We and another research group32 found that the degree of genetic differentiation between the first farmers of the western part of the Near East (the Fertile Crescent, including Anatolia and the Levant) and the first farmers of the eastern part (Iran) was about as great as the differentiation between Europeans and East Asians today. In the Near East, the expansion of farming was accomplished not just by the movement of people, as happened in Europe, but also by the spread of common ideas across genetically very different groups.
