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A genomic study of 125 individuals from the Carpathian Basin (4800–3900 BCE) reveals different kinship systems in nearby Copper Age communities, and highlights both genetic continuity and contrasting patterns of social organization.

Gelabert et al. examine genomic and archaeological data from Europe’s earliest farming communities in Central Europe (5500–5000 bce). They find differentiated genetic networks but no evidence of unequal access to resources linked to sex or kin.

Levantine Phoenicians made little genetic contribution to Punic settlements in the central and western Mediterranean between the sixth and second centuries bce; instead, the Punic people derived most of their ancestry from a genetic profile similar to that of Sicily and the Aegean, with notable contributions from North Africa as well.

Pastoralism spread through cultural diffusion into the Green Sahara, where an isolated, distinct North African ancestry persisted.

New archaeological and ancient genomic data from humans in Papua New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago shed light on regional human admixture and genetic isolation over the past 2,500 years.

ancIBD identifies identity-by-descent regions in ancient DNA using a hidden Markov model optimized for these low-coverage data. Analysis of 4,248 individuals demonstrates that ancIBD can identify up to sixth-degree relatives and provides genealogical insights into ancient populations.

High-coverage and low-coverage genomic data for some of the earliest modern humans in Europe provide insights into recent admixture with Neanderthals and familial relationship links with distant communities approximately 45,000 years ago.

Ancient DNA from the eastern Maghreb (Tunisia and Algeria) dating between 15,000 and 6,000 years ago shows that this region was far less affected by external gene flow than the rest of the Neolithic Mediterranean, including not only Europe but also the western Maghreb (Morocco).

Ancient DNA reveals how the explosive expansion of Yamnaya steppe pastoralists began with a small community north of the Black Sea speaking ancestral Indo-European, and detects genetic links with Anatolian speakers, stemming from a common Indo-Anatolian homeland in the North Caucasus–lower Volga region.

Little is known about how human parental relatedness varied across ancient populations. Runs of homozygosity (ROH) in the offspring’s genome can give clues. Here, the authors present a method to identify ROH in ancient genomes and infer low rates of close kin unions across most ancient populations.

Combined analysis of new genomic data from 116 ancient hunter-gatherer individuals together with previously published data provides insights into the genetic structure and demographic shifts of west Eurasian forager populations over a period of 30,000 years.

Ancient DNA analysis of early European farmers has found a high level of genetic affinity with present-day Sardinians. Here, the authors generate genome-wide capture data for 70 individuals from Sardinia spanning the Middle Neolithic to Medieval period to reveal relationships with mainland European populations shifting over time.

Ancient DNA from Soqotra, an island off the coast of Yemen, evidences a population history differing from other areas of the Arabian Peninsula and suggests there has not been complete population replacement throughout the region between the Pleistocene and Holocene.

Gretzinger et al. examine genetic evidence from 31 Iron Age individuals in southern Germany and find that this early Celtic society probably had a dynastic system of matrilineal inheritance, with a network of well-connected elites covering a broad territory.

Genome-wide ancient DNA data from individuals from the Middle Bronze Age to Iron Age documents large-scale movement of people from the European continent between 1300 and 800 bc that was probably responsible for spreading early Celtic languages to Britain.

Here, the authors use paleogenomic data from the indigenous people of the Canary Islands to shed light on the Prehistory of North Africa, and on how insularity and resources availability shaped the genetic composition of this isolated population.

Archaeogenetic analysis of 135 individuals from the zone between southeastern Europe and the northwestern Black Sea region indicates contacts between farming and pastoralist populations at the end of the Copper Age.

The authors generate a genome-wide dataset of 102 individuals who lived in Crete, the Greek mainland and the Aegean islands between the Neolithic and the Iron Age, identifying high levels of biological and cultural connectedness within the ancient Aegean.

Liu et al. report genome-wide data of 33 ancient individuals from the Himalayas, illuminating the deep genetic history of Tibetans and other Tibeto-Burman-speaking populations around the Tibetan Plateau in fine resolution.

The burial community at Gurgy ‘les Noisats’ (France) was genetically connected by two main pedigrees, spanning seven generations, that were patrilocal and patrilineal, with evidence for female exogamy and exchange with genetically close neighbouring groups.

Ancient DNA reveals genetic differences between stone-tool users and people associated with ceramic technology in the Caribbean and provides substantially lower estimates of population sizes in the region before European contact.

Little is known about the genetic landscape of people living in the Nile region prior to the Islamic migrations of the late 1st millennium CE. Here, the authors report genome-wide data for 66 ancient individuals to investigate the genetic ancestry of a Christian Period group from Kulubnarti.