Ancient DNA Tracks Civilization Stage

Using the AADR v66 2M ancient‑DNA release and stricter archaeological coding, the author finds that polygenic scores tied to educational attainment rise not only with calendar time but also with the archaeological 'civilization' stage (forager → farmer → Bronze/Iron Age), and that this association can persist after controlling for date in some comparisons. The paper emphasizes samples whose period labels come from direct metadata to reduce misclassification and uses models intended to separate chronology from social complexity. — If true, this shifts how researchers and the public should read ancient polygenic signals: they may reflect changing social organization as much as, or instead of, neutral time‑dependent processes, with implications for hereditarian narratives and historical interpretation.