  I review the evolutionary history of human populations in Europe with an
emphasis on what has been learned in recent years through the study of ancient
DNA. Human populations in Europe ~430-39kya (archaic Europeans) included
Neandertals and their ancestors, who were genetically differentiated from other
archaic Eurasians (such as the Denisovans of Siberia), as well as modern
humans. Modern humans arrived to Europe by ~45kya, and are first genetically
attested by ~39kya when they were still mixing with Neandertals. The first
Europeans who were recognizably genetically related to modern ones appeared in
the genetic record shortly thereafter at ~37kya. At ~15kya a largely
homogeneous set of hunter-gatherers became dominant in most of Europe, but with
some admixture from Siberian hunter-gatherers in the eastern part of the
continent. These hunter-gatherers were joined by migrants from the Near East
beginning at ~8kya: Anatolian farmers settled most of mainland Europe, and
migrants from the Caucasus reached eastern Europe, forming steppe populations.
After ~5kya there was migration from the steppe into mainland Europe and vice
versa. Present-day Europeans (ignoring the long-distance migrations of the
modern era) are largely the product of this Bronze Age collision of steppe
pastoralists with Neolithic farmers.
