Data from: An integrative skeletal and paleogenomic analysis of stature variation suggests relatively reduced health for early European farmers

Human culture, biology, and health were shaped dramatically by the onset
of agriculture ~12,000 years before present (BP). This shift is
hypothesized to have resulted in increased individual fitness and
population growth as evidenced by archaeological and population genomic
data alongside a decline in physiological health as inferred from skeletal
remains. Here, we consider osteological and ancient DNA data from the same
prehistoric individuals to study human stature variation as a proxy for
health across a transition to agriculture. Specifically, we compared
‘predicted’ genetic contributions to height from paleogenomic data and
‘achieved’ adult osteological height estimated from long bone measurements
for 167 individuals across Europe spanning the Upper Paleolithic to Iron
Age (~38,000-2,400 BP). We found that individuals from the Neolithic were
shorter than expected (given their individual polygenic height scores) by
an average of -3.82 cm relative to individuals from the Upper Paleolithic
and Mesolithic (P=0.040) and -2.21 cm shorter relative to post-Neolithic
individuals (P=0.068, with osteological vs. expected stature steadily
increasing across the Copper (+1.95 cm relative to the Neolithic), Bronze
(+2.70 cm), and Iron (+3.27 cm) Ages. These results were attenuated when
we additionally accounted for genome-wide genetic ancestry variation, for
example with Neolithic individuals -2.82 cm shorter than expected on
average relative to pre-Neolithic individuals (P=0.120). We also
incorporated observations of paleopathological indicators of non-specific
stress that can persist from childhood to adulthood in skeletal remains
into our model. Overall, our work highlights the potential of integrating
disparate datasets to explore proxies of health in prehistory.