All of the samples studied have a different sequence of mitochondrial DNA HVR I (Table). An analysis of haplotype structure enabled its attribution to five mitochondrial DNA haplogroups: western Eurasian U2e, U5a, T and eastern Eurasian C and A10. A mixed gene pool structure combining mitochondrial DNA groups typical of human populations from western and eastern parts of Eurasia, have been ascertained for all ancient Western-Siberian forest-steppe human populations that we have studied to date (Pilipenko, 2010).The authors identify two components in the population: (i) the "indigenous" mixed population of West Eurasian (U2e+U5a) and East Eurasian (A10+C), and (ii) the intrusive Andronovo (Fedorovka) (T). They also hint about a special article on the autochthony of the A10 lineages in the region. We now seem to have fairly good data about the existence of a wide West/East Eurasian interaction zone from eastern Europe to Siberia, and it would certainly be interesting to see when this zone was first formed; in any case, it seems clear that at least in the central-northern parts of Eurasia admixture between East and West has been going on for a while.
The more interesting question is where did the mtDNA haplogroup-T in Fedorovo groups come from? In Europe, for which we have the best data, T makes its appearance with early Neolithic groups, but it's difficult to imagine that this was the source of T in West Siberia. I would not be surprised if the entrance of T into the boreal zone occurred via the Caucasus, although Grigoriev derives them "from the Near East through Iran and Central Asia into the Irtish basin." Ancient DNA reveals the gradual appearance of new players in both Europe and West Siberia, but their ultimate source(s) and migratory paths remains elusive.
Related:
Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia Volume 40, Issue 4, December 2012, Pages 62–69
An Analysis Of Mitochondrial Dna From The Pakhomovskaya Population Of The Late Bronze Age, Western Siberia
V.I. Molodin et al.
This article presents the results of an analysis of mitochondrial DNA extracted from bone samples from Stary Sad – a burial ground representing the eastern variant of the Late Bronze Age Pakhomovskaya culture in the Baraba forest-steppe, Western Siberia. Comparison with mitochondrial DNA data from earlier populations of the region and also with archaeological facts, points to the origins of the Pakhomovskaya people. Certain components of their gene pool were evidently derived from the local pre-Andronovo populations, others from the actual Andronovo (Fedorovka) population and also from later immigrants. In this article an integrative reconstruction based on biological and cultural facts is proposed.
Link
This book "Hunters in Transition: Mesolithic Societies of Temperate Eurasia and Their Transition to Farming"
ReplyDeleteby Marek Zveleb speaks of Mediterraneans inhabiting the Urals originally since the Mesolithic..the Urals.
http://i41.tinypic.com/2ni3342.jpg
Dienekes:
ReplyDelete"We now seem to have fairly good data about the existence of a wide West/East Eurasian interaction zone from eastern Europe to Siberia, and it would certainly be interesting to see when this zone was first formed; in any case, it seems clear that at least in the central-northern parts of Eurasia admixture between East and West has been going on for a while."
We already have a pretty good idea of when nomadic pastoralism first appeared on the Eurasian steppe and when it became widespread. Are you asking whether this is what created the interaction zone?
Looks very similar to the Dineper-Donets sample from late Neolithic Ukraine. Kurgans were also seen earlier in Ukraine than in Western Siberia.
ReplyDeleteSo why would a Neolithic Ukrainian-like Kurgan population arrive in Western Siberia via the Caucasus Mountains or the deserts of Iran, when they could have moved there from the west via the open steppe?
How does this relate to the Indo-European problem?
ReplyDeleteWe already have a pretty good idea of when nomadic pastoralism first appeared on the Eurasian steppe and when it became widespread. Are you asking whether this is what created the interaction zone?
ReplyDeleteNomadic pastoralism took place to the _south_ of the interaction zone I am referring to, and _after_ the existence of this interaction zone (not on the basis of this paper which is about the Late Bronze Age, of course).
Surprising in lots of ways.
ReplyDeleteThere are quite a few ancient mtDNA data sets from North Asia, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe, but while I recall seeing East Eurasian mtDNA hgs in other time periods (especially Iron Age and very old), I don't recall any from the Bronze Age which had been a peak of West Eurasian expansion and East Eurasian contraction (perhaps I'm just remembering wrong and it was just early Bronze Age that looked like that). For example, in the Tarim Basin (home to the Tocharians) most of the West-East admixture takes place around the middle of the first millennium CE.
I know for sure that I've never seen U and T and A/C in the sample sample. Some of the early Neolithic mix U and T, but not with A/C also.
T is particularly difficult to point to an origin of because it is so diffuse. I can't think of any population except Ethiopians and a few tribal populations in India, modern or ancient, that are overwhelmingly mtDNA hg T - it almost always appears mixed together with other hgs, usually as a minority component. Obviously, this particular find of ancient hg T can't be from the Jewish diaspora which spread a fair amount of T into Europe. And, T is present in the very earliest LBK Neolithic (and presumably in the Balkans as well). I normally associate T with a Fertile Crescent origin, but only as a fragile and contingent conjecture, not because it is certainly so. In part, this is because the only very elevated T population is the Ethiopians suggesting an adjacent source of pure T, and in part because it is found to the North, South, Southwest and East of the Fertile Crescent and seem Neolithic and that is where the Neolithic started. Also, my usual conjecture is that mtDNA hg L, the sister clade of T, arrived in South Asia during the early Neolithic in the Indus River Valley as part of the pre-Harappans), given its hg age and geography and relationship to L.
My gut instinct is to imagine to two part mix - first a mix of U and T among pastoralists at the fringe of the LBK Neolithic (perhaps via bride exchange between farmer village and herding tribes on the herding-farming frontier), and then secondarily that pastoralist tribe merging with an East Eurasian tribe.
Historic era hunters, trappers, missionaries and explorers in the North America in areas not yet settled by pioneer farmers documented a fairly high rate (perhaps 3%-10% in a generation) of individual Indian tribes (meaning a band level organization of a couple dozen individuals or so) imploding and ceasing to be in bad years or after wars with other tribes with survivors joining existing tribes often of a different ethnicity and language. I could imagine the same sort of process going on in this case with pastoralists as opposed to hunter-gatherers.
Ignore my ramblings in my previous comment about hg T's origins. I see that I made the brain fart of jumbling mtDNA lettering with Y-DNA lettering. My bad.
ReplyDeleteI note the following from Wikipedia:
"Haplogroup T is found in approximately 10% of native Europeans. Haplogroup T is currently found with high concentrations around the eastern Baltic Sea. The geographic distribution within subclade T2 varies greatly with the ratio of subhaplogroup T2e to T2b reported to vary 40-fold across examined populations from a low in Britain and Ireland, to a high in Saudi Arabia (Bedford 2012). Within subhaplogroup T2e, a very rare motif is identified among Sephardic Jews of Turkey and Bulgaria and suspected conversos from the New World (Bedford 2012). Found in Svan population from Caucasus(Georgia) T* 10.4% and T1 4.2%"
That data point suggests a Caucasus origin for this sample which makes a lot of archaeological sense.
Also, my point about mtDNA hg T almost never being seen in isolation in samples modern or ancient.
This confirms the earlier studies on Western Siberia which portrayed Androvono as an intrusive element different from the locals, including Afanasevo I'm sure. Therefore, within the steppes we can already distinguish two types of IE people - the andronovo who were rich in mtdna T and ydna r1a vs the Afanasevo who were probably rich mtdna U.
ReplyDeleteI think both the T and r1a in androvono came from the corded ware or some similar neolithic admixed European population.
As for the Afanasevo, and early IE peoples, I think they had r1b.
Dienekes, thanks for the clarification.
ReplyDeleteA10 is subclade of A and where A is founded in the world could be found in samples in archeological and present time.
ReplyDelete