Austria_EN_LBK — Early LBK Farmers

Across the loess plains and river terraces of Lower Austria, the Early Neolithic Linear Pottery Culture (LBK) arrived as a slow, luminous wave of innovation. Archaeological data indicates settlements forming between c. 5500 and 4800 BCE along fertile valleys of the Danube and its tributaries. Sites included in this dataset — Kleinhadersdorf Flur Marchleiten (Mistelbach) and Ratzersdorf (Sankt Pölten(Land)) — preserve pottery with linear decoration and traces of long-lived farming practice.

Cinematically, the arrival of LBK farmers can be imagined as columns of timber longhouses and fields of emmer and einkorn spreading into temperate woodlands. Material culture, radiocarbon sequences, and settlement patterns point to a movement of people and practices originating from earlier Anatolian and southeastern European farming communities. However, the archaeological record in Austria is patchy: excavated features provide clear evidence for domestic architecture and ceramics, but direct links between single graves and broad migration pathways remain interpretive. Limited evidence suggests local hunter–gatherer and farmer interaction, with LBK sites often found near rivers that served as corridors of movement and exchange.

Ancient DNA from four individuals dated between 5500 and 4775 BCE provides a narrow window into the genetic identity of Early Neolithic farmers in Austria. All four genomes show markers typical of Early European Farmer (EEF) ancestry — a genetic profile widely associated with Neolithic populations that migrated from Anatolia into Europe and largely replaced or mixed with local hunter–gatherers. Archaeogenetic studies of LBK populations elsewhere have shown high Anatolian-derived farmer ancestry with varying amounts of western hunter–gatherer (WHG) admixture; the Austrian samples are consistent with this broad pattern.

Y-chromosome data: one individual carries haplogroup J, a lineage with roots in the Near East, which is consistent with an Anatolian link but must be interpreted cautiously given the single observation. mtDNA diversity in the four individuals includes haplogroups T, N, H+, and H — maternal lineages commonly observed in Neolithic European contexts. Because the sample count is small (n = 4), statistical inferences about population structure, sex-biased migration, or haplogroup frequencies are preliminary. Nevertheless, the combination of archaeological context and genetic markers supports a narrative of incoming farming populations bringing Anatolian-derived ancestry into Lower Austria during the Early Neolithic.