Dynamics of the Neolithic transition across Europe using ancient DNA datasets have established that Neolithic European populations received a limited amount of admixture from resident hunter-gatherers. However, the genetic diversity of Neolithic and Chalcolithic human populations was shaped predominantly by local processes. In the Iberian Peninsula, the Cantabrian fringe showed different proportions of local hunter-gatherers’ ancestry through time. The objective of this chapter is to analyze the mitochondrial variation of populations from the northern Iberian Peninsula from Neolithic to Chalcolithic time using new data from El Aramo mine (Asturias), in the context of the debate about the origin and dispersion of the Beaker culture in Europe.
Part of the book: Mitochondrial DNA