Congruent distribution of Neolithic painted pottery and ceramic figurines with Y-chromosome lineages.

Introduction

Painted pottery and anthropomorphic figurines frequently occur in the Neolithic and Chalcolithic in a broad region of the Levant, Anatolia, southeastern Europe and areas of the central and eastern Mediterranean. Painted pottery is often associated with similar material culture, such as clay sealing stamps and ceramic figurines, and settlements, such as tells (Whittle 1996). The interpretation of figurines associated with early agricultural Near Eastern communities of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (~7500 BC) is a topic of debate (Gimbutas 1974; Ucko 1968; Voigt…