Tag: Steppe

Ancient DNA research sheds light on Indo-European Yamnaya and ‘Southern Arc’

Three new studies have presented a comprehensive genomic history of the so-called ‘Southern Arc’, an effective bridge between southeastern Europe and Western Asia.

The research, which examined newly sequenced ancient DNA from more than 700 individuals across the region, revealed a complex population history from Neolithic farmers to post-Medieval times.

Until fairly recently, much of the ancient history of the Southern Arc – stories concerning its people and populations – have been told through archaeological data and the thousands of years of historical accounts and texts from the region.

But advances in sequencing ancient DNA have provided a new source of historical information.

In three separate studies, Iosef Lazaridis et al. used ancient DNA from the remains of 777 humans to build a detailed genomic history of the Southern Arc from the Neolithic (circa 10,000 BC) to the Ottoman period (around 1700 AD).

The researchers concluded that the findings provide an account of complex migrations and population interactions that have shaped the region for thousands of years and appear to suggest that the earlier reliance on modern population history and ancient writings and art have painted an inaccurate picture of early Indo-European cultures.

The first study, entitled ‘The genetic history of the Southern Arc: a bridge between West Asia and Europe’, presents the new dataset and focuses analysis on the Chalcolithic and Bronze Ages (around 5000 to 1000 BC).

This analysis suggested large genetic exchanges between the Eurasian Steppe and the Southern Arc and was said to have provided new insights into the formation of the Yamnaya steppe pastoralists and the origin of Indo-European language.

The second study, called ‘Ancient DNA from Mesopotamia suggests distinct Pre-Pottery and Pottery Neolithic migrations into Anatolia’, presented the first ancient DNA from Pre-Pottery Neolithic Mesopotamia from the epicentre of the region’s Neolithic Revolution.

The findings suggest that the transition between Pre-Pottery and Pottery Neolithic phases of Neolithic Anatolia was associated with two distinct pulses of migration from the Fertile Crescent heartland.

The third study, entitled ‘A genetic probe into the ancient and medieval history of Southern Europe and West Asia’, focuses on ancient DNA analysis during the period of recorded history in the Southern Arc, apparently elucidating the not-well-understood demographics and geographic origins of groups like the Mycenaeans, Urartians, and Romans.

One of the conclusions read: “All ancient Indo-European speakers can be traced back to the Yamnaya culture, whose southward expansions into the Southern Arc left a trace in the DNA of the Bronze Age people of the region.

“However, the link connecting the Proto-Indo-European-speaking Yamnaya with the speakers of Anatolian languages was in the highlands of West Asia, the ancestral region shared by both.”

Lazaridis et al. wrote: “The Yamnaya expansion also crossed the Caucasus, and by about 4000 years ago, Armenia had become an enclave of low but pervasive steppe ancestry in West Asia, where the patrilineal descendants of Yamnaya men, virtually extinct on the steppe, persisted.

“The Armenian language was born there, related to Indo-European languages of Europe such as Greek by their shared Yamnaya heritage.”

They added: “Neolithic Anatolians (in modern Turkey) were descended from both local hunter-gatherers and Eastern populations of the Caucasus, Mesopotamia, and the Levant.

“By about 6,500 years ago and thereafter, Anatolians became more genetically homogeneous, a process driven by the flow of Eastern ancestry across the peninsula.

“Earlier forms of Anatolian and non-Indo-European languages such as Hattic and Hurrian were likely spoken by migrants and locals participating in this great mixture.

“Anatolia is remarkable for its lack of steppe ancestry down to the Bronze Age.

“The ancestry of the Yamnaya was, by contrast, only partly local; half of it was West Asian, from both the Caucasus and the more southern Anatolian-Levantine continuum.

“Migration into the steppe started by about 7,000 years ago, making the later expansion of the Yamnaya into the Caucasus a return to the homeland of about half their ancestors.”

Commenting on the studies in the journal ‘Science’ Benjamin Arbuckle and Zoe Schwandt wrote: “The studies by Lazaridis et al. represent an important milestone for ancient genomic research, providing a rich dataset and diverse observations that will drive the next iteration of interpretations of the human history of West Eurasia.

Although the authors note that Lazaridis et al. have produced an “astounding dataset, unimaginable in its scale just a decade ago”, Arbuckle and Schwandt said there were challenges and limitations of the interpretations.

They suggested that many of the narratives explored across the three studies reflected a “Eurocentric worldview”.