Late Ice Age foragers and the local ancestry behind the Anatolian farming transition.
📍 RegionTurkey
🧬 Closest modern matchItalian Sardinia North (Sardinian)
⏳ Time periodMesolithic
Pınarbaşı: the deep roots of central Anatolia
Pınarbaşı lies on the Konya Plain of central Anatolia, a region that later became famous for early farming villages. Its much earlier hunter-gatherer record reaches back to the closing millennia of the Ice Age. The ancient genetic reference dates to approximately 13,640–13,070 BC and provides a rare view of the population background that existed on the plateau long before agriculture.
The plateau before farming
Late Pleistocene central Anatolia was a landscape used by communities whose food came from wild resources. Pınarbaşı’s location is important because it places those communities in the same broad region as later settlements such as Boncuklu and Çatalhöyük. The site was used at different times across a long prehistoric sequence. Its early genetic evidence and its later archaeological occupations together make the Konya Plain a valuable setting for studying change across the transition to the Holocene.
Archaeological work at Pınarbaşı and nearby Boncuklu shows that farming on the plateau developed within an established world of local foragers. Cultivation and animal management entered economies that continued to draw on wild foods. The change was therefore a process of adjustment and experimentation, involving households with detailed knowledge of their environment. Pınarbaşı helps establish the earlier side of that story, before food production became the foundation of larger and more permanent villages.
The Pınarbaşı genome shares a strong ancestry connection with the earliest farmers of central Anatolia. That finding supports substantial local continuity across the adoption of farming, alongside additional gene flow from other parts of the Near East. It also makes the reference important far beyond Anatolia: later populations related to Anatolian farmers spread into southeastern Europe and farther west. Pınarbaşı thus illuminates a deeper layer beneath a farming ancestry that eventually became widespread. The comparison is especially revealing alongside Boncuklu, which represents the plateau after cultivation had become part of daily life.
What is Turkey Anatolia Mesolithic Pinarbasi DNA closest to?
In the World Genetics modern G25 comparison, the closest non-self match for Turkey Anatolia Mesolithic Pinarbasi is Italian Sardinia North (Sardinian). Other nearby references include Italian Sardinia (Sardinian), Italian Sardinia Sulcis-Iglesiente (Sardinian), Italian Sardinia Benetutti (Sardinian), and Corsican Corse-du-Sud. This gives the Turkey Anatolia Mesolithic Pinarbasi profile its nearest modern genetic context inside the current reference database.
Closest Matches
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What does Turkey Anatolia Mesolithic Pinarbasi ancestry look like?
The ancestral breakdown below loads the best-fitting World Genetics calculator for the Turkey Anatolia Mesolithic Pinarbasi average. It should be read as a model of deep ancestry components, while the closest-match table is the better guide to which modern populations are most similar in G25 space.
Ancestral Breakdown
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Loading ancestral breakdown.
Where is Turkey Anatolia Mesolithic Pinarbasi DNA closest on the map?
The heatmap gives the Turkey Anatolia Mesolithic Pinarbasi profile a geographic shape. Warmer areas mark regions where available modern reference populations sit closer to the Turkey Anatolia Mesolithic Pinarbasi average, while cooler areas represent more distant matches.
What populations are genetically closest to Turkey Anatolia Mesolithic Pinarbasi?
The closest non-self match in this World Genetics comparison is Italian Sardinia North (Sardinian). Other nearby references include Italian Sardinia (Sardinian), Italian Sardinia Sulcis-Iglesiente (Sardinian), Italian Sardinia Benetutti (Sardinian), and Corsican Corse-du-Sud.
Is Turkey Anatolia Mesolithic Pinarbasi DNA closest to Italian Sardinia North (Sardinian)?
In the current modern G25 reference set, Italian Sardinia North (Sardinian) is the closest listed match to the Turkey Anatolia Mesolithic Pinarbasi average after removing Turkey Anatolia Mesolithic Pinarbasi itself from the table.
What does the Turkey Anatolia Mesolithic Pinarbasi heatmap show?
The heatmap shows where modern reference populations are closer or farther from the Turkey Anatolia Mesolithic Pinarbasi G25 average, giving the closest-match results a geographic view.
