This volume is a doctoral dissertation written as part of an interdisciplinary project investigating the relationship between cultural and population change in the Middle Elbe-Saale area (MESA) of central eastern Germany. In it, the author analyses the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA, i.e. the maternal line of inheritance) of 472 individuals dating from the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age (Linearbandkeramik/LBK to Únětice culture). The study region was chosen for its excellent preservation conditions, archaeological richness, and exceptional cultural diversity, with constantly shifting affiliations. Consequently, the declared aim is to provide a diachronic genetic survey of the area, showing fluctuations over time and interpreting these patterns in terms of the relationship between genes and cultures, possible migration events, and the contribution of different prehistoric populations to the modern genetic make-up.

The volume begins with an archaeological overview of the Neolithic, from its origins in the Near East through to a brief presentation of the culture groups in the MESA. This chapter, while competently written, offers little that is new to an archaeological readership. Indeed, it is rather traditional in places, concerning, for instance, the dating of specific sites or cultures or the rather uncritical acceptance of notions like the Neolithic ‘package’. What is missing in this section, given the aim of the study, is a discussion of the term ‘culture’. Using these artificial archaeological entities as starting points clearly is a pragmatic choice, but it needs to be critically reflected in terms of the assumptions it entails for the later genetic analyses. For example, are cultures envisaged as closed breeding populations of consistent demographic size? Could culturally specific marriage rules have an impact on the genetic structure over time, and what kind of pattern has been used as the default assumption in this study?

In contrast, for the archaeological reader the chapter on the archaeogenetic background is one of the most informative in the book. It explains the mutation processes of mtDNA, as well as giving an in-depth overview of research history. This includes balanced discussions of the works of Albert Ammerman and Martin Richards, amongst others, as well as comprehensive summaries of data for various European regions. The contrast in opinions concerning the relative genetic input of Palaeolithic and Neolithic populations to the modern gene pool, and the arguments on which this rests, are very well drawn out.

Alongside various laboratory and statistical procedures, which the present reviewer feels utterly unqualified to assess, the methods chapter also lists the populations which serve as comparanda to the MESA sample. These include both modern and archaeological ones, the latter comprising several Palaeolithic and Mesolithic samples, as well as Neolithic data from the western Mediterranean and the Funnel Beaker culture, and Bronze Age samples of the Kurgan culture and from Kazakhstan. If this list still contains many gaps, this is something only future work will be able to address.

The Results chapter is the most lavishly illustrated in the book, with some figures consisting of multi-page, full-colour maps or graphs, but the more readable summary of the main outcomes is given in the Discussion. The emerging picture is clear: in spite of some diversity in the hunter-gatherer substrate, since corroborated by further work (Fu et al., Reference Fu, Posth, Hajdinjak, Petr, Mallick and Fernandes2016), the biggest genetic break in central Europe occurs with the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition (Event A), when many entirely new lineages virtually replace the formerly dominant ones, although more work is needed on some aspects (such as the history of haplogroup H) and on regionally varied trajectories for instance at the periphery of the LBK. The next migration event is connected to the introduction of farming to northern Europe (Event B1), although the contribution of hunter-gatherers to the gene pool remained stronger there. In central Europe, there are only minor readjustments in haplogroup frequencies in the post-LBK world, until the Bernburg culture sees a resurgence of haplogroups associated with hunter-gatherer populations, potentially re-introduced from the north (Event B2). The following Corded Ware and Bell Beaker cultures then contribute yet further genetic lines (Events C and D), respectively from more easterly and more westerly regions, bringing the overall genetic composition close to the modern-day one. Brandt notes admixture between these two groups in the study area and rightly calls for more detailed regional work, something that remains to be delivered in spite of recent overarching narratives (e.g. Kristiansen et al., Reference Kristiansen, Allentoft, Frei, Iversen, Kroonen and Pospieszny2017). In south-west Europe meanwhile, there is greater continuity both at the transition to the Neolithic and between that time and the modern-day situation, although regional diversity is indicated here also.

In sum, the idea of large-scale continuity in the European genetic make-up from the Palaeolithic to the present can now be soundly rejected. More work on the reliability of the so-called molecular clock is needed, but evidently the complex structure of European haplogroups did not come about because of long-term mutations of a continuously resident population, but because of the repeated introduction of new genetic lines: from various Ice Age refugia during the Palaeo- and Mesolithic, ultimately from the Near East at the beginning of the Neolithic, and later on from south-western and eastern Europe. More aDNA for the putative source regions must now also be collected, as comparisons with recent populations may be misleading if this picture of repeated migrations turns out to be true more generally (a point Brandt does curiously not make much of). Overall, one can only agree with the title chosen for this book: the only consistent feature in all of this is change itself.

This is of course also true for archaeogenetics. While the outlines of the picture painted by Brandt have been confirmed in more recent studies, whole-genome sequencing has added a new level of detail which could not be worked into the present text (indeed, the bibliography contains no works later than 2014). Brandt and colleagues (Reference Brandt, Haak, Adler, Roth, Szécsényi-Nagy and Karimnia2013) had in any case already published their groundbreaking main narrative. So, what does this book provide that the article-length treatments do not? Certainly, its most valuable contribution is the fuller explanation of methods, protocols, and potential pitfalls, and the space to discuss the more nuanced patterns in the data, the research history, and the need for further work. However, those who hoped for in-depth contextualisation of the archaeogenetic results in the archaeological discussion will likely remain disappointed. In most cases, there is merely a brief reference to a culture group ‘having affinities to’ or ‘influencing’ another, assessments presumably rooted in typological studies of pottery and therefore firmly culture-historical. The assumption of bounded social groups that comes with this paradigm is never transcended, and there is no mention of debates concerning the varied relationships between biological and cultural identity, for instance in terms of ethnicity (e.g. Brubaker, Reference Brubaker2004). Given that this relationship was one of the core aims of the study, it is a little disappointing to see the humanities making quite so little impact.

Links to other neighbouring disciplines are at least treated briefly, although these sections are explicitly intended as an outlook. The literature consulted is consequently rather restricted and relies on the work of a few research groups who publish in a certain range of journals and follow a certain style of argument (i.e. explanations said to work at very large scales and often testing for relatively simple correlations). For instance, the linguistic section is focused on approaches which calculate divergence times of linguistic subfamilies using statistical methods similar to those of geneticists. It is easy to see why this may have been attractive, but the reliability of such results is highly controversial (see Pereltsvaig & Lewis, Reference Pereltsvaig and Lewis2015 for fuller discussion), and this could at least have been mentioned. Similarly, when Brandt attempts to correlate migration events A–D with the boom-and-bust cycles discussed in recent literature (e.g. Shennan et al., Reference Shennan, Downey, Timpson, Edinborough, Colledge and Kerig2013) there are no more than cursory nods to the possible problems of this approach (see e.g. Contreras & Meadows, Reference Contreras and Meadows2014). Also, the impact of climatic fluctuations could have been weighed in a more balanced way (as in e.g. Flohr et al., Reference Flohr, Fleitmann, Matthews, Matthews and Black2016), especially given the relatively coarse dating of most of the archaeological cultures, and the therefore rather speculative association with specific cold snaps. In the end, Brandt concurs with the model proposed by Gronenborn et al. (Reference Gronenborn, Strien, Dietrich and Sirocko2013) of cycles of population increase leading to greater cultural complexity (again a debatable correlation, see Premo, Reference Premo2016), followed by maintenance of the status quo as long as climate allows and cultural collapse when it no longer does, potentially leading to migrations. Overall, then, the view of migrations embraced here is as a form of crisis response—something atypical and potentially disruptive that people only do if there is no choice. There is no appreciation of other possible reasons for, and social consequences of, migration. It would have been interesting to have an archaeogenetic take on such alternatives, and whether and how they could one day be distinguished genetically, provided there are sufficient samples from source and destination areas.

While these are obvious gaps to the archaeologist, the quantity and quality of the detailed archaeogentic work accomplished here are exceptional, and Brandt is to be highly commended for having looked outside the confines of his own discipline even within the scope of a PhD thesis. The above criticism is hence rather meant as an invitation to consider such factors more fully in the future. As one of still only a handful of studies offering detailed diachronic coverage of a specific region, this volume shows the great potential of such an approach. In addition, the book is lavishly produced, with full colour throughout, and the text contains only small typographic errors. It is therefore well worth its money, and those interested in the subject will find much to keep them informed and entertained here.