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 analyzed 80-bp fragment of mitochondrial DNA control region from 27 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 1600–1300 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, although 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 second 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。欧洲多地曾多次出现猪的古代引种事件，这使得厘清意大利地区猪类的迁移扩散与驯化历程变得困难重重。考古动物学记录（archeozoological record）或可为该问题提供核心依据，进而阐明地中海区域不同古代文明间的人口迁徙与商贸往来。然而，受限于化石记录的稀缺性，与人类伴生的动物古代遗存相对稀缺。所幸，针对家养物种的古代DNA（ancient DNA）分析已被证实为揭示人类迁徙活动的有力工具。本研究对采自意大利南部与撒丁岛考古遗址的27份古野猪（Sus scrofa）样本进行了分析，获取了其线粒体DNA（mitochondrial DNA）控制区的80-bp片段，样本年代跨度从中石器时代直至罗马时期。本研究结果意外发现，青铜时代意大利的两大主要岛屿（撒丁岛与西西里岛）均存在近东单倍型（haplotype）Y1，这表明人类至少在公元前1600年至公元前1300年间已通过海路运输家猪。家养样本中意大利E2进化枝（clade）的检出表明，青铜时代意大利南部的本土野猪已被成功驯化，或被整合进家养猪种群中——尽管现代家养猪品种中从未检测到E2单倍型。因此，在公元前第二个千年末期，携带特有E2进化枝的家猪已在亚平宁半岛与撒丁岛之间开展商贸流通，而这一遗传特征至今仍可在撒丁岛的野生野猪种群中被检测到。