Early European Farmers (EEF) were a group of the Anatolian Neolithic Farmers (ANF) who brought agriculture to Europe and Northwest Africa. The Anatolian Neolithic Farmers were an ancestral component, first identified in farmers from Anatolia (also known as Asia Minor) in the Neolithic, and outside of Europe and Northwest Africa. Although the spread of agriculture from the Middle East to Europe has long been recognised through archaeology, until recently it was unknown how this happened, because of lack of human ancient DNA from pre-Neolithic times. Recent (2025) studies have shown that the spread of Neolithic cultures from Anatolia to West Eurasia was a complex phenomenon involving distinct mechanisms, from pure cultural adoption to admixture between migrating farmers and local forages, to rapid migration. Cultural similarities were not caused by large-scale mobility.
The earliest farmers in Anatolia derived most (80–90%) of their ancestry from the region's local hunter-gatherers, with minor Levantine and Caucasus-related ancestry. The Early European Farmers moved into Europe from Anatolia through Southeast Europe from around 7,000 BC, gradually spread north and westwards, and reached Northwest Africa via the Iberian Peninsula. Genetic studies have confirmed that the later Farmers of Europe generally have also a minor contribution from Western Hunter-Gatherers (WHGs), with significant regional variation. European farmer and hunter-gatherer populations coexisted and traded in some locales, although evidence suggests that the relationship was not always peaceful. Over the course of the next 4,000 years or so, Europe was transformed into agricultural communities, with WHGs being effectively replaced across Europe. During the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Age, people who had Western Steppe Herder (WSH) ancestry moved into Europe and mingled with the EEF population; these WSH, originating from the Yamnaya culture of the Pontic steppe of Eastern Europe, probably spoke Indo-European languages. EEF ancestry is common in modern European and Northwest African populations, with EEF ancestry highest in Southern Europeans, mostly Sardinians and Basque people.
