Archaeogenomics reveals few generations separating ancient Eastern Mediterranean and modern Iberian grapevines over three millennia of viticulture

Abstract

Viticulture became central to most western Mediterranean civilisations only a few millennia after grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) was domesticated in the South Caucasus and the Near East. To elucidate the origins of the grapevines that enabled this westward spread over the past 3,000 years, we analysed 28 grapevine seeds from seven archaeological sites in the Iberian Peninsula and Sardinia. Ancient DNAanalyses from the oldest seeds with domesticated-like morphology (ca.1,000 BCE) found in southwestern Spain showed nuclear and chloroplast genome signatures of Eastern Mediterranean cultivars. In contrast, seeds from the same and later Iron Age Iberian sites exhibited signatures of hybridisation between local wild grapevines and eastern cultivars. Ancestry analyses of Sardinian and northeastern Spanish seeds suggest that historical diversification processes differentiating Central European and Iberian wine genetic groups likely occurred already in the early Iron Age. In Iberia, Roman-period seeds were inferred as first-degree relatives of both the earliest eastern-introduced domesticates and a Medieval seed whose genetic profile matches that of the extant Iberian variety ‘Pasa Valenciana’. Another Medieval seed was predicted as the offspring of the prolific Iberian cultivar ‘Hebén’, supporting that this major founder of the Iberian germplasm has been continuously propagated for over 1,100 years. These results indicate that Western Mediterranean viticulture likely began with Phoenician settlers who introduced eastern domesticated grapevines. Early hybridisation with local Iberian wild grapevines could have facilitated adaptation to the new environment. Through only a few sexual generations, followed by long-term reliance on clonal propagation, these early introductions laid the foundation for a lineage of modern Iberian cultivars.

Acknowledgements

We thank T. A. Brown, H. R. Oliveira, N. Wales, R. Schwab, V. Laucou for assistance and discussions; E. Rodrigo and J. Pera for archaeological materials; K. L. Krettek for experimental support; and the IT team of the MPI for Biology and ICVV. This work was supported from the Leibniz Science Campus GACT (Project number: W73/2022); the Max-Planck Society; and by the projects CIDEGENT/2019/003 funded by Generalitat Valenciana; PID2021-127936NB-I00, PID2024-160446NB-100, PIB2023-148979NB-I00, PID2020-120183RB-I00 and PID2023-152513OB-I0 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by ERDF/EU; ERC-AdG2021-101054883 funded by the European Research Council; CLT009/22/000057 funded by Generalitat de Catalunya; ANR-22-CE27-0026 funded by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche; COST Action CA1711 Integrape; and RYC2022-037758-I funded by MCIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and the ESF+.