Data from: Like a pig out of water. Seaborne spread of domestic pigs in Southern Italy and Sardinia during the Bronze and Iron Ages.

Southern Italy has a long history of human occupation and passage of different cultures since the Early Holocene. Repeated, ancient introductions of pigs in several geographic areas in Europe make it difficult to understand pig translocation and domestication in Italy. The archeozoological record may provide fundamental information on this, hence shedding light on peopling and on trading among different ancient cultures in the Mediterranean. Yet, because of the scanty nature of the fossil record, ancient remains from human-associated animals are somewhat rare. Fortunately, ancient DNA analysis as applied to domestic species proved to be a powerful tool in revealing human migrations. Herein, we analysed 80-bp fragment of mitochondrial DNA control region from 52 Sus scrofa ancient samples retrieved from Southern Italian and Sardinian archeological sites, spanning in age from the Mesolithic to the Roman period. Our results surprisingly indicate the presence of the Near
Eastern haplotype Y1 on both Italy's major islands (Sardinia and Sicily) during the Bronze Age, suggesting the seaborne transportation of domestic pigs by humans at least during 1,600-1,300 BC. The presence of the Italian E2 clade in domestic contexts shows that the indigenous wild boar was effectively domesticated or incorporated into domestic stocks in Southern Italy during the Bronze Age, though the E2 haplotype has never been found in modern domestic breeds. Pigs belonging to the endemic E2 clade were thus traded between the Peninsula and Sardinia by the end of the 2nd millennium BC and this genetic signature is still detected in Sardinian feral pigs.

自全新世早期以来，意大利南部便拥有悠久的人类定居史与多元文化交融历程。欧洲多个地理区域曾多次发生古代猪类引入事件，这使得厘清意大利境内猪的迁移与驯化历程变得极具挑战性。动物考古学记录或可为该问题提供关键基础信息，进而帮助我们洞悉地中海地区不同古代文化之间的人群迁徙与商贸往来。然而，由于化石记录本身较为匮乏，与人类活动相关的伴生动物古代遗骸相对稀少。所幸，针对家养物种的古代DNA（ancient DNA）分析已被证实是揭示人类迁徙活动的强有力工具。本研究中，我们对采自意大利南部与撒丁岛考古遗址的52份野猪（*Sus scrofa*）古代样本的线粒体DNA控制区80bp片段进行了分析，样本年代跨度从中石器时代直至罗马时期。我们的研究结果意外发现，在青铜时代的意大利两大主要岛屿——撒丁岛与西西里岛——中均存在近东单倍型Y1，这表明人类至少在公元前1600年至公元前1300年期间已通过海路运输家猪。在家养样本中检测到意大利E2演化支，这表明在青铜时代的意大利南部，本土野猪已被成功驯化或融入家养猪种群中——尽管现代家猪品种中从未发现过E2单倍型。因此，在公元前2千纪末期，携带特有E2演化支的家猪已在亚平宁半岛与撒丁岛之间开展商贸往来，且这一遗传特征至今仍可在撒丁岛的野化猪种群中被检测到。