FARMERS from the Middle East carried civilisation with them into Europe, 10,000 years ago. A genetic analysis reveals that modern inhabitants of Paris, Athens and Berlin share an average of 50 per cent of their genes with people from Baghdad, Tehran, Ankara and Damascus.
That means farmers must have emigrated en masse from the Middle East into Europe, mingling and interbreeding with the hunter-gatherers of the day. It also helps settle the long-running debate about whether immigrants brought agriculture directly to Europe or if the idea simply spread west by word of mouth.
The development of agriculture is considered…
