C) PCA of 989 present-day west

R ES E A RC H | R E PO R T

Here we show that in Iberia, the allele continued
to occur at low frequency in the Iron Age (fig. S9)
and only approached present-day frequencies in
the past 2000 years, pointing to recent strong
selection.
Beyond the specific insights about Iberia, this
study serves as a model for how a high-resolution
ancient DNA transect continuing into historical
periods can be used to provide a detailed description of the formation of present-day populations
(Fig. 1E); future application of similar strategies
will provide equally valuable insights in other
world regions.

4.
5.
6.
7.

RE FE RENCES AND N OT ES

15.
16.

1. N. Rohland, E. Harney, S. Mallick, S. Nordenfelt, D. Reich,
Philos. Trans. R. Soc. London Ser. B 370, 20130624 (2015).
2. I. Mathieson et al., Nature 528, 499–503 (2015).
3. Q. Fu et al., Nature 524, 216–219 (2015).

Olalde et al., Science 363, 1230–1234 (2019)

8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.

15 March 2019

(table S4). (C) Ancestry proportions for individuals from three sites in northeast
Iberia dated between the 6th and 12th centuries CE. n represents the number of
individuals analyzed in each site. (D) Ancestry proportions for individuals from
southeast Iberia from the 3rd to 16th centuries CE (tables S20 and S21). Each bar
represents one individual, with associated mtDNA (top) and Y-chromosome
(bottom). Haplogroups with a likely recent nonlocal origin are bold.

Q. Fu et al., Nature 534, 200–205 (2016).
G. González-Fortes et al., Curr. Biol. 27, 1801–1810.e10 (2017).
R. Martiniano et al., PLOS Genet. 13, e1006852 (2017).
C. Valdiosera et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 115,
3428–3433 (2018).
R. Fregel et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 115, 6774–6779
(2018).
I. Olalde et al., Nature 555, 190–196 (2018).
I. Lazaridis et al., Nature 513, 409–413 (2014).
N. Patterson et al., Genetics 192, 1065–1093 (2012).
W. Haak et al., Nature 522, 207–211 (2015).
M. Lipson et al., Nature 551, 368–372 (2017).
C. Blasco, C. Liesau, G. Delibes de Castro, E. Baquedano,
M. Rodriguez, in El campaniforme en la Península Ibérica y su
contexto europeo, M. Rojo, R. Garrido, I. García, Eds.
(Universidad de Valladolid-Junta de Castilla y León, 2005),
pp. 457–479.
M. van de Loosdrecht et al., Science 360, 548–552 (2018).
C. Liesau, E. Moreno, in Marfil y elefantes en la Península
Ibérica y el Mediterráneo occidental, A. Banerjee, J. A. López
Padilla, T. X. Schuhmacher, Eds., Actas del coloquio
internacional (2012), pp. 87–98.

17. T. Günther et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 112, 11917–11922
(2015).
18. G. Ruiz Zapatero, in Iberia. Protohistory of the Far West of
Europe: From Neolithic to Roman Conquest,
M. Almagro-Gorbea, Ed. (Universidad de Burgos, Fundación
Atapuerca, 2014), pp. 195–215.
19. M. Almagro-Basch, Ampurias. Historia de la ciudad y guía de las
excavaciones (Instituto Español de Prehistoria del CSIC y
Servicio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas de la Diputación
Provincial, 1951).
20. K. R. Veeramah et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 115,
3494–3499 (2018).
21. J. S. Gerber, The Jews of Spain: A History of the Sephardic
Experience (The Free Press, 1992).
22. L. de Ligt, L. E. Tacoma, Eds., Migration and Mobility in the
Early Roman Empire (Brill, 2016).
23. M. R. Bierling, S. Gitin, The Phoenicians in Spain: An
Archaeological Review of the Eighth–Sixth Centuries B.C.E.
(Eisenbrauns, 2002).
24. P. A. Zalloua et al., Am. J. Hum. Genet. 83, 633–642
(2008).
25. C. Bycroft et al., Nat. Commun. 10, 551 (2019).

4 of 5

Downloaded from http://science.sciencemag.org/ on March 14, 2019

Fig. 2. Genome-wide admixture proportions using qpAdm. (A) Modeling
Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Copper Age populations as a mixture of Anatolian
Neolithic, El Mirón, and KO1. Percentages indicate proportion of El Mirón +
KO1 ancestry. (B) Proportion of ancestry derived from central European
Beaker/Bronze Age populations in Iberians from the Middle Neolithic to the
Iron Age (table S15). Colors indicate the Y-chromosome haplogroup for each male

R ES E A RC H | R E PO R T

26. T. Bersaglieri et al., Am. J. Hum. Genet. 74, 1111–1120
(2004).
ACKN OW LEDG MEN TS

We thank I. Mathieson, M. Lipson, I. Lazaridis, J. Sedig, and K. Sirak
for discussions, and M. E. Allentoft, K.-G. Sjögren, K. Kristiansen,
and E. Willerslev for facilitating sample collection. We thank
M. Meyer for sharing the optimized oligo sequences for
single-stranded library preparation. We thank the different museums
(listed in the supplementary materials) for permission to study
archaeological remains. Funding: J.M.F., F.J.L.-C., J.I.M., F.X.O., J.D.,
and M.S.B. were supported by HAR2017-86509-P, HAR2017-87695-P,
and SGR2017-11 from the Generalitat de Catalunya, AGAUR
agency. C.L.-F. was supported by Obra Social La Caixa and by
FEDER-MINECO (BFU2015- 64699-P). L.B.d.L.E. was supported by
REDISCO-HAR2017-88035-P (Plan Nacional I+D+I, MINECO). C.L.,
P.R., and C.Bl. were supported by MINECO (HAR2016-77600-P).
A.Esp., J.V.-V., G.D., and D.C.S.-G. were supported by MINECO
(HAR2009-10105 and HAR2013-43851-P). D.J.K. and B.J.C. were
supported by NSF BCS-1460367. K.T.L., A.W., and J.M. were
supported by NSF BCS-1153568. J.F.-E. and J.A.M.-A. were supported

by IT622-13 Gobierno Vasco, Diputación Foral de Álava, and
Diputación Foral de Gipuzkoa. We acknowledge support from
the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology
(PTDC/EPH-ARQ/4164/2014) and the FEDER-COMPETE 2020
project 016899. P.S. was supported by the FCT Investigator Program
(IF/01641/2013), FCT IP, and ERDF (COMPETE2020 – POCI).
M.Si. and K.D. were supported by a Leverhulme Trust Doctoral
Scholarship awarded to M.B.R. and M.P. D.R. was supported by
an Allen Discovery Center grant from the Paul Allen Foundation,
NIH grant GM100233, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
V.V.-M. and W.H. were supported by the Max Planck Society.
Authors contributions: N.R., N.A., N.B., O.C., B.J.C., D.F., A.M.L.,
M.M., J.O., K.S., Z.Z., M.Si., K.D., C.J.E., D.J.K., M.B.R., W.H., R.P.,
and D.R. performed or supervised laboratory work. J.M.J.A., I.J.T.M.,
D.C.S.-G., P.C., M.Sa., J.T., M.L., J.F.-E., J.A.M.-A., C.Ba., F.J.B.,
J.B., N.C., E.V.M., D.V., A.C., J.M.F., O.G.-P., J.I.M., F.X.O., J.M.V.,
A.D.-C., I.O.-C., P.G.B., A.M.S., C.A.-F., J.J.E., A.M.-M., P.R.-G., J.R.M.,
E.V.V., K.T.L., J.M., A.W., G.D., B.A., F.C., A.Esp., G.d.P., A.Est.,
C.F., G.F., S.F., F.G.-G., T.M., A.R., J.V.-V., G.A.A., V.B.G., L.B.d.L.E.,
M.B.S., G.G.A., M.S.H.P., A.L., Y.C.M., I.C.B., A.F.F., D.L.-S., M.S.T.,
A.C.V., C.Bl., J.D., M.J.d.P.M., A.A.D.-C., R.F.F., J.F.F., R.G.-P.,

V.S.G., E.G.-D., A.M.H.-C., J.J.-C., C.L., F.J.L.-C., D.L.-R., S.B.M.,
M.M.P., A.O.F., G.P.B., P.R., M.S.B., A.C.S., J.M.V.E., M.Si., M.B.R.,
K.W.A., W.H., R.P., C.L.-F., and D.R. assembled archaeological
material. I.O., S.M., N.P., M.F.-B., V.V.-M., M.Si., C.J.E., F.G., M.P.,
P.S., and D.R. analyzed data. I.O., C.L.-F., and D.R. wrote the
manuscript. Competing interests: The authors declare no
competing interests. Data and materials availability: Sequencing
data are available from the European Nucleotide Archive,
accession PRJEB30874; genotype dataset is available as
supplementary material.
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS

www.sciencemag.org/content/363/6432/1230/suppl/DC1
Supplementary Text
Figs. S1 to S11
Tables S1 to S22
References (27–189)
Genotype Dataset
12 September 2018; accepted 30 January 2019
10.1126/science.aav4040

Downloaded from http://science.sciencemag.org/ on March 14, 2019

Olalde et al., Science 363, 1230–1234 (2019)

15 March 2019

5 of 5

The genomic history of the Iberian Peninsula over the past 8000 years

Science 363 (6432), 1230-1234.
DOI: 10.1126/science.aav4040

Genomics of the Iberian Peninsula
Ancient DNA studies have begun to help us understand the genetic history and movements of people across the
globe. Focusing on the Iberian Peninsula, Olalde et al. report genome-wide data from 271 ancient individuals from Iberia
(see the Perspective by Vander Linden). The findings provide a comprehensive genetic time transect of the region.
Linguistics analysis and genetic analysis of archaeological human remains dating from about 7000 years ago to the
present elucidate the genetic impact of prehistoric and historic migrations from Europe and North Africa.
Science, this issue p. 1230; see also p. 1153

ARTICLE TOOLS

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/363/6432/1230

SUPPLEMENTARY
MATERIALS

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/suppl/2019/03/13/363.6432.1230.DC1

RELATED
CONTENT

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/363/6432/1153.full

Use of this article is subject to the Terms of Service
Science (print ISSN 0036-8075; online ISSN 1095-9203) is published by the American Association for the Advancement of
Science, 1200 New York Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20005. 2017 © The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive
licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. The title
Science is a registered trademark of AAAS.

Downloaded from http://science.sciencemag.org/ on March 14, 2019

Iñigo Olalde, Swapan Mallick, Nick Patterson, Nadin Rohland, Vanessa Villalba-Mouco, Marina Silva, Katharina Dulias,
Ceiridwen J. Edwards, Francesca Gandini, Maria Pala, Pedro Soares, Manuel Ferrando-Bernal, Nicole Adamski, Nasreen
Broomandkhoshbacht, Olivia Cheronet, Brendan J. Culleton, Daniel Fernandes, Ann Marie Lawson, Matthew Mah, Jonas
Oppenheimer, Kristin Stewardson, Zhao Zhang, Juan Manuel Jiménez Arenas, Isidro Jorge Toro Moyano, Domingo C.
Salazar-García, Pere Castanyer, Marta Santos, Joaquim Tremoleda, Marina Lozano, Pablo García Borja, Javier
Fernández-Eraso, José Antonio Mujika-Alustiza, Cecilio Barroso, Francisco J. Bermúdez, Enrique Viguera Mínguez, Josep
Burch, Neus Coromina, David Vivó, Artur Cebrià, Josep Maria Fullola, Oreto García-Puchol, Juan Ignacio Morales, F. Xavier
Oms, Tona Majó, Josep Maria Vergès, Antònia Díaz-Carvajal, Imma Ollich-Castanyer, F. Javier López-Cachero, Ana Maria
Silva, Carmen Alonso-Fernández, Germán Delibes de Castro, Javier Jiménez Echevarría, Adolfo Moreno-Márquez, Guillermo
Pascual Berlanga, Pablo Ramos-García, José Ramos-Muñoz, Eduardo Vijande Vila, Gustau Aguilella Arzo, Ángel Esparza
Arroyo, Katina T. Lillios, Jennifer Mack, Javier Velasco-Vázquez, Anna Waterman, Luis Benítez de Lugo Enrich, María Benito
Sánchez, Bibiana Agustí, Ferran Codina, Gabriel de Prado, Almudena Estalrrich, Álvaro Fernández Flores, Clive Finlayson,
Geraldine Finlayson, Stewart Finlayson, Francisco Giles-Guzmán, Antonio Rosas, Virginia Barciela González, Gabriel García
Atiénzar, Mauro S. Hernández Pérez, Armando Llanos, Yolanda Carrión Marco, Isabel Collado Beneyto, David
López-Serrano, Mario Sanz Tormo, António C. Valera, Concepción Blasco, Corina Liesau, Patricia Ríos, Joan Daura, María
Jesús de Pedro Michó, Agustín A. Diez-Castillo, Raúl Flores Fernández, Joan Francès Farré, Rafael Garrido-Pena, Victor S.
Gonçalves, Elisa Guerra-Doce, Ana Mercedes Herrero-Corral, Joaquim Juan-Cabanilles, Daniel López-Reyes, Sarah B.
McClure, Marta Merino Pérez, Arturo Oliver Foix, Montserrat Sanz Borràs, Ana Catarina Sousa, Julio Manuel Vidal Encinas,
Douglas J. Kennett, Martin B. Richards, Kurt Werner Alt, Wolfgang Haak, Ron Pinhasi, Carles Lalueza-Fox and David Reich

REFERENCES

This article cites 144 articles, 14 of which you can access for free
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/363/6432/1230#BIBL

PERMISSIONS

http://www.sciencemag.org/help/reprints-and-permissions

Downloaded from http://science.sciencemag.org/ on March 14, 2019

Use of this article is subject to the Terms of Service
Science (print ISSN 0036-8075; online ISSN 1095-9203) is published by the American Association for the Advancement of
Science, 1200 New York Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20005. 2017 © The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive
licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. The title
Science is a registered trademark of AAAS.