The genetic prehistory of the Greater Caucasus

5月16日，厦门大学人类学系、德国马普所、德国考古所、俄罗斯文化遗产联合会、奥地利维也纳大学人类学系、爱尔兰都柏林大学学院考古系、罗蒙诺索夫莫斯科国立大学考古系和人类学博物馆、俄罗斯国立东方艺术博物馆、俄罗斯联邦达吉斯坦考古与民族志研究所历史系、美国韦尔斯利学院人类学系、瑞士巴塞尔大学史前与考古科学研究所、德国国家遗产博物馆等36家单位的46位共同作者组成的国际合作团队在BioRxiv上预发表论文《The genetic prehistory of the Greater Caucasus》，厦门大学人类学系王传超研究员为论文的第一作者和通讯作者，也是该国际团队中的唯一一位来自中国的合作者。【Abstract】Archaeogenetic studies have described the formation of Eurasian 'steppe ancestry' as a mixture of Eastern and Caucasus hunter-gatherers. However, it remains unclear when and where this ancestry arose and whether it was related to a horizon of cultural innovations in the 4th millennium BCE that subsequently facilitated the advance of pastoral societies likely linked to the dispersal of Indo-European languages. To address this, we generated genome-wide SNP data from 45 prehistoric individuals along a 3000-year temporal transect in the North Caucasus. We observe a genetic separation between the groups of the Caucasus and those of the adjacent steppe. The Caucasus groups are genetically similar to contemporaneous populations south of it, suggesting that - unlike today - the Caucasus acted as a bridge rather than an insurmountable barrier to human movement. The steppe groups from Yamnaya and subsequent pastoralist cultures show evidence for previously undetected Anatolian farmer-related ancestry from different contact zones, while Steppe Maykop individuals harbour additional Upper Palaeolithic Siberian and Native American related ancestry.This work was funded by the Max Planck Society and the German Archaeological Institute (DAI). C.C.W. was funded by Nanqiang Outstanding Young Talents Program of Xiamen University (X2123302) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities. 该研究由德国马普学会、德国考古所、厦门大学南强青年拔尖人才支持计划资助

Ancient human genome-wide data from a 3000-year interval in the Caucasus corresponds with eco-geographic regions

Archaeogenetic studies have described the formation of Eurasian 'steppe ancestry' as a mixture of Eastern and Caucasus hunter-gatherers. However, it remains unclear when and where this ancestry arose and whether it was related to a horizon of cultural innovations in the 4 th millennium BCE that subsequently facilitated the advance of pastoral societies in Eurasia. Here we generated genome-wide SNP data from 45 prehistoric individuals along a 3000-year temporal transect in the North Caucasus. We observe a genetic separation between the groups of the Caucasus and those of the adjacent steppe. The northern Caucasus groups are genetically similar to contemporaneous populations south of it, suggesting human movement across the mountain range during the Bronze Age. The steppe groups from Yamnaya and subsequent pastoralist cultures show evidence for previously undetected farmer-related ancestry from different contact zones, while Steppe Maykop individuals harbour additional Upper Palaeolithic Siberian and Native American related ancestry

Newly Discovered Sarmatian Burial Complexes from the Kurgan in the Caucasian Mineral Waters Region

In 2010, the expedition of the Nasledie State Unitary Enterprise (Stavropol) conducted archaeological excavations on the territory of the Caucasian Mineral Waters and excavated the kurgan 1 of the Voniuchka-1 kurgan cemetery near the city of Pyatigorsk. The kurgan originated in the Eneolithic era; its construction and use as a cemetery continued up to the Early and Middle Bronze Ages. The most extensive changes in the kurgan are associated with the North Caucasian archaeological culture. The Sarmatian burials of the early Iron Age became the final ones in the kurgan; this study is devoted to their material publication and analysis. Single burials and grave goods (probably the remains of a funeral feast) were compactly located in the central part of the kurgan. The burial rite and the inventory are described in detail and examined in the system of both chronologically close Sarmatian newcomers and Pre-Caucasus aboriginal monuments. In general, the funeral rite of the published burials is quite uniform and corresponds to the canons of the pre-Caucasian Sarmatian kurgans. The burials and the cluster are chronologically close to each other, and the inventory found in them has numerous analogies among the synchronous sites of the Pre-Caucasus. At the same time, some details of the funeral rite, in particular the discovery of three left front legs of sheep in two burials, together with a number of other facts, indicate a kinship relationship between the buried. The Sarmatian burials in kurgan 1 of the Voniuchka-1 cemetery can be considered a small ancestral cemetery created, most likely, during the lifetime of one generation. The general dating of the burials and the accompanying funeral feast fits into the framework of the 3rd (possibly 2nd) – 1st centuries BC. There is a high probability of their connection with the Sirak tribal union, and this cemetery is located on the southern border of the territory occupied by it

Ancient genomic time transect from the Central Asian Steppe unravels the history of the Scythians

The Scythians were a multitude of horse-warrior nomad cultures dwelling in the Eurasian steppe during the first millennium BCE. Because of the lack of first-hand written records, little is known about the origins and relations among the different cultures. To address these questions, we produced genome-wide data for 111 ancient individuals retrieved from 39 archaeological sites from the first millennia BCE and CE across the Central Asian Steppe. We uncovered major admixture events in the Late Bronze Age forming the genetic substratum for two main Iron Age gene-pools emerging around the Altai and the Urals respectively. Their demise was mirrored by new genetic turnovers, linked to the spread of the eastern nomad empires in the first centuries CE. Compared to the high genetic heterogeneity of the past, the homogenization of the present-day Kazakhs gene pool is notable, likely a result of 400 years of strict exogamous social rules.N