Neolithic Liner Dagger from Ust-Narym in the Irtysh River Valley

The present research featured a slotted, or liner, bone dagger from the Neolithic layer of the Ust-Narym settlement on the Irtysh River. Its design, material processing technology, and functional purpose make it a rare, as well as the most ancient example of hand-to-hand combat weapons found in Kazakhstan. This composite object was carved from the posterior left metatarsal bone of a wild auroch with the help of several tools. It includes thin and sharp flint inserts, which were attached into the grooves on the side faces of the dagger frame with a special adhesive substance. An additional nozzle for a short handle made it possible to use this piercing-cutting weapon in battle. It is decorated with dots and circles connected by straight lines, which probably means it was a socialized object of ritual use associated with sacrifice. Typologically, the dagger from Ust-Narym is similar to artifacts found in the Late Paleolithic and Mesolithic sites in the south of Western Siberia, in the Urals, in the Baikal region, and in Eastern Europe. The dagger marks a milestone in the technical and technological development of ancient Eurasian peoples. It also illustrates the ethno-social and cultural processes across the vast territory of Eurasia

Ten millennia of hepatitis B virus evolution

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) has been infecting humans for millennia and remains a global health problem, but its past diversity and dispersal routes are largely unknown. We generated HBV genomic data from 137 Eurasians and Native Americans dated between ~10,500 and ~400 years ago. We date the most recent common ancestor of all HBV lineages to between ~20,000 and 12,000 years ago, with the virus present in European and South American hunter-gatherers during the early Holocene. After the European Neolithic transition, Mesolithic HBV strains were replaced by a lineage likely disseminated by early farmers that prevailed throughout western Eurasia for ~4000 years, declining around the end of the 2nd millennium BCE. The only remnant of this prehistoric HBV diversity is the rare genotype G, which appears to have reemerged during the HIV pandemic

Ancestry and demography and descendants of Iron Age nomads of the Eurasian Steppe

During the 1st millennium before the Common Era (BCE), nomadic tribes associated with the Iron Age Scythian culture spread over the Eurasian Steppe, covering a territory of more than 3,500 km in breadth. To understand the demographic processes behind the spread of the Scythian culture, we analysed genomic data from eight individuals and a mitochondrial dataset of 96 individuals originating in eastern and western parts of the Eurasian Steppe. Genomic inference reveals that Scythians in the east and the west of the steppe zone can best be described as a mixture of Yamnaya-related ancestry and an East Asian component. Demographic modelling suggests independent origins for eastern and western groups with ongoing gene-flow between them, plausibly explaining the striking uniformity of their material culture. We also find evidence that significant gene-flow from east to west Eurasia must have occurred early during the Iron Age

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

Ancient genomic changes associated with domestication of the horse

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