Genetic study A genomic history of the North Pontic Region from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age

[Anfänger]

A genomic history of the North Pontic Region from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age​

Abstract​

The north Black Sea (Pontic) Region was the nexus of the farmers of Old Europe and the foragers and pastoralists of the Eurasian steppe, and the source of waves of migrants that expanded deep into Europe. We report genome-wide data from 78 prehistoric North Pontic individuals to understand the genetic makeup of the people involved in these migrations and discover the reasons for their success. First, we show that native North Pontic foragers had ancestry not only from Balkan and Eastern hunter-gatherers but also from European farmers and, occasionally, Caucasus hunter-gatherers. More dramatic inflows ensued during the Eneolithic, when migrants from the Caucasus-Lower Volga area moved westward, bypassing the local foragers to mix with Trypillian farmers advancing eastward. People of the Usatove archaeological group in the Northwest Pontic were formed ca. 4500 BCE with an equal measure of ancestry from the two expanding groups. A different Caucasus-Lower Volga group, moving westward in a distinct but temporally overlapping wave, avoided the farmers altogether, and blended with the foragers instead to form the people of the Serednii Stih archaeological complex. A third wave of expansion occurred when Yamna descendants of the Serednii Stih forming ca. 4000 BCE expanded during the Early Bronze Age (3300 BCE). The temporal gap between Serednii Stih and the Yamna expansion is bridged by a genetically Yamna individual from Mykhailivka in Ukraine (3635-3383BCE), a site of uninterrupted archaeological continuity across the Eneolithic-Bronze Age transition, and the likely epicenter of Yamna formation. Each of these three waves propagated distinctive ancestries while also incorporating outsiders during its advance, a flexible strategy forged in the North Pontic region that may explain its peoples' outsized success in spreading their genes and culture across Eurasia.

Link: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.17.589600v1?ct

 

[Maciamo]

FYI, what they call the Serednii Stih archaeological complex is the Sredny Stog culture (the name I always use on this site). They are just using the Ukrainian name instead of the Russian one.

 

[Maciamo]

The supplementary material is very interesting. Lots of samples with their mtDNA and Y-DNA haplogroups.

Cucuteni-Trypillia (Eneolithic Moldova and Ukraine)

Four G2a (L303), three I2a1b1 (Z161, L699 and L699>S12195), one E1b1b1a1b1(E-L618) and one J2a1.

Zhyvotylivka (Eneolithic Moldova)

One J2b2b2 (J-Z42942), one Q1b2b1b2b (Q-BZ1466) and one R1b1a1b (R-M269).

Suvorove (Eneolithic Moldova)

One Q1a2 and one CF.

Usatovo (Eneolithic/EBA Ukraine)

One E1b1b1a1, one J1 (J-FT265222) and one R1a.

Serednii Stih/Sredny Stog (Eneolithic Ukraine)

Four I2a1b1a2 (including two L699, previously found in the Yamna culture) and one R1b1b (R-V88).

Proto-Yamna

One R1a-M417 sample.

Yamna culture (Ukraine, Moldova and Bulgaria)

18 out of 19 Y-DNA samples are R1b. The last one is R1* (low resolution?). All R1b are Z2103 apart from one P297 and one M269 (which might not have yielded deeper clade due to low resolution?)


That's a lot of Y-DNA diversity is Eneolithic Moldova!

 

[Jovialis]

In summary, the Serednii Stih culture is the direct ancestor of Yamnaya, which was formed from Caucasian-lower Volga people migrating into the Pontic region and mixing with EHG people.

 

[Anfänger]

In summary, the Serednii Stih culture is the direct ancestor of Yamnaya, which was formed from Caucasian-lower Volga people migrating into the Pontic region and mixing with EHG people.

Yep, more or less but they call them Dnipro-Don people not EHG.

Serednii Stih culture individuals had highly variable genetic ancestry—we subdivided them into “SShi”, “SSmed”, and “SSlo” subsets based on their degree of relatedness to UNHG—and their relationship with individuals on the three steppe clines are examined in detail in7. In that study, Serednii Stih could be modeled without European farmer populations as sources. A summary of our findings is that the Serednii Stih can be modeled with one source being the Core Yamna as the endpoint of the Dnipro cline (a proxy for earlier populations in the Eneolithic for which the Yamna descend with little or no mixture7), and Dnipro-Don HGs (UNHGs or GK2). Because Core Yamna themselves are formed as mixture of about 2/3 ancestry of populations of the CLV cline (proxied by PVgroup, BPgroup, Remontnoye, or Maykop) mixed with Dnipro-Don HGs7, the SSAC ancestry formation can be seen as the result of the fusion of CLV cline migrants with Dnipro-Don HGs.

 

[mount123]

The Genetic Origin of the Indo-Europeans: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.17.589597v1

 

[mount123]

Pretty much solidifies the steppe route for J2b-L283.

I10206, Moldova_EBA_Yamnaya, 2900-2500 BCE, J-L283

Grave 12:10 (individual ID I10206)

The grave was situated in the northeastern sector of the mound, 2.80 m away from the central landmark (R.C.), at a depth of 1.65 m. The burial chamber, rectangular with rounded corners and slightly arched sides, was oriented east-west, measuring 1.25 × 1.80 m. Based on the characteristics of the filling of the pit, the arrangement of skeletal remains, and the location of the grave goods, it can be inferred that grave no.10/M.10 was disturbed in ancient times. The skeletal remains were found scattered in different areas of the pit and at different depths.

It was deduced that the deceased was originally placed at the bottom of the pit, with the head oriented to the east. Traces from the plant layer covering the pit bottom were found near and beneath the skeleton. Grave goods: a flint arrowhead of elongated triangular shape with slightly convex sides and a concave base. The artefacts’ length is 2 cm, width 1.4 cm, and thickness 0.5cm.

The skeleton, lacking anatomical connection, is incomplete and poorly preserved. Traces of bright red ochre were identified on all its elements, particularly intense on the skull. Other taphonomic changes observed include cracking, exfoliation (aerial weathering), and marks left by rodent teeth.

Anthropological sex: male.
Molecular sex: male, with an unusual Y-haplogroup J2b2a1 (J-L283).
Biological age at death: about 30 years (young adult).
Pathologies: supragingival calculus; active porotic hyperostosis (cribra cranii).

The skeleton is very robust, with extremely pronounced muscle insertions, with extensive enthesopathic changes on the humerus and femurs. The individual exhibits a very large skeletal stature, at least 181 cm.

Traumas: a perimortem fracture in the middle third of the right clavicle.

The burial must be attributed to Cernavodă-I or Yamnaya cultures.

 

[Vitruvius]

The Genetic Origin of the Indo-Europeans: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.17.589597v1

"The Yamnaya archaeological complex appeared around 3300BCE across the steppes north of the Black and Caspian Seas, and by 3000BCE reached its maximal extent from Hungary in the west to Kazakhstan in the east. To localize the ancestral and geographical origins of the Yamnaya among the diverse Eneolithic people that preceded them, we studied ancient DNA data from 428 individuals of which 299 are reported for the first time, demonstrating three previously unknown Eneolithic genetic clines. First, a "Caucasus-Lower Volga" (CLV) Cline suffused with Caucasus hunter-gatherer (CHG) ancestry extended between a Caucasus Neolithic southern end in Neolithic Armenia, and a steppe northern end in Berezhnovka in the Lower Volga. Bidirectional gene flow across the CLV cline created admixed intermediate populations in both the north Caucasus, such as the Maikop people, and on the steppe, such as those at the site of Remontnoye north of the Manych depression. CLV people also helped form two major riverine clines by admixing with distinct groups of European hunter-gatherers. A "Volga Cline" was formed as Lower Volga people mixed with upriver populations that had more Eastern hunter-gatherer (EHG) ancestry, creating genetically hyper-variable populations as at Khvalynsk in the Middle Volga. A "Dnipro Cline" was formed as CLV people bearing both Caucasus Neolithic and Lower Volga ancestry moved west and acquired Ukraine Neolithic hunter-gatherer (UNHG) ancestry to establish the population of the Serednii Stih culture from which the direct ancestors of the Yamnaya themselves were formed around 4000BCE. This population grew rapidly after 3750-3350BCE, precipitating the expansion of people of the Yamnaya culture who totally displaced previous groups on the Volga and further east, while admixing with more sedentary groups in the west. CLV cline people with Lower Volga ancestry contributed four fifths of the ancestry of the Yamnaya, but also, entering Anatolia from the east, contributed at least a tenth of the ancestry of Bronze Age Central Anatolians, where the Hittite language, related to the Indo-European languages spread by the Yamnaya, was spoken. We thus propose that the final unity of the speakers of the "Proto-Indo-Anatolian" ancestral language of both Anatolian and Indo-European languages can be traced to CLV cline people sometime between 4400-4000 BCE."

 

[Mmiikkii]

Finally we have clues as to where could have E and J haplogroups in the Balkans come from.

The East is different from the West, where we only find G2, with the occasional H2 or the native I2 (but only at the end of the Neolithic except for isolated samples)

 

[johen]

"
Over the last couple of hundred years, linguists have figured out a lot about that first Indo-European language, including many of the words it used and some of the grammatical rules that governed it. Along the way, they’ve come up with theories about who its original speakers were, where and how they lived, and how their language spread so widely.
Most linguists think that those speakers were nomadic herders who lived on the steppes of Ukraine and western Russia about 6,000 years ago. Yet a minority put the origin 2,000 to 3,000 years before that, with a community of farmers in Anatolia, in the area of modern-day Turkey. Now a new analysis, using techniques borrowed from evolutionary biology, has come down in favor of the latter, albeit with an important later role for the steppes."

New Linguistics Technique Could Reveal Who Spoke the First Indo-European Languages

Linguists and archaeologists have argued for decades about where and when the first Indo-European languages were spoken and what kind of lives those first speakers led

www.scientificamerican.com

Proto-indo-European vs Proto-indo-Anatolian

I always think that the latter people just had PIE words, not speaking PIE.

Recently I learned that modern Chinese language has been spoken since Qing dynasty by Manchu people, defeating Ming dynasty. However the language is so different from language spoken at Ming dynasty. I heard that it was proved by a record that Italian scholar had written after vising at late Ming. Manchu people of Qing dynasty had so powerful enough to forcefully adapt their own language to china, however, they couldn’t due to the cultural gap between Ming and Manchu. In other words, Manchu words cannot cover the variety of Ming high culture. Thus Manchu people, elite group of Qing dynasty, tried to learn Chinese language. And it produced a brand-new modern Chinese language.

I think steppe words must not cover ancient farming society. Genetically speaking, PIE seems to be a combination of EHG, CHG and EEF.



"The 700million tons of carbon absorbed as a result of the Mongol empire is about the same produced in a year from the global use of petrol.
The Carnegie study measured the carbon impact of a number of historical events that involved a large number of deaths.

Time periods also looked at included the Black Death in Europe, the fall of China's Ming Dynasty and the conquest of the Americas."

Genghis Khan the GREEN: Invader killed so many people that he cooled the planet

The Mongol leader helped remove nearly 700million tons of carbon from the atmosphere after huge swathes of previously cultivated land returned to forest.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[TaktikatEMalet]

Interesting that these I2 are all M223. Looks like P37 was further north and west when the Indo European expansion happened

 

[eastara]

Although pure Yamnaya people are found on the Balkans during the Early Bronze age, for some reason their descendants did not survive. There was a new population hiatus around 2400BC and after that the influence is from 2 different direction. The South -Thrace, Macedonia/Albania were in the sphere of the Aegean culture with input from Anatolia, while North of the Balkan Mountains came from the Danubian/Transylvanian area.

 

[TaktikatEMalet]

Although pure Yamnaya people are found on the Balkans during the Early Bronze age, for some reason their descendants did not survive. There was a new population hiatus around 2400BC and after that the influence is from 2 different direction. The South -Thrace, Macedonia/Albania were in the sphere of the Aegean culture with input from Anatolia, while North of the Balkan Mountains came from the Danubian/Transylvanian area.

Is it not a case of the Yamnaya gradually mixing with ANF locals in Balkans?

 

[Archetype0ne]

Although pure Yamnaya people are found on the Balkans during the Early Bronze age, for some reason their descendants did not survive. There was a new population hiatus around 2400BC and after that the influence is from 2 different direction. The South -Thrace, Macedonia/Albania were in the sphere of the Aegean culture with input from Anatolia, while North of the Balkan Mountains came from the Danubian/Transylvanian area.

To be fair I do not see any evidence of extinction of the Early Yamnaya, at least in Albania. We see continuity of PF7563, Z2103 and L283 from the BA to today. I also do not see Albania in the Aegean sphere, if anything the very movement into the Aegean Sphere came from the north, be them Logkas autosomaly, or PF7563 and L283 Y-DNA wise in Myceaneans. Sure the autosomal steppe signal got diluted as one moves south, but by that time the Anatolian signal was present in the Balkans for multiple thousand years. I think we see a bona fide Anatolian pull more post Roman Republic than the earlier EEF which was present in good part of Europe already by the time of the Steppe movements.

 

[eastara]

According to the new study the Yamnaya people on the Balkans who had farmers admixture did not get it locally but rather from the Tripolye culture. Around that time (3500BC) the old Eneolithic cultures were extinct with obvious population hiatus of nearly 1000 years.

 

[johen]

I also think that yamna people did not survive. It is b/c catacomb culture Z2103 people seems not to be descendants of yamna.;

How can IE migration be explained without mentioning Seima Turbino?

"there is, probably, one more testimony to the invasion of central europe by the seima-turbino peoples. on bronze age settlements in saxony, burials are known of skulls and pieces of bones showing signs of cannibalism. unfortunately, the publication does not define more exactly to which period...

www.eupedia.com

However, Helladic-Logkas-MBA individuals appeared with steppe admixture and supine with flexed legs like yamna:

LBA Myceneans: Armenia versus Steppe-like gene flow

Skeleton of one of the two individuals who lived in the middle of the Bronze