In Europe, farming spread from the Fertile Crescent -- the region extending from the eastern Mediterranean coast to the Persian Gulf and including the Tigris and Euphrates valleys.

But was the westerly spread of agriculture from the Near East driven by actual migration or the transfer of new ideas to indigenous hunter-gatherers?

"We focused on the commonest Y-chromosome lineage in Europe, carried by about 110 million men –- it follows a gradient from south-east to north-west, reaching almost 100% frequency in Ireland," said study leader Professor Mark Jobling of Leicester University.

"We looked at how the lineage is distributed, how diverse it is in different parts of Europe, and how old it is."

"In total, this means that more than 80% of European Y-chromosomes descend from incoming farmers," said Dr Patricia Balaresque, lead author of the study at Leicester University.

"In contrast, most maternal genetic lineages seem to descend from hunter-gatherers."

"To us, this suggests a reproductive advantage for farming males over indigenous hunter-gatherer males during the switch from hunting and gathering, to farming -– maybe, back then, it was just sexier to be a farmer."