Bronze age Northern Eurasian genetics in the context of development of metallurgy and Siberian ancestry

Ainash Childebayeva; Fabian Fricke; Adam Benjamin Rohrlach; Lei Huang; Stephan Schiffels; Outi Vesakoski; Kristiina Mannermaa; Lena Semerau; Franziska Aron; Konstantin Solodovnikov; Marina Rykun; Vyacheslav Moiseyev; Valery Khartanovich; Igor Kovtun; Johannes Krause; Sergey Kuzminykh; Wolfgang Haak

doi:10.1038/s42003-024-06343-x

Bronze age Northern Eurasian genetics in the context of development of metallurgy and Siberian ancestry

Commun Biol. 2024 Jun 11;7(1):723. doi: 10.1038/s42003-024-06343-x.

Authors

Ainash Childebayeva^{1

2

3}, Fabian Fricke⁴, Adam Benjamin Rohrlach^{5

6}, Lei Huang⁵, Stephan Schiffels⁵, Outi Vesakoski⁷, Kristiina Mannermaa⁸, Lena Semerau⁵, Franziska Aron⁹, Konstantin Solodovnikov¹⁰, Marina Rykun¹¹, Vyacheslav Moiseyev¹², Valery Khartanovich¹², Igor Kovtun¹³, Johannes Krause⁵, Sergey Kuzminykh¹⁴, Wolfgang Haak¹⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, D-04103, Leipzig, Germany. ainash_childebayeva@eva.mpg.de.
² Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 78712, USA. ainash_childebayeva@eva.mpg.de.
³ Department of Anthropology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, 66044, USA. ainash_childebayeva@eva.mpg.de.
⁴ German Archaeological Institute, Eurasia Department, Berlin, 14195, Germany.
⁵ Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, D-04103, Leipzig, Germany.
⁶ School of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, 5005, Australia.
⁷ Department of Finnish and Finno-Ugric Languages, University of Turku, Turku, 20014, Finland.
⁸ Department of Cultures, University of Helsinki, Yliopistonkatu 4, 00100, Helsinki, Finland.
⁹ Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, 07745, Germany.
¹⁰ Institute of Problems of Northern Development, Tyumen Scientific Center of the Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Tyumen, 625008, Russia.
¹¹ Department of Anthropology and Ethnology, National Research Tomsk State University, Tomsk, 634050, Russia.
¹² Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), Russian Academy of Sciences, University Embankment, 3, Saint Petersburg, 199034, Russia.
¹³ Igor V. Kovtun, Independent Researcher, Kemerovo, 650000, Russia.
¹⁴ Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Archaeology, Laboratory of Natural Scientific Methods, Moscow, 117292, Russia.
¹⁵ Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, D-04103, Leipzig, Germany. wolfgang_haak@eva.mpg.de.

Abstract

The Eurasian Bronze Age (BA) has been described as a period of substantial human migrations, the emergence of pastoralism, horse domestication, and development of metallurgy. This study focuses on two north Eurasian sites sharing Siberian genetic ancestry. One of the sites, Rostovka, is associated with the Seima-Turbino (ST) phenomenon (~2200-1900 BCE) that is characterized by elaborate metallurgical objects found throughout Northern Eurasia. The genetic profiles of Rostovka individuals vary widely along the forest-tundra Siberian genetic cline represented by many modern Uralic-speaking populations, and the genetic heterogeneity observed is consistent with the current understanding of the ST being a transcultural phenomenon. Individuals from the second site, Bolshoy Oleni Ostrov in Kola, in comparison form a tighter cluster on the Siberian ancestry cline. We further explore this Siberian ancestry profile and assess the role of the ST phenomenon and other contemporaneous BA cultures in the spread of Uralic languages and Siberian ancestry.

Publication types

Historical Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Archaeology
DNA, Ancient / analysis
Genetics, Population
History, Ancient
Human Migration
Humans
Metallurgy* / history
Siberia

Substances

DNA, Ancient

Grants and funding

ERC_/European Research Council/International