Western Hunter-Gatherer

Western Hunter-Gatherer

Genetic ancestry of hunter-gatherers in Europe between 14 ka and 9 ka, with the main area of Western Hunter-Gatherers (WHG) in blue. Individual numbers correspond to calibrated sample dates.[1]

In archaeogenetics, the term Western Hunter-Gatherer (WHG, also known as West European Hunter-Gatherer, Western European Hunter-Gatherer or Oberkassel cluster) (c. 15,000~5,000 BP) is the name given to a distinct ancestral component of modern Europeans, representing descent from a population of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers who scattered over Western, Southern and Central Europe, from the British Isles in the west to the Carpathians in the east, following the retreat of the ice sheet of the Last Glacial Maximum.^[2] It is closely associated and sometimes considered synonymous with the concept of the Villabruna cluster, named after Ripari Villabruna cave in Italy, known from the terminal Pleistocene of Europe, which is largely ancestral to later WHG populations.

WHGs share a closer genetic relationship to ancient and modern peoples in the Middle East and the Caucasus than earlier European hunter gatherers. WHGs are thought to have migrated into Europe around the end of the Last Glacial Maximum, expanding across Western Europe at the end of the Pleistocene, largely replacing earlier Cro-Magnon groups like the Magdalenians.

Along with the Scandinavian Hunter-Gatherers (SHG) and Eastern Hunter-Gatherers (EHG), the WHGs constituted one of the three main genetic groups in the postglacial period of early Holocene Europe.^[3] The border between WHGs and EHGs ran roughly from the lower Danube, northward along the western forests of the Dnieper towards the western Baltic Sea.^[2]

SHGs were in turn a nearly equal mix of WHGs and EHGs. Once the main population throughout Europe, the WHGs were largely displaced by successive expansions of Early European Farmers (EEFs) during the early Neolithic, but experienced a resurgence during the Middle Neolithic. During the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, Western Steppe Herders (WSHs) from the Pontic–Caspian steppe embarked on a massive expansion, which further displaced the WHGs. Among modern-day populations, WHG ancestry is most common among populations of the eastern Baltic region.^[4]