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A dynamic 6,000-year genetic history of Eurasia’s Eastern Steppe

Choongwon Jeong, View ORCID ProfileKe Wang, Shevan Wilkin, William Timothy Treal Taylor, Bryan K. Miller, Sodnom Ulziibayar, Raphaela Stahl, Chelsea Chiovelli, Jan H. Bemmann, Florian Knolle, Nikolay Kradin, Bilikto A. Bazarov, Denis A. Miyagashev, Prokopiy B. Konovalov, Elena Zhambaltarova, Alicia Ventresca Miller, Wolfgang Haak, Stephan Schiffels, Johannes Krause, Nicole Boivin, Erdene Myagmar, Jessica Hendy, Christina Warinner
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.25.008078
Choongwon Jeong
1Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany 07745
2School of Biological Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea 08826
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  • For correspondence: cwjeong@snu.ac.kr warinner@shh.mpg.de
Ke Wang
1Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany 07745
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  • ORCID record for Ke Wang
Shevan Wilkin
3Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany 07745
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William Timothy Treal Taylor
3Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany 07745
4Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, USA 80309
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Bryan K. Miller
3Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany 07745
5University of Michigan Museum of Anthropological Archaeology, 3010 School of Education Building, 610 E. University Avenue, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109
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Sodnom Ulziibayar
6Institute of Archaeology, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia 14200
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Raphaela Stahl
1Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany 07745
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Chelsea Chiovelli
1Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany 07745
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Jan H. Bemmann
7Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Bonn, Germany 53113
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Florian Knolle
1Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany 07745
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Nikolay Kradin
8Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnology, Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladivostok, Russia
9Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ulan-Ude, Russia
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Bilikto A. Bazarov
9Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ulan-Ude, Russia
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Denis A. Miyagashev
9Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ulan-Ude, Russia
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Prokopiy B. Konovalov
9Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ulan-Ude, Russia
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Elena Zhambaltarova
10Department of Museology and Heritage, Faculty of Social and Cultural Activities, Heritage, and Tourism, Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education “East Siberian State Institute of Culture”
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Alicia Ventresca Miller
3Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany 07745
11Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA 48109
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Wolfgang Haak
1Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany 07745
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Stephan Schiffels
1Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany 07745
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Johannes Krause
1Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany 07745
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Nicole Boivin
3Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany 07745
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Erdene Myagmar
12Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, National University of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
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Jessica Hendy
1Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany 07745
13BioArCh, Department of Archaeology, University of York, York, UK YO10 5NG
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Christina Warinner
1Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany 07745
14Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA 02138
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  • For correspondence: cwjeong@snu.ac.kr warinner@shh.mpg.de
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Summary

The Eastern Eurasian Steppe was home to historic empires of nomadic pastoralists, including the Xiongnu and the Mongols. However, little is known about the region’s population history. Here we reveal its dynamic genetic history by analyzing new genome-wide data for 214 ancient individuals spanning 6,000 years. We identify a pastoralist expansion into Mongolia ca. 3000 BCE, and by the Late Bronze Age, Mongolian populations were biogeographically structured into three distinct groups, all practicing dairy pastoralism regardless of ancestry. The Xiongnu emerged from the mixing of these populations and those from surrounding regions. By comparison, the Mongols exhibit much higher Eastern Eurasian ancestry, resembling present-day Mongolic-speaking populations. Our results illuminate the complex interplay between genetic, sociopolitical, and cultural changes on the Eastern Steppe.

Footnotes

  • https://edmond.mpdl.mpg.de/imeji/collection/2ZJSw35ZTTa18jEo

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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A dynamic 6,000-year genetic history of Eurasia’s Eastern Steppe
Choongwon Jeong, Ke Wang, Shevan Wilkin, William Timothy Treal Taylor, Bryan K. Miller, Sodnom Ulziibayar, Raphaela Stahl, Chelsea Chiovelli, Jan H. Bemmann, Florian Knolle, Nikolay Kradin, Bilikto A. Bazarov, Denis A. Miyagashev, Prokopiy B. Konovalov, Elena Zhambaltarova, Alicia Ventresca Miller, Wolfgang Haak, Stephan Schiffels, Johannes Krause, Nicole Boivin, Erdene Myagmar, Jessica Hendy, Christina Warinner
bioRxiv 2020.03.25.008078; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.25.008078
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A dynamic 6,000-year genetic history of Eurasia’s Eastern Steppe
Choongwon Jeong, Ke Wang, Shevan Wilkin, William Timothy Treal Taylor, Bryan K. Miller, Sodnom Ulziibayar, Raphaela Stahl, Chelsea Chiovelli, Jan H. Bemmann, Florian Knolle, Nikolay Kradin, Bilikto A. Bazarov, Denis A. Miyagashev, Prokopiy B. Konovalov, Elena Zhambaltarova, Alicia Ventresca Miller, Wolfgang Haak, Stephan Schiffels, Johannes Krause, Nicole Boivin, Erdene Myagmar, Jessica Hendy, Christina Warinner
bioRxiv 2020.03.25.008078; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.25.008078

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