sorry, surely you ave red this extract
not me! I found it in DNA Tribes may 2012: "Early Links Between Europe and the Caucasus"
the non-local components is based on autosomals (be careful: the %s concern only the non-caucasian component remnants!!! caution for the winded-minded people like me)
excuse me if I put it like that I did not know in what other thread put it -
stopnow! it's my aperitive time!
Early Links between Europe and the Caucasus (SNP)
Historical Background
One of the puzzles of prehistory is the relationship between early farming and pastoralist
populations during the Copper Age and Bronze Age. During the favorably humid and warm period of the
Holocene climatic optimum (7,000 to 3,200 BCE), farming communities flourished throughout
Southeastern Europe. When the climate became more cool and arid around 3,200 BCE, new cultures
emerged near the Black Sea that instead emphasized pastoralism (animal herding) and a tendency towards
a mobile lifestyle.
This transition to pastoralism brought European populations in contact with neighboring societies
of the Caucasus Mountains. No written records describe how this transition affected cultural and
population links in this area. However, the archaeologist Evgeny Chernykh has described the formation of
several “metallurgical provinces” during these periods.1 Each metallurgical province linked populations in
a particular geographical area: first, among farming cultures of Southeastern Europe (the Balkan
Peninsula); later, among pastoral cultures near the Black Sea (the Pontic-Caspian Steppe).
This article will summarize Chernykh’s metallurgical provinces as a starting point to help
decipher the complex genetic structure among populations near the Caucasus Mountains. These include
genetic links with several parts of Europe, including geographically distant Northwest Europe.
“Old European” Farmers of the Balkan Peninsula (CBMP): Between approximately 5,500
and 3,500 BCE, farming cultures of Southeastern Europe participated in the Carpatho-Balkan
Metallurgical Province (CBMP) (see map in Figure 1). This common metallurgical province attests
interactions among early farming settlements throughout Southeastern Europe. These communities of up
to 15,000 people each were related to the “Old European Civilization” described by the archaeologist
Marija Gimbutas. According to Gimbutas, the “Old European” settlements were originally characterized
by a more matrifocal and egalitarian form of society, which was later replaced by more hierarchical and
patrifocal societies that expanded during the Bronze Age.2
The primary area of CBMP interactions was the northern Balkan Peninsula and Carpathian
Mountains (see Figure 1). However, the CBMP also had some marginal links to neighboring cultures,
such as the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture along the Dniester River (near present day Romania, Moldova,
and Ukraine; see Figure 1).
Where did the farmers go? Around 3,200 BCE, the CBMP disintegrated due to drought and
change in climate that made farming more difficult than pastoralism (animal herding). However, it is
unknown how this change affected the former farming populations. According to Marija Gimbutas, some
of these farming populations migrated southward towards the Aegean Sea. Near the Aegean, “Old
European” traditions were preserved longer than in other parts of Europe, later re-emerging in the context
of the Minoan civilization.3
1
1 See “The ‘Steppe Belt’ of stockbreeding cultures in Eurasia during the Early Metal Age” by Evgeny Chernykh,
available at
http://tp.revistas.csic.es/index.php/tp/article/view/149/150.
2 For more recent archaeological analysis of the “Old European” civilization, see The Lost World of Old Europe:
The Danube Valley, 5000-3500 BC, edited by David W. Anthony and Jennifer Y. Chi.
3 See The Kurgan Culture and the Indo-Europeanization of Europe by Marija Gimbutas, p. 130. For instance, the use
of unfortified settlements and the relative absence of weapons characterized both the early “Old European” farmers
and the later Minoan civilization (in contrast to pastoralist cultures of the Bronze Age).
Other “Old European” farmers are thought to have migrated eastward to become part of the
increasingly mobile pastoralist cultures developing in the Pontic-Caspian Steppe. For instance, the hybrid
Usatovo culture combined elements of Cucuteni-Trypillian farming cultures with pastoralist cultures of
the Pontic-Caspian Steppe and traded metal goods with the Caucasus Mountains. A more distant journey
to the east has been suggested for the Afanasevo culture of Siberia, possibly descended from a group that
separated from the pastoralist cultures emerging near the Black Sea.4
Early Pontic-Caspian pastoralists (CMP): In the wake of this climate change, new lifeways
emerged near the Pontic-Caspian Steppe that emphasized pastoralism (animal herding). Predecessors of
these cultures had already been developing alongside the “Old European” farming cultures. For instance,
the North Pontic (Dniepr-Donets) culture involved Mesolithic hunting-fishing societies at the perimeter of
the “Old European” farming settlements prior to the climate shift.5 However, fully formed pastoral
societies coalesced and expanded to generate a new Circumpontic Metallurgical Province (CMP) around
the Black Sea between 3,000 and 2,000 BCE (see Figure 1).
Maykop and Kura-Araxes: The origins of the CMP remain somewhat mysterious: the
metallurgy techniques were different from those used by the Balkan Peninsula farming societies (CBMP).
The new CMP style first emerged in the Maykop burial on the Pontic Steppe, which has recently been
dated to as early as 4,000 BCE. The rich artistry of the Maykop metalwork is unprecedented in any
nearby society (including early Mesopotamia), except for the Nahal Mishmar “Cave of the Treasure”
discovered in the Levant far to the south.6 However, Maykop’s exact origins remain a mystery.
expanded throughout the Transcaucasus.7 West Asian artwork in this period suggests further links to
the oasis settlements of the BMAC (see Figure 1).8 One possibility is these connections between the
Transcaucasus, Levant, and BMAC involved Indic influenced Hurrian cultures, whose language was
distantly related to the present day Lezgin and Dargin languages of Daghestan.
Mature CMP: As the CMP matured around 3,000 BCE, two zones emerged that coexisted for a
long period: a pastoralist northern zone (Yamna); and a farming southern zone (Catacomb) linked to the
Black Sea (see Figure 1). The Catacomb culture produced more sophisticated metalwork. However, the
Yamna culture was more geographically expansive and reached eastward toward Asia.
Later expansions in Asia: The CMP became the progenitor of the later Eurasian Metallurgical
Province (EurAsMP) between 2,000 and 1,000 BCE. In Asia, an East Asian Metallurgical Province
(EasAsMP) emerged near the Sayan-Altai Mountains and briefly expanded westwards as the Seima-
Turbino phenomenon between 2,200 and 1,700 BCE (see Figure 1).
4 The Afanasevo culture emerged near the Mongolia and the Tarim Basin, where Tocharian languages were attested
later in antiquity. This far eastern culture is an anomaly due to its lack of archaeological links with the neighboring
Andronovo horizon of Siberia. Similarly, the centum Tocharian languages were unrelated to the satem branch of
Indo-European languages usually associated with Asia.
5 Later cultures (possibly North Pontic related) constructed dolmens for collective burials in the Western Caucasus
(present day Abkhazia). These were different from the single burials of the Yamna culture and might reflect early
Black Sea maritime links to Europe. See The Peoples of the Hills by C. Burney and D. Lang, pp. 78-85.
6 Herodotus and other classical writers persistently claimed that the Colchians (in present day Georgia) were in some
way related to ancient Egyptian cultures. Although contested, it has been argued that furnace based copper
metallurgy first developed in the southern Levant and then spread to the Caucasus and throughout Asia and Europe.
See
http://www.ajaonline.org/sites/default/files/AJA1134Amzallag_0.pdf.
7 For more information, see
http://dnatribes.com/dnatribes-digest-2011-12-01.pdf.
8 See Sarianidi, cited by B. B. Lal at
http://www.archaeologyonline.net/artifacts/19th-century-paradigms-7.html.