Eurasia

Shakya

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakya

The Shakya were a clan of late Vedic India (c. 1000 – c. 500 BCE) and the later so-called second urbanisation period (c. 600 – c. 200 BCE) in the Indian subcontinent (present-day nations of India and Nepal). ...

A commentary by Buddhaghoṣa on the Digha Nikaya (c. 5th century CE), mostly in the accounts of the birth of the Buddha, as a part of the Adicchabandhus (kinsmen of the sun) or the Ādichchas and as descendants of the legendary king Ikshvaku: There lived once upon a time a king of the Śākya, a scion of the solar race, whose name was Suddhodana. He was pure in conduct and beloved of the Śākya like the autumn moon. He had a wife, splendid, beautiful, and steadfast, who was called the Great Maya, from her resemblance to Maya the Goddess. ... Buddhaghoṣa's work (II, 1–24) traces the origin of the Shakyas to king Ikshvaku and gives their genealogy from Maha Sammata, an ancestor of Ikshvaku.

the seat of the Shakya administration was the santhagara ...The highest administrative authority was the sidharth, comprising 500 members...The Shakya Parishad was headed by an elected raja, who presided over the meetings....By the time of Siddharta's birth, the Shakya republic had become a vassal state of the larger Kingdom of Kosala....

The Shakyas were by tradition sun worshippers, who called themselves Ādicca nāma gottena ("kinsmen of the sun") and descendants of the sun. As Buddha states in the Sutta-Nipāta, "They are of the sun-lineage (adiccagotta), Sakiyans by birth.". It is uncertain whether, by the time of Siddhartha's birth, Vedic Brahmanism had been adopted to any significant extent by the Shakyans....this message was not, therefore, a reaction against brahmanical thought and culture....many Shakyans joined people from other regions and became followers of the Buddha during his lifetime...

Muni: 12 definitions

https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/muni

(Source): BuddhaSasana: Concise Pali-English Dictionary

Muni, (cp. Vedic muni, originally one who has made the vow of silence....Connected with mūka: see under mukha. ...is “inspired, moved by the spirit.... a holy man, a sage, wise man. I. The term which was specialised in Brahmanism has acquired a general meaning in Buddhism & is applied by the Buddha to any man attaining perfection in self-restraint and insight. So the word is capable of many-sided application and occurs frequently in the oldest poetic anthologies, ...

Muniis the Sanskrit name of one of Bharata’s sons, mentioned in the Nāṭyaśāstra 1.26-33. After Brahmā created the Nāṭyaveda (nāṭyaśāstra), he ordered Bharata to teach the science to his (one hundred) sons. Bharata thus learned the Nāṭyaveda from Brahmā,...

Muni is the Sanskrit name for “sages”, to be worshipped during raṅgapūjā, according to the Nāṭyaśāstra 3.1-8....

[Muni in Purana glossaries]

Muni One of the seven sons of Dyutimān, who was a son of Priyavrata, according to the Varāhapurāṇa chapter 74. ...

Muni The mother of the Yakṣas. It is stated that Kaśyapaprajāpati begot of his wife Muni, the Yakṣas. (Chapter 19, Agni Purāṇa). The Gandharvas also were born of Muni. ...

Muni Son of a Vasu named Ahar (i.e. Ahaḥ) (Śloka 23, Chapter 66, Ādi Parva).

Muni Son of Kuru of the Pūru line of kings. Kuru begot of his wife Vāhinī five sons named Aśvavān, Abhiṣyanta, Caitraratha, Janamejaya and Muni. (Śloka 50, Chapter 94, Ādi Parva).

Muni One of the seven sons of a King named Dyutimān. (Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa 5. 24).

Muni A daughter of Dakṣa and one of the 13 wives of Kaśyapa; a mother goddess; mother of groups of munis and sages, Apsaras and Gandharvas;1 given to Gandha śīlā....

[More...]

Ikshvaku dynasty

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikshvaku_dynasty

The Ikshvaku dynasty, in Puranic literature, was a dynasty founded by the legendary king Ikshvaku. The dynasty is also known as Sūryavaṁśa (the Solar dynasty). Lord Rama belonged to the Ikshavaku dynasty. Twenty-two out of the twenty-four Jain Tirthankara belonged to this dynasty. Rishabha is present in both Hindu as well as Jain mythology. Both refers to the same person. According to the Buddhist texts, Prince Siddhartha belonged to this dynasty.

The important personalities belonging to this royal house are Mandhatri , Muchukunda , Ambarisha , Bharata Chakravartin, Bahubali, Harishchandra, Dilīpa, Sagara, Raghu, Rama and Pasenadi. Although, both the Hindu Puranas and the Buddhist texts include Shuddodhana, Gautama Buddha and Rahula in their accounts of the Ikshvaku dynasty, but according to the Buddhist texts, Mahasammata, an ancestor of Ikshvaku was the founder of this dynasty, who was elected by the people as the first king of the present era. According to the Puranas, supreme preceptor of the Ikshvaku dynasty was sage Vashishta. ...

In Hinduism, Ikshvaku, is the grandson of Vivasvan or Surya and son of Vaivasvata Manu. They ruled from the Kosala Kingdom, today known as Awadh in the state of Uttar Pradesh along the banks of river Sarayu with saketa, Ayodhya today as their capital. Ikshvaku is the first king who executed the Manusmrti or religious rules of Hindu living which were composed by his father Manu. Ikshvaku, ruled as Monarch at the beginning of the Kritha Yuga or First yuga, had hundred sons. His estates descended to his eldest son Vikukshi.

The lists of kings of Ikṣvāku or Aikṣvāka dynasty are found in the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Harivamsha and the Puranas. The Raghuvamsha of Kalidasa also mentions the names of the kings of this dynasty. The genealogy of the Ikshvaku dynasty to Rama is mentioned in the Ramayana in two lists . The only difference between the two lists is that, Kukshi is mentioned only in the second list . In the first list, Vikukshi is mentioned as the son of Ikshavaku. The descendants of Vikukshi are known as Vikauwa.... The Puranas provide a genealogical list from Kusha to Brihadbala, who was killed by Abhimanyu in the Mahabharata war....

The Puranas also provide the list of the kings from Brihadbala to the last ruler Sumitra. But these lists mention Shakya as an individual, and incorporate the names of Shakya, Shuddodhana, Siddhartha (Gautama Buddha) and Rahula between Sanjaya and Prasenajit.... The Buddhist text, Mahavamsa (II, 1-24) traces the origin of the Shakyas to king Okkaka (Pali equivalent to Sanskrit Ikshvaku) and gives their genealogy from Mahasammata, an ancestor of Okkaka.... The Ikshvaku dynasty has a significant place in Jainism, as twenty-two Tirthankaras were born in this dynasty....

Kingdom of Khotan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Khotan

The Kingdom of Khotan was an ancient Iranian Saka Buddhist kingdom located on the branch of the Silk Road that ran along the southern edge of the Taklamakan Desert in the Tarim Basin (modern Xinjiang, China)... This largely Buddhist kingdom existed for over a thousand years until it was conquered by the Muslim Kara-Khanid Khanate in 1006, during the Islamicisation and Turkicisation of Xinjiang. Built on an oasis, Khotan's mulberry groves allowed the production and export of silk and carpets, in addition to the city's other major products such as its famous nephrite jade and pottery...

The inhabitants of Khotan used Khotanese, an Eastern Iranian language, and Gandhari Prakrit, an Indo-Aryan language related to Sanskrit. There is debate as to how much Khotan's original inhabitants were ethnically and anthropologically South Asian and speakers of the Gāndhārī language versus the Saka, an Indo-European people of Iranian branch from the Eurasian Steppe. ...

The kingdom of Khotan was given various names and transcriptions. The ancient Chinese called Khotan Yutian...Sometimes they also used Jusadanna, derived from Indo-Iranian Gostan and Gostana, the names of the town and region around it respectively. Others include Huanna. To the Tibetans in the seventh and eight centuries, the kingdom was called Li (or Li-yul)... in about the third century AD, the local people wrote Khotana in Kharoṣṭhī script, and Hvatäna in the Brahmi script...Hvam kṣīra or 'the land of Khotan' was the name given....The local people also used Gaustana (Gostana or Kustana) under the influence of Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit,...

From an early period, the Tarim Basin had been inhabited by different groups of Indo-European speakers such as the Tocharians and Saka people. Jade from Khotan had been traded into China... The jade trade is thought to have been facilitated by the Yuezhi....

All four versions suggest that the city was founded around the third century BC by a group of Indians during the reign of Ashoka. According to one version, the nobles of a tribe in ancient Taxila, who traced their ancestry to the deity Vaiśravaṇa,...The legend suggests that Khotan was settled by people from northwest India and China... Others however argued that the legend of the founding of Khotan is a fiction as it ignores the Iranian population, and that its purpose was to explain the Indian and Chinese influences that were present in Khotan in the 7th century AD. By Xuanzang's account, it was believed that the royal power had been transmitted unbroken since the founding of Khotan, and evidence indicates that the kings of Khotan used an Iranian-based word as their title since at least the 3rd century AD, suggesting that they may be speakers of an Iranian language. In the 1900s, Aurel Stein discovered Prakrit documents written Kharoṣṭhī in Niya, and together with the founding legend of Khotan, Stein proposed that these people in the Tarim Basin were Indian immigrants from Taxila who conquered and colonized Khotan. The use of Prakrit however may be a legacy of the influence of the Kushan Empire. There were also Greek influences in early Khotan... influences from as far as the Hellenistic kingdom of the Ptolemaic Egypt....

Surviving documents from Khotan of later centuries indicate that the people of Khotan spoke the Saka language, an Eastern Iranian language that was closely related to the Sogdian language (of Sogdiana); as an Indo-European language, Saka was more distantly related to the Tocharian languages (also known as Agnean-Kuchean) spoken in adjoining areas of the Tarim Basin....

Archaeological evidence from Shanpula (Sampul) near Khotan may indicate a settled Saka population in the last quarter of the first millennium BC, although some have suggested they may not have moved there until after the founding of the city. The Saka may have inhabited other parts of the Tarim Basin earlier – presence of a people believed to be Saka had been found in the Keriya region at Yumulak Kum (Djoumboulak Koum, Yuansha) around 200 km east of Khotan, possibly as early as the 7th century BC....

In the second century BC a Khotanese king helped the famous ruler Kanishka of the Kushan Empire of South Asia (founded by the Indo-Iranian Yuezhi people) to conquer the key town of Saket in the Middle kingdoms of India:...

King Guangde of Khotan submitted to the Han dynasty in 73 AD. Khotan at the time had relation with the Xiongnu, who during the reign of Emperor Ming of Han (57-75 AD) invaded Khotan and forced the Khotanese court to pay them large annual amounts of tribute in the form of silk and tapestries...Han influence on Khotan, however, would diminished when Han power declined....The Tang campaign against the oasis states began in 640 AD and Khotan submitted to the Tang emperor....After the Tang dynasty, Khotan formed an alliance with the rulers of Dunhuang. The Buddhist entitites...Khotan was conquered by the Tibetan Empire in 792 and gained its independence in 851....

In the 10th century, the Iranic Saka Buddhist Kingdom of Khotan was the only city-state that was not conquered yet by the Turkic Uyghur (Buddhist) and the Turkic Qarakhanid (Muslim) states. During the latter part of the tenth century, Khotan became engaged in a struggle against the Kara-Khanid Khanate. The Islamic conquests of the Buddhist cities east of Kashgar began with the conversion of the Karakhanid Sultan Satuq Bughra Khan to Islam in 934. .Satuq Bughra Khan and later his son Musa directed endeavors to proselytize Islam among the Turks and engage in military conquests, and a long war ensued between Islamic Kashgar and Buddhist Khotan... In 1006, the Muslim Kara-Khanid ruler Yusuf Kadir (Qadir) Khan of Kashgar conquered Khotan, ending Khotan's existence as an independent Buddhist state....

The kingdom was one of the major centres of Buddhism, and up until the 11th century, the vast majority of the population was Buddhist. Initially, the people of the kingdom were not Buddhist, and Buddhism was said to have been adopted in the reign of Vijayasambhava in the first century BC, some 170 years after the founding of Khotan. However, an account by the Han general Ban Chao suggested that the people of Khotan in 73 AD still appeared to practice Mazdeism or Shamanism. His son Ban Yong who spent time in the Western Regions also did not mention Buddhism there, and with the absence of Buddhist art in the region before the beginning of Eastern Han, it has also been suggested that Buddhism may not have been adopted in the region until the middle of the second century AD.

Khotan was the first place outside of inland China to begin cultivating silk. ...

There has been a long history of trade of jade from Khotan to China. Jade pieces from the Tarim Basin have been found in Chinese archaeological sites. Chinese carvers in Xinglongwa and Chahai had been carving ring-shaped pendants "from greenish jade from Khotan as early as 5000 BC"....the Yuezhi supplied jade to the Chinese. It would seem, from secondary sources, the prevalence of jade from Khotan in ancient Chinese is due to its quality and the relative lack of such jade elsewhere....

At the cemetery in Sampul, ~14 km from the archaeological site of Khotan in Lop County, where Hellenistic art such as the Sampul tapestry has been found (its provenance most likely from the nearby Greco-Bactrian Kingdom), the local inhabitants buried their dead there from roughly 217 BC to 283 AD. Mitochondrial DNA analysis of the human remains has revealed genetic affinities to peoples from the Caucasus, specifically a maternal lineage linked to Ossetians and Iranians, as well as an Eastern-Mediterranean paternal lineage. Seeming to confirm this link, from historical accounts it is known that Alexander the Great, who married a Sogdian woman from Bactria named Roxana, encouraged his soldiers and generals to marry local women; consequentially the later kings of the Seleucid Empire and Greco-Bactrian Kingdom had a mixed Persian-Greek ethnic background.

SUVARNA-BHASOTTAMA AND THE DEFENCE OF SERINDIC KHOTAN

http://www.nlc.cn/newhxjy/wjsy/wjls/wjqcsy/wjd17q/201011/P020101123697628704580.pdf

The Sutra travelled from India to Khotan and thence to China.... Hence a major shrine D II to Vaisravana and Hariti, who were the chief protective deities of Khotan.... Lord Buddha was of royal descent, and his Dharma grew...The protective goddess of Udyana was Hariti and also of Khotan...The

route of transmission seems to have been from N W India to Khotan and other Serindian kingdoms, and thence to China, Korea and Japan. ...

The earliest fragments of the Sanskrit text of the Suv. come from Khotan. It was translated

into Khotanese directly from Sanskrit, and again a second time which indicates its popularity. The oldest manuscript fragments of the Khotanese Suv. belong to the fifth/sixth century... The charisma of the sutras, and the transmission of this charisma to successors gave to the Khotanese impirium an unnterrupted continuity of 1,256 years according to the Prophecy of Khotan... The Buddhist concept of the relationship of the king and his people liesin the duality of the well-being of the people as effected by the ruler and his constant attention to their perceptions of their happiness. The bahu-jana-hita or “the well-being of the people” was dependent on the bahu-jana-sukha “the happiness of the people”....

The Prophecy of Khotan (henceforth shortened to Prophecy) says that there are 21 vimanas on the whole earth and Khotan (Li) is the twenty-first vimana of Sakyamuni. Khotan had long been a lake when the Buddha came, made it a country by drying out the lake, blessed it, and when he was appointing protectors of various lands, he commissioned the following for the security of Khotan:...

After the drying up of the lake, the country was still vacant. The chief consort of King Dharmasoka gave birth to a son. The king cast away his son afraid lest he seize his sovereignty. A breast

(stana) arose from the earth, and sucking it he did not die. Later he was named Sa.nu ‘Earth-breast’ (Go-stana). This legend gives (i) the folk etymology of Go-stana or Khotan, (ii) takes back the origin of the Khotanese kingdom to Dharmasoka to invest it with a Buddhist aura... Prince Sa.nu and Minister Yasa met and established the country of Khotan. The Indians and Chinese fought, but they stopped when Vaisravana and Sri Devi appeared in the air. They became allies. Prince Sanu became the king and Yasa his minister. The Prophecy says that Khotan was “a country where Indians and Chinese met”....

The Prophecy states that pestilence subsides and foreign foes are averted or vanquished by reading the Mahasannipata and Saddharma-pundarika. Further on it says that Sakyamuni preached the Candragarbha on mount Grdhrakuta to appoint the protectors of various lands...

The name Go-stana (transcribed by Hsuan-tsang as Ku-sa-tan-za) is translated in Chinese as

Ti-ju “Earth breast” ... Stana is Sanskrit sthana or Iranian stan as the suffix for a country. Thus Gostana means the ‘Land of Jade’ ... China used to get its original Sanskrit sutras from Khotan. ...

The introductory chapter of the Suv. lays out the theme (nidana) of the sutra. The Tathagata dwells on Mount Grdhrakuta surrounded by five Great Goddesses (mahadevata).Each of them has a protective function as: the tutelary goddess of the royal family of Sakyamuni (his kula-devata), the protective goddess

of the territorial State (Prthivi-devata), and the three others are linked to learning, prosperity, and defence....

The first goddess is translated as the ‘deity of the bodhi tree’...As the family deity (kula-devata) of Sakyamuni...She ends the Sutra by singing hymns of praise to Sakyamuni... Sakyamuni practised austerities on thebanks of the Nairanjana River for six (ten or twelve) years. Eventually he became aware that austerities would not lead to Enlightenment. He bathed in this River, accepted the milk offered

by Sujata, sat under the nearby Bodhi tree, meditated and entered Enlightenment. He must have

chosen the banks of the Nairanjana, as the Goddess of this river was His guardian deity...

. The drum of desana (Suv. ch.3) : ...By the drum of excellent golden light let the woes of the 3000 worlds be ended. The sound of the drum suppresses the woes of Yama, of poverty, grants freedom from fear, and other worldly troubles. It endows men with all noble virtues. By the resounding sound of the drum beings are endowed with the Logos of Brahman. They destroy impurities like hatred and folly. Those beings who dwell in hells, thin limbs ablaze with fire, attain the nobility of the hymn “Homage to the Buddha”. ... Enmerick has translated desana in the caption of this chapter as‘confession’ but it has to be translated as ‘teaching’....

Vaisravana wears a tunic, boots, armour, holds a lance and stupa, and is thus represented in his protective attributes. He is one of the eight demigods guarding Khotan in the Candragarbha-sutra....The Buddha commits the protection of Khotan to Vaisravana in The Prophecy of Khotan...

The Annals of Khotan refer to King Vijaya-virya who beheld from his palace a light of gold and silver outside the city. Following the light, he saw a stag who became Samjnaya. Sam

jnaya said to the King: build a monastery here. The King built the monastery of Hgum.stir. This episode is repeated in the Religious Annalsof Khotan. Further on , in the same text, he is one of Eight Great Tutelaries of Khotan: Sa.ne (Samjnaya), Vaisravana, Aparajita, Gaganesvara, Suvarnamala, Ankusavati, Sthanavati, and Nagaraja Hgra.ha.bad.ta (correct to Grhavatapta). Williams describes four representations, of which the first one suggests an animal, the second a deer, the third a stag’s head. Samjnaya is listed as one of the great guardians of Khotan in the Candragarbha-sutra...

Yaksas (Suv. ch.14): ...Several deities are named. They are listed below in the order of the Latin alphabet, with the number of the stanza in which the name occurs:...

The right foot of Vaisravana treads on a red demon . The red demon is very prominent under the sculpture and refers to the Red-faces (=Tibetans). The Prophecy of Khotan speaks of frequent strife in Khotan created by the Red-faces. The Inquiry of Vimalaprabha speaks of restoring stupas and monasteries burnt down by the Red-faces...

The monk sitting next to Sakyamuni in the mural and holding a book in his left and is Ananda holding the Suv.... Thus Ananda is the chief interlocutor of the Suv. and as such he holds the book in the mural. He was a cousin of the Buddha and one of his most important disciples, as well as his personal attendant....Due to his exceptional position he sits to the right of the Buddha in the mural....

Ku-stana, a Sanskritization of the frequent form Khotamna. The Kharosthi documents of the third century discovered by Stein at the Niya site actually employ the forms Kustana or Kustanaka: ku ‘earth’, stana ‘breast’. ...

The lilies in the pond can be traced back to the Annals of Khotan, which say that when the Buddha visited the country with his disciples he enveloped the lake with rays of light, which became 353 illuminated water-lilies. The figure 353 was the number of monasteries that were to be built in the country. The lilies around Hariti emphasise the blessings of Lord Buddha... She is the Guardian Deity of Khotan, and as such she is pictured as a ravishing ‘Jade Beauty’ where jade means Khotan....

Indus Script hieroglyphs on Kassite hypertexts on kudurrus are sacred memories of Bronze Age artisanal activities

http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.com/2017/07/indus-script-hieroglyphs-on-kassite.html

Kassite kudurrus signify many Indus Script hieroglyphs/hypertexts as sacred memories from the Script tradition... Background note on cultural contacts between Indo-Aryan and Kassites/Mitanni: "That there was a migration of Indo-European speakers, possibly in waves, dating from the 2nd millennium bce, is clear from archaeological and epigraphic evidence in western Asia. Mesopotamia witnessed the arrival about 1760 bce of the Kassites, who introduced the horse and the chariot and bore Indo-European names. A treaty from about 1400 bce between the Hittites, who had arrived in Anatolia about the beginning of the 2nd millennium bce, and the Mitanni empire invoked several deities—Indara, Uruvna, Mitira, and the Nasatyas (names that occur in the Rigveda as Indra, Varuna, Mitra, and the Ashvins). An inscription at Bogazköy in Anatolia of about the same date contains Indo-European technical terms pertaining to the training of horses, which suggests cultural origins in Central Asia or the southern Russian steppes....

One suggestion is that Kassites are Kāśyas, the founders of Kāśī, the region of Vāranāsi first mentioned in the Paippalada version of the Atharvaveda. "...some Kassite king names, which are evidently Indic (for example: Shuriash = Surya, Maruttash = Marut, Inda-Bugash = Indra-Bhaga), we can understand that they were also influenced by Hurrians or perhaps by the Medes, that in a later period were the owners of the Zagros and appointed the Magi as their priestly caste. Such kind of alliances between Sumerian/Subarian tribes and Indo-Aryan peoples seem to have been very common, and even achieved in taking control of the whole Mesopotamia during that period: the Kassite kingdom in the south preceded about 90 years the Mitanni kingdom in the north, and survived it for other 90 years." http://www.imninalu.net/myths-Huns.htm

Mr. Kak in his paper makes a number of points:

(http://www.ece.lsu.edu/kak/zoro.pdf )

a) Following the collapse of the Sarasvati – river based economy around1900 BC, groups of Indians might have moved West and that might explain the presence of the Indic Kassites and the Mitanni in West Asia .

b) The old Vedic religion survived for a fairly long time in corners of Iran.

c) The ruling groups-Kassite and Mitanni – represented a minority in a population that spoke deferent languages. They, however, remained connected to their Vedic traditions. They were neighbors to the pre-Zoroastrian Vedic Iran . In addition, there were other Vedic religion groups in the intermediate region ofIran which itself consisted of several ethnic groups.

d) As per the Mitanni documents , the pre-Zorastrian religon in Iran included Varuna. Since Mitra and Varuna are partners in the Vedas, the omission of Varuna from the Zoroastrian lists indicates that Zarathushtra might be from the borderlands of the Vedic world where the Vedic system was not fully in place. e) The pre-Zoroastrian religion of is clearly Vedic.

Studies in the aklu documents of the Middle Babylonian period

https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/60263/01_in.pdf?sequence=4

The Middle Babylonian period (ca. 1595–1155) is one of the less documented periods in Mesopotamian history. In the Middle Babylonian period Babylonia was under the rule of Kassite kings whose origin is still unknown. From their language, which is completely different from the surrounding Semitic languages, we can easily identify them through proper names. These include personal names (Kadašman-Saḫ, Dimaḫdi-Uraš, Burra-Ḫarbe, etc.), place names (Dūr-Kurigalzu, Karduniyaš, Karê-Karzi-ban, etc.), and divine names (Šuqamuna, Šumaliya). The Kassite people are known to have been enthusiastic breeders of horses...

It is obvious that the ancient scribes felt an interest in this foreign language. But no sentences written in the Kassite language have yet been found.... The early attestations of the Kassite people in and around Babylonia are in the 18thcentury B. C. The homeland of the Kassites has not been identified....

As mentioned above, in the Old Babylonian period, before the Kassites established a dynasty, they were simply foreigners to the Babylonians. After the Hittite capture of Babylon (ca. 1595), the Kassites progressively gained control over Babylonia....The first king who is thought to have ruled Babylon is Agum II (Agum-kakrime). He is said in an inscription (the Agum-kakrime inscription) to have returned the statue of Mardukafter its capture by Muršili I. But the authenticity of this inscription has been challenged. If Agum-kakrime was a real king in the early period, he gained control over the northern part of Babylonia....the descendants of Burna-Buriyaš I (Kaštiliyašu III, Ulam-Buriyaš, and Agum III) conquered the southern part, namely the first dynasty of the Sealand, in the middle of the 15thcentury....

The next kings (Kadašman-Enlil I (1374)–1360 and Burna-Buriyaš II 1359–1333) are well known from the referencesin the Amarna letters. They were in correspondence with the Egyptian kings. The Babylonian kings mainly requested gold. The Egyptian kings received horses, chariots, lapis lazuli, etc....

The Kassites From 1595 to 1153

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://antikforever.com/Mesopotamie/Kassites/kassites.htm&prev=search

The Kassites were an Asian people whose origin is still uncertain. Wilhelm Eilers suggests that he settled in northern Luristan. Walter Sommerfeld also gives an origin in the Zagros. Louis D. Levine suggested an installation on the eastern shore of Little Zab. Julian Reade places the kingdom of Namri (or Namar or KUR.ZALAG or Namar AI or Namar-in or KUR Namar, east of the province of Diyala) as the country of the Kassites. However it must be pointed out that to attest to one or the other of the propositions the archaeological or epigraphic proofs are missing.

The Kassite people are commonly credited with the fact that it was subjugated by an Indo-European clan, which took its name and established itself in southern Zagros (presumably to the region of present-day Luristan as proposed by Eilers).... We know that the Kassites were famous in the art of horse training, it is probably they who trivialized the animal in Babylonia...

The main literary works were hymns of praise to the Gods. It follows from this little material that has come to us that the Kassites spoke a language without a genetic link to any other known language. In the pantheon, the purely Kassite divinities were: The Shuqamuna (or Šuqamuna) war god, who had Shimaliya (or Shumalija or Šumalija), a divine patron of kingship....

Luristan bronze

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luristan_bronze

The area had, before the period of the bronzes, been the original home of the Kassites, who spoke a non-Iranian language, then under the control of the Iranian-speaking Medes....

Babylon

https://www.ancient.eu/babylon/

Babylon was founded at some point prior to the reign of Sargon of Akkad (also known as Sargon the Great) who ruled from 2334-2279 BCE... Whatever early role the city played in the ancient world is lost to modern-day scholars because the water level in the region has risen steadily over the centuries and the ruins of Old Babylon have become inaccessible.... The historian Paul Kriwaczek, among other scholars, claims it was established by the Amorites following the collapse of the Third Dynasty of Ur. This information, and any other pertaining to Old Babylon, comes to us today through artifacts which were carried away from the city after the Persian invasion... Hammurabi (1792-1750 BCE). This obscure Amorite prince...

Following Hammurabi’s death, his empire fell apart and Babylonia dwindled in size and scope until Babylon was easily sacked by the Hittites in 1595 BCE. The Kassites followed the Hittites and re-named the city Karanduniash. The meaning of this name is not clear. The Assyrians then followed the Kassites in dominating the region and, under the reign of the Assyrian ruler Sennacherib (reigned 705-681 BCE), Babylon revolted....

After the fall of the Assyrian Empire, a Chaldean named Nabopolassar took the throne of Babylon and, through careful alliances, created the Neo-Babylonian Empire. His son, Nebuchadnezzar II (604-561 BCE), renovated the city... It was under Nebuchadnezzar II’s reign that the Hanging Gardens of Babylon are said to have been constructed and the famous Ishtar Gate built....

In 539 BCE the empire fell to the Persians under Cyrus the Great...

When, after two hundred years, the Persian Empire fell to Alexander the Great in 331 BCE, he also gave great reverence to the city, ordering his men not to damage the buildings nor molest the inhabitants....

By the time the Parthian Empire ruled the region in 141 BCE Babylon was deserted and forgotten....

In the Muslim conquest of the land in 650 CE whatever remained of Babylon was swept away and, in time, was buried beneath the sands....

The Khazars: A Forgotten Medieval Empire that Ruled the Northern Caucasus

https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-famous-people/khazars-0011246

The Khazars were a semi-nomadic, Turkic-speaking people who became a major commercial empire in the northern Caucasus during the 7th century AD. Over the centuries they expanded their power to include eastern Ukraine, Crimea, southern Russia, western Kazakhstan, and northwestern Uzbekistan too...

The origins of the Khazars are unclear and they arrived in the Volga-Caucasus region at an undetermined time in history. The Khazars are generally accepted to be of Turkic origin and probably migrated to the area from Central Asia. It has also been suggested that the Khazars were once part of the 5th century Hunnic Empire as the Akatzirs that were mentioned by the Byzantine diplomat and historian named Priscus of Panium. ... By the second half of the 6th century, the Khazars came under the rule of the Western Turkic Khaganate. When the khaganate was dissolved in the middle of the following century, the Khazars established their own khaganate by conquering some of the neighboring Bulgar, Caucasian, and Slavic tribes....

Arab-Khazar Wars: 652/3 AD that the first major battle was fought between the Khazars and the Arabs near the town of Balanjar. The Khazars succeeded in repelling the invaders...the Khazars to withdraw north of the Caucasus. Nevertheless, the early victories of the Khazar over the Arabs helped to block the expansion of the Caliphate northwards into Eastern Europe. ...

the Khazars protected the Byzantines from the nomadic tribes in the steppes to the north of the Caucasus, as their khaganate served as a buffer state between the two. The Khazars grew wealthy as a result of trade, which was greatly facilitated by their geographical position. The east-west route linking the Far East and the Byzantine Empire , as well as the north-south route linking the Slavic tribes and the Caliphate, both had to pass through the lands of the Khazars. The Khazars collected customs fees from the caravans carried along these routes, thereby contributing to the prosperity of the khaganate. ...

Around the 8th century, Judaism began to spread amongst the Khazars, as a result of Jewish settlers. At the beginning of the 9th century, Judaism was adopted as the state religion of the khaganate...

By the 10th century, the Khazar Khaganate began to decline....In 965 AD, Sviatoslav I, the Grand Prince of Kiev, launched a campaign against the Khazars, defeated them, and brought the Khazar Khaganate to an end.

Uyghur Turuk

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW3xZVWIeIXPU_HxbLy3u5g

:

Info in der Kurzbeschreibung)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60oWxhALaoQ

Das Hakenkreuz stammt aus dem Feuerkult (alter Schamanenglaube) der Turk-Stämme in Zentralasien.

Entstanden zwischen ~ 40.000 - 15.000 v.Chr

The Turks of central Asia by MA Czaplicka, 1918

https://sites.google.com/site/n8iveuropean/home/eurasia/TheTurksofCentralAsiainHistoryandatthePresentDay_10747879.pdf

White she wolf named Zena sometimes Bura.

Avesta: Thraetona had 3 sons Arya, Sairima, and Tura.

Turanian is a linguistic term to the Ural Altaic group.

Kashgarians many direct descendants of old Uigur and strain of pre Turkic Aryan, among the purest Turanians.

Hiung-nu First mentioned in Chinese annals 2356-2200BC, and in Avesta 6th century AD as Tu-kiu.

Wusun, Balkash,and Khakas(Kirghis)(Kien-kun) were fair haired and blue eyed.

Uigur 2nd century BC known as Hao-Hui, Kao-Che, Kan-Hui, Vei-He, U-He, U-Hu, Hon-He, and Hu.

Tu-kiu in 550 AD iron workers, Durko tribal name, under the name Assena, between Altai and Syr Daria, escaped from the Tung-hu. Durko, Tu-kio, Turks.

Altai Mtns (Kin-Shan) birthplace of Turks.

530 AD became the Tumen(Tumin) Turk prince. Then fell to Chinese, and then Arabian powers. Then back to Turk.

According to Rashid al-DIn in his time: 1) Ogus Turks and their kind were pure Turkic blood, 2) tribes taken for mongols were mongolized Turks, 3) pure Mongol blood lived east and north of the Turkic lands.

Hiung-nu in 2nd century BC living north of China were using iron implements.

Yenisei inscriptions are funeral tributes to the Khans of the Kyrgys, river Orkhon NW Mongolia are from the Tu-kiu.

Kurgan burial sites: Tagara type is the Aryan type, Chaa-tas is Mongolian type.

Prior to 13th century AD central Asia was predominately the Aryan type and less Mongolian admixture.

Bronze age upper Yenisei might have been Turc or else IE.

The "urs"

https://sites.google.com/site/n8iveuropean/home/eurasia/the-urs

The info in this file are only similarities in name only. Some, or all may or may not be related...

Uyghur

https://sites.google.com/site/n8iveuropean/home/eurasia/uyghur

Umay (Ana)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umay

Umay (also known as Umai; in Old Turkic: Old Turkic letter Y1.svgOld Turkic letter M.svgOld Turkic letter O.svg; Kazakh: Ұмай ана, Umay ana; Russian: Ума́й / Ымай, Umáj / Ymaj, Turkish: Umay (Ana)) is the goddess of fertility in Turkic mythology and Tengriism and as such related to women, mothers and children. Umay resembles earth-mother goddesses found in various other world religions.

In Mongolian, Umai means 'womb' or 'uterus'. The earth was considered a "mother" symbolically. The Turkic root umāy originally meant 'placenta, afterbirth', and this word was used as the name for the goddess whose function was to look after women and children, possibly because the placenta was thought to have magic qualities. Literally in the Mongolian language, "eje" or "eej" means "mother," and in Old Turkic, the word eçe also means 'mother'.

Umay is a protector of women and children....Umay not only protects children, but also Turkic communities around the world. At the same time Umay helps people to obtain more food and goods and gives them luck. As Umay is associated with the sun... She is depicted as having sixty golden tresses that look like the rays of the sun....

Bashkirs

http://self.gutenberg.org/articles/eng/Bashkirs

Al-Balkhi (10th century) described Bashkirs as a people divided into two groups, one inhabiting the Southern Urals, the second group living on the Danube plain near the boundaries of Byzantium——therefore – given the geography and date – referring to either Danube Bulgars or Magyars. Ibn Rustah, a contemporary of Al Balkhi, observed that Bashkirs were an independent people occupying territories on both sides of the Ural mountain ridge between Volga, Kama, and Tobol Rivers and upstream of the Yaik river. ...

He described them as a belligerent Turk nation. Ibn-Fadlan described the Bashkirs as nature worshipers, identifying their deities as various forces of nature, birds and animals. He also described the religion of acculturated Bashkirs as a variant of Tengrism, including 12 'gods' and naming Tengri – lord of the endless blue sky....

in the mid-13th century...they spoke the same language as the Hungarians.

During the 10th century, Islam spread among the Bashkirs. By the 14th century, Islam had become the dominant religious force in Bashkir society. By 1236, Bashkortostan was incorporated into the empire of Genghis Khan. During the 13th and 14th centuries, all of Bashkortostan was part of the Golden Horde....

The Bashkirs traditionally practiced agriculture, cattle-rearing and bee-keeping. The half-nomadic Bashkirs wandered either the mountains or the steppes, herding cattle. ...

In the pre-Islamic period the Bashkirs were followers of Tengrianism....

Regarding Y-DNA haplogroups, genetic studies have revealed that most Bashkir males belong to haplogroup R1b (R-M269 and R-M73)...

Because genetic studies have revealed that a majority of Bashkir males belong to Y-DNA Haplogroup R1b, which is otherwise concentrated in Western Europe, this has lent support to theories such as: the "Kurgan hypothesis", i.e. that the original homeland of the Proto-Indo-Europeans lay immediately west of the Ural Mountains, in or near present-day Bashkortostan, and; Mikhail Artamonov's suggestion that the Bashkirs are descended from the Bušxk', a Scythian tribe that became culturally "Turkified" (including a process of language replacement), during the Turkic migrations of the first millennium CE.

Bashkir folk-tales and legends

http://archive.bashkort.org/akiat/index.html

Ch.8 HISTORY OF TATAR PEOPLE

http://s155239215.onlinehome.us/turkic/11Miftakhov/Lecture_8En.htm

The Savirs were Tengrians. In other words, like all Hunnish peoples, Savirs worshipped a Supreme deity Tengre. Savirs became Tengrians in the Western Siberia, where their ancestors intermixed not only with Ugrians, but also with the Huns. In the regions of the Northern Caucasus, Savirs also began to worship trees (trees as a symbol of the Creation, a World Tree, is an essential part of the Tengriism, irrespective of the Northern Caucasus or any other location). Savir’s sacred tree was oak. They especially revered a majestic ancient oak in the vicinity of Varachan (i.e. Belenjer). Annually, in the first full moon in June, a sacrificial horse was brought under this oak. With its blood Savirs sprinkled the ground around the sacred oak. The head and the skin of the horse were hung up on the branches of the tree. Savirs deified not only the Sky - Tengre, the oak, but also the sun, the moon, a thunder, fire and water...

1. Most ancient historical ancestors of Savirs are Phrygs and Sapeans. Phrygs are the descendents of Imens of the Little Rum (Balkan peninsula). Sapeans are one of the Cimmerian clans (Sokhots or Khots). They met in Thrace, i.e. a southeastern part of the Balkan Peninsula. 2. The initial form of the name for the people who arose as a result of the intermixture of Phrygs and Sapeans was Saspirs....

they are also distinguished by their inflatable war banner, a design identical to the Türkic dragon banners; their location in the inaccessible mountain gorges testifies that they were not welcome by their Georgian neighbors; and their tower-homes resemble those of the Irish landscape, each family is a fortress. It is fascinating that in Türkic tradition Svans are identified with Suvars, a most powerful and proud tribe that carried its identity until the 18 c. as owners of the Karajar/Chernihiv state,...

At the end Savirs became a Hunnish people. Relation of the Savirs to Bulgars: Savirs were not descendents of Sumers - soldiers, i.e. Bulgars, they came into the ethnosystem of the Dagestani Bulgars as Huns, not as Bulgars....

Savirs (Suvars): they arose as a result of intermixing of Ugrians with Huns....

Tatars

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatars

Historically, the term Tatars was applied to anyone originating from the vast Northern and Central Asian landmass then known as the Tartary, which was dominated by various mostly Turco-Mongol semi-nomadic empires and kingdoms. More recently, however, the term refers more narrowly to people who speak one of the Turkic languages. ...

The Mongol Empire, established under Genghis Khan in 1206, allied with the Tatars. Under the leadership of Genghis Khan's grandson Batu Khan (c. 1207–1255), the Mongols moved westwards, driving with them many of the Mongol tribes toward the plains of Kievan Rus'. The "Tatar" clan still exists among the Mongols, Hazaras and Uzbeks. The largest group by far that the Russians have called "Tatars" are the Volga Tatars, native to the Volga region (Tatarstan and Bashkortostan), who for this reason are often also simply known as "Tatars". They compose 53% of population in Tatarstan....

The name "Tatar" likely originated amongst the nomadic Mongolic-speaking Tatar confederation in the north-eastern Gobi desert in the 5th century. The name "Tatar" was first recorded on the Orkhon inscriptions: Kul Tigin (CE 732) and Bilge Khagan (CE 735) monuments as Old Turkic letter N1.svgOld Turkic letter D1.svgOld Turkic letter O.svgOld Turkic letter B1.svg:Old Turkic letter R1.svgOld Turkic letter T1.svgOld Turkic letter T1.svg:Old Turkic letter Z.svgOld Turkic letter T1.svgOld Turkic letter O.svg Otuz Tatar Bodun ('Thirty Tatar' clan) and Old Turkic letter R1.svgOld Turkic letter T1.svgOld Turkic letter T1.svg:Old Turkic letter Z.svgOld Turkic letter OQ.svgOld Turkic letter T1.svg Tokuz Tatar ('Nine Tatar') referring to the Tatar confederation.

"Tatar" became a name for populations of the former Golden Horde in Europe,... After the breakup of the Mongol Empire, the Tatars became especially identified with the western part of the empire, known as the Golden Horde.... There is an ethnic nationalist movement among Kazan Tatars that stresses descent from the Bulgars and is known as Bulgarism...

Genetics: According to over 100 samples from the Tatarstan DNA project, the most common Y-DNA haplogroup of the ethnic Volga Tatars is Haplogroup R1a (over 20%), predominantly from the Asian R1a-Z93 subclade. Haplogroup N is the other significant haplogroup.... It was found that mtDNA of the Volga Tatars consists of two parts, but western Eurasian component prevails considerably (84% on average) over eastern Asian one (16%). ... The study of Suslova et al. found indications of two non-Kipchak sources of admixture, Finno-Ugric and Bulgar:... Tatars appeared close to Chuvashes and Bulgarians, thus supporting the view that Tatars may be descendents of ancient Bulgars....

Tara, or Tura is the name of the river in Siberia and town in India, and in Irland, Hungary, Iran, and Slovakia.

Tura-khan a Bashkir historical figure of 14-15 centuries.

mausoleum of Turakhan 15th cty Bashkortostan. By 1236, lands of Bashkortostan were incorporated into the empire of Genghis Khan. During the 13th and 14th centuries, all of Bashkortostan was part of the Golden Horde. The brother of Batu-Khan, Sheibani, received the Bashkir lands to the east of the Ural Mountains. After the breakup of the Mongol Empire, the Bashkirs were divided among the Nogai Horde, the Khanate of Kazan and the Khanate of Sibir, founded in the 15th century.

Seven of Islamic sanctities in Russia

https://www.russia.hr/en/seven-of-islamic-sanctities-in-russia/

Other ancient tomb is located about ten kilometers from the Hussein–bey’s. It belongs to Tura- Khan. According to one version, Tour Khan is a descendant of Genghis Khan, the founder and the first great khan of the Mongolian empire (by the way, it was the empire with the longest land border in the history). According to another version, he was a Muslim educator and Hussein Bey....

Tura

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tura

History of the Mongols: From the 9th to the 19th Century ...

https://books.google.com/books?id=dtlVAAAAYAAJ&lpg=PA998&ots=Xiapu3W-gf&dq=Tura-khan%20a%20Bashkir%20historical%20figure&pg=PA998#v=onepage&q=Tura-khan%20a%20Bashkir%20historical%20figure&f=true

The enumeration of the various kinds of Tartars thus employed in effect against their old chief is interesting as showing how speedily the Russians had made their peace with the indigines The force was duly supplied with artillery ammunition and other requisites The town was not actually planted on the river Tara as originally intended but on a neighbouring feeder of the Irtish the Agarka it however retained its originally intended name of Tara According to instructions...

In order to overawe the district of the upper Irtish and the Tartars who lived in the Barabinski steppe and to restrain Kuchum who was constantly violating the new settlements it was determined in 1594 to build the town of Tara.

By 1206 Genghis Khan had conquered all Mongol and Turkic tribes in Mongolia

https://www.coursehero.com/file/p7c1s5q/By-1206-Genghis-Khan-had-conquered-all-Mongol-and-Turkic-tribes-in-Mongolia-and/

By 1206, Genghis Khan had conquered all Mongol and Turkic tribes in Mongolia and southern Siberia. In 1207 his eldest son Jochi subjugated the Siberian forest people, the Uriankhai, the Oirats , Barga, Khakas , Buryats , Tuvans , Khori-Tumed , and Kyrgyz . He then organized the Siberians into three tumens . Genghis Khan gave the Telengit and Tolos along the Irtysh River to an old companion, Qorchi. While the Barga, Tumed, Buriats, Khori, Keshmiti , and Bashkirs were organized in separate thousands, the Telengit, Tolos, Oirats and Yenisei Kirghiz were numbered as tumens. Genghis created a settlement of Chinese craftsmen and farmers at Kem-kemchik after the first phase of the Mongol conquest of the Jin dynasty . The Great Khans favored gyrfalcons , furs, women and Kyrgyz horses for tribute. Western Siberia came under the Golden Horde . The descendants of Orda Khan , the eldest son of Jochi, directly ruled the area. In the swamps of western Siberia, dog sled Yam stations were set up to facilitate collection of tribute. In 1270, Kublai Khan sent a Chinese official, with a new batch of settlers, to serve as judge of the Kyrgyz and Tuvan basin areas ( 益蘭州 and 謙州 ). Ogedei's grandson Kaidu occupied portions of Central Siberia from 1275 on. The Yuan dynasty army under Kublai's Kipchak general Tutugh reoccupied the Kyrgyz lands in 1293. From then on the Yuan dynasty controlled large portions of Central and Eastern Siberia. The Yenisei area had a community of weavers of Chinese origin and Samarkand and Outer Mongolia both had artisans of Chinese origin seen by Changchun.

TO MY UNDERSTANDING THUS FAR INDO EUROPEANS MIGRATING EAST (AT LEAST BY 1800 BC)

ENCOUNTER A NATIVE PEOPLES POSSIBLY EARLIER EUROPOIDS, AND/OR THE TURS, AND/OR A MORE NATIVE SIBERIAN TYPE PEOPLE SUCH AS URAL SIBERIAN, AND/OR OTHER UNKNOWN NATIVE TYPE PEOPLES. THE HUNS INVADE THE YEUTZI WHICH BEGAN A DOMINO EFFECT OF FUTURE INVASIONS WHERE THE INHABITANTS PUSHED OUT OF ONE LAND PUSHES OUT ANOTHER INHABITANT OF OTHER LANDS WITH A RIPPLE EFFECT THAT HAS LASTED EVEN UNTO TODAYS TIMES. SO THAT THE ORIGINAL INHABITANTS HAVE BEEN REPLACED BY NEW PEOPLES.

THEN AROUND 1ST CENTURY AD CHIN ORIENTAL TYPE PEOPLES MIGRATING WEST AND NORTH INVADED AND PUSHED OUT THE INHABITANTS. THEN MUCH LATER DURING THE 10TH CENTURY AD THE ISLAM INVADERS FROM THE MID EAST MIGRATED IN AND BEGAN A MASS TAKEOVER. I DONT AGREE ENTIRELY WITH THIS ARTICLE. FOR ONE TOCHARIAN IN 1800 BC AS THE EARLIEST INHABITANTS IS UNLIKELY. IT IS MOST PROBABLE IT WAS INHABITED MUCH EARLIER...

Tarim Basin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarim_Basin

Its northern boundary is the Tian Shan mountain range and its southern boundary is the Kunlun Mountains on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau. The Taklamakan Desert dominates much of the basin. The historical Uyghur name for the Tarim Basin is Altishahr (六域), which means "six cities" in Uyghur. ...

The Tarim Basin is the oval desert to the west of China Xinjiang consists of two main geographically, historically, and ethnically distinct regions with different historical names, Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin (Altishahr), before Qing China unified them into one political entity called Xinjiang province in 1884. At the time of the Qing conquest in 1759, Dzungaria was inhabited by steppe dwelling, nomadic Tibetan Buddhist Dzungar people, while the Tarim Basin (Altishahr) was inhabited by sedentary, oasis dwelling, Turkic speaking Muslim farmers, now known as the Uyghur people. They were governed separately until 1884. ...

North side: The Chinese called this the Tien Shan Nan Lu or Tien Shan South Road, as opposed to the Bei Lu north of the mountains. ...Kashgar was where the caravans met before crossing the mountains....

Center: Most of the basin is occupied by the Taklamakan Desert which is too dry for permanent habitation....

South side: Kashgar; Yangi Hissar, famous for its knives; Yarkand, once larger than Kashgar; Karghalik (Yecheng), with a route to India;...The modern road continues east to Tibet. ...

Tarim basin ancient boats; they were used for burials...

The Tarim Basin is the result of an amalgamation between an ancient microcontinent and the growing Eurasian continent during the Carboniferous to Permian periods. At present, deformation around the margins of the basin is resulting in the microcontinental crust being pushed under Tian Shan to the north, and Kunlun Shan to the south. ... Below the level enriched with gas and oil is a complex Precambrian basement believed to be made up of the remnants of the original Tarim microplate, which accrued to the growing Eurasian continent in Carboniferous time. The snow on K2, the second highest mountain in the world, flows into glaciers which move down the valleys to melt. The melted water forms rivers which flow down the mountains and into the Tarim Basin, never reaching the sea....

The Northern Silk Road on one route bypassed the Tarim Basin north of the Tian Shan mountains and traversed it on three oases-dependent routes:... The northern Tarim route ran from Kashgar over Aksu, Kucha, Korla, through the Iron Gate Pass, over Karasahr, Jiaohe, Turpan, Gaochang and Kumul to Anxi.

The southern Tarim route ran from Kashgar over Yarkant, Karghalik, Pishan, Khotan, Keriya, Niya, Qarqan, Qarkilik, Miran and Dunhuang to Anxi. The middle Tarim route, allowing the shortest possible itinerary of all four routes, connected Korla on the northern Tarim route over Loulan across the Lop Nor region with Dunhuang on the southern Tarim route....

The earliest inhabitants of the Tarim Barin may be the Tocharians whose languages are the easternmost group of Indo-European languages.... since at least 1800 BCE. They may be related to the "Yuezhi" ... at the dawning of the 800s with the arriving Turkic immigrants from the collapsing Uyghur Khaganate of modern-day Mongolia began to absorb the Tocharians to form the modern-day Uyghur ethnic group....

Another people in the region besides Tocharian are the Indo-Iranian Saka people who spoke various Eastern Iranian Khotanese Scythian or Saka dialects.... In the Achaemenid-era Old Persian inscriptions found at Persepolis, dated to the reign of Darius I (r. 522-486 BC), the Saka are said to have lived just beyond the borders of Sogdiana. Likewise an inscription dated to the reign of Xerxes I (r. 486-465 BC) has them coupled with the Dahae people of Central Asia. The contemporary Greek historian Herodotus noted that the Achaemenid Persians called all of the Indo-Iranian Scythian peoples as the Saka. They were known as the Sai (塞, sāi, sək in archaic Chinese) in ancient Chinese records. These records indicate that they originally inhabited Ili and Chu River valleys of modern Kazakhstan. In the Chinese Book of Han, the area was called the "land of the Sai", i.e. the Saka....

According to the Sima Qian's Shiji, the nomadic Indo-European Yuezhi originally lived between Tengri Tagh (Tian Shan) and Dunhuang of Gansu, China. However, the Yuezhi were assaulted and forced to flee from the Hexi Corridor of Gansu by the forces of the Xiongnu ruler Modu Chanyu, who conquered the area in 177-176 BC (decades before the Han Chinese conquest and colonization of Gansu or the establishment of the Protectorate of the Western Regions). In turn the Yuezhi were responsible for attacking and pushing the Sai (i.e. Saka) west into Sogdiana, where in the mid 2nd century BC the latter crossed the Syr Darya into Bactria, but also into the Fergana Valley where they settled in Dayuan, southwards towards northern India, and eastward as well where they settled in some of the oasis city-states of the Tarim Basin. Whereas the Yuezhi continued westward and conquered Daxia around 177-176 BC, the Sai (i.e. Saka), including some allied Tocharian peoples, fled south to the Pamirs before heading back east to settle in Tarim Basin sites like Yanqi (焉耆, Karasahr) and Qiuci (龜茲, Kucha). The Saka are recorded as inhabiting Khotan by at least the 3rd century and also settled in nearby Shache (莎車), a town named after the Saka inhabitants (i.e. saγlâ). Although the ancient Chinese had called Khotan Yutian (于闐), it's more native Iranian names during the Han period were Jusadanna (瞿薩旦那), derived from Indo-Iranian Gostan and Gostana, the names of the town and region around it, respectively.

Around 200 BCE, the Yuezhi were overrun by the Xiongnu. The Xiongnu tried to invade the western region of China, but ultimately failed and lost control of the region to the Chinese. The Han Chinese wrested control of the Tarim Basin from the Xiongnu at the end of the 1st century under the leadership of General Ban Chao (32–102 CE), during the Han-Xiongnu War. The Chinese administered the Tarim Basin as the Protectorate of the Western Regions. The Tarim Basin was later under many foreign rulers, but ruled primary by Turkic, Han, Tibetan, and Mongolic peoples.

The powerful Kushans, who conquered the last vestiges of the Indo-Greek Kingdom, expanded back into the Tarim Basin in the 1st–2nd centuries CE, where they established a kingdom in Kashgar and competed for control of the area with nomads and Chinese forces. The Yuezhi or Rouzhi (Chinese: 月氏; pinyin: Yuèzhī; Wade–Giles: Yüeh4-chih1, [ɥê ʈʂɻ̩́]) were an ancient people first reported in Chinese histories as nomadic pastoralists living in an arid grassland area in the western part of the modern Chinese province of Gansu, during the 1st millennium BC. After a major defeat by the Xiongnu, during the 2nd century BC, the Yuezhi split into two groups: the Greater Yuezhi (Dà Yuèzhī 大月氏) and Lesser Yuezhi (Xiǎo Yuèzhī 小月氏). They introduced the Brahmi script, the Indian Prakrit language for administration, and Buddhism, playing a central role in the Silk Road transmission of Buddhism to Eastern Asia.

Three pre-Han texts mention peoples who appear to be the Yuezhi, albeit under slightly different names...

Yúzhī 禺氏 or Niúzhī 牛氏 who supplied jade to the Chinese...For example, hundreds of jade pieces found in the Tomb of Fu Hao (c. 1200 BC) originated from the Khotan area, on the southern rim of the Tarim Basin. According to the Guanzi, the Yúzhī/Niúzhī, unlike the neighbouring Xiongnu, did not engage in conflict with nearby Chinese states....

After the Han dynasty, the Kingdoms of the Tarim Basin began to have strong cultural influences on China as a conduit between the cultures of India and Central Asia to China. Indian Buddhists had previously travelled to China during the Han dynasty...

During the Tang Dynasty, a series of military expeditions were conducted against the oasis states of the Tarim Basin, then vassals of the Western Turkic Khaganate....The expansion into Central Asia continued under Taizong's successor, Emperor Gaozong, who dispatched an army in 657 led by Su Dingfang against the Western Turk qaghan Ashina Helu. Ashina was defeated and the khaganate was absorbed into the Tang empire.... Tang hegemony beyond the Pamir Mountains in modern Tajikistan and Afghanistan ended with revolts by the Turks, but the Tang retained a military presence in Xinjiang. These holdings were later invaded by the Tibetan Empire to the south in 670. For the remainder of the Tang Dynasty, the Tarim Basin alternated between Tang and Tibetan rule as they competed for control of Central Asia.

As a consequence of the Han–Xiongnu War spanning from 133 BC to 89 AD, the Tarim Basin region of Xinjiang in Northwest China, including the Saka-founded oasis city-state of Khotan and Kashgar, fell under Han Chinese influence, beginning with the reign of Emperor Wu (r. 141-87 BC) of the Han Dynasty. Much like the neighboring people of the Kingdom of Khotan, people of Kashgar, the capital of the Shule Kingdom, spoke Saka, one of the Eastern Iranian languages. As noted by the Greek historian Herodotus, the contemporary Persians labelled all Scythians as the Saka....

During China's Tang dynasty (618-907 AD), the region once again came under Chinese suzerainty with the campaigns of conquest by Emperor Taizong of Tang (r. 626-649).[42] From the late 8th to 9th centuries, the region changed hands between the Chinese Tang Empire and the rival Tibetan Empire. By the early 11th century the region fell to the Muslim Turkic peoples of the Kara-Khanid Khanate, which led to both the Turkification of the region as well as its conversion from Buddhism to Islam.

Suggestive evidence of Khotan's early link to India are minted coins from Khotan dated to the 3rd century bearing dual inscriptions in Chinese and Gandhari Prakrit in the Kharosthi script....

The collapse of the Uyghur Khaganate in 840 AD led to the movement of the Uyghurs south to Turpan and Gansu, and some absorbed by the Karluks...In the tenth century, the Karluks, Yagmas, Chigils and other Turkic tribes founded the Kara-Khanid Khanate in Semirechye, Western Tian Shan, and Kashgaria.

The Karakhanids became the first Islamic Turkic dynasty in the tenth century when Sultan Satuq Bughra Khan converted to Islam in 966 and controlled Kashgar....Buddhism lost territory to the Turkic Karakhanid Satok Bughra Khan during the Karakhanid reign around the Kashgar area. The Tarim Basin became Islamicized over the next few centuries. In the tenth century, the Buddhist Iranic Saka Kingdom of Khotan was the only city-state that was not conquered yet by the Turkic Uyghur (Buddhist) and the Turkic Qarakhanid (Muslim) states. The Buddhist entitites of Dunhuang and Khotan had a tight-knit partnership, with intermarriage between Dunhuang and Khotan's rulers and Dunhuang's Mogao grottos and Buddhist temples being funded and sponsored by the Khotan royals, whose likenesses were drawn in the Mogao grottoes. Halfway in the 10th century Khotan came under attack by the Qarakhanid ruler Musa, a long war ensued between the Turkic Karakhanid and Buddhist Khotan which eventually ended in the conquest of Khotan by Kashgar by the Karakhanid leader Yusuf Qadir Khan around 1006.... Khotan's Buddhist buildings were razed by the Muslims, the Buddhist religion had suddenly ceased to exist in Khotan....

Xinjiang did not exist as one unit until 1884 under Qing rule. It consisted of the two separate political entities of Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin (Eastern Turkestan)....

The discovery of the Tarim mummies showed that the early people of the Tarim Basin were Europoids. According to Sinologist Victor H. Mair: "From around 1800BC, the earliest mummies in the Tarim Basin were exclusively Caucasoid, or Europoid." He also said that East Asian migrants arriving in the eastern portions of the Tarim Basin around 3,000 years ago, and the Uyghur peoples "arrived after the collapse of the Orkon Uighur Kingdom, based in modern-day Mongolia, around the year 842." He also noted that the people of Xinjiang are a mixture: "Modern DNA and ancient DNA show that Uighurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyzs, the peoples of central Asia are all mixed Caucasian and East Asian. The modern and ancient DNA tell the same story." Professor James A. Millward described the original Uyghurs as physically Mongoloid, giving as an example the images in Bezeklik at Temple 9 of the Uyghur patrons, until they began to mix with the Tarim Basin's original eastern Iranian inhabitants. The modern Uyghurs are now a mixed hybrid of East Asians and Europoids.

Origin of Yuezhi Tribe

https://www.academia.edu/31033336/Origin_of_Yuezhi_Tribe

As per manusmriti, tocher (yuezhi) is an Aryan tribe and kingdom located in the north west of India. They are Chanda-Vanshi (Moon- root) Arya . In Chinese , Tocharians were mentioned are Yue-chi, which means Moon –Tribe ( Yue for moon and Chi for family). Tocharian language was influenced with Sanskrit, which sows that tocharians were Aryan origin people. Original Tocharians or Tukharas/Tusharas were Iranic Bactrian speakers, which was Aryan languages of Aryans , who had migrate to Bectria ( Iran) side, as Iran was also Indian part in Ancient time. Scythians were neigviour of Yuezhi country. scythians and tocharians are still closely related because they share common indoeuropean heritage and lived for a long time isolated from high developed civilizations which could change their culture radically so they preserved longer old indoeuropan customs and traditions.Scythians probably settled later in the tarim basin than the tocharians but chinese records not recorded a scythian invasion there so they immigrated to this region already before 200 bc when the first chinese records about khotan were written. According to Douglas Q. Adams, the Tocharians may have called themselves ākñi, meaning "borderers, marchers...The historian Bernard Sergent has called them Arśi-Kuči, recently revised to Agni-Kuči.

In the epic Mahabharata, tocher called as Tushar were descendents of ancient Lunar dynasty. In Hindu mythology, the Lunar dynasty (also known as Somavansha, Chandravansha and as Ailas) was one of the four principal houses of the Kshatriya varna, or warrior–ruling caste. This legendary dynasty was descended from the moon (Soma or Chandra), while the other principal houses, the Solar Dynasty (Suryavanshi) claims descent from the sun (surya). The legendary capital of the Lunar dynasty was Pratisthana, said to be founded by Pururavas, the son of Ila and Budha, the illegitimate child of Soma, the moon-god. The Rig Veda (X.95.18) states that he was a son of Ila and was a pious king. According to the Vishnu Purana, his father was Budha, and he was ancestor of the tribe of Pururavas, from whom descended the Kauravas and Pandavas. The tale of his love for the nymph Urvasi is one of the few tales that has caught the Indian imagination for generations. The rg-veda, X.129 contains a conversational fragment, written in a highly wrought poetic style. The hymn suggests that Usas (also known as Urvaśi) is a Gandharvi or Apsara (an aquatic nymph). Having been united with a human king, Purūravas, and after living together for four autumns, suddenly left him on his unintentional violation of the stipulated conditions of the union. Later Purūravas made futile entreaties to her to return to him. The narrative displays multiple levels of symbolism by playing on the multiplicity of meanings in the Vedic Saṃskṛt terms. While it is a love poem, expressing the conflict of interest between a lover and his beloved, who spurns his love, it also expresses the immortal relationship between the Sun (Purūravas) and the Dawn (Uṣas). In addition to these two levels of meaning, it also offers mantric prescriptions for a ritual activity bent on taking rebirth as a Gandharva or Apsaras. The love story of king Pururavas and celestial nymph Urvashi is found in the Sanskrit drama, Vikramōrvaśīyam, written by the celebrated poet Kalidasa . The Vedic Vayupurana mention Chandravanshi king Pururava and his Queen Ira. Pururava’s younger son, Amavasu founds the kingdom of Kanyakubja (modern Kannauj). The dynasty again splits into two after the reign of Ayus, the eldest son of Pururavas. Nahusa, the eldest son of Ayus, obtains the position of Indra in the heaven but is banished from there when he lusts after Sachi, the wife of Indra. Ksatravrddha, another son of Ayu, establishes the dynasty of Kashi (Varanasi). His descendents were called Kaseyas.

Nahusa’s son and successor Yayati was a renowned conqueror and was reckoned as a cakravartin. He had five sons Yadu and Turvasu from Devayani, the daughter of Sukra, the preceptor of asuras and Druhyu,Anu and Puru from Sarmistha, the daughter of asura king Vrsaparva. Yayati installs Puru, the youngest but the most dutiful son as his successor in the ancestral sovereignty in Pratisthana.The elder sons obtain the outlying areas. From the sons of Yayati descend the five famous royal lines of the Yadavas, the Turvasus, the Druhyus, the Anavas and the Pauravas....

animosity between the Xiongnu and the Yuezhi...A large part of the Yuezhi, vanquished by the Xiongnu, were to migrate to southern Asia in the 2nd century BCE, and later establish the Kushan Empire....Kushans as Gurjars or Gujjar...the word Gusur, which means Kulputra or a "man or woman born in high family", stands for Gurjara. Kusana is a gotr (Part ) Gurjars living in India and Pakistan. Now a days, this theories is widely accepted that Gurjars of India, Pakistan, afganitan are descendent of ancient Yuezhi or tochar of Tarim besin.

Other theories about meaning of word, Gujjar or Gurjar: In different countries the word “Gujjar” has come to be known differently but yet it has not changed altogether e.g. Gurjar( North India), Gorjar( East India), Gujjar( Nortwest india and Pakistan),Gojar (Kazakhastan) , Gujar ( Afganistan and Iran), Muslim Ughur ( Western China), Gusarova (Russia), Gusar (Turkey and Chechenya ), Huna-girian( Hangari:Means Giri: Mountain area of Hunas) and Chechen (Chechenya)....

Pundit Vasudeva Prasad a famous Sanskrit Pandit of Banaras, has proved through ancient Sanskrit literature that the word “Gujjar” used to be spoken after the names of antique “Kashatrias”. Scientific evidence also has proved that Gujjar belong to “Aryans”.... According to these historians, Lord Krishan Ji with some of the Kashatrias who survived the Mahabarat War abandoned Mathura and went towards the west to Dwarik. The ancient Kashatria clans thronged around Lord Krishna who United them into a class and named it as “Gurjar” and their Government come to be known as “Gujratar”, the first capital of which was established at Dawarika....

Some of the Yuzhi were farmers but most were known as traders. They often were involved in the long distance trading of jade and horses to the rulers of agricultural China (Liu: 286). The Yuzhi were known for being great traders in their former land of China, where they constantly were trading their resources. According to Sima Quin, an ancient historian, the Yuzhi may be considered as the people that initiated the trading along the Silk Roads. He also adds that the Yuzhi started the horse for silk transactions, and thus gave fame to the Chinese silk products (Liu: 278)....

The region is surrounded by some of the world’s tallest mountains: the Pamirs on the west, the Altai Mountains on thenorth, and the Kunlun Mountains to the south. The province is bisected by the Tianshan (Tängri Tagh), or Heavenly Mountains. The famous Silk Road passed through this region.In 1884, the Qing Dynasty, the Manchu Dynasty ruling China at the time, named theregion. Xinjiang , meaning ‘New Territory.’ After 1955, the region was renamed the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) (id.), so called because the XUAR is the traditionalhomeland of one of the largest minority groups in China: the Turkic-speaking Uyghurs.However, the XUAR is actually home to 47 different ethnic groups (Mallory and Mair 2000: 9).The Uyghurs arrived in the Tarim Basin ca. 800 CE from their Mongolian homeland. Biologicalevidence, as we shall see, supports the arrival of East Asians, or early Chinese, ca. 300 BCE.Prior to this, the Tarim Basin was inhabited primarily by those we now call ‘Tokharians’.... This connection, and the name “Tokharian” itself, originally arose from an Old Uyghur translation of a Sanskrit Buddhist text, called the Maitreyasamiti (Uyghur Maitrisimit) in which one of the languages into which these texts were translated was called ‘Twghry,’ or tokhri Original Old Uyghur text (based on Adams 1998: 2):3. Scholars then associated tokhri with Strabo’s writings in which the Tokharians were named as a nomadic group that defeated one of the Greek rulers of Bactria (now Kazakhstan), across thePamir Mountains to the west of Xinjiang. Baumer further places these Kaukasier , Caucasians, in modern Turkmenistan with the “Yamnaya-Kultur,... the Indo-European Tocharian languages in the Tarim Basin. Notable mummies are the tall, red-haired... The mummies had aquiline nose and long skulls, thin lips, reddish-blond or brown hair; deepset round eyes and among the adult males, prolific facial hairand other unmistakably Indo-Aryan features....

to accommodate these foreign hordes into the social set-up of the Hindus. The foreigners were expected to practice same normal pieties as the Hindus According to James Tod, this ancient testimony from Manu presents a conclusive proof of a perfect intercourse which had existed between the people of Oxus (Central Asia) and those of the Ganges region in remote antiquity.... Puranas:...punished these foreigners by changing their hair-styles and turning them into degraded Kshatriyas. These are the first known invaders in the recorded history of the sub-continent. The invaders were eventually assimilated into the local community as Kshatriyas 2....

Puranic traditions (Bhagavata Purana) say that Budha, the patriarchic figure the Yadu, Turvasa, Druhyu, Anu and Puru clans had come from Central Asia to Bharatkhand to perform penitential rites and he espoused Ella, the daughter of Manu, by whom was born Pururavas. Pururavas had six sons, one of whom is said to be Ayu. This Ayu or Ay is said to be the patriarch figure of the Tartars of Central Asia as well as of the first race of the kings of China....

The Puranic Bhuvanakosha attests that the boundaries of Bharata varsa extended in the Uttarapatha as far as the Vamkshu or Oxus in Central Asia. The Oxus to be the northmost limit of thegeographical territories once included in the Bharata varsa... The Puranic Bhuvanakosha attests that Bahlika or Bactria was the northern-most Puranic Janapada of ancient India and was located in Udichya or Uttarapatha division of Indian sub-continent. The Uttarapatha or northern division of Jambudvipa comprised very vast area of Central Asia, as far as the Urals and the Caspian Sea to the Yenisei and from Turkistan and Tien Shan ranges to as far as the Arctic...

Mudra-Rakashasa drama: The Buddhist drama Mudra-rakshas by Visakha Dutta as also the Jaina work Parisishtaparvan refer to Chandragupta's alliance with Himalayan king Parvatka. The Himalayan alliance gave Chandragupta a composite formidable army made up of the Shakas, Yavanas, Kambojas, Kiratas, Parasikas and Bahlikas as attested by Mudra-rakashas. With the help of these frontier martial tribes from Central Asia, Chandragupta was able to defeat the Greek successors of Alexander the Great and the Nanda/Nandin rulers of Magadha so as to found the powerful Maurya empire in northern India.

Raghuvamsha tells of a war expion of king Raghu (Chandragupta Vikramaditya) against the Parasikas (Sassanians), Xiongnu as and the Kambojas located in northern division or Uttarapatha. The encounters with the Xiongnu as and the Kambojas had occurred around river Oxus, right in Central Asia....

Rajatarangini of Kalhana makes king Lalitaditya Mukatapida of Kashmir undertake a war expion against his neighboring countries. He launched onto the region of north (from Kashmir) against the Kambojas, Tusharas, Bhauttas, Daradas, Valukambudhi, Strirajya and Uttarakurus (mythical or not). There is also a reference to the humiliation of the Xiongnu as by Lalitaditva in the Rajataramgini.34The nations named above are all located in Central Asia....

This ancient epic evidence shows that there was an intensive political and military intercourse between the Mid Indians and the Central Asians.Mahabharata brackets the Kambojas, Shakas and the Khashas together and styles them as tribes of Udichya or Uttarapatha, which obviously means Central Asia.... beyond the Uttara (north) are located the Mlechcha Janas (tribes) like the Yavanas, Kambojas, Darunas, Kiratas and other Mlechchas/Barbarians.... Rishikas (q.v.), Tusharas/Tukharas (Tokharoi/Tokaroi) and the Yuezhis probably were either same or an allied people.... In Balmiki Ramayan, King Dasratha was known as Gurtar, i.e. Gurjar . In many research it is proves that Yuezhi is Chineeese nomenclature for Gurjars. Also it is proves that Tocharion and Yuezhi were same . "It is important to note that the Chinese word 'Yue-che" is pronounced as "Gu( r )t-tia" according to Karl-Gren, meaning the "Moon People"....

Tocharian languages: IndoEuropean Tocharian family, an Eastern ("A") form and a Western ("B") form...

next neighbor to Hittite, with which it e.g.shares the absence of palatalization, common among the regional neighbors as Indic and Iranian....

Ancient History of Central Asia

https://www.academia.edu/13946543/Ancient_History_of_Central_Asia?email_work_card=view-paper

Haplogroup N (mtDNA)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_N_(mtDNA)

All mtDNA haplogroups found outside of Africa are descendants of either haplogroup N or its sibling haplogroup M.... both N and M later evolving outside the continent.... haplogroup N is by far the predominant haplogroup in Western Eurasia, and haplogroup M is absent in Western Eurasia, but is predominant in India and is common in regions East of India. ...

The hypothesis of Asia as the place of origin of haplogroup N is supported by the following:

Haplogroup N is found in all parts of the world but has low frequencies in Sub-Saharan Africa. According to a number of studies, the presence of Haplogroup N in Africa is most likely the result of back migration from Eurasia. The oldest clades of macrohaplogroup N are found in Asia and Australia.... N1 is the only sub-clade of haplogroup N that has been observed in Africa. However N1a is the only one in East Africa: this haplogroup is even younger and is not restricted to Africa, N1a has also been detected in Southern Siberia and was found in a 2,500-year-old Scytho-Siberian burial in the Altai region.... The distribution of the earliest branches within haplogroups M, N, and R across Eurasia and Oceania provides additional evidence for a three-founder-mtDNA scenario ...

Haplogroup N is the ancestral haplogroup to almost all clades today distributed in Europe and Oceania, as well as many found in Asia and the Americas. It is believed to have arisen at a similar time to haplogroup M. Haplogroup N subclades like haplogroup U6 are also found at high to low frequencies in northwest and northeast Africa due to a back migration from Europe or Asia during the Paleolithic ca. 46,000 ybp, the estimated age of the basal U6* clade. The haplogroup N descendant lineage U6 has been found among Iberomaurusian specimens at the Taforalt site, which date from the Epipaleolithic....

Haplogroup N's derived clades include the macro-haplogroup R and its descendants, and haplogroups A, I, S, W, X, and Y. ...

THE TURCS... R1b, R1a, AND Q1a2 RULED THE WORLD.

Y-chromosome haplogroups from Hun, Avar and conquering Hungarian period nomadic people of the Carpathian Basin

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2019/04/03/597997.full.pdf

Abstract: Hun, Avar and conquering Hungarian nomadic groups arrived into the Carpathian Basin from the Eurasian Steppes and significantly influenced its political and ethnical landscape. In order to shed light on the genetic affinity of above groups we have determined Y chromosomal haplogroups and autosomal loci, from 49 individuals, supposed to represent military leaders. Haplogroups from the Hun-age are consistent with Xiongnu ancestry of European Huns. Most of the Avar-age individuals carry east Eurasian Y haplogroups typical for modern north-eastern Siberian and Buryat populations and their autosomal loci indicate mostly unmixed Asian characteristics. In contrast the conquering Hungarians seem to be a recently assembled population incorporating pure European, Asian and admixed components. Their heterogeneous paternal and maternal lineages indicate similar phylogeographic origin of males and females, derived from Central-Inner Asian and European Pontic Steppe sources. Composition of conquering Hungarian paternal lineages is very similar to that of Baskhirs, supporting historical sources that report identity of the two groups. ...

(The following Hg's are abreviated here. For actual subclade refer to article)

Hun period: Y HG= Q1a2, R1b, R1a. Early Avar period: C2, G2a, I1, R1a, mostly N1a. Middle and late Avar period: C2, N1a, E1b. Conqueror period: E1b, J1, N1a, R1a, G2, I1, I2a, R1b, Q1a, J2a.

Autosomal SNP-s We have predicted eye, hair and skin color phenotypes ...All Hun and Avar age samples had inherently dark eye/hair colors,... 6/14 Avar age samples were characterized with >0,7 black hair; >0,99 brown eye p-values, inferring 86,5% probability of non-European biogeographic ancestry... In contrast the Conquerors showed a wide variety of phenotypes clustered by cemeteries...displayed European phenotypic patterns; blue eye and/or light hair with pale skin....

Population genetic data rather position the Conqueror elite among Turkic groups, Bashkirs and Volga Tatars...

Haplogroup R1 (R-M173)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_R1

Haplogroup R1, or R-M173, is a Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup. A primary subclade of Haplogroup R (R-M207), it is defined by the SNP M173. The other primary subclade of Haplogroup R... Males carrying R-M173 in modern populations appear to comprise two subclades: R1a and R1b, which are found mainly in populations native to Eurasia (except East and Southeast Asia)...

Ancestor: R (R-M207). Descendants: R1a (M420), R1b (M343).

The origins of haplogroup R1 remain unclear. It and its sibling clade R2 (R-M79) are the only immediate descendants of Haplogroup R (R-M207). R is a direct descendant of Haplogroup P1 (P-M45), and a sibling clade, therefore, of Haplogroup Q (Q-M242).

There were few areas in which Haplogroups P-M45, Q-M242 and R-M207 were all common amongst prehistoric populations. R-M207 and its subclades were most common along an axis from Western Europe to South Asia[citation needed], whereas Q-M242 was the most common Y-DNA lineage among Native Americans. However, both P-M45 and its immediate descendants also appear to have been relatively common in Central Asia and Siberia.

Haplogroup R1 is very common throughout all of Eurasia except East Asia and Southeast Asia. Its distribution is believed to be associated with the re-settlement of Eurasia following the last glacial maximum. Its main subgroups are R1a and R1b. One subclade of haplogroup R1b (especially R1b1a2), is the most common haplogroup in Western Europe and Bashkortostan (Lobov 2009), while a subclade of haplogroup R1a (especially haplogroup R1a1) is the most common haplogroup in large parts of South Asia, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Western China, and South Siberia.

Individuals whose Y-chromosomes possess all the mutations on internal nodes of the Y-DNA tree down to and including M207 (which defines Haplogroup R) but which display neither the M173 mutation that defines haplogroup R1 nor the M479 mutation that defines Haplogroup R2 are categorized as belonging to group R* (R-M207).

IF I UNDERSTAND CORRECTLY:

R* (R-M207) = R - R1 - R2 ; R = M207; R1 = M173; R2 = M479

R* has been found in 10.3% (10/97) of a sample of Burusho and 6.8% (3/44) of a sample of Kalash from northern Pakistan...

The split of R1a (M420) is computed to ca 25,000 years ago (95% CI: 21, 300–29, 000 BP), or roughly the last glacial maximum. ...

R1b (R-M343): Haplogroup R1b probably originated in Eurasia prior to or during the last glaciation. It is the most common haplogroup in Western Europe and Bashkortostan.(Lobov 2009) It may have survived the last glacial maximum, in refugia near the southern Ural Mountains and Aegean Sea.

R-M343 (previously called Hg1 and) is the most frequent Y-chromosome haplogroup in Europe. It is an offshoot of R-M173, characterised by the M343 marker. An overwhelming majority of members of R-M343 are classified as R-P25 (defined by the P25 marker), the remainder as R-M343*. Its frequency is highest in Western Europe (and due to modern European immigration, in parts of the Americas). The majority of R-M343-carriers of European descent belong to the R-M269 (R1b1a2) descendant line....

THIS TOWN HAS FEATURES SIMILAR TO ATLANTIS. I WONDER IF THIS SETTLEMENT WAS INFLUENCED IN SOME WAY BY THE ATLANTEANS?

Discovery of Ancient Chinese City Rewrites History

https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/ancient-chinese-city-0013728

Experts believe the ruined urban settlement in Zhengzhou dates back 5,300 years. This means that Chinese civilization and cities are much older than is commonly assumed.... The site is massive and covers an area over 3 million square feet (279000 sq meters) and is on the south bank of the Yellow River . The Archaeology News Network reports that, ‘The ruins are one of the largest tribal clusters of the middle and late phases of Yangshao Culture, emerging around 7,000 years ago during the Neolithic Age’. It appears that the settlement was ringed by three deep trenches forming a complex defensive system for the prehistoric urban center. It had a central residential area and there is even evidence of urban planning. Also uncovered was a rudimentary sanitation system, storehouses, even a road system....silk was produced at Shuanghuaishu....ancient silk production’. This provides evidence that silk was being produced in the Middle Kingdom over five millennia ago.... credited with teaching people how to grow crops such as rice and millet...the ruined city comes from ‘a period of time when the earliest China was being incubated’....

THE CHINKS, OR CHINKY PEOPLE REFERS TO THE CHINGGISID PEOPLE OF CHINGGIS KHAN. THESE CHINKS INVADED EURASIA, AND PARTS OF EUROPE STEALING LANDS AND TECHNOLOGIES THEN TRADED THE STOLEN LOOTS, AND TAXED THEIR SUBJECTS. CHINKY KHAN TRUELY WAS A TYRANICAL MONARCH EMPIRE OF FORCED INTEGRATION. UNITED SLAVES TODAY RUNS ITS TYRANNICAL EMPIRE MUCH THE SAME WAY BUT UNDER AN OLIGARCHIC DEMOREPUBLICRATIC REGIME. THE SEMITIC INFLUENCE IS ALSO VERY EVIDENT IN CENTRAL ASIA, MID EAST, AND INDIA AT THAT TIME. HOW MUCH OF THE ORIGINS OF RELIGIONS, AND TECHNOLOGIES CAME FROM THE TURCS, ARYANS, AND SEMITES IS DIFFICULT TO ESTABLISH SINCE SO MUCH WAS INTEGRATED....

THE MONGOL TRANSFORMATION: FROM THE STEPPE TO EURASIAN EMPIRE1

https://www.academia.edu/3708386/The_Mongol_Transformation_From_the_Steppe_to_Eurasian_Empire

What event or occurrence has been more notable than the beginning of the government of Chinggis Khan, that it should be considered a new era? (Rashìd al-Dìn)...

In terms of political-religious ideology, the Mongols followed the precedents established by earlier steppe empires that originated in Mongolia, notably the Xiongnu (third century BCE to fourth century CE), the Turks (sixth to eighth centuries CE), and their successors, the Uighurs(744-840), among which the Turkic Empire was by far the most influential. Those empires developed an ideology that legitimized the appearance

and endurance of a super-tribal unit, and employed a military organization as an important structural element in the consolidation of such units.

The primary source of super-tribal unity in the steppe world was the belief in Tengri (Heaven), the supreme sky god of the steppe, who was able to confer the right to rule on earth to a single clan. The heavenly charisma resided in the royal clan, individual members of which could be elevated to the Khaqanate, the supreme office of the ruler, or toppled; but non-members could not aspire to the throne. (Whether this notion originated in the Chinese concept of the Mandate of Heaven, in a similar Iranian concept or in an Indo-Aryan concept brought first to the steppe and then into China is unimportant.)...

Yet the Khaqan also had certain shamanic functions (apparent, for example, in the coronation ceremony), which enabled him to depose the shamans if they threatened his authority. The center of the world ruled by the Khaqan was the area around the Ötükän mountains near the Orkhon river in Central Mongolia (where the Turks left their famous inscriptions and where the Mongol capital, Qaraqorum, was built more than four hundred years later), a territory that was considered the sacred land of the nomadic world already under the Xiongnu....

The Orkhon inscriptions attest that the Turks were fully aware of the connection between the need to remain outside of the realm of the sedentary world, with its seductive luxuries, and their ability to retain their distinct identity and the military superiority that enabled them to extract revenue from China....

The Mongols owed much to their direct predecessors on the margins of the steppe, especially their ability to combine nomad and sedentary territories and populations under effective rule. These states provided the Mongols with ready-made pools of officials, experienced in mediating foreign rule, either from the indigenous bureaucrats and scribal classes of those states, or, more commonly, from ex- (or post)-nomads who were already active (mainly as bureaucrats, governors or merchants) under the Mongols’ predecessors. The important roles of the ex-nomads Uighurs, Khitans and, to a lesser extent, the Khwarazmians and Khurasanians in the ranks of the early Mongol Empire certainly support this notion...

Chinggis Khan died in 1227, ruling over the greatest territory any one man had ever conquered, from north China to the Caspian Sea. His heirs continued to expand, creating an empire that at its height (1259) streched from Korea to Hungary, from Yunnan (in South China) to Iraq.... One major factor for both the Mongol success and the revolution it created was the unprecedented amount of destruction that accompanied the Mongol conquests, which resulted (among other things) in the annihilation, transfer and downgrading of sizable segments of the established Eurasian elites....

Another significant reason for the Mongol success was their willingness to learn from their subjects and their skill in doing so. They borrowed and adapted institutions from different edges of their empire (again mainly from either the Muslim world or China), both for the conquest and for the consolidation of their empire....

The phenomenal achievements of Chinggis Khan turned the Chinggisids into the new royal clan of the steppe. The Chinggisid principle, according to which only descendants of the Great Khan were eligible to bear the titles khan or khaqan, was sustained in Inner Asia for centuries, long after the dissolution of the Mongol empire...

The Mongols’ active role originally derived from the fact that the formation of the empire, its continued expansion, and the establishment of its administration required a huge mobilization of people through out the empire, and this mobilization was the first step towards cross cultural exchange and integration. The mobilization is to be explained primarily by demographic considerations.... Mongol state concentrated more on the control of people and herds than on territorial gains. The demographic balance also meant that in order to continue expanding, the Mongols had to make use of the already conquered subjects....and sent them to fight across Eurasia, a process continued in the even larger scale campaigns of his heirs....

Another factor that encouraged mobilization was the Mongol policy of ruling through strangers, a practice originating from the Mongol’s numerical inferiority and their fear of potential local resistance.r of potential local resistance....The Mongols preferred foreigners who originated in the inter-regional nomadic empires, people who were not only skilled in the laws of the cities but also had connections to the steppe (e.g. Khitans, Uighurs, Khwarazmians), though other talented people (the famous example is Marco Polo) were also welcome.... These Mongol attitudes created innumerable opportunities for crosscultural contacts. Most of what was transmitted was not the Mongol’s ethnic culture but elements of the cultures of their sedentary subjects, yet the Mongols initiated most of these exchanges;... The Mongols showed great interest in field that were compatible with their own norms, mostly with their shamanic beliefs, such as astronomy, divination, medicine (=healing) or geomancy....

Even after the empire dissolved into the four khanates, Mongol governments continued to promote both local and international trade, which provided taxes, markets, profits and prestige....The wide-ranging mobilization and expanding trade led to frequent and continuous moves of people, goods, ideas, plants, and viruses through out Eurasia. This in turn not only encouraged integration but also created means that facilitated further contacts, such as maps, which gave a visual dimension to the broadening horizons of the Eurasian people, multi-lingual dictionaries, and of course travel literature. The effect of the integration are apparent, for example, in the diffusion of information and technologies (e.g., gunpowder and distilling alcohol) in the adoption of “Tatar dress” in fourteenth century England, in Yuan and Ming China, in Ilkhanid and post-Ilkhanid Iran, in Chaghadaid and Timurid Central Asia and in Mamluk Egypt. The famous pasta was imported from the Middle East by both China and Italy, and the Bubonic plague travelled all the way from south China to Europe and the Middle East....

The Mongol conquests and the four khanates they later created also played important roles in defining later political and ethnic entities. In China the Mongol legacy was unification... On the other hand, it also resulted in assimilation of large numbers of steppe peoples (Uighurs, Khitans, Jurchens, Tanguts and even Mongols) into Chinese society, especially from the fourteenth century onward....

The Mongols also contributed to Iran’s emergence as a distinct political and ethnic entity within the Muslim world....as the preferred vehicle for writing history and soon became the written lingua-franca of the Turco-Mongolic world; and the ethnic composition of the population became much as it has since remained, i.e. including many Turkic and Turco-Mongolian nomads. As for the rest of the Middle East, the Mongols’ annihilation of the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad, reduced Iraq, once the center of the Islamic world, to a neglected frontier province, as it has remained almost ever since. Egypt, the only Muslim state to successfully defy the Mongols, improved its position as another center of the Muslim world....

In Russia, the Mongols contributed significantly to the rise of Moscow, though the exact nature of this contribution is still debated. Moreover, Moscow used its claim as the successor to the Horde to justify its later expansion, and the emergence of Russia as a Eurasian power (as opposed to the few European city states in Kievan Rus times) can be traced to the legacy of the Horde....

In Central Asia the situation was more complex....From the fourteenth century onward, most of the pre-Mongol steppe peoples were either assimilated in the sedentary civilizations surrounding them, mainly in China or Iran, or reduced to clan or tribal units in the new collectivities established by the Mongols. After the disintegration of the empire these new collectivities had to refashion their identities....

As for Western Europe, its main benefit from the Mongol period was not geo-political or ethnic but intellectual. Indeed it avoided the initial demolition and (unlike India and Egypt), after 1260, was hardly bothered by Mongol raids or the threat of them; its own economic growth enabled it (principally the Italian city-states) to fully benefit from the new channels of trade and travel opened by the Mongols....However, it took several centuries (and overcoming the Black Death)...

In Central Asia the adherence to the Chinggisid legacy was also expressed in the continued importance of the Yasa, the collection of laws ascribed to Chinggis Khan. Even after the Islamization of the Mongols in the fourteenth century the Yasa continued to be adhered to alongside Muslim law, the Sharìaa, each having its own sphere of influence.... In Moghul India, the Yasa (orTùràh) continued to be followed....

R-M207 WAS THE LIKELY FIRST PEOPLE THAT HUNTED THE LANDS FROM ATLANTIS WEST COAST EUROPE TO SIBERIA, AND WERE PROBABLY THE FIRST MODERN PEOPLE IN AFGHANISTAN AT LEAST 30,000 YEARS AGO. TODAY THEY ARE ONLY 34% OF THE POPULATION IN HINDU KUSH BUT IS STILL THE MAJORITY. SOME MID EAST PEOPLES AND CAUCASIANS MIGRATE IN DURING THE NEOLITHIC. POST ICE AGE BRINGS IN MORE PEOPLE FROM EUROPE, INDIA AND IRAN.

C HG NOT IN THE AREA UNTIL AFTER 1200 AD.

THE Q PEOPLE MUST HAVE MIXED WITH THE C PEOPLE IN THE FAR EAST AS THEY CAME TO AMERICA. SOME Q NATIVE AMERINDS ARE MORE MIXED WITH THE C PEOPLE THAN OTHER Q PEOPLE WHICH IS WHY SOME NATIVE AMERINDS LOOK MORE CHINKY THAN OTHERS. THE Q PEOPLE ARE RELATED TO R PEOPLE AS BOTH ARE DESCENDED FROM P. THUS SOME C PEOPLE ADMIXED WITH NATIVE AMERINDS AS THE Q PEOPLE MIGRATED FROM ALTAI EASTWARD INTO AMERICA...

Afghan Hindu Kush: Where Eurasian Sub-Continent GeneFlows Converge

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0076748

Despite being located at the crossroads of Asia, genetics of the Afghanistan populations have been largely overlooked. It is currently inhabited by five major ethnic populations: Pashtun, Tajik, Hazara, Uzbek and Turkmen...the people of Afghanistan are made up of a mosaic of components representing various geographic regions of Eurasian ancestry. The absence of a major Central Asian-specific component indicates that the Hindu Kush, like the gene pool of Central Asian populations in general, is a confluence of gene flows rather than a source of distinctly autochthonous populations that have arisen in situ:...

The earliest archaeological evidence of modern humans in the area dates back some 30,000 years; it was found in the northwest of Pakistan on the South Asian side of the Hindu Kush...Urban culture flourished in the region, beginning with the widespread BMAC (Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex) of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, late in the third millennium BC. The unknown BMAC language can be triangulated from the loan words that it transmitted to Old Iranian (Avestan, Old Persian), Old Indian (Vedic) and Tocharian; the latter was spoken in westernmost China (Xinjiang). This language seems related to North Caucasian in the west and to Burushaski from the high Pamirs in the east, both form part of the Macro-Caucasian language family...

Pastoral nomadism in western Central Asia, and in parts of eastern Central Asia, was characterized by Indo-European speakers first, followed by Indo-Iranian, then Iranian, until Turkic, Altaic-speaking people finally took over.... there is no evidence of admixture between them [Kalash] and East Asians, and they preserve, even today, many traces of early Indo-Aryan (pre-Vedic) mythology and rituals, while their language corresponds to very archaic Indo-Aryan...

Alexander the Great’s army subdued the area around 330 BC... Around 600 AD, the western part of central Asia was invaded by nomad Turkic tribes who established the currently Turkic speaking areas...The presence of nomad Turkic tribes was first reported around 200 BC with the creation of the first Central Asian nomad empire. The Turkic conquests went on for a thousand years when they were interrupted by the Mongol expansion after 1200 AD:...

Although the historic Mongol incursions have been strongly supported by genetic studies, interpretation of genetic data concerning prehistoric events in Central Asia is still controversial. A publication based on Y-chromosome data proposed that Central Asia was a source of at least 3 major waves of migration leading into Europe, the Americas and India. However, mitochrondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup diversity in populations living in Turkey, Georgia, Iran, and Central Asia suggested that the predominant direction of gene flow was from west (the Fertile Crescent) to east (Pakistan). This alternative hypothesis is further supported by a recent genome wide (GWAs) study consistent with such a western influx during the Neolithic period, involving linguistic changes, caprine domestication, and wheat farming. Such results seem to be consistent with the linguistic and ethnic changes described above....

None of the genetic structure simulations (K = 2 to K=15, see Figure S1) show any ancestral component (AC) specific to, or even dominant in Central Asia, except for the Kalash. We identified nine ACs which reflect geographically localized sets of SNPs with shared genetic ancestry in these region...Overall, none of these subcontinental ACs revolve around Central Asia but decline towards it instead. The Afghan Hindu Kush samples, in line with other Central Asian populations, are characterized by a mixture of ACs that are dominant in East, South or West Eurasia....

the Kalash differ from this analysis. At K= 7, they exhibit two main ACs, one being predominant in Europe and the Caucasus (dark blue AC 4) and the other in the Indus Basin and the Indian sub-continent (dark green AC 5). At K= 9, the Kalash acquire their own specific AC reflecting doubtlessly restricted gene flows into this long-term remote ethnic group...

autosomal data,...reveal Central Asia as being quite homogeneous despite its linguistic heterogeneity....The sub-continent clustering is apparent in the Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The first Principal Component separates Western Eurasia (including the Indian sub-continent) from Eastern Eurasia reflecting a west/east axis, with Central Asia marking the transition zone. The second PC separates the Indian sub-continent from Eurasia. Among the broad geographic regions, Europe, the Middle and Near East, Caucasus and the Indus Basin display the tightest clusters; Peninsular India, Siberia and East/South Asia clusters are rather broad; whereas the Central Asia cluster is the most diffuse and loose, sitting at the convergence of the axes described above. The Altaic speaking populations appear in different parts of this cluster whereas the Indo-European speaking populations lie in the left part, with the exception of the Hazara. Interestingly, while the Pakistani Hazara form a tight cluster, the Hazara in the Afghan Hindu Kush are more spread out. Moreover, Tajik, Uzbek and Turkmen samples collected in Afghanistan do not genetically behave like those in their respective eponymous republics. On the contrary, the Pashtun, whether from Afghanistan or Pakistan, form a more genetically homogeneous ethnic group....

Mitochondrial DNA

Because of the very large diversity of mitochondrial haplogroups described here, they were gathered into the following 14 main haplogroups: C4, F1, Z3, Z7, R0, T, U5, W3, J1, U7, M30, M4, U2 and R2. We observed a close pattern between Tajik and Uzbek. Their only differences are the absence of haplogroup F1 and a very low frequency of U5 in Uzbek, whereas, Tajik lack both M4 and Z3 haplogroups. The Turkmen population is characterized by the complete absence of the U5 and U7 haplogroups that are present in all other populations. The Pashtun population is characterized by a high frequency of U2 and R0 haplogroups and the exclusive presence of haplogroup Z7. Furthermore, Pashtun are the only population to lack M30, W3, and Z3 haplogroups. Concerning the Hazara population, they show the highest frequencies for F1, C4, M30,and Z3 haplogroups. In addition, the Hazara lack J1 and T haplogroups, present in all other Hindu Kush populations studied. Although the Hazara population has the highest percentage of haplogroups typical of East Eurasia (33.3%), the lower level of resolution of published data does not allow to trace them to specific populations.

Y-Chromosome

94% of the chromosomes are distributed within the following 9 main haplogroups: R-M207 (34%), J-M304(16%), C-M130 (15%), L-M20 (6%), G-M201 (6%), Q-M242(6%), N-M231 (4%), O-M175 (4%) and E-M96 (3%). Within the core haplogroups observed in the Afghan populations, there are sub-haplogroups that provide more refined insights...

C3b2b1-M401 lineage that is amplified in Hazara, Kyrgyz and Mongol populations. Haplogroup G2c-M377 reaches 14.7% in Pashtun, consistent with previous results, whereas it is virtually absent from all other populations. J2a1-Page55 is found in 23% of Iranians, 13% of the Hazara from the Hindu Kush, 11% of the Tajik and Uzbek from the Hindu Kush, 10% of Pakistanis, 4% of the Turkmen from the Hindu Kush, 3% of the Pashtun and 2% of the Kyrgyz and Mongol populations. Concerning haplogroup L, L1c-M357 is significantly higher in Burusho and Kalash (15% and 25%) than in other populations. L1a-M76 is most frequent in Balochi (20%), and is found at lower levels in Kyrgyz, Pashtun, Tajik, Uzbek and Turkmen populations. Q1a2-M25 lineage is characteristic of Turkmen (31%), significantly higher than all other populations. Haplogroup R1a1a-M198/M17 is characterized by its absence or very low frequency in Iranian, Mongol and Hazara populations and its high frequency in Pashtun and Kyrgyz populations. Kyrgyz and Pashtun display the lowest Y-chromosome genetic diversity, whereas populations from Iran show the highest Ychromosome genetic diversity....

Hazara showed a high degree of East Asian admixture for autosomal and both haploid loci...Some Y chromosome lineages, especially haplogroup C3, show evidence for an East Asian origin with subsequent gene flow predominantly towards Central Asia. Several studies reported C3 Y-chromosome haplogroup in Mongols and other north Eurasian populations. Haplogroup C3 is the most frequent and widespread subclade....

The amplified C3b2b1-M401 signal found in Afghan Hazara and Mongols as well as in the Kyrgyz shows a correlation with latitude and longitude. The enhancement of resolution within haplogroup C3 has important implications for future studies. First, it should allow tracking of the Mongol invasions by Genghis Khan and identification of affiliated descendants since the 13th century, as well as detection of possible dispersal of C3 lineages during prehistoric migrations. Secondly, the new improved phylogenetic resolution reported here provides new insights into the diversification of this important sub-clade including the component that was involved in the population of the American continent. Thus, better resolution within haplogroup C3 may help localize candidate Siberian precursors of some native North Americans, since phylogenetic analysis of a single native north American C3b1-P39 derived chromosome indicated that the nearest molecular ancestor was C3b-M532*(xM86,M504,M546). The Native American sample derived for P39 used in determining the phylogenetic relationship was the type specimen from the YCC collection described in the original 2002 nomenclature Genome Research paper. For comparison, the native American haplogroup Q precursor has recently been shown to originate from southern Altai.

Our haploid data support the scenario of a limited number of family members accompanying Mongol soldiers on foreign expeditions. Family accompaniment was probably subject to further restriction when permanent occupation with subsequent colonization was planned, since these operations required full-scale nomadic life with strict military discipline. Under these circumstances, mixing with the local population was probably extensive. This hypothesis is also supported by the fact that within one century after occupying Southeastern Europe, the Mongols were already speaking Kypchak Turkic. Similarly, the absence of East Asian ancestry components in the classical Persian heartland, clearly shows that political and military control by Genghis Khan and his sons had limited effects on the genetic structure of heavily populated areas like Iran, the Indus Basin or South Caucasus.

Central Asia displays very high genetic diversity... North Hindu Kush populations display some degree of genetic isolation compared to those in the South, and that Afghan paternal lineages reflect the consequences of pastoralism and recent historical events. However, these studies focused on the Pashtun and our results showed that this ethnic group is not representative of the other Afghan populations....

Our autosomal and haploid data suggested that the Afghan Hindu Kush populations exhibit a blend of components from Europe, the Caucasus, Middle East, East and South Asia.... the fact that all the ancestral components reach a lower frequency when in Afghanistan supports the model of a convergence of migrations. Concerning haploid markers, the absence of Y-chromosome ‘‘star-clusters’’ such as those observed in the Mongol population, suggests that there have not been any founder events leading to expansions out of Afghanistan;...

The Inner Asian Mountain Corridor (IAMC) proposed by Frachetti provides a scenario that underlines the common hunter-gatherer background, followed by much more extensive interactions due to inter-regional pastoralism from c. 3000 BC, leading to a common substrate which then extended to neighboring groups. This would have led to the significant grouping due to geography, where the mountains exert more influence, instead of due to language. This interpretation of genetic structure is also consistent with the historical and genetic data of the western side of the Hindu Kush....

The decreasing frequency of the J2a1-Page55 haplogroup toward the east (negative correlation with latitude and longitude) might indicate that epipaleolithic and Neolithic migrations from Iran to Pakistan and Afghanistan may have affected several non-Indo-European languages in the region. Admixture of Tajik from the Ferghana and Oxus valley with northeastern nomads, the future Kyrgyz, Kazakh, and Uzbek speakers (all Turkic speaking now), was a long process. Estimations based on glottochronology indicated that the split between Indo-Aryan and Indo-Iranian proper took place around 4700 years ago. At that time, Kalasha, a Dardic language (Indo-Aryan branch), broke off from Indo-Iranian which is itself ancestral to Persian, Tajiki, Baluchi, Ossetian, just as it is to Indo-Aryan (Vedic Sanskrit, etc.).... a significant Mongol-Siberian ancestry component had not reached Central Asia/the Middle East before that time. Indeed, there are no Altaic components in the ancestral Indo-Iranian language. Since this feature is not displayed to a significant extent by present-day Iranian speakers in Iran (Persians), it can be concluded that there had been no such admixture of Indo-Iranians when Indo-Iranians and Indo-Aryans still formed a single group.

Conclusion

Although the modern Afghan population is made up of ethnically and linguistically diverse groups, the similarity of the underlying gene pool and its underlying gene flows from West and East Eurasia and from South Asia is consistent with prehistoric post-glacial expansions, such as an eastward migration of humans out of the Fertile Crescent in the early Neolithic period, and the arrival of northern steppe nomads speaking the Indo-Iranian variety of Indo-European languages. Taken together, these events led to the creation of a common genetic substratum that has been veneered with relatively recent cultural and linguistic differences.

CARPATHIAN BASIN 5TH CENTURY HUN AGE WERE A PURE TURCIC STRAIN OF Q AND R HG's FROM Q1a, R1b, AND R1a SUBCLADES. IN THE AVAR PERIOD 6TH CENTURY EAST ASIANS, CAUCASIANS, MID EAST, AND NORTH SIBERIAN HG's MINGLE IN AS WELL AS DURING 9TH AND 10TH CENTURY CONQUERER PERIOD. THE HUNGARIAN CONQUERERS HAVE PATERNAL LINEAGE SIMILAR TO THE BASHKIRS BUT, MATERNALLY SIMILAR WITH VOLGA TATARS. ...

Y-chromosome haplogroups from Hun, Avar and conquering Hungarian period nomadic people of the Carpathian Basin

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-53105-5

Hun, Avar and conquering Hungarian nomadic groups arrived to the Carpathian Basin from the Eurasian Steppes and significantly influenced its political and ethnical landscape, however their origin remains largely unknown. In order to shed light on the genetic affinity of above groups we have determined Y chromosomal haplogroups and autosomal loci, suitable to predict biogeographic ancestry, from 49 individuals, supposed to represent the power/military elit. Haplogroups from the Hun-age are consistent with Xiongnu ancestry of European Huns. Most of the Avar-age individuals carry east Eurasian Y haplogroups typical for modern north-eastern Siberian and Buryat populations and their autosomal loci indicate mostly un-admixed Asian characteristics. In contrast the conquering Hungarians seem to be a recently assembled population incorporating un-admixed European, Asian as well as admixed components. Their heterogeneous paternal and maternal lineages indicate similar supposed phylogeographic origin of males and females, derived from Central-Inner Asian and European Pontic Steppe sources....

Between 400–453 AD the Huns held possession of the region and brought about a major population reshuffling all over Europe. Recent genetic data connect European Huns to Inner Asian Xiongnus, but genetic data from Huns of the Carpathian Basin have not been available yet, since Huns left just sporadic lonely graves in the region, as they stayed for short period. We report three Y haplogroups (Hg) from Hun age remains, which possibly belonged to Huns based on their archaeological and anthropological evaluation.

From 568 AD the Avars established an empire in the region lasting nearly for 250 years, until they were defeated by the Franks and Bulgars in 803, then their steppe-empire ended around 822 AD. In its early stage the Avar Khaganate controlled a large territory expanding from the Carpathian Basin to the Pontic-Caspian Steppes and dominated numerous folks including Onogur-Bulgars, which fought their independence in the middle 7th century and established the independent Magna Bulgaria state. Then the Avar Khaganate was shrunken, its range well corresponding to that of the succeeding Hungarian Kingdom. The Avars arrived in multiple waves into the Carpathian Basin and the Avar period left a vast archeological legacy with more than 80 thousand excavated graves in present-day Hungary. The Avar age remains are anthropologically extremely heterogeneous, with considerable proportion of Mongoloid and Europo-Monoloid elements reaching 20–30% on the Great Hungarian Plain2, attesting that the Carpathian Basin witnessed the largest invasion of people from Asia during this period.

Most individuals buried with rich grave goods show Mongoloid characters indicating inner Asian origin of the Avar elite, which is also supported by their artifact types, titles (e.g. khagan) and institutions recognized to be derived from Inner Asian Rourans. From the Avar period only a few mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) data are available from two micro-regions which showed 15.3% and 6.52% frequency of East Eurasian elements. A recent manuscript described 23 mitogenomes from the 7th-8th century Avar elite group and found that 64% of the lineages belong to East Asian haplogroups (C, D, F, M, R, Y and Z) with affinities to ancient and modern Inner Asian populations corroborating their Rouran origin. Though the Avar Khaganate ceased to exist around 822 AD, but its population survived and were incorporated into the succeeding Hungarian state. It is relevant to note

that none of the Hungarian medieval sources know about Avars, probably because they were not distinguished from the Huns as many foreign medieval sources also identified Avars with Huns, for example the Avars who were Christianized and became tax-payer vassals of the Eastern Frankish Empire were called as Huns in 871....

Our recent analysis of conquering Hungarian (hence shortened as Conqueror) mitogenomes revealed that the origin of their maternal lineages can be traced back to distant parts of the Eurasian steppe. One third of the maternal lineages were derived from Central-Inner Asia and their most probable ultimate sources were the Asian Scythians and Asian Huns, while the majority of the lineages most likely originated from the Bronze Age Potapovka-Poltavka-Srubnaya cultures of the Pontic-Caspian steppe. Population genetic analysis indicated that Conquerors had closest connection to the Onogur-Bulgar ancestors of Volga Tatars.... So far 6 Y-chromosome Hg-s have been published from the Conquerors; which revealed the presence of N1a1- M46 (previously called Tat or N1c), in two out of 4 men, while detected two R1b-U106 and two I2a-M170 Hg-s....

Hg U106 is considered a “Germanic” branch as it is most significant today in Germany, Scandinavia, and Britain, and rare in Eastern Europe. Its ancestral branch Hg R1b1a1b-M262 is assumed to have emerged in the Pontic-Caspian Steppe and arrived to Europe with Bronze Age migrations. Its presence in Hun and Conqueror samples may derive from Goths, Gepids or other German allies of the Huns.

U152 is the Italo-Celtic R1b branch, concentrated around the Alps, and which was present in the Carpathian Basin before the conquer, so did not necessarily arrived with the Conquerors....

All Hun and Avar age samples had inherently dark eye/hair colors, DK/701 being the only exception. Moreover 6/14 Avar age samples were characterized with >0,7 black hair; >0,99 brown eye p-values, inferring 86,5% probability of non-European biogeographic ancestry in agreement with their anthropological, archaeological and historical evaluation. In contrast the Conquerors showed a wide variety of phenotypes clustered by cemeteries. All individuals from the Sárrétudvari (SH), Magyarhomorog (MH) and majority from the Kenézlo (KEF) graveyards displayed European phenotypic patterns; blue eye and/or light hair with pale skin. In the three Karos cemeteries darker eye/hair colors predominated, 4/20 individuals having p-values consistent with non-European origin, nevertheless 5/20 individuals had light hair color indicating a rather mixed origin of this population, concurrent with their mtDNA and Y chromosomal Hg composition....

All Hun age individuals revealed admixture derived from European and East Asian ancestors, while 8/15 Avar age individuals showed predominantly East Asian origin with both methods, 4 individuals were definitely European, while two showed evidence of admixture.... Conqueror samples from the Magyarhomorog (MH) and Sárrétudvari (SH) cemeteries showed mostly European ancestry in agreement with their phenotypes and Y Hg-s, though MLR detected a significant east Asian ancestry component and the SH/103 women was classified east Asian despite her blond hair. The Karos (K) and Kenézlo (KEF) populations were profoundly admixed, comprising individuals of purely East Asian, European and mixed origin in nearly identical proportions, again in agreement with results obtained from uniparental and phenotypic markers....

We have tested two SNP-s (rs4988235 and rs182549) associated with the adult lactase persistence phenotype in Europe. Individuals carrying derived alleles in these loci are able to digest lactose in dairy products during adulthood without symptoms of lactose intolerance. Allele frequency of the persistence genotype varies through out Eurasia, reaching above 90% at some parts of Northwestern Europe, around 80% in present day Hungary, but drops below 30% in Central Asia and even lower in East Asia....It is remarkable that the persistence genotype seems to be associated with European origin, as all of the carriers were predicted to have predominantly European ancestors....

The Avars are obviously mapped to the Siberian side...The Conquerors are positioned between eastern Europeans, Central Asians and Siberians but their exact relations are hard to make out because of the crowding at the European side....Conquerors remained between Central Asians and eastern Europeans,...

The origin and composition of the Conqueror paternal lineages fairly mirrors that of their maternal ones; 20,7% of the Y-Hg-s originated from East Eurasia, this value is 30,4% for mtDNA; proportion of west Eurasian paternal lineages is 69% compared to 58,8% for mtDNA; while proportion of lineages with north-western European and Caucasus-Middle East origin are nearly the same affirming that both males and females of similar origin migrated together. Both MDS analysis of the entire Conqueror Y chromosome pool and PCA of their N1a lineages indicates that their admixture sources are found among Central Asians and eastern European Pontic Steppe groups, a finding comparable to what had been described for maternal lineages. Composition of the Conqueror paternal lineages is very similar to that of Baskhirs, while their maternal composition was found most similar to Volga Tatars....

The Conqueror-Bashkir relations are also supported by historical sources, as early Hungarians of the Carpathian Basin were reported to be identical to Baskhirs by Arabic historians like al-Masudi, al-Qazwini, al-Balhi, al-Istahri and Abu Hamid al-Garnati, latter visited both groups at the same time around 1150 AD and used the term Bashgird to refer to the Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin. In addition parallels were found between several Conqueror and Bashkir tribe names and Bashkiria has been identified with Magna Hungaria, the motherland of Conquerors.

The Sárrétudvari commoner cemetery seems distinct from the others, containing other sorts of European Hg-s. Available Y-chromosomal and mtDNA data from this cemetery suggest that common people of the 10th century rather represented resident population than newcomers. The great diversity of Y Hg-s, mtDNA Hg-s, phenotypes and predicted biogeographic classifications of the Conquerors indicate that they were relatively recently associated from very diverse populations.

In contrast the studied Avar military leader group had a much more uniform origin. The Avar group carried predominantly East Eurasian lineages in accordance with their known Inner Asian origin inferred from archaeological and anthropological parallels as well as historical sources. However the unanticipated prevalence of their Siberian N1a Hg-s, sheds new light on their prehistory....

The genetic profile of the Avar and Conqueror leader groups seems considerably different, as latter group is distinguished by the significant presence of European Hg-s; I2a1a2b-L621, R1b1a1b1a1a1-U106 and the Finno-Permic N1a1a1a1a2-Z1936 branch. Their Siberian N1a1a1a1a4 subclade also points at different source populations among ancestors of Yakuts, Evenks and Evens. Nevertheless the east Eurasian R1a subclade,

R1a1a1b2a-Z94 seems to be a common element of the Hun, Avar and Conqueror elite. In contrast to Avars, all three Hun lineages have parallels among the Conquerors, but strong inferences cannot be drawn due to small sample size....

Population genetic data rather position the Conqueror elite among Turkic groups, Bashkirs and Volga Tatars, in agreement with contemporary historical accounts which denominated the Conquerors as “Turks”. This does not exclude the possibility that the Hungarian language could also have been present in the obviously very heterogeneous, probably multiethnic Conqueror tribal alliance....

WITH EXCEPTION OF TRACE ELEMENTS ALTAI IS MOSTLY TURC Q AND R MALE HG"s MIXED WITH A LITTLE N. SOUTH ALTAI WAS INVADED BY MONGOL C MALE HG WHICH ACCOUNT FOR ABOUT 1 IN 5 MALES.

ALTAI GETS DIVERSITY MAINLY FROM MANY WOMEN. ALTAI IS MOST DIVERSE AMONG FEMALES mtDNA, AND LEAST DIVERSE AMONG MALES YDNA. ALTAI KIZHI IS THE MOST DIVERSE.

YDNA: CHELKANS ARE MOSTLY N1b, Q1a3a, R1a1a1. KUMANDIN ARE MOSTLY N1b, R1b1a1. TUBALAR ARE MOSTLY R1a1a1, Q1a3a, N1. ALTAI KIZHI ARE MOSTLY R1a1a1, Q1a3a1c, C3, C3c1, D3a.

mtDNA: ALTAI ARE MOSTLY C AND D.

AMERINDS ARE FROM SOUTHERN ALTAI SHARING SIMILAR Q AND C HG's....

Mitochondrial DNA and Y Chromosome Variation Provides Evidence for a Recent Common Ancestry between Native Americans and Indigenous Altaians

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3276666/

Northern Altaian ethnic groups include the Chelkan, Kumandin, and Tubalar. The Altai-kizhi, Teleut, and Telengit were grouped together as southern Altaians, along with a few other smaller populations.... The northern AltAi languages also showed greater influences from Samoyedic, Yeniseian, and Ugric languages, possibly reflecting their origin among the ancestors of these present-day peoples. By contrast, southern Altaian languages

belong to the Kipchak branch of Turkic language family and have been greatly influenced by Mongolian, especially after the expansion of the Mongol Empire...

The evidence from the mtDNA and NRY data supports the hypothesis that northern and southern Altaians generally formed out of separate gene pools. This complex genetic history involves repeated migrations into (and probably out of) the Altai-Sayan region. In addition, the histories as revealed by these data added nuances that could not be attained through low-resolution characterization alone. The NRY data provided the clearest evidence for a significant genetic difference between the two sets of Altaian ethnic groups. Although sharing certain NRY haplogroups, the two population groups differed in the frequencies of these lineages, and, more importantly, shared few haplotypes with them. By contrast, northern and southern populations shared considerably more mtDNA haplotypes indicating that some degree of gene flow had occurred between them, albeit in a sex-specific manner....

Not much is known about the ethnogenesis of northern Altaians. However, it has been suggested that they descended from groups that historically lived around the Yenisei River and spoke either southern Samoyedic, Ugric, or Yeniseian languages. These populations are the same ones that later contributed to the formation of the Kets, Selk’ups, Shors, and Khakass in northwestern Siberia and the western Sayans of southern Siberia. Furthermore, the Chelkans and Tubalars possess a large number of Q1a3a* Y chromosomes with dramatically different STR profiles compared to other southern Siberians (Altai kizhi and Tuvinians) and Mongolians.... northern Altaians having common ancestry with Samoyedic, Yeniseian, and Ugric speakers. In fact, Chelkans and Kumandins also have N-P43 Y chromosomes very similar to ones found in the Ugric-speaking Khanty. Regardless, there is notable genetic discontinuity between northern Altaians and other Turkic-speaking people of southern Siberia.

Southern Altaians share greater affinities with Mongolians and Central Asians than they do with northern Altaians. This is partly because of the high frequencies of Y chromosome haplogroup C in these groups. In fact, present-day Kyrgyz are nearly indistinguishable from the Altai-kizhi based on their NRY haplogroup profile. They share similar C-M217 and R-M417 lineages with the Altai-kizhi, suggesting a recent common ancestry for the two groups, which further supports the theory of a recent common ancestry among southern Siberians and Kyrgyz....

Despite the general absence of Native American haplotypes in southern Siberia, there are sister branches whose MRCAs are shared with those in Native Americans. ...attribute its presence in northeast Asia to a back migration from the NewWorld,...Results obtained from the Y chromosome analysis support the view that southern Siberians and Native Americans share a common source...showed a similarity in NRY Q and C types among southern Altaians and Native Americans...

Our coalescence analysis suggests that the two derived branches of L54 (M3 and L330/L334) diverged soon after this mutation arose. Estimates using the evolutionary Y-STR mutation rate place the origin of this marker at around 22,000 years ago, with the two branches diverging at roughly 13,400 years ago.... In addition, the coalescence estimates of northern and southern Altaian Q Y chromosomes show that they, too, are similar to the overall TMRCA estimates. This concordance suggests that a rapid expansion probably occurred for this particular Y chromosome branch around 15,000–20,000 years ago. Given previous estimates for the timing of the initial peopling of the Americas, this scenario seems plausible, because these estimates fall in line with recent estimates of indigenous American mitogenomes...

For the mtDNA, it is well known that haplogroups A–D and X largely make up the maternal genetic heritage of indigenous peoples in the Americas.... Although Altaians possess the five primary mtDNA haplogroups found in the Americas, these lineages are not exactly the same as those appearing in Native Americans at the subhaplogroup level. This is also true for other Siberian populations except in those few instances where gene flow across the Bering Strait brought some low frequency types back to north eastern Siberians....

To explore the NRY variation in Altaian populations, 116 biallelic polymorphisms were characterized in 189 male individuals, resulting in 106 Y chromosome lineages. Northern Altaian populations were composed largely of haplogroups Q and N-P43, whereas southern Altaians had a higher proportion of R-M417, C-M217/PK2, C-M86, and D-47....

The maternal genetic ancestry of northern and southern Altaian populations was explored by characterizing coding region SNPs and control region sequences from 490 inhabitants of the Altai Republic, which yielded 99 distinct mtDNA haplotypes defined by SNP and HVS1 mutations. The majority of mtDNAs were of East Eurasian origin,...Haplogroups C and D were the most frequent mtDNA lineages in the Altaians, consistent with the overall picture of the Siberian mtDNA gene pool. However, phylogeographic analysis of these lineages showed a greater diversity of haplotypes in the southern Altaians compared to northern Altaians....

KUMANDIN ARE OUR R1b BROTHERS IN THE EAST WHICH ARE THE NATIVE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE OF NORTH ALTAI SINCE THE VERY BEGINNING OF ALTAI. KUMANDIN ARE FROM RM73 BRANCH. YAMNAYA FORM THE M269 BRANCH. BUT BOTH M269 AND M73 ARE FROM R1b-M343. R1b IS FROM R1-M173; R1-M173 IS FROM R-M207 (AKA K2b2). THIS K2b2 MALE DESCENDS FROM THE FOUNDATION OF ALL EUROPEANS K2 TO R1b LINEAGE. SOME OF THESE K2 THE FIRST SURVIVING HAPLOGROUP OF EUROPEAN MALES THEN MIGRATE EASTWARD FROM WEST EUROPE TO EURASIA AND SIBERIA WHERE THEY FORM THE MALTA CULTURE, ALTAI INDUSTRY, YAMNAYA, INTO AFRICA, DOWN INTO SUMERIA, IRAN, INDIA, ETC... R1b BACK MIGRATES TO WEST EUROPE FROM HIS EASTERN DOMAINS SINCE HIS FIRST MIGRATIONS FROM WEST EUROPE IN PALEOLITHIC AS K2 HG. BASQUES MAYBE FROM THE FIRST R1b BACK MIGRATION, OR A DIRECT LINE WHICH EVOLVED IN WEST EUROPE FROM THE K2 ANCESTOR OF PALEOLITHIC WEST EUROPE AS R-M207 IS THE FIRST WEST EUROPEAN. THIS SURVIVING FIRST EUROPEAN PEOPLE R1b FROM K2 LINEAGE HAS SPANNED WEST EUROPE TO SIBERIA SINCE PALEOLITHIC TIMES...

Kumandins

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumandins

Nothern Altai Kumandin... The Kumandins (natively, Kumandy, Kuvandy(g)) are a Turkic indigenous people of Siberia. They reside mainly in the Altai Krai and Altai Republic of the Russian Federation. They speak the Nothern Altai Kumandin language.... Omeljan Pritsak claimed that kuman- in the name of the Kumandins is identical in meaning to the names given to the Turkic people...

Genetics. Genetically, the Kumandins are different from the neighboring Altai people, into which they were tried to be included in the Soviet years. They are genetically isolated not only from the southern, but also from the northern Altaians. This is evidenced by the complete absence of the variants of the Y chromosome haplogroups—R1a and Q—which are absolutely dominant in Altai. At the same time, the haplogroup R1b is widespread within them, and except for the Kumandins themselves, no one in Altai has found it in any quantity.

By genetic research suggesting that most Kumandin males belong to Y-DNA haplogroups that are generally found in populatüions further to the west, such as R1b (although the Kumandins belong to R1b-M73 rather than R1b-M269, the latter being the subclade to which a majority of Europeans belong) and N-P43 have remarked that, in fact, Chelkans and Kumandins have N-P43 Y chromosomes very similar to ones found in the Ugric-speaking Khanty). However, a majority of mitochondrial DNA lines belonged to the North East Asian haplogroups C or D with also a large minority of west Eurasian lineages such as U5a1 (5/52), H8 (3/52), U4b1b (2/52), X2e (2/52), and T1a (1/52)....

R1a1a-M198 (62%) [67% R-M207] AND L3-M357 (7%) ARE THE MOST COMMON AFGAN. BUT NEITHER ORIGINATED THERE. TURCIC TRIBE R1a PROBABLY ORIGINATE IN UKRAINE, OR CENTRAL ASIA ARE PATHANS OF BOTH AFGAN AND PAKISTAN. GREEKS, JEWS, AND IRANIANS PARTITION SEPARATELY FROM AFGAN AND PAKISTANI. L-M20 MAY HAVE ORIGINATED IN MID EAST OR INDIA WHILE L3-M357 MAY HAVE ORIGINATED IN AFGAN OR PAKISTAN. SOME J HG IS FOUND AT ABOUT 2% WHICH WOULD BE JEW BLOOD BROUGHT IN BY THE KAZAR ASHKENZI JEW. IN CONCLUSION PATHANS ARE MAJORITY TURCS OF R1a HG ADMIXED WITH A LITTLE L3 AND G, AND A BIT OF C, H, J, AND Q SUBCLADES....

Afghanistan from a Y-chromosome perspective

https://www.nature.com/articles/ejhg201259

The present study addresses this lacuna by analyzing 190 Pathan males from Afghanistan using high-resolution Y-chromosome binary markers. In addition, haplotype diversity for its most common lineages (haplogroups R1a1a*-M198 and L3-M357)... some degree of genetic isolation of the northern population, likely due to the Hindu Kush mountain range separating it from the southern Afghans who have had greater contact with neighboring Pathans from Pakistan and migrations from the Indian subcontinent. Our study demonstrates genetic similarities between Pathans from Afghanistan and Pakistan, both of which are characterized by the predominance of haplogroup R1a1a*-M198 (>50%) and the sharing of the same modal haplotype. Furthermore, the high frequencies of R1a1a-M198 and the presence of G2c-M377 chromosomes in Pathans might represent phylogenetic signals from Khazars, a common link between Pathans and Ashkenazi groups, whereas the absence of E1b1b1a2-V13 lineage does not support their professed Greek ancestry....

Afghanistan has served as crossroads for human migrations and pilgrimages, including an important stop along the Silk Road. Mesolithic artifacts, Neolithic pottery (about 7.2 kya), bones of domesticated animal and tools (eg, sickle blades used to collect wild grasses) have been uncovered during excavations in the Ghar-i-Mar (Snake Cave) site, in north Afghanistan, indicating early cultivation of wheat and barley (9–11 kya) and domestication of animals (7–9 kya). More recent archeological discoveries include Buddhist relics transported northward from India along the Silk Road, as well as inscriptions engraved on rocks in ancient Hebrew dating from the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries. Although it is still unknown when urban civilizations began in what is now Afghanistan, historians speculate that it possibly occurred between 3 and 4.5 kya. Historical records indicate that Aryans from Iran were the first to occupy Afghanistan (eighth century B.C.E.) followed by Persians (sixth century B.C.E), Greeks (fourth century B.C.E.), Mauryans from India (ushered Buddhism into the region), Greco-Bactrians, Arabs (introduced Islam) and Mongols among others.

The official languages of Afghanistan, Dari and Pashto, are of Indo-European origin and are spoken by the Tajiks and Pathans or Pashtuns, respectively. Pathans live primarily south of the Hindu Kush Mountains and comprise the most prevalent ethnic group in Afghanistan (42%) while representing approximately 15% of the population of neighboring Pakistan....

Overall, only haplogroups R1a1a*-M198 (62.1%), L3*-M357 (7.4%) and G2c-M377 (5.3%) display frequencies and collectively comprise nearly three-fourths of the Afghanistan paternal gene pool. The majority of the Afghan individuals examined in the current investigation belong to haplogroup R-M207 (67.4%), with subhaplogroup R1a1a*-M198 predominating in both the north (50%) and south (65.8%) collections. This is also reflected in the contour maps of R1a1a-M198 and R1a1a*-M198. It is interesting to note that the paralagous branch, R2a-M124, is observed at a considerably higher proportion in north Afghanistan (11.4%) as compared with the south (2.1%) and that haplogroups R2*-M479 (0.7%) and R1b1a2a-L23 (0.7%) are detected, albeit at low frequencies, exclusively in the southern region of the country....

Haplogroup G-M201, which occurs at an average frequency of 7.9% in the Afghan gene pool, is reported at high frequencies in the Caucasus (eg, 74% in Ossetians from Digora) and it is thought to be associated with the Neolithic expansion throughout the region....

Likewise, haplogroups C-M216 (3.4%) and H1a*-M82 (4.1%) are restricted to individuals from the south. Other informative haplogroups that are shared between the north and south include J-M304 and Q-M242. In the north, the aforementioned haplogroups are defined by the J2a*-M410 (2.3%), J2a3-M68 (2.3%) and Q1a3*-M346 (4.5%) mutations. Southern Afghans, in contrast, are characterized by five sub-clades within haplogroup J-M304 (ie, J1*-M267, J2a*-M410, J2a5-M158, J2b1-M205 and J2b2-M241) collectively at frequency of as well as by sub-haplogroups Q1a3*-M346 (1.4%), Q1*-P36.2 (0.7%) and Q1a*-MEH2 (0.7%)....

The Greeks, Ashkenazi Jews and north and south Iranians partition separately from the Pakistani and Afghani collections on the upper-left quadrant. Interestingly, Hazara from Pakistan is an outlier, possibly reflecting its unique ancestry....

The MDS plot based on R1a1a-M198 (Figure 3b) haplotypes was executed to examine the genetic affinities among Pathans from Afghanistan and Pakistan in addition to several other pertinent reference populations. In Figure 3b, Pathans from Afghanistan and Pakistan plot close to each other in the lower-right quadrant, whereas populations from India, Pakistan and Russia loosely cluster in the upper-right section of the graph.

In contrast, the Ashkenazi Jewish collection lies in the upper-left quadrant partitioning distant from all other populations included in the analysis....

In the case of R1a1a-M198, the evolutionary time estimates based on seven Y-STR loci is 7.8±2.2 kya for the Afghanistan populations. The oldest dates for this haplogroup are observed in Pakistan (19.1±2.9 kya) and India (±17.9±3.7 kya). Time estimates for Haplogroup L-M20 in north (14.6±7.3 kya) and south (17.8±8.4 kya) Afghanistan are more recent than in Pakistan (26.3±5.3 kya). When L3-M357 and Ra1a1*-M198 are considered, the same pattern of relative ages are seen across the above-mentioned populations, with the older dates detected in Pakistan and in the Indian subcontinent....

South Central Asian influence in Afghanistan Haplogroup R1a1a*-M198, unlike other haplogroups, which are more geographically confined, is present at informative frequencies in a wide range of populations extending from Northern and Eastern Europe to Eastern Siberia, Central and Southern Asia. Eastern Europe (Ukraine) and South Central Asia are proposed as the most likely places of origin because in both regions R1a1a-M198 is observed at frequencies >50%. According to Underhill et al, the highest Y-STR haplotype diversity for the R1a1a*(xM458) lineage is observed in South Central Asia with a coalescent time of 14 kya, suggesting that this region is the likely source of the dispersal for the M198 mutation. Alternatively, claims that haplogroup R1a1a-M198 originated in South Siberia about 20 kya....

The R1a1a-M198 network indicates that the Afghans exhibit the highest haplotype sharing (total of 69 individuals) with populations from South Central Asia and particularly with Pathans from Pakistan. When the analysis was performed at R1a1a*-M198, we see a similar haplotype sharing with South Central Asia. Unfortunately, Pathans from Pakistan were not included in the analysis because they were not typed at the R1a1a*-M198 resolution....

the second most common seven-loci R1a1a-M198 haplotype...differs from the modal haplotype by one repeat at locus DYS390 and corresponds to the most abundant haplotype of Russia/Ukraine and the Balkans reported by Klyosov....

Haplogroup L-M20, on the other hand, was hypothesized to have originated in India or the Middle East approximately 30 kya. This marker, which is found at 25% in north Afghanistan and 4.8% in the south, has also been previously reported at high frequencies (48%) in the Kallar community of South India as well as in the Druze (35%) population from Israel. Time estimates generated based on seven Y-STR loci within L-M20 lineages for north (14.6±7.3 kya) and south (17.8±8.4 kya) Afghanistan populations are intermediate to those of Pakistan (26.3±5.3 kya) and India (7.5±1.7 kya). Furthermore, Pakistan displays higher haplotype variance (0.548) than India (0.118), suggesting that L-M20 most likely originated in what is today Pakistan rather than in India. In addition, evolutionary time estimates generated for L3-M357 lineages when combining north and south Afghanistan populations (11.4±5.0 kya) are comparable to those computed for Pakistan (10.8±3.8 kya) and higher than India (5.2±2.4 kya) at the seven-loci resolution. This finding supports the notion that the L3-M357 sub-clade is of Afghani or Pakistani origin and subsequently spread southernly to India.

Our study demonstrates close genetic ties between Pathans from Afghanistan and Pakistan.... This phylogenetic relationship is similarly evident in the MDS graph, where all three Pathan populations group close to each other. Also, in the network projection of R1a1a-M198, these populations share various haplotypes. Moreover, the presence of haplogroups L3-M357 and Q1a3-M346 in both Pathans from Afghanistan and Pakistan further supports genetic relationships among Pathans from these two regions.

Although Greeks and Jews have been proposed as ancestors to Pathans their genetic origin remains ambiguous....We envision a plausible scenario in which the converted Khazars could have been absorbed by the early Pathans and that R1a1a-M198 drifted to high frequency in Afghanistan, with the Khazars being the common nexus between Ashkenazi Jews and Pathans....

CONCLUSION

The diversity of Y-chromosome haplogroups in the Afghanistan populations examined in this study reflects the history of the area signaling multiple migrations over thousands of years. Our results indicate that Afghanistan exhibits patrilineal elements from the Neolithic revolution dispersal across Central Asia. The observed haplogroup distribution suggests some degree of genetic isolation of the northern population, likely because of the Hindu Kush Mountain range acting as a barrier and separating them from the southern Afghans who have greater contact with neighboring Pakistan and migrants from the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia. Our study demonstrates genetic similarity among Pathans from Afghanistan and Pathans from Pakistan, supported by a significant number of individuals belonging to haplogroup R1a1a-M198 and sharing the same modal haplotype. Genetic signatures of South Central Asian populations are evident in their patrilineages and may represent gene flow associated with the Silk Road migrations. In addition, the high frequencies of R1a1a-M198 chromosomes and the sharing of seven Y-STR loci haplotypes among Pathans, Ashkenazi Jews and west Russians may represent vestiges from the Khazars of Central Asia that converted to Judaism at the end of the Eighth century C.E., connecting Pathans with certain Ashkenazi Jews by the way of a common Khazar ancestry.

Celtic-Bashkir wolves - R1b peoples (M269)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHQZ4O_SlOA

Sons of the Huns: Warlike Turkic Tribes of the Great Eurasian Steppe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikkja5ApKas

BASED ON WHAT I HAVE GATHERED THUS FAR IF N YDNA AROSE IN EAST ASIA ABOUT 20KYA. A PORTION OF HIS EARLIER ANCESTORS OF K HG 45KYA TRAVELED FROM WEST EURASIA TO EAST ASIA WHERE HE DEVELOPS INTO NO. HE CONTINUES TO SOUTH EAST ASIA WHERE NO DIVERGES INTO N AND O. O CONTINUES SOUTH AND EAST INTO OCEANIA. AS CLIMATE WARMS THE N MALES WHO DEVELOPED IN SE ASIA EXPAND RAPIDLY NORTHWARD AND WESTWARD INTO R1 TERRITORY OF EURASIA AND EUROPE WHERE N REACH EAST EUROPE 4500YA.

MALE HAPLOGROUPS N, O, Q, AND R DESCEND FROM K2. THE DIFFERENCE IS N, AND O DESCEND FROM K2a WHILE Q, AND R DESCEND FROM K2b. N, Q, AND R ARE DEFINED AS TURCS BUT, LINGUISTICALLY OR BY BLOOD? LIGUISTICALLY BY THE RELATIONSHIP OF URAL-ALTAIC LANGUAGES TURCIC VERSUS MONGOLIC. TURC BY BLOOD AS THEY ARE GENETICALLY DISTINCT FROM OTHER GROUPS FOUND WHERE THEY ARE FOUND. IT IS CLAIMED R AND Q DEVELOPED IN THE ALTAI, AND OTHER RESEARCH SHOWS A SMALL PERCENTAGE OF N MIXED IN. THUS, Q AND R COULD BE THE ORIGINAL TURCS AND N MORE RECENTLY CALLED TURC BECUZ THEY AFTER MIXING IN WITH Q AND R BEGIN TO SPEAK THE TURC LANGUAGE AS THE N MIGRATES INTO THE Q AND R TERRITORIES OF EURASIA....

Haplogroup N-M231

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_N-M231

It is most commonly found in males originating from northern Eurasia. It also has been observed at lower frequencies in populations native to other regions, including the Balkans, Central Asia, and East Asia. ...

It is generally considered that N-M231 arose in East Asia approximately 19,400 (±4,800) years ago and re-populated northern Eurasia after the Last Glacial Maximum. Males carrying the marker apparently moved northwards as the climate warmed in the Holocene, migrating in a counter-clockwise path (through modern China and Mongolia), to eventually become concentrated in areas as far away as Fennoscandia and the Baltic...

Nearly all members of haplogroup N among these populations of northern Eurasia belong to subclades of either haplogroup N-Tat or haplogroup N-P43. ... N1b-F2930/M1881/V3743, or N1*-CTS11499/L735/M2291(xN1a-F1206/M2013/S11466), have been found in China and sporadically throughout other parts of Eurasia. ... N2-Y6503, the other primary subclade of haplogroup N, is extremely rare and is mainly represented among extant humans by a recently formed subclade that is virtually restricted to the countries making up the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, and Montenegro), Hungary and Austria. Other members of N2-Y6503 include a Hungarian with recent ancestry from Suceava in Bukovina, a Slovakian, a few British individuals, and an Altaian....

The TMRCA of N1 is estimated to be 18,000 years before present (16,300–19,700 BP; 95% CI). N1 is the most recent common ancestor of all extant members of Haplogroup N-M231 except members of the rare N2-Y6503...

Human Y Chromosome Haplogroup N: A Non-trivial Time-Resolved Phylogeography that Cuts across Language Families

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5005449/

The paternal haplogroup (hg) N is distributed from southeast Asia to eastern Europe....The more southerly distributed sub-clade N4 emerged before N2a1 and N3, found mostly in the north, but the latter two display more elaborate branching patterns, indicative of regional contrasts in recent expansions. In particular, a number of prominent and well-defined clades with common N3a3’6 ancestry occur in regionally dissimilar northern Eurasian populations, indicating almost simultaneous regional diversification and expansion within the last 5,000 years....

Northern Eurasia extends from Scandinavia in the west to Beringia in the east, and present-day Siberia has witnessed modern humans for at least 45,000 years. One of the most prevalent paternal lineages in the northern temperate zone of Eurasia is Y chromosome haplogroup (hg) N, which ranges from the Eurasian Beringia and Amur region in the Russian Far East across northern China and Japan to eastern Europe. It occurs in many Eurasian populations with highly variable cultural, linguistic, and autosomal genome-wide backgrounds. Its phylogenetic neighbor clade hg O exhibits a remarkably different distribution pattern: covering Southeast Asia at high frequency and extending to Sunda and Oceania. The basal NO-M214∗ lineage, the predecessor of N and O, co-distributes with hg O in continental Southeast Asia, albeit at a low frequency....

Analyses of prehistoric specimens suggest that it was the predominant paternal hg in northeast China during the Neolithic period 6.5 thousand years ago (kya) and then declined gradually throughout the Bronze Age up to 2.7 kya. The earliest finding of hg N in Europe comes from Iron Age Hungary, where this hg is virtually absent today....

During our analysis, we recognized that the ∼45,000-year-old ancient DNA sample from the Ust’-Ishim region in the western Siberian Plain carried two variants (M2308 and CTS11667 [NO YDNA HG]), phylogenetically defining the root from which both the extant M214 branch and the ancient individual descended independently. The average number of mutations from the tree root to the tips was 198...

N5-B482 defined lineage was unexpectedly found in a single sample previously determined to be of mixed origin by admixture...∼80% European and/or Mediterranean and 20% Southeast Asian heritage... N4-F2930 is the prevalent N hg observed in Cambodia, Vietnam, and China nowadays... The hgs N3 and N2a diverged around 18.0 kya (95% CI = 15.7–20.0 kya) and coalesced around 13.0 kya (95% CI = 11.3–14.6 kya) and 9.0 kya (95% CI = 7.8–10.9 kya), respectively. ...

Within the Eurasian circum-Arctic spread zone, N3 and N2a reveal a well-structured spread pattern where individual sub-clades show very different distributions. The sub-clade N3b-B187 is specific to southern Siberia and Mongolia, whereas N3a-L708 is spread widely in other regions of northern Eurasia. The deepest clade within N3a is N3a1-B211, mostly present in the Volga-Uralic region and western Siberian Khanty and Mansi populations. Sub-hg N3a2-M2118 is one of the two main bifurcating branches in the nested cladistic structure of N3a2’6-M2110. It is predominantly found in populations inhabiting present-day Yakutia (Republic of Sakha) in central Siberia and at lower frequencies in the Khanty and Mansi populations, which exhibit a distinct Y-STR pattern potentially intrinsic to an additional clade inside the sub-hg N3a2. The neighbor clade, N3a3’6-CTS6967, spreads from eastern Siberia to the eastern part of Fennoscandia and the Baltic States.... N3a3’6 sub-clades is their almost simultaneous regional diversification...The split of these lineages occurred ∼5.0 kya (95% CI = 4.4–5.7 kya), some two millennia after the N3a2-to-N3a3’6 bifurcation around 7.0 kya (95% CI = 6.1–8.3 kya)....

The second widespread sub-clade of hg N is N2a. The split of N2a dates to about 9.3 kya (95% CI = 7.8–10.9 kya).... The absolute majority of N2a individuals belong to the second sub-clade, N2a1-B523, which diversified about 4.7 kya (95% CI = 4.0–5.5 kya). Its distribution covers the western and southern parts of Siberia, the Taimyr Peninsula, and the Volga-Uralic region with frequencies ranging from from 10% to 30% and does not extend to eastern Siberia.... The “European” branch suggested earlier from Y-STR patterns turned out to consist of two clades: N2a1-B528, spread in the southern Volga-Uralic region, and N2a1-L1419, spread mainly in the northern part of that region. Although not all samples fall into any defined N2a1 branches, when Y-STR haplotypes are used in network analysis, potential close affinity to the west Siberian N2a1-B528 sub-branch appears....

The BSP of 94 high-coverage Y chromosomes from hg N showed an increase in effective population size starting at about 4.5 kya... for N3, the initial expansion dynamics seemed to correspond with the estimated coalescent time of N3a3’6-L392, the most diverse and widespread sub-clade of N3. In contrast, N2a showed a relatively slow to moderate expansion....

In Eurasia, geographically more southerly distributed Y chromosome hgs have, as a rule, retained deeper lineages... we observed that clade N4-F2930 emerged prior to the more northerly distributed hgs N2a and N3 despite the fact that the latter two had a far larger sample size...Y chromosome variation low in the temperate and arctic parts of Eurasia. The interior branches of hg N3 (formerly N1c), namely N3c, N3b, N3a1, and N3a2, are spatially quite distinct from one another. In our dataset, the deeper sub-clade N3c-B496 was absent in the northern part of Eurasian mainland... Y chromosomes of the Turkic-speaking Yakuts (Sakha) belong overwhelmingly to hg N3 (formerly N1c1). We found that nearly all of the more than 150 genotyped Yakut N3 Y chromosomes belong to the N3a2-M2118 clade, just as in the Turkic-speaking Dolgans and the linguistically distant Tungusic-speaking Evenks and Evens living in Yakutia. Hence, the N3a2 patrilineage is a prime example of a male population of broad central Siberian ancestry that is not intrinsic to any linguistically defined group of people....

The most striking aspect of the phylogeography of hg N is the spread of the N3a3’6-CTS6967 lineages. Considering the three geographically most distant populations in our study—Chukchi, Buryats, and Lithuanians—it is remarkable to find that about half of the Y chromosome pool of each consists of hg N3 and that they share the same sub-clade N3a3’6. The fractionation of N3a3’6 into the four sub-clades that cover such an extraordinarily wide area occurred in the mid-Holocene, about 5.0 kya (95% CI = 4.4–5.7 kya). It is hard to pinpoint the precise region where the split of these lineages occurred. It could have happened somewhere in the middle of their geographic spread around the Urals or further east in West Siberia, where current regional diversity of hg N sub-lineages is the highest ...

The same timescale that describes the fast expansion of Siberian sub-clades also holds true for the expansion of other N3a3’6 lineages in the European direction, where the spread zones of N3a3-VL29 and N3a4-Z1936 partially overlap in northeastern Europe. Even though our sample of the north Scandinavian (Swedish) Saami is of limited size, the nearly equal presence of both N3a3 and N3a4 Y chromosomes in their hg N3 pool suggests that the frequency pattern of the two lineages has been shaped by random genetic drift in historically small populations dispersed across a wide area. The mid-Holocene (∼4.0–6.0 kya) timing of the rapid spread of sub-clade N3a3’6-CTS6967 coincides with paleoclimatic and archeological evidence that allows us to draw some parallels....

The studies of ancient genomes of Eurasia have revealed that in addition to the Mesolithic hunter-gatherer and Neolithic farmer substrates, contemporary eastern Europeans have genetic heritage in common with the so-called ancient northern Eurasians (ANEs), whose representatives were genetically close to the carriers of the Mal’ta culture of southern Siberia at the Last Glaxial Maximum. [MALTA BOY 24,000BC WAS R YDNA HG AND U mtDNA HG.] It has recently been proposed that the ANE component reached Europe together with the spread of Early Bronze Age steppe-belt Yamna culture, thus making it only distantly related to the Mal’ta. [YAMNA CULTURE WAS SPECIFICALLY R1b YDNA.] The model of three ancestral components of modern Europeans does not fit well with the genetic profiles of some northeastern European populations that show more East Asian influence than is expected from ANEs. This observation hints that an additional element of Siberian gene flow could be represented by the influx of hg N3a3’4 lineages into the region.

Although the socioeconomic and demographic processes that took place during the Bronze Age along the steppe belt might be linked to the spread of at least some branches of Indo-European languages, the expansion of the Uralic linguistic family has been associated with concurrent events along the forest zone of northern Eurasia. The spread of the westernmost hg N branches might be one of the genetic signals of these movements, coinciding mostly, but not entirely, with the present linguistic borders of the Finno-Ugric languages.

Overall, a considerable proportion of men inhabiting much of the Arctic and temperate zones of western and eastern Eurasia share N3a3’6 lineages that date back to the mid-Holocene (4.5–5.0 kya). This common patrilineal ancestry unites widely different linguistic phyla, including Indo-European, particularly Balto-Slavic, branches of the Altaic, such as the Mongolic, Turkic, Tungusic, and Chukotko-Kamchatkan branches, as well as the Balto-Finnic branch of the Finno-Ugric. The improved hg N phylogeny now maps anew the previous homogeneous spread of N3 and N2a into distinctive lineages that in fact arose at various times and spread differently through several independent demographic events....

Origins and history of Haplogroup N1c (Y-DNA)

https://www.academia.edu/21680324/Origins_and_history_of_Haplogroup_N1c_Y_DNA_

Haplogroup N1c is found chiefly in north-eastern Europe...N1c is also prominent among the Uralic speaking ethnicities of theVolga-Ural region...but also among their Turkic neighbours like the Chuvashs (28%), Volga Tatars (21%) and Bashkirs (17%), as well as the Nogais (9%) of southern Russia. N1c represents the western extent of haplogroup N, which is found all over the Far East (China, Korea, Japan), Mongolia and Siberia, especially among Uralic speakers of northern Siberia...and 90% among the Yakuts (all N1c), a Turkic people who live mainly in the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic in central-eastern Siberia.

Origins & History

Haplogroup N is a descendant of East Asian macro-haplogroup NO. It is believed to have originated in Indochina or southern China approximately 15,000 to 20,000 years ago. Haplogroup N1* and N1c were both found at high frequency (26 out of 70 samples, or 37%) in Neolithic and Bronze Age remains (4500-700 BCE) from the West Liao River valley in Northeast China....It is therefore extremely likely that the N1c1 subclade found in Europe today has its roots in the Chinese Neolithic. It would have progressively spread across Siberia until north-eastern Europe, possibly reaching the Volga-Ural region around 5500 to 4500 BCE with the Kama culture (5300-3300 BCE), and the eastern Baltic with the Comb Ceramic culture (4200-2000 BCE), the presumed ancestral culture of Proto-Finnic and pre-Baltic people....

The Bronze Age Indo-European Fatyanovo–Balanovo culture (3200-2300 BCE) progressively took over the Baltic region and southern Finland from 2,500 BCE. The merger of the two groups, Indo-European R1a and Proto-Uralic N1c1, gave rise to the hybrid Kiukainen culture (2300-1500 BCE). Modern Baltic people have a roughly equal proportion of haplogroup N1c1 and R1a, resulting from this merger of Proto-Uralic and Northeast Indo-European populations.... Haplogroup N1c1 is strongly associated with Uralic peoples...R1a branch of Indo-Europeans absorbed and later spread N1c1 lineages around central and easternEurope....

Did Ural-Altaic languages originate with haplogroup N in the Manchurian Neolithic?

If haplogroup N1c, found mainly among Uralic speakers today, did originated in the Manchurian Neolithic, together with other subclades of haplogroup N, it would explain that Uralic languages are related to Altaic languages like Turkic and Mongolic languages and, more distantly also Korean, Japanese and Ainu, as Y-haplogroup N is indeed the unifying factor between all these populations....

Haplogroup NO

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_NO

also known as NO-M214 and NO1, is a human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup. NO is the sole confirmed subclade of Haplogroup K2a1 (K-M2313), which is the sole subclade of Haplogroup K2a (K-M2308). NO is the dominant Y-DNA haplogroup in most parts of eastern and northern Eurasia, including East Asia, Siberia and northern Fennoscandia. ... Based on the projected origins of K2a, K2a1, and the basal haplogroups N* and O* respectively, NO* probably originated in East Asia....

Two sets of ancient remains previously considered as possibly belonging to NO have since been reclassified upstream to K2a.

Ust'-Ishim man dates from approximately 45,000 BP and was found in Omsk Oblast, Russia. (Until 2016 these remains were erroneously classified as K2*.)

Oase 1: the remains found in Romania of a male who lived 37,000-42,000 years BP.

Phylogenetic tree (This phylogeny of haplogroups K2a, K2a1, and NO is based on YFull 2018, Poznik 2016, ISOGG 2018, Karafet 2008.)

K2a K-M2308 (M2308) Found only in the ancient remains "Ust'-Ishim man" (c. 45,000 BP) and "Oase 1" (c. 39,500 BP).

K2a1 K-M2313 (M2313/Z4858) previously not distinguished from K2a.

NO K-M214 (M214/Page39; F176/M2314; CTS5858/M2325/F346; CTS11572) distinguish between NO1 (M214), N and O.

N M231; CTS2947/M2175; Z4891; CTS10118

O M175/P186/P191/P196; F369/M1755; F380/M1757/S27659

The position of NO1~ (CTS707/M2306), a subclade of K2a1 or NO, in this phylogeny is unclear.

The genome sequence of a 45,000-year-old modern human from western Siberia

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4753769/

Ust’-Ishim femur derives from a modern human....correspond to an age of about 45,000 calibrated years BP (46,880–43,210 cal BP at 95.4% probability, SI 1) The Ust’-Ishim individual is therefore the oldest directly radiocarbon-dated modern human outside Africa and the Middle East. Carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios indicate that the diet of the Ust’-Ishim individual was based on terrestrial C3 plants and animals that consumed them, and that an important part of his dietary protein may have come from aquatic foods, probably freshwater fish, something that has been observed in other early Upper Palaeolithic humans from Europe....

Thus, with respect to genetic diversity, the population to which the Ust’-Ishim individual belonged was more similar to present-day Eurasians than to present-day Africans, which likely reflects the out-of-Africa bottleneck shared by non-African populations. The Ust’-Ishim mtDNA sequence falls at the root of a large group of related mtDNAs (the “R haplogroup”), which occurs today across Eurasia. The Y chromosome sequence of the Ust’-Ishim individual is similarly inferred to be ancestral to a group of related Y chromosomes (haplogroup K(xLT)) that occurs across Eurasia today...we estimate the age of the Ust’-Ishim bone to be ~49,000 yrs BP (95% highest posterior density: 31,000–66,000 yrs BP), consistent with the radiocarbon date....

Ust’-Ishim individual clusters with non-Africans rather than Africans....Ust’-Ishim genome shares more alleles with non-Africans than with sub-Saharan Africans...

Ust’-Ishim genome shares more derived alleles with present-day people from East Asia than with present-day Europeans. However, when an ~8,000-year-old genome from western Europe (La Braña) or a 24,000-year-old genome from Siberia (Mal’ta 1) were analyzed, there is no evidence that the Ust’-Ishim genome shares more derived alleles with present-day East Asians than with these prehistoric individuals. This suggests that the population to which the Ust’-Ishim individual belonged diverged from the ancestors of present-day West Eurasian and East Eurasian populations prior to - or simultaneously with - their divergence from each other. The finding that the Ust’-Ishim individual is equally closely related to present-day Asians and to 8,000- to 24,000-year-old individuals from western Eurasia, but not to present-day Europeans, is compatible with the hypothesis that present-day Europeans derive some of their ancestry from a population that did not participate in the initial dispersals of modern humans into Europe and Asia....

The time of admixture between modern humans and Neandertals has previously been estimated to 37,000–86,000 years BP based on the size of the DNA segments contributed by Neandertals to present-day non-Africans. Thus, the Ust’-Ishim individual could predate the Neandertal admixture. From the extent of sharing of derived alleles between the Neandertal and the Ust’-Ishim genomes we estimate the proportion of Neandertal admixture in the Ust’-Ishim individual to 2.3±0.3%, similar to present-day East Asians (1.7–2.1%) and present-day Europeans (1.6–1.8%). Thus, admixture with Neandertals had already occurred by 45,000 years ago. In contrast, we fail to detect any contribution from Denisovans although such a contribution exists in present-day people not only in Oceania but to a lesser extent also in mainland East Asia....

Ust'-Ishim man

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ust%27-Ishim_man

Ust'-Ishim man belongs to Y-DNA haplogroup K2a*, which is defined by the SNP M2308. The two subclades of K2a known from living men, the rare K2a1-Y28299 and the very common NO-M214, belong to a branch distinct from Ust'-Ishim man's. In the original paper, he was classified only as Haplogroup K2 (the clade ancestral to K2a). It may be inferred that K2a emerged in or near South Asia approximately 47,000 years BP – i.e. K2 is estimated to have originated in South East Asia, about 47,000–55,000 BP, while its secondary descendant NO* is believed to have emerged approximately 38,000 to 47,000 BP. He belonged to mitochondrial DNA haplogroup R*, differing from the root sequence of R by a single mutation....

When compared to other ancient remains, Ust'-Ishim man is more closely related, in terms of autosomal DNA to Tianyuan man, found near Beijing and dating from 42,000 to 39,000 years ago; Mal'ta boy (or MA-1), a child who lived 24,000 years ago along the Bolshaya Belaya River near today's Irkutsk in Siberia, or; La Braña man – a hunter-gatherer who lived in La Braña (modern Spain) about 8,000 years ago....

97% OF MODERN AMERIND mtDNA IS A,B,C,D. X IS PRESENT IN NORTHERN AMERINDS. X IS FOUND IN ALTAI AS THE ROOT SOURCE THAT BRANCHES TO EUROPEAN X AND AMERIND X. IN THE PALEOLITHIC ALTAI REGION WAS TURC OF Q AND R YDNA HG'S THEN IN THE NEOLITHIC THE MONGOLOID TYPES MIGRATE INTO SOUTH ALTAI AND MIX WITH THE TURCS EVENTUALLY REPLACING THE TURCS. AMERINDS ARE MOSTLY Q YDNA FROM SIBERIA AND EASTWARD WITH A MINORITY OF R YDNA. WHERE AS R YDNA IS PRIMARILY WEST OF SIBERIA ALL THE WAY TO ATLANTIS GENERALLY SPEAKING.

X mtDNA WAS A PART OF THE ANCESTRAL GENE POOL OF BOTH NORTH AND SOUTH ALTAI AS WELL AS A,B,C,D. X BEING THE MINORITY BOTH IN AMERINDS, AND ALTAI....

The Presence of Mitochondrial Haplogroup X in Altaians from South Siberia

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1226041/

For American Indians, extensive RFLP and HVSI sequence analysis has unambiguously identified four major founding mtDNA haplogroups (A, B, C, D), which account together for ~97% of modern American Indian mtDNAs...all four lineages were present in the New World prior to European contact...mtDNAs apparently not from haplogroups A–D may result from recent admixture with non–American Indians or may represent additional American Indian founding mtDNA lineages.

A striking example of the presence in American Indians of genotypes not from haplogroups A–D is haplogroup X. This haplogroup represents a minor founding lineage that is restricted in distribution to northern Amerindian groups, including the Ojibwa, the Nuu-Chah-Nulth, the Sioux, and the Yakima, as well as the NaDene–speaking Navajo (Brown et al. 1998). Unlike haplogroups A–D, haplogroup X is also found at low frequencies of ~4% in western Eurasian populations. Despite a shared consensus RFLP haplotype, substantial genetic differences exist between the American Indian and European haplogroup X mtDNAs. Phylogenetic analysis and coalescence estimates for American Indian and European haplogroup X mtDNAs exclude the possibility that the occurrence of haplogroup X in American Indians is due to recent European admixture. They also clearly indicate that the two branches/subgroups are distantly related to each other and that considerable genetic substructure exists within both groups.

Haplogroup X is remarkable in that it has not been found in Asians, including Siberians, suggesting that it may have come to the Americas via a Eurasian migration. The virtual absence of haplogroup X in eastern and northern Asia raises the possibility that some American Indian founders were of European ancestry. In that case, as it has been proposed, haplogroup X was brought to America by the eastward migration of an ancestral white population, of which no trace has so far been found in the mtDNA gene pool of modern Siberian/eastern Asian populations....

Haplogroup X mtDNAs were detected only in Altaians, at a frequency of 3.5%.... One of these X mtDNAs (ALT16) also harbored a 215G variant that has not been observed in either American Indian or European X haplotypes. It should also be noted that none of the Altaian X mtDNAs harbored the 225A variant, which is a marker for a major part of haplogroup X... the overwhelming majority of X haplotypes (23 of 25 X sequences) harbor the 225A variant. In contrast, the X haplotypes without 225A have been observed mostly in American Indians (11 of 14 Ojibwa) Nevertheless, the X mtDNAs that we detected in the Altaian sample do not bear the 16213A and 200G variants that are characteristic of most American Indian haplogroup X mtDNAs...

The network suggests that European and American Indian haplogroup X mtDNAs are separated into two major branches, whereas the majority of Altaian X mtDNAs appear to be very similar to the root of haplogroup X phylogeny, differing from it by one step (loss of 225A). The network further suggests that the Altaian X haplotypes occupy the intermediate position between European and American Indian haplogroup X mtDNA lineages.

The Altaians, the native people of Altai Republic (south Siberia) number up to 60,000 persons. “Altaians” is the common denomination for seven formerly distinct Turkic-speaking groups: the Altai-Kizhi, Teleuts, and Telenghits, who are southern Altaians, and the Chelkans, Kumandins, Tubalars, and Maimalars, who are northern Altaians. The differences between southern and northern Altaians are well established, on the basis of anthropological, linguistic, and classical genetic-marker studies. Anthropologically, southern Altaians are typical central Asian Mongoloids (like Mongolians, Yakuts, and Buryats), whereas northern Altaians exhibit some Caucasoid anthropological features, similar to those of Ugric and Samoyedic groups.

The Altai region was populated during the Lower Paleolithic, and there is ample evidence of settlement during the Middle Paleolithic. It was proposed by anthropologists that, at least from the Neolithic, the territories of Altai and Sayan region were populated by mixed tribes with Caucasoid and Mongoloid anthropological features, but later they were replaced by Mongoloid populations of central Asian origin. The analysis of the tribal structure of Southern Altaians has shown that the present-day Altaians have retained their native language and ethnic identity. They have begun to mix with other ethnic groups (mostly Russians and Kazakhs) only recently, so the interethnic admixture is estimated to be <5%. The haplogroup X mtDNAs have not been found in populations of central Asia, including Kazakhs, Uighurs, and Kirghizs. Since the frequency of haplogroup X in Russians is extremely low (3 of 336), the recent European admixture cannot explain the presence of haplogroup X in the Altaians. Hence, the results of the present study allow us to suggest that haplogroup X was the part of the ancestral gene pool for Altaian populations, being found both in northern and southern Altaians.

Recently, the mtDNA studies have shown that both northern and southern Altaians exhibit all four Asian and American Indian–specific haplogroups (A–D) with frequencies of 57.2% and 46.8% respectively, exceeding those reported previously for Mongolians, Chinese, and Tibetans.

Therefore, they may represent the populations which are most closely related to NewWorld indigenous groups. Since the detection of all four haplogroups (A–D) in an Asian population is thought to be a first criterion in the identification of a possible New World founder, the candidate source population for American Indian mtDNA haplotypes therefore may include the populations originating in the regions to the southwest and southeast of Lake Baikal, including the Altai Mountain region. The presence of X mtDNAs in Altaians is generally consonant with the latter conclusion.

It has been shown that the major Y haplotype present in most American Indians could be traced back to recent ancestors they have in common with Siberians: namely, the Kets and Altaians, from the Yenisey River Basin and the Altai Mountains, respectively.

Similarly, based on a comprehensive analysis of worldwide Y-chromosome variation, it has been proposed that populations occupying the general area including Lake Baikal (eastward to the Trans-Baikal and southward into Northern Mongolia), the Lena River headwaters, the Angara and Yenisey River basins, the Altai Mountain foothills, and the region south of the Sayan Mountains (including Tuva and western Mongolia) was the source for dispersals of New World Y chromosome founders....

IT IS CLEAR THAT ELAMITES ARE R1b1a2a-L23. LURS ARE MOSTLY R1 CLADES. LURS ARE ELAMITES, AND KASSITES. BUT ELAMITES AND KASSITES HAD DIFFERENT LANGUAGES. KASSITES MOST PROBABLY R1b BUT WHICH SUBCLADE?...

Ancient Migratory Events in the Middle East: New Clues from the Y-Chromosome Variation of Modern Iranians

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3399854/

Lurs are one of the major Iranian ethnic groups inhabiting along the central and southern parts of the Zagros Mountains. Their origin might go back to the time before the migration of Indo-Europeans to Iran when other groups called Elamites and Kassites were living there. The Kassites are said to be the native people of Lorestan and their language was neither Semitic nor Indo-European and differed from the Elamite. The modern Lurs, like the Kurds, are a mixture of these aboriginal groups and invading Indo-Iranians from which it is thought they separated. Until the 20th century, the majority of Lurs were nomadic herders. Recently, the vast majority of Lurs have settled in urban areas although a number of nomadic Lur tribes still persist....

Genetics: Lurs are distinguished from other Iranian groups by their relatively elevated frequency of Y-DNA Haplogroup R1b (specifically, of subclade R1b1a2a-L23). Together with its other clades, the R1 group comprises the single most common haplogroup among the Lurs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lurs#Genetics

Elamite people

https://iiwiki.us/wiki/Elamite_people

Culturally, linguistically, and genetically, the Elamites are distinct from their Semitic and Indo-Iranian neighbours....Elamites are distinguished from neighbouring Iranian peoples by their relatively elavated frequency of Y-DNA Haplogroup R1b, specifically subclade R1b1a2a-L23. Together with its other clades, the Haplogroup R1 group comprises the single most common haplogroup among the Elamites.

Haplogroup J2a (subclades J2a3a-M47, J2a3b-M67, J2a3h-M530, more specifically) is he second most commonly occurring patrilineage in the Elamites and is associated with the diffusion of agriculturalists from the Neolithic Near East c. 8000-4000 BC. Another haplogroup reaching a frequency above 10% is that of G2a, with subclade G2a3b accounting for most of this. Also significant among the Elamites is haplogroup E1b1b1a1b, originating in the horn of Africa, and which the Elamites display the highest frequency of in the Iranian plateau and Mesopotamia region. Lineages Q1b1 and Q1a3 present at 6%, and Haplogroup T appears at a frequency of 4%.

The Elamites are considered to be a continuation of the Ancient Elamites as well as other aboriginal Pre-Iranian peoples of the region, such as the Kassites and the Gutians. Michael M. Gunter states that prolonged contact and admixture has made the modern Elamites very closely related to the Kurds....

IRAN vii. NON-IRANIAN LANGUAGES (5) Kassite

https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/iran-vii5-kassite

The Kassites (q.v.), Akkadian Kaššu (Balkan, 1954), were mountain tribes probably somewhere in the central Zagros who ruled Babylon from the sixteenth to the middle of the twelfth century B.C.E. They may be related to the later Kissaioi in the mountainous regions north of Susa and to the Kossaioi (see COSSAEANS) whom Potts convincingly locates in the Baḵtiāri mountains west of Isfahan. The Kissaioi were mentioned first in Aeschylus The Persians (17) and Herodotus, and latest in post-Alexandrian time as a contingent of the army of Antiochus III at the battle of Raphia in 217 B.C.E. (Polybius, 5.79). In turn, the Kissaioi may be related or identical with the Kossaioi (for the succinct overview of the debate, cf. Potts, 1999, pp. 337-40, 373-78).

MY INTEREST IN THIS ARTICLE IS FOCUSED ON KASSITE (CASSI) PARTICIPANTS FROM THIS ARTICLE. TRYING TO FIND THEIR ORIGINS PRIOR TO BEING A TURC ZAGROS MOUNTAIN TRIBE. FROM THE TIME OF KASSITE RULE IN BABYLON THE KASSITES WERE MERCHANTS TRADING FROM INDIA TO EGYPT. KASSITES MUST HAVE BEEN GOOD SEA PEOPLE AS THEY HAD CONTROL OF MARITIME TRADE IN PERSIAN GULF ALL THE WAY TO EGYPT, LEVANT, INDIA.... KASSITES (CASSI) WERE IN THE CASSITERIDES AND ALBION IN 2800BC BEFORE KASSITE RULE IN BABYLON 1475 BCE BUT, AFTER THEIR ZAGROS HOME AT LEAST 4000 BCE. WERE THE KASSITES THE PHOENICIANS IN WHOLE OR IN PART? WERE THE KASSITES THE CASSIR, OR PARTHALON? WERE KASSITES THE R1b-L21 SEA PEOPLE FOUNDERS OF IRLAND 2800 BCE, OR HIS DESCENDANT OR ANCESTOR? ARE THE KASSI ORIGINALLY FROM THE ATLANTIS WEST COAST EUROPE, OR WERE THEY ORIGINALLY FROM CENTRAL ASIA? ...

AN ECOLOGY OF TRADE: TROPICAL ASIAN CULTIVARS IN THE ANCIENT MIDDLE EAST AND THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN

https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1529305/

In order to contextualise the spread of tropical Asian crops to the Middle East and beyond, the history of crop movements is prefaced by a survey of long distance connectivity across maritime (Indian Ocean) and overland (Iranian plateau) routes from its prehistoric beginnings to the end of the 1st millennium BCE. This historical survey will highlight the variables (e.g. political processes, technological and social change) which made possible the ecological interface between South Asia, the Middle East and the Mediterranean....

The outlier survivals of the Harappan civilisation continued to maintain maritime contacts with the Persian Gulf. Harappan seals are attested in Nippur in Mesopotamia and the northern Persian Gulf (Failaka) as late as the Kassite period c. 1400 BCE...

The exhaustion of surface copper deposits in Oman gradually reoriented the focus of Mesopotamian trade away from the Gulf towards the west, where it now received copper from Cyprus through Syria Sometime in the same period, the Sumerian-Akkadian toponym Meluhha, formerly denoting the Indus region, came to be applied on the regions of Egypt and Nubia....

The long-lasting Kassite dynasty of Babylon (c. 1475-1155 BCE) played a crucial role in the revitalization of the Gulf trade in the late 2nd millennium BCE. The correspondence between the Egyptian pharaoh and the Kassite kings of Babylonia preserved in the Amarna corpus (mid-14th century BCE), as well as Hittite royal correspondence, indicates that large amounts of lapis lazuli were sent to the Levant, Egypt and Anatolia from Kassite Babylonia. The meagre amounts of lapis lazuli sent by Mitannian (Syrian) and Assyrian kings to the Egyptian Pharaoh suggest that the Kassites probably received

their supplies through maritime or the southerly land routes via Elam rather than the overland trading routes. The maritime hypothesis seems likely in light of Kassite domination over parts of the western Persian Gulf including the island of Bahrain (Dilmun) where a governor was installed c. 1450 BCE. Materials of Indian origin like agate, carnelian and ivory have been excavated at the Kassite (City III) levels of Qala’at al-Bahrain (mid 15th to late 13th century), the most important settlement and seat of the Kassite governor in Bahrain. The increased use of chalcedony types (agate, onyx, sardonyx) for seals, amulets and jewellery including the distinctive chalcedony 'eyestones' was probably the result of vibrant trading activity with India which was a major source of chalcedony. The appearance of late Indus seals in Kassite contexts at Nippur and Failaka has already been noted. The similarity of 13th and 12th century ceramics at Shimal, Oman and Tell Abraq in the U.A.E with those found in contemporary Pirak in Pakistan might also suggest commercial links between both regions....

The finds of Cinnamomum essential oils in early Iron Age Phoenician flasks...The importance of cinnamon as a Levantine export is also recalled by Herodotus who remarks that the Greeks learnt from the Phoenicians to call it cinnamon....

Myristate-related compounds found in some Phoenician flasks from the same early Iron Age sites in Israel have also suggested the presence of nutmeg from Southeast Asia...

The Late Bronze Age also sees the earliest appearance of rice, citrons and possibly an Indian cucurbit in Mediterranean-Middle Eastern textual and archaeological records (see Chapters V-VII). Taken cumulatively, this evidence suggests more intensive connections with South Asia in the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age horizons than was previously assumed. The arrival of these new spices and cultivars should perhaps be associated with the expansion of Kassite trading networks in the Persian Gulf, although the archaeological and textual evidence in support of this view is still scant....

POEN Hi-Lites

https://sites.google.com/site/n8iveuropean/home/britain/POEN%20hilites.rtf

POEN: "The Phoenician Origin of Britons, Scots & Anglo-Saxons" PDF

Amorite Catti Phoenicians from about 2800 B.C. "Coss-ini" is the title given by a Greek writer to the people of the tin-producing country of South-Western Britain. It thus appears probable that the first batch of Phoenicians who worked these Cassiterides mines belonged to the "Cassi" clan to which our Brito-Phoenician Part-olon belonged....their more general tribal title of Khatti or "Catti" (or "Hitt"-ite or "Goth"), Gad ...

Luristan, Land of Suedin, Guti and Alman (3rd and 2nd millennium BC)

https://www.academia.edu/40469514/Luristan_Land_of_Suedin_Guti_and_Alman_3rd_and_2nd_millennium_BC_

Lursitan is a region in the west of Iran where modern Luri people live, in the ancient times this region was in the north of Elam and east of Babylon, in a well-known Babylonian tablet from the first half of 2nd millennium BC, we read: “The south is Elam, the north is Akkad, the east is Suedin and Guti, the west is Martu.” So it seems in the ancient times this region was known as the land of Suedin and Guti, some centuries later, Kassite king Agum II (Agum Kakrime) talks about the same land by calling himself kings of Alman and Guti, therefore it can be said that three major tribes who lived in the west of Iran were Suedin, Guti and Alman...

the Lurs are distinguished from other Iranian groups by their relatively elevated frequency of Y-DNA Haplogroup R1b (specifically, of subclade R1b1a2a-L23), this haplogroup is the most frequently occurring paternal lineage in the north and west of Europe. Geneticists have found ancient DNA samples belonging to the haplogroup R1b in the west of Iran from the mid 3rd millennium BC, like in Hajji Firuz Tepe....

Germanic mytho-historical sources talk about “Sweden the Great” in the south of Caucasus Mountains. This region is called Asgard, the home of the gods, which is probably the same Asagarta in Old Persian texts (Sagartia in ancient Greek sources). Linguists generally believe the name of Zagros mountains is derived from the name of this land....

proto-Germanic (not modern Germanic) and Luri/Kurdish languages had almost the same phonology...

Lorestan Province

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorestan_Province

The ancient history of Lorestan is closely intertwined with the rest of the Ancient Near East. In the 3rd and 4th millennium BC, migrant tribes settled down in the mountainous area of the Zagros Mountains. The Kassites, an ancient people who spoke neither an Indo-European nor a Semitic language, originated in Lorestān. They would control Babylonia after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire ca. 1531 BC and until ca. 1155 BC.

Parts of Luristan were invaded and settled by the Iranian Medes in the 2nd millennium BC. The Medes absorbed the indigenous inhabitants of the region, primarily the Kassites as well as the Gutians, by the time the area was conquered by the Persians in the 1st millennium BC....

beginning of this bronze-making tradition goes back to the mid–3rd millennium BC.... different phases of the Bronze Age (Early Dynastic I to Ur ED III, circa 2900–2000 BC)—Kalleh Nisar, Bani Surmah, Chigha Sabz, Kamtarlan, Sardant, and Gulal-i Galbi—and four dating to different phases of the Iron Age (circa 1300 B.C.–600 B.C.)—Bard-i Bal, Kutul-i Gulgul, Sar Kabud, and War Kabud. Technically, the term 'Luristan bronze' usually refers only to the later bronze objects, although they have many similarities. The earlier bronze objects were made during the Elam period....

According to the Encyclopaedia of Islam, the Lurs, previously open adherents of the Ahl-e-Haqq faith, revere bread and fire like the Zoroastrians. "Being split up into numerous tribes and sections, they migrate to their summer pastures as separate bands without overall command. In 1936, Reza Shah's army conquered them, with much bloodshed and starvation, forcing many of the survivors to settle in villages under landlords."...

People and culture

The Lurs constitute part of the southwestern branch of the Iranian peoples, who are spread across the Iranian plateau and beyond, stretching from the Hindu Kush to central Anatolia and from the Caucasus and Central Asia to the Persian Gulf — a region that is sometimes termed Greater Iran.... Before the 20th century the majority of Lurs were nomadic herders... By the mid-1980s the vast majority of Lurs had been settled in towns and villages throughout the province or had migrated to the major urban centres. ...

UPTO MIDEVIL TIMES VOLGA REGION WAS EUROPOID MOSTLY YDNA R HG CLADES, AND SOME N3. SEVERAL OTHER MINORITIES. SIBERIAN TURC R HG CLADES MIGRATED IN AND MIXED.

Genetic Landscape of the Central Asia and Volga–Ural Region

https://www.academia.edu/27340502/Genetic_Landscape_of_the_Central_Asia_and_Volga_Ural_Region

According to archeological and paleoanthropological data, southern Urals until Early Medieval Age was inhabited by an europeoid population...Ancient population of the Volga basin could be linked to the present day Baltic and Suburalic types of the Europeoid major race...ancient population of the Central Asia region between Neolithic times and until Iron Age was predominantly europeoid... Turkic-speaking nomadic people from the south Siberia and later Tataro-Mongol invaders are considered to be relatively recent newcomers into Central Asia...

mtDNA Variation

The analysis of mtDNA variation among the Volga–Ural populations (Tatars, Bashkirs, Chuvashis, Mari, Mordvins, Udmurts, Komi) revealed that the majority of maternal lineages are those distributed among western European and eastern European populations. Relatively high frequencies of east Asian (those specific to east Asian populations) G, D, C, Z and F haplogroups among both Turkic-speaking population (Bashkirs) and Finno-Ugric speaking populations (Udmurts and Komi-Permyaks) possibly indicate significant genetic contribution of Siberian and Central Asian populations. Comparable high frequencies of east Asian and European lineages are consistent with the intermediate position of the Volga–Ural region but when we take into account linguistic affiliation of individual populations some inconsistent features in distribution of frequencies of mtDNA lineages become apparent. It is generally believed that the first Turkic-speaking people were native to a region spanning from Central Asia across throughout Siberia...Frequencies of east Asian mtDNA lineages ranged from 1% in Gagauz to 99% in Yakuts, with an increasing cline from west to northeast...

westward expansion of Turkic people from south Siberia through Central Asia was accompanied by gradual admixture process with indigenous europeoid population...Thus, limited presence of east Asian mtDNA lineages in the Volga basin (Tatars, Chuvashis) as well as in Caucasus (Azerbaijanians) and Anatolia (Turks)...realistic explanation could be the arrival of already admixed Turkic-speaking populations in these three regions which are remote from Turkic homeland. Finally, because of Turkic people were admixed and their migrations were accompanied by admixture process...

Like in the Turkic-speaking groups Asian mtDNA lineages dominate in northeastern Siberia, reaching maximum frequency in Nganasans (80%) and decrease towards west: for example, in Estonians it is almost absent. A high proportion (60–70%) of typical west Eurasian mtDNA lineages among Hants, Mansi and Selkups living in the west Siberia does not fit to the opposite west east frequency gradient of European lineages. These populations are characterized by high frequency of U4 and low frequency of haplogroup W, which is typical of Finno-Ugric populations of Volga–Ural region. This may be the

result of west to east migration from Volga–Ural region... Our preliminary summary of obtained results is that the predominantly europeoid population of Central Asia and the Volga–Ural region experienced significant gene flow from eastern mongoloid populations that reshaped eventually the genetic (mtDNA) landscape of the Volga–Ural region and Central Asia.

Y-Chromosome Variation

A total of 25 distinct haplogroups were defined in the combined Y-chromosome pool of the Volga–Ural and Central Asian populations. Most paternal lineages of the Volga–Ural and the Central Asian populations belong to the western Eurasian Y-chromosome haplogroups. Sub-clades of widely distributed R haplogroup together with northern Eurasian haplogroup N predominate in all studied populations, constituting about 25% of paternal lineages in Kazakhs and up to 91% in Bashkirs. Except Kazakhs, carrying C (25%) and J (18%) lineages in relatively high frequencies, all studied populations share considerable portion of eastern European lineages.

Haplogroup N3, which is spread among northern Eurasian populations according to recent phylogeographic reconstruction has dispersed throughout north Eurasia either from northern China or southern Siberia. High incidence of this lineage among Udmurts (55%) and other Volga–Ural Finno-Ugric populations (Mari, Komi-Ziryans and Komi-Permyaks) is consistent with the scenario, according to which N3 bearing ancient populations witnessed numerous bottlenecks while migrating from Siberia to eastern Europe. Turkic-speaking populations in the Volga–Ural region (Chuvashis, Tatars and Bashkirs) also share this haplogroup but in lower frequencies. The high frequency of this lineage in the Volga–Ural region is likely to be associated with ancient Finno-Ugric tribes and somewhat lower frequency in neighboring Turkic-speaking groups is either a ‘signature’’ of Finno-Ugric genetic input or the legacy of common ancestral population for these two linguistically distinct groups....it is possible that N3 lineage was a common Siberian genetic background of Finno-Ugric and Turkic tribes in the past. Overall, haplogroup N subclades (N2, N3) regardless they were brought by the ancestors of Turkic or Finno-Ugric populations represent a significant amount of southern Siberian genetic legacy.

R subclades (R1b3, R1a1), which are widespread in Europe and West Asia, are distributed unevenly in the Central Asia and the Volga–Ural region, ranging from 1% in Kazakhs to 82% in Trans-Ural Bashkirs. The place and the time of origin of these two ancient lineages are not well established yet. There is an increasing evidence that Y-chromosome haplogroup R1b3 is not specific to west Europe but rather represent a genetic legacy of ancient widely spread population of Eurasia....R1b3 Y-chromosomes in Middle Eastern populations were associated with the Taq I ht35...while west European populations were characterized by the ht15 haplotype. The latter is restricted mainly to Europe and has west east decreasing gradient....

In this regard decreasing frequency cline of haplogroup R1b3 from western Europe towards eastern Europe and unexpectedly high frequency of this lineage in the eastern most fringe, i.e. southern Urals (>82%) and in Central Asian highlands among Tajiks, Kyrgyz and Altai(>50%) imply that R1b3 Y-chromosomes in these two eastern regions cannot be associated with the west east population expansion from Europe. In light of the earlier presence of europeoid population in both regions this proposal seems to be plausible....

Populations located in the Volga–Ural region exhibit a complex mtDNA and Y-chromosome lineage composition, consisting mainly of western Eurasian lineages, with somewhat lower but comparable contribution of eastern Asian lineages. Central Asians exhibit higher frequencies of east Asian lineages compared with their northern Volga–Ural neighbors. Overall, the pattern of genetic variation in these two regions point to a stronger genetic influence of Turkic people on Central Asian populations compared with northern neighbors. Finally, genetic relationships between studied populations can be best explained by geographic proximity rather than linguistic affiliation.

ALTAI IS SAID TO BE A BIRTH PLACE OF MALE TURCIC R AND Q HG'S. THEY HAD MANY WOMEN FROM ALL OVER THE WEST EURASIA AND SOME FROM THE EAST EURASIA. AFTER 7 CENTURY BC EAST EURASIANS DETECTED IN WESTERN STEPPES. BUT, THERE WAS ALREADY AN EAST EURASIAN PRESENCE PRIOR IN EAST ALTAI IN THE BRONZE AGE, AS WELL AS A WESTERN EURASIAN IN WEST ALTAI IN BRONZE AGE.. DEPENDING ON WHAT SIDE OF ALTAI ONE WAS LOCATED FORMED A BARRIER. AT THE IRON AGE THE TWO SIDES ADMIXED 50/50. THIS IRON AGE ADMIXED POPULATION THEN EXPANDED IN ALL DIRECTIONS....

Tracing the Origin of the East-West Population Admixture in the Altai Region (Central Asia)

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0048904

Studies on ancient mitochondrial DNA of this region suggest that the Altai Mountains played the role of a geographical barrier between West and East Eurasian lineages until the beginning of the Iron Age. After the 7th century BC, coinciding with Scythian expansion across the Eurasian steppes, a gradual influx of East Eurasian sequences in Western steppes is detected. However, the underlying events behind the genetic admixture in Altai during the Iron Age are still unresolved... Our results further show that Iron Age Altaians displayed mitochondrial lineages already present around Altai region before the Iron Age. This would provide support for a demographic expansion of local people of Altai instead of westward or eastward migratory events, as the demographic event behind the high population genetic admixture and diversity in Central Asia....

Pazyryk culture. This was the first time that this culture was found in Mongolia Pazyryk is the name given to Iron Age nomadic tribes who inhabited the high steppes of the Altai Mountains between the fifth and third centuries BC. This culture is known from the discoveries of stone tumuli holding frozen bodies of warriors buried with their horses and their weapons. Pazyryk culture sites were first described in the Altai region of South Siberia and East Kazakhstan... The Pazyryks have traditionally been associated with the Eastern Scythians. Scythians, whose history is well-known from the ancient texts of Herodotus (484–425 BC), was the name that the Greeks gave to a number of separate Indo-European-speaking nomadic groups living in the region encompassing the Pontic-Caspian steppe (in Eastern Europe) and the steppe of Central Asia.

The Scythian culture (7th-2nd century BC) flourished in this region from local Indo-European peoples that emerged at the Pontic-Caspian steppe in about 2000BC and expanded eastward until they reached the Altai Mountains.... The end of Scythian period might be related with the westward migrations of nomadic Turkomongolian tribes coming

from East Asia since the 3rd century BC, which marked the end of Indo-European domination of the steppe... Scythians had European morphological features ancient mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of Eastern Scythian burials revealed that this population

has a mixed mtDNA composition of West and East Eurasian lineages. This is particularly interesting for the timing of the early contacts between European and Asian people in Altai because all ancient DNA samples analysed so far from Central Asia belonging

to a period before the Iron Age bore West Eurasian lineages...

mt DNA:

West Eurasian haplogroups: R0: R0a’b, HV; N1; JT; UK; W and X.

East Eurasian haplogroups: M: C, D, G, Z, M9, M10, M11, M13; A; B; F and N9a

South Asian haplogroups: M*, U2a-c, U9, R*, R1–R2, R5–R6, N1d.

The majority of the retrieved sequences (58%) fit into East Eurasian lineages; namely to haplogroups A, C, D and G. On the other hand, 42% of the individuals belong to West Eurasian mtDNA haplogroups (J, K, HV, U, and T haplogroups). Considering the chronology of burials, the three Bronze Age samples represent three different haplotypes all of which can be classified as haplogroup D. For Iron Age samples, the same proportion (50%) of East and West Eurasian lineages were found. Evidence of a perfect admixture between East Eurasian and West Eurasian lineages is also observed in other Iron Age populations from central Asia. On the other hand, in Neolithic and Bronze Age populations around 100% of the mtDNA lineages belong to East Eurasian or to Western Eurasian haplogroups, depending on the geographic location...

Network analysis using ancient Asia populations displays the presence of both West Eurasian and East Eurasian haplogroups...Seven of the sixteen different haplotypes found in this study (43.75%) are shared with other ancient populations used for comparison. Concerning these haplotypes, it is evidenced that K and T1 West Eurasian lineages detected in our Pazyryk sample were also found in Bronze Age samples from Siberia and Kazakhstan....

A broad analysis of shared haplotypes in pre-Iron Age (present study and) and Iron Age populations (present study and) from Central Asia and South Siberia demonstrate that only a small fraction 7 out of 72 (9.7%) of lineages are shared among populations. Three haplotypes (all with a West Eurasian origin) are shared between Iron Age and pre-Iron Age populations, whereas four are shared between Iron Age populations. Concerning non-shared haplotypes, 10 from 13 (77%) in pre-Iron Age populations, and 16 from 52 (31%) in Iron Age populations, represent West Eurasian lineages. Thus it seems that the number of West Eurasian lineages does not increase in the Iron Age....

genetic distance between pairs of ancient and modern populations shows a separation

of populations, across dimension 1, mainly based on the gradient of East and West

Eurasian lineages. Iron Age populations are together in the centre of coordinates showing an admixture of East Eurasian and West Eurasian lineages. Present day populations from Central Asia and Mongolia are grouped with ancient populations from the Iron Age....

Central Asians exhibit high frequencies of East Eurasian mtDNA lineages, which are otherwise virtually absent in populations from the Indo-Gangetic region and westwards, along with a high prevalence of lineages of Western Eurasian origin....

It is widely accepted that animal domestication (starting ~5000YBP), particularly of the horse, gave the inhabitants of the Central Asian steppes the opportunity to expand geographically in different directions. Historical records and archaeological data indicate that the early populations’ movements across the Eurasian steppe involved Indo-European-speaking people, being most probably in the Altai Mountains the eastern boundary. By the time of the 3rd century BC, Turkic-speaking peoples from the Altai region began to migrate westwards, replacing Indo-European languages in parts of Central Asia. Today, the Altai region is home to numerous Turkic-speaking ethnic groups, with a mixed mtDNA gene pool between West and East Eurasia. However, the origin of this genetic admixture was prior to westward Turkic migrations and may be traced back to the Iron Age in Central Asia, or even earlier in South Siberia....

Concerning Bronze Age samples from the Mongolian Altai mountains analyzed in the present study, 100% of the mtDNA lineages (3 different lineages from 2 archaeological sites) belong to East Eurasian haplogroups, an opposite profile to that detected in the West side of the Altai. On the other hand, in the Iron Age samples of Mongolian Altai, the same proportion (50%) of East and Western Eurasian lineages were found, evidencing a perfect admixture between East and Western Eurasian lineages as in other Iron Age populations from central Asia and Siberia. Combined with the previous studies performed so far in the Altai region, our results suggest that the Altai represented a boundary to gene flow up to the beginning of the Iron Age and that during the Scythian period of the Altai (5th to 3rd century BC) there were demographic events in the region that led to a population admixture in both sides of the Altai....

These results allow us to hypothesise that the substrate of mtDNA lineages is already present in pre-Iron Age populations of the central Asia and that in the Iron Age (Scythian period) a population expansion lead to the admixture of pre-existing lineages. Thus, the admixture profile observed in the region during the Iron Age would not derive from a migratory movement from west to east, as has been hypothesised, but would represent a local population expansion in different directions. This population expansion, however, would be probably be a consequence of the introduction of new technology by the adoption of a new culture, supporting the idea of cultural transmission against the demic diffusion during Scythian period.

The Pazyryk groups analysed so far appear to be genetically homogeneous and they

did not present significant genetic differences to current Altaians. These results suggest that roots of the current genetic diversity and admixture of the Altai region in Central Asia could be traced back to the Iron Age.

C MALES ARE A VERY OLD HG BUT, HE TOOK A SOUTHERLY ROUTE OUT INTO SOUTH CENTRAL ASIA THEN ON TO SOUTH AND EAST ASIA. C HG IS FOUND IN A FEW OLD EUROPE, AND SOUTH CENTRAL ASIAN REMAINS. BUT THE BULK OF C WENT INTO SOUTH CENTRAL ASIA THEN ON EAST INTO SOUTH AND EAST ASIA.

C HG YDNA IS A NEW KID ON THE BLOCK OF NORTH EURASIAN R AND Q TERRITORY. C HG CAME INTO NORTH EAST ASIA ABOUT 15 KYA FROM SOUTH EAST ASIA. HE SPREAD WESTWARD MORE RECENTLY 6 KYA AND 2 KYA. HE IS MOSTLY IN THE MONGOL POPULATION. TODAY C IS MOSTLY IN NORTH EAST ASIA...

Phylogeography of the Y-chromosome haplogroup C in northern Eurasia

https://www.academia.edu/25178351/Phylogeography_of_the_Y_chromosome_haplogroup_C_in_northern_Eurasia

Y-chromosome haplogroup (hg) C in populations of northern Eurasia...total sample of 413 males from 18 ethnic groups of Siberia, Eastern Asia and Eastern Europe....all Y-chromosomes studied belong to hg C3 and its subhaplogroups C3c and C3d, although some populations (such as Mongols and Koryaks) demonstrate a relatively high input (more than 30%) of yet unidentified C3* haplotypes....C3d characteristic for Mongolic-speaking populations,...All these DNA clusters show relatively recent coalescent times (less than 3000 years)...

One of the most widespread Y-chromosome haplogroups in East Asia is hg C...This haplogroup is represented by several subhaplogroups (named from C1 to C6),...It has been generally accepted that the hg C ancestor is of South-East Asian or Indian origin... Subhaplogroup C2 is found mainly in New Guinea, Melanesia, and Polynesia. C4 is found exclusively among aboriginal Australians. C5 is present mainly in India, whereas the rare C1 lineage seems to be restricted to Japan. The most likely place of origin of the most successful C3 lineage is south-eastern or central Asia, from where this haplogroup has spread into northern Asia and the Americas.... C3 is also present at low frequencies in populations of eastern and central Europe, where it may represent evidence of the westward expansion of the steppe Nomads in the early middle Ages...

SNP analysis of 1449 Y-chromosomes from 18 ethnic groups representing populations of northern Asia and eastern Europe demonstrates that hg C is frequent in some Siberian

populations studied. The highest frequencies of haplogroup C (more than 50%) were revealed in Mongolic speaking Buryats (68.2%), Mongols (65.2%), Kalmyks (62.6%)

and Khamnigans (54.9%) as well as in Turkic-speaking Altaian Kazakhs (58.3%) and Sojots (53.6%) and Tungusic-speaking Evens (54.0%). In other Siberian populations hg C was found at low or moderate frequencies. In Russians, this haplogroup was detected at a frequency of 0.7%. Analysis of SNP markers revealed that all Y-chromosomes studied belong to hg C3 and its subhaplogroups C3c and C3d....

The age of accumulated STR variation within hg C3, estimated using the method of Zhivotovsky et al. (2004), is about 14.9 ky or 4.1 ky depending on the mutation rate values selected for calculations. The older time estimate is most compatible with the view that hg C3 haplotypes were present in Siberia during the Last Glacial Maximum from where the ancestors of C3b Native Americans migrated to the Beringia.... subcluster C3c...that the age of this subcluster is about 5.9 ky or 1.6 ky, whereas the age of subcluster C3d appears to be younger – about 2.0 ky or 0.5 ky...

Our present and previous studies have shown that the highest frequency of the “star cluster” in C3* is observed in Mongols (35%), whereas in Siberia it varies from 8% in Altaian Kazakhs and 6.5% in Buryats to less than 3% in Tuvinians, Altaians and Shors. According to our data, the age of the “star cluster” in C3* is 2.8+/-1.0 or 0.78+/-0.27 ky, based on the evolutionary and genealogical mutation rates, respectively.

Since the frequency of subhaplogroup C3d is significantly higher in the Mongolic-speaking populations than in Turkic or Tungusic and the frequency of subhaplogroup C3c is higher in Tungusic-speaking populations than in Turkic or Mongolic...

Despite the fact that we were not able to find a significant correlation between linguistic and genetic distances in Siberian populations, a correspondence between genetic and linguistic affiliation is observed... haplotype 1 is present in Evenks as well as in Buryats, Mongols, Kalmyks, Tuvinians and Yakuts, whereas derived haplotypes 2, 3, 4 and 5 are characteristic only for Evens. Using the TD-estimator and different mutation rates, divergence time between the founder Evenk haplotype 1 and derived Even haplotypes is 1.40+/-1.06 or 0.39+/-0.29 ky for evolutionary or genealogical mutation rate, respectively.... Evenk gene pool represents the more ancient genetic variant

in comparison to the Evens....

These are the C3* “star cluster” that may correspond to the descendants of Genghis Khan, subhaplogroup C3d characteristic for Mongolic-speaking populations, and the C3c cluster with several founding haplotypes,... “Manchu cluster”, associated probably with Qing Dynasty nobility, has occurred at a relatively high frequency (about 3.3%) in northeastern China and Mongolia and has arisen about 600 years ago...

one should note that other Y-chromosome haplogroups (e.g., N and Q) also often show evidence of founder effect/social selection in boreal Eurasian populations....

MALE N HG's ARE A RECENT INVADER INTO R AND Q TERRITORIES.

MALE N HG IS FROM SE ASIA MIGRATES TO SOUTH SIBERIA 10KYA BECOMING N3a1. THEN MIGRATES WEST TO EAST EUROPE 8KYA. THEN MIGRATES TO BAIKAL 4KYA BECOMING N3a2 WHICH SPREAD TO VOLGA-URAL. N2 AND N3 DEVELOPED IN MONGOLIA OR NORTH CHINA.

Y-chromosome haplogroup N dispersals from south Siberia to Europe

https://www.nature.com/articles/jhg2007106

Age calculation of STR variation within subcluster N3a1 indicated that its first expansion occurred in south Siberia [approximately 10,000 years (ky)] and then this subcluster spread into Eastern Europe where its age is around 8 ky ago. Meanwhile, younger subcluster N3a2 originated in south Siberia (probably in the Baikal region) approximately 4 ky ago....suggest that south Siberian N3a2 haplotypes spread further into Volga-Ural region undergoing serial bottlenecks....

It has been generally accepted that the hg N ancestor is of east Asian ancestry, because haplotypes belonging to ancient paragroup N* are still widely distributed in southeastern Asia and, rarely, even in south Siberia. However, the origin and migration ways of hgs N2 and N3 are not fully understood. According to the first studies, the most likely place of origin of these Y-chromosomes is the area of Mongolia and north China. However, substantial frequency of hgs N2 and N3 in Eastern Europe, mainly in Finno-Ugric and Turkic-speaking populations, indicates that these haplogroups may have originated in Eastern Europe. Moreover, STR diversity within hg N3 has been detected on higher level in Eastern Europeans than in Siberians, which can be interpreted as supporting an origin of hg N3a in Eastern Europe. Recently, phylogeographic study of hg N structure in north Eurasian populations has demonstrated that south Siberia could be a place of transition of hg N (including N3a and N2) westward to Eastern Europe....

The results obtained give a clear evidence of that hg N3a is older in south Siberia than in Eastern Europe. In addition, the substructure of hg N2-A revealed in south Siberia suggests that this region was a place of several expansions of hg N haplotypes at different times during the Holocene....

Haplogroup N3a, present at its highest frequency in Yakuts (80%), Tofalars (27%), Koryaks (25%) and Buryats (18%), is relatively frequent in all other Siberian populations as well as in the Russians (11%) studied. Haplogroup N2 chromosomes are present in the majority of the Siberian samples, reaching the highest frequencies in Tofalars (43%), Khakassians (34%) and Evenks (24%). However, this haplogroup is absent in northeastern Siberian populations (such as Evens, Koryaks and Yakuts). In addition, hg N2 is very rare in Russians (only 0.2%)....

The age of accumulated STR variation within hg N3a...much more diverse in Eastern Europe than in Siberia (giving ages of 9.0 ky and 7.9 ky ago, respectively)... subcluster N3a1 is much older than N3a2, giving the age of 9.1 ky and 5.0 ky, respectively. Importantly, the subcluster N3a1 appears to be older in south Siberia than in Europe (10 ky and 8.2 ky ago, respectively), allowing the suggestion that the first expansion of N3a1 occurred in the south Siberian region, and then this subcluster spread to the West, into the Urals and Eastern Europe....

Overall, the data obtained indicate that south Siberia was a place of several expansions of hgs N2 and N3 haplotypes at different times during the Holocene....

A FEW SAMPLES DATED FROM 1800BC TO 400AD REVEAL AN EAST ASIAN INFLUX IN THE IRON AGE. DURING THE BRONZE AGE SOUTH SIBERIA WAS PREDOMINATELY A WEST EURASIAN POPULATION. THE CHANGE WAS MOSTLY AMONG THE FEMALE WHOSE WEST EURASIAN POPULATION DECLINED FROM 90% TO 67% REPLACED WITH EAST ASIAN. WHILE R1a1 MALES PREDOMINATED DURING THIS SAME TIMEFRAME. R1a1 MALES CONTAIN A FOUNDER HAPLOTYPE RELATIVE TO SOUTH ALTAI. R1a1 IS THOUGHT TO HAVE SPREAD FROM AN ICE AGE REFUGIA IN UKRAINE AREA AS A MARKER OF INDO EUROPEAN EXPANSION. MOST OF THESE SAMPLES HAD LIGHT EYES, SKIN, AND HAIR COLOR....

Ancient DNA provides new insights into the history of south Siberian Kurgan people

https://www.academia.edu/2357330/Ancient_DNA_provides_new_insights_into_the_history_of_south_Siberian_Kurgan_people

26 ancient human specimens from the Krasnoyarsk area dated from between the middle of the second millennium BC. to the fourth century AD....DNA was extracted from 32 ancient human skeletons excavated from different kurgan sites of the Krasnoyarsk region in southern Central Siberia during the years 1964–2000.... 6 DNA samples appeared severely degraded...The remaining extracted samples gave 26 more or less complete allelic profiles...Comparison of the profiles in pairs revealed no first degree relatives, even for specimens unearthed from the same kurgan or even burial. It should be noted, nevertheless, that 35% of the DNA profiles were incomplete which might have hampered the detection of close familial kinship.

Y-chromosomal STR and SNP analysis: Three of them were shared between at least two specimens suggesting that some individuals could have belonged to the same paternal lineage although buried in different kurgan and/or with no evidence of a close kinship link (cf., autosomal STRs). Pairwise comparisons of the haplotypes showed that except for S07, all the ancient male specimens bore closely related allelic profiles, differing at most at six loci (on the 17 tested) and always by one-step mutation only. Haplogroup (hg) assignment, based on the Y-chromosomal SNP typing, revealed that except for S07, which was found to belong to hg C(xC3), all ancient specimens were affiliated to hg R1a1. This finding is in agreement with the relative similarity of the haplotypes mentioned above. While hg C has a distribution generally limited to populations of northern Eurasia, eastern Eurasia, Oceania, and the Americas, R1a1 is widely spread across Eurasia. It is found among western Eurasian, southern Asian, central Asian and Siberian populations. This haplogroup is thought to trace the migration patterns of the early Indo-Europeans, perhaps stemming from the Kurgan culture....

The S10/S16 haplotype matched the most frequent R1a1 haplotype (12 loci) seen in the south Siberian population of Derenko et al. (2006). This haplotype is notably found at high frequency in Altaians. It carries an allelic stucture which is considered as a founder haplotype relative to southern Altaians. The S10/S16 haplotype is also found in eastern Europe (Hungary, Slovenia, Poland) as well as in Asia (Central Anatolia). The S24/S34 haplotype is mainly found in Poland and Germany. In Asia it is found in Anatolia, Armenia, Nepal and India. Haplotype of specimen S26 has a wide distribution since it appears in Europe as well as in western Asia, in Central Asia, in southern Asia and in southern Siberia. The allelic structure 16-24-11-11-13 (DYS19, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, DYS393) found in this haplotype was described as the most frequent motif observed in a Ukrainian population by Kravchenko et al. (2002). According to these authors, this 5 Y-STR-loci haplotype might be an ancestral one. Haplotype S28 is the most frequently found in present-day populations. It is essentially carried by eastern and northern Europe individuals, as well as south Siberians....

Mitochondrial DNA analysis: The mtDNA haplotype of the 26 ancient individuals... Overall, 23 different haplotypes were distinguished and assigned to 16 different haplogroups. Twenty samples were found to belong to west Eurasian haplogroups (U2, U4, U5a1, T1, T3, T4, H5a, H6, HV, K, and I), whereas the 6 remaining samples were attributed to east Eurasian haplogroups (Z, G2a, C, F1b and N9a)....

Exact matches were observed for almost all sequences. Among those mostly prevalent was the hg U4 motif 356C (S07/S14) which was found in northern, eastern and southeastern European populations, as well as in Volga–Ural, Altai–Sayan and peri-Baןkal area populations....The sub-hg U4 variant 356C–362C (S19) is present in northern, eastern and mediterranean Europe, in the Volga–Ural and Altai–Sayan regions as well as in southern India. Another sequence within hg U showing a wide geographic distribution is the S16-U5a1 haplotype which matches in southern Siberia, in Central Asia, as well as in northern, western, eastern and southeastern Europe. Conversely, the S18-U5a1 haplotype is most likely rare since found only once in a northwestern European, likewise the S10-U2 haplotype which has been described in one eastern European and one central Asian individual only. Specimens S27, S29 and S35 bear a CRS HVI sequence belonging to hg U. Such results have already been described in Russian and Byelorussian populations where hg U CRS sequences were found in a relatively high proportion(»35%).

Within hg T, the most prevalent sequence type was that harbored by specimen S09. This sequence was described as the root sequence of hg T1. Its highest frequency is in western Eurasia (mainly the Baltic region) with occasional occurrences in eastern Eurasia. This founder haplotype was also observed in two ancient specimens, one from Kazakhstan (1400–1300 BC, Bronze Age), the other from a Xinjiang site in northwestern China....

The H haplotypes observed in our ancient sample are uncommon in present-day populations since both S13-H6 and S32-H5a sequences were found in only one European individual. HV lineage are represented by one sequence (S34) found in India, in Central Asia and in southeastern Europe. Specimen S24 was found to belong to haplogroup I, subclade I4. Exact matches to this I4 type were mainly found in northern and eastern Europe individuals.... The K2 haplotype harboured by specimen S15 was observed only twice, in European samples (1 Hungarian and 1 Austrian).

The eastern Eurasian lineages are represented by sequences belonging to hgs N9a, Z, G2a, F1b and C. The Z haplotype observed in the S08 ancient specimen belong to subhg Z1. It is observed in northeastern Asians, in south Siberian populations as well as in Central Asia. It is also present among several populations of the Volga–Ural and Baltic Sea regions. The S25-G2a sequence has been observed in few but dispersed individuals (Koreans, Latvians and Uygur). The specimen S28 belongs to hg F1b with a motif reported in two Mongols only. Haplogroup C is represented by two sequences: one had a HVI motif observed in only one south Siberian individual (S26). The other had a HVI motif mainly found in Siberia and Central Asia (S33). Finally, the S36 specimen carries a N9a-haplotype identical to those described previously in East Asian individuals (Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese)....

Human pigmentation gene SNP analysis: the typing of a SNP associated to eye color (rs12913832) shows that at least 60% (15/25) of the Siberian specimens had blue (or green) eyes... all except three specimens exhibited a European ancestry... Most of the specimens seem to have been light-skinned people with blond or light brown hair....

Discussion: the Y-chromosomal analyses performed on the ten male specimens showed that S28 and S29 shared the same haplotype. These Y-chromosomal analyses, based on the combined use of STRs and SNPs, also revealed that, with the exception of one individual, all samples examined fall into hg R1a1. Haplogroup R1a1 is defined by marker M173 plus M17 and has a widespread distribution area on the Eurasian continent. It is spread among western Eurasian (mostly eastern European and Volga–Ural populations), southern Asian (mainly India and Pakistan’s populations), central Asian and Siberian populations (especially southern Siberians), whereas it is rather rare in East Asian populations. In western Eurasia, a clear north–east/south–west cline has been described. Indeed, the R1a1 haplogroup frequency reaches a maximum in Poland, Hungary, and Ukraine and decreases in the direction of central and northern Europe. The same occurs in the southern direction, towards Anatolia and the Caucasus.... the geographical distribution of the R1a1 haplogroup probably reflects the re-population of Europe after the last glacial maximum (»20–12 kya) from a refugium in eastern Europe, likely in Ukraine... Thereby, R1a1 was viewed by some authors as the marker of the Indo-European contribution...

In our ancient sample, among the nine specimens carrying haplogroup R1a1, five different Y-chromosomal haplotypes were observed....This motif is typically an eastern European one since currently found in the Russian federation only (YHRD database)....

The western Eurasian contribution to the ancient mtDNA pool reached 90% for the Bronze Age and decreased to 67% for the Iron Age....west Eurasian populations predominated in the Krasnoyarsk region during the Bronze Age, whereas Asian component began to increase from the Iron Age on....all Kazakh sample specimens from before thirteenth to seventh centuries BC belonged to European lineages. After that time, there was an influx of East Asian sequences which are thought to have coexisted with the prior west Eurasian genetic substratum.... the migrations in which south Siberian specimens were involved seemed to be “whole-population movements” rather than “war-like movements” involving the men only. The fact that East Asian mtDNA sequences appeared at the Iron Age could signify that once settled, migrants of supposed European ancestry began to establish relationships with groups coming from the east and to take Asian women as wives.... The boundary of the eastern European influence seems to be fixed at the peri-Baikal area since no R1a1 haplogroup was found in the Xiongnu specimens of the Northern border of Mongolia....

MALE HAPLOGROUP P ARE THE FIRST PEOPLE IN SIBERIA AT LEAST 40,000 YEARS IN ALTAI. ALTAI WAS THE FIRST NORTH ASIAN INDUSTRY IN SIBERIA. HG C AND N MAKE UP THE MAJORITY TODAY IN SIBERIA BUT N HG ARE RECENT INVADERS ORIGINALLY FROM SE ASIA ARRIVING IN SIBERIA 3500 YEARS. C HG ARRIVED IN SIBERIA ABOUT 12,000 YEARS AND IS MOST DIVERSE IN EAST ASIA. P HG IS THE OLDEST AND MOST DIVERSE IN EURASIA 40,000 TO 50,000 YEARS FROM WHERE HIS LINE EXPANDS TO EUROPE, INDIA, AND SIBERIA. WEST EURASIANS AND SIBERIANS MAINTAINED TIES WITH EACH OTHER DURING THE PALEOLITHIC, AND WERE ORGANIZED BASED ON KINSHIP AND CLANS REMAINING GENETICALLY PATERNALLY PURE. R AND Q HG CLADES ARE THE DESCENDANTS OF P HG AND ARE THE FIRST PEOPLE AND HEIRS OF ALL LANDS FROM ATLANTIS WEST COAST EUROPE TO SIBERIA MAINLY OF R HG, AND THE AMERICAS MAINLY OF Q HG. BUT, NOTE HOW THE FIRST PEOPLE LINEAGE OF P, Q, AND R HAVE BECOME EXTINCT AND MINORITY IN HIS OWN LANDS TAKEN OVER BY MORE RECENT FOREIGN INVADERS ...

High Levels of Y-Chromosome Differentiation among Native Siberian Populations and the Genetic Signature of a Boreal Hunter-Gatherer Way of Life

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/10872336_High_Levels_of_Y-Chromosome_Differentiation_among_Native_Siberian_Populations_and_the_Genetic_Signature_of_a_Boreal_Hunter-Gatherer_Way_of_Life

A set of 62 biallelic markers on the NRY were genotyped in 1432 males...18 major NRY haplogroups (A-R) recently described by the Y Chromosome Consortium (YCC 2002). While only four of these 18 major NRY haplogroups accounted for ~95% of Siberian Y-chromosome variation, native Siberian populations differed greatly in their FST haplogroup composition and exhibited the highest value for any region of the world....

the precise antiquity of a human presence in the Arctic is still an open question. The earliest C14-dated Asian Upper Paleolithic industries occur in the Altai Mountains of Southwest Siberia at 43,300 ± 1,600 years BP. There are indications of earlier habitations;...

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) studies revealed that modern indigenous southern Siberian populations show traces of an eastward expansion from Central Asia, while eastern Siberian populations from the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Amur River/Sea of Okhotsk region have stronger genetic affinities with East Asian populations. The NRY study of Su et al. (1999) suggested that mainland Southeast Asia was the homeland for all eastern Asian populations including those now living in Siberia, while that of Karafet et al. (2001) underscored an important role for Central Asia in the early peopling of Siberia...

Note that in accord with Russian ethnographic tradition, the Altais in the Central Asia geographic grouping are considered to be “Siberians” for all ensuing statistical analyses, while the Mongolians, Chinese Evenks, and Oroqens in the Central-South Siberia regional grouping are not....

R1a = R-SRY10831b. R1b = R-P25.

Only six haplogroups/paragroups were present at frequencies greater than 9% across Siberia,...The vast majority (96.4%) of Siberian Y chromosomes belong to only four of the 18 major haplogroups (N = 42.7%; C = 22.5%; Q = 18.8%; and R = 12.4%). The most frequent single haplogroup/paragroup, N-M178 (22.7%), was found in 15 of the 18 Siberian populations, reaching its highest frequency (94.3%) in the Yakuts. The widespread distribution of N-M178 transcends both geographic and linguistic boundaries. Interestingly, this haplogroup is limited almost entirely to northern Eurasia and is absent or only marginally present in other regions of the globe (unpublished data). The second most frequent haplogroup/paragroup, N-P43 (19.7%), define by a newly discovered polymorphism, was prevalent in the Northwest Siberia region (32.6%), infrequent in Central-South Siberia, and absent in Northeast Siberia....

Haplogroup Q chromosomes were present in 18.8% of the Siberian samples and were distributed primarily across Northwest and Northeast Siberia. The vast majority of haplogroup Q chromosomes (79.5%) occurred in only two Siberian populations, the Kets and the Selkups, with frequencies of 93.8% and 66.4%, respectively.

Haplogroup C-M86 (with a frequency of 13.0%) was widely distributed throughout Siberia and Central Asia in the 18 Siberian populations and was concentrated mainly in Altaic-speaking populations. Haplogroup R-SRY10831b (with a Siberian frequency of 10.3%) was primarily a Central Asian lineage that was found at relatively high frequencies in the Altai (46.9%), Kirghiz (61.5%), and European Russians (42.6%), at moderate frequencies in some Northwest Siberian populations, and at low frequencies throughout Central-South Siberia, Northeast Siberia, and East Asia. Although absent in Northwest Siberian populations, the Siberian frequency of paragroup C-M217* was 9.5%. Of the 117 C-M217* chromosomes in the 28 populations in this survey, all but nine occurred in Altaic-speaking groups.

With the exception of R-P25 (with a frequency of 2.1%), all of the remaining lineages were present at frequencies of less than 1% in Siberia. It is interesting to note that no single polymorphism was unique to Siberia, and unlike the case for Native American populations, Siberian populations were not characterized by a discrete set of founder NRY haplogroups/paragroups....

Siberian hunter-gatherer groups (i.e., all Siberians in our sample except the Altai, Buryats, and Yakuts, who are sedentary) exhibit a considerable amount of NRY differentiation (FST= 0.44). When comparing these results with similar analyses of global populations, it can be seen that this degree of differentiation is higher than for any region of the world, and even higher FST than the worldwide value of 0.36....

This pattern suggests smaller effective population size and/or less gene flow among populations in Siberia. In summation, we infer that intra- and intergenerational genetic drift (resulting from high population mobility and small population size, respectively), were key evolutionary forces leading to the high levels of genetic differentiation observed among Siberian foraging groups.

An assortment of cultural and demographic factors may also have influenced the paternal genetic structure of Siberian populations. For NRY polymorphisms this differentiation is expected to be strongly elevated by cultural factors such as clan systems, polygamy, and the levirate. Siberian local residence groups were organized on the basis of kinship and clan affiliation. Each local camp or band (the level of organization most important for hunter-gatherer communities) is a group of people who might be related matrilineally, patrilineally, or bilaterally. Because most Siberian populations practiced patrilocality, people in a band were usually paternally related. Every band, therefore, could potentially be responsible for a strong founder effect detectable in Y-chromosome data.... One of the explanations for this type of observed pattern is a series of founder effects taking place in a phase of population expansion not accompanied by admixture, but followed by local gene flow....

The majority of Siberian peoples speak languages from the Altaic and Uralic linguistic families, although populations in Northeast Siberia speak languages in the Chukchi-Kamchatkan family, Siberian Eskimos speak languages belonging to the Eskimo-Aleut family, and the Kets speak the only surviving member of the Yeniseian family.... Taken together these results indicate that language affiliation might be a better predictor of the genetic affinity among Siberians than their present geographic position. Mantel tests also support the existence of NRY genetic patterns that are correlated with language in Siberia. The language-genetics correlation (r = 0.256) was statistically significant....

when we excluded the Selkup and Yakut populations (clear outliers for their respective linguistic families in the MDS plot), the correlation between genetics and language increased sharply to r = 0.380... In Siberia we found a statistically significant correlation of language with both paternal genetics and geography, but a notable absence of correlation between NRY genetic structure and geography...Directed dispersals, range expansions, and long-distance colonizations bound by common ethnic and linguistic affiliation have most probably been of utmost importance in fashioning the genetic landscape of Siberia.

Paleolithic Colonization of Siberia: Insights into the Initial Peopling of Siberia.

During the Late Pleistocene (and more specifically, the early Upper Paleolithic), most of Siberia was free of continental ice sheets, and mountain glaciation was quite limited. Even during periods of maximum cold, the vegetation in southern Siberia was tundra and forest tundra with light larch forests. There were no natural obstacles such as continental or large mountain glaciers to prevent human migrations toward and within Siberia. The earliest dated North Asian Upper Paleolithic industries occur in the Altai Mountains in southwest Siberia (43,300 ± 1600 years BP). Paleolithic industries originally developed in the Altai region subsequently (i.e., from 34,000 BP to 21,000 BP) colonized southern Siberia including the Sayan Mountains, the Angara River basin, the Trans-Baikal, and Mongolia. Early Upper Paleolithic stone tool industries were centered on the production of macroblades similar to points found in initial Upper Paleolithic industries in western Asia and eastern Europe, suggesting continued ties between Siberia and western Eurasia during that time.

Later Siberian Paleolithic sites (i.e., postdating 20 ky ago) tend to share an abundance of microblades and wedge-shaped cores. The individual sites are distributed throughout Siberia and the Russian Far East with unequivocally dated microblade industries in the Yenisei River basin already present by 23 ky ago. Late Upper Paleolithic people seem to have formed small groups of highly mobile hunter-gatherers. There is clear evidence of transport of material over great distances. Goebel (1999) has suggested rapid recolonization and possible replacement of early Siberian Upper Paleolithic people by microblade-making human populations from the Lake Baikal, Yenisei River, and Lena River basin regions. The origin of the Siberian microblade industry is unclear. This assemblage differs in detail from its west Asian and European counterparts. A great number of sites in Mongolia, North China, Japan, and Korea contain evidence for this core type. Many scholars find filial connections among these industries. Whether they represent evolution of microblade technologies out of local ancestors or trace migrations from farther south and east cannot be determined conclusively with the available archeological evidence.

We estimated the ages of the major Siberian NRY haplogroups to investigate the genetic history of Siberian populations. The most frequent lineages in Siberia belong to four major haplogroups: C (C-M217* and C-M86), N (N-M178 and N-P43), Q, and R (R-SRY10831b). Although globally distributed, the N-P43 and N-M178 haplogroups were found at their highest frequencies in Siberia. The ages of these mutations were estimated as 3500±300 and 2180±105 years old, respectively. The LLY22g mutation which defines haplogroup N may be as old as 6910±1480 years, suggesting that the expansion of the N-P43 and N-M178 haplogroups probably occurred much later than the first migrations of anatomically modern human into Siberia. Haplogroups N-P43 and N-M178 may have entered Siberia from Mongolia and North China (Zerjal et al. 1997) and later spread west, and then northeastward within Siberia.

The ages of haplogroups C and P (the haplogroup that contains Q and R) were estimated to be 27,500 ± 10,100 and 29,900 ± 4200 years old, respectively. This estimate of the age of haplogroup C agrees with that of Bergen et al. (1999)(27,000–33,000 years) which was based on the variance in repeat numbers at nine Y-chromosome STRs (Y-STRs). The age of the M45 marker that also defines haplogroup P was estimated by Wells et al. (2001) as 40,000 years old based on only six Y-STRs. When we use the same approach as Wells et al. (2001) with our data from 11 Y-STRs, we estimate an age for haplogroup P of 30,000–37,000 years, depending on whether we assume 20 or 25 years per generation (data not shown). Thus, the age estimates of haplogroups C and P are consistent with the age of the Siberian Upper Paleolithic...

Archeological evidence suggests that the Altai Mountains were the first habitat of anatomically modern humans in Siberia. Both haplogroups C and P are found in the Altai. Y-STR analyses indicate that haplogroup P is about three times more diverse (considering the variance in STR repeat numbers) than haplogroup C in the Altai (0.757 versus 0.280, respectively) (data not shown). Therefore, haplogroup P might represent the oldest lineage in this area. The candidate source populations for haplogroup P most likely include Central Asian populations—the most diverse in Eurasia. Our conclusion is consistent with the inference of Wells et al. (2001) that early settlement of Central Asia 40,000–50,000 years ago was followed by subsequent migrations into Europe, India, and Siberia. This finding also supports archeological evidence for a Central Asian source of the first colonization of anatomically modern humans in Siberia. We hypothesize that the first Siberians, with a macroblade industry and carrying NRY haplogroup P, settled in the Altai region and subsequently moved to the east.

Two descendant lineages of haplogroup P, R-SRY10831b and Q-P36, were also detected in the Altai. The estimated age of R-SRY10831b (roughly 4000 years) is well after early human dispersals into Siberia. It has been suggested that R-SRY10831b likely traces a population migration originating somewhere in southern Russia and the Ukraine, perhaps stemming from the Kurgan culture. The presence of R-SRY10831b in western Siberia probably chronicles known migrations originating in the Altai and Sayan Mountains. The low frequency of this haplogroup in several Central and East Siberian populations is most likely due to admixture with recent migrants of European descent.

Haplogroup Q, with an estimated age of 17,700 ± 4800 years, was found at moderate frequencies in our Altai sample, as well as in remote regions of Northeast Siberia (i.e., among Eskimos, Yukagirs, and Koryaks). The extremely high frequency of haplogroup Q in the Selkups and Kets may be due to intergenerational genetic drift coupled with founder effects. This is supported by very low levels of Y-STR diversity associated with haplogroup Q in both populations (0.149 and 0.159, respectively). This haplogroup is present at low frequencies in other Northwest Siberian populations and is absent in Central Siberia.

The highest Y-STR diversity associated with haplogroup C chromosomes was found in East Asia (including Mongolia), followed by Siberia and Central Asia (0.954, 0.940, and 0.461, respectively). Two haplogroup C members were found in Siberia at moderate frequencies: C-M217* dated at 11,900 ± 4800 years and its relatively recent descendant C-M86. Our time estimate for the M86 mutation is 2,750 ± 1370 years. Mongolia and/or the Lake Baikal region might represent the source of this rather recently derived haplogroup in Siberia.

The combined archaeological and NRY data lead to the following scenario for the early peopling of Siberia. The first migration(s) of anatomically modern humans to the Altai Mountains from Central Asia brought haplogroup P Y chromosomes, and these people later dispersed throughout the southern part of Siberia including the Sayan Mountains, the Angara River basin, the Trans-Baikal, and Mongolia. They also produced the early Siberian Upper Paleolithic stone tool industries that were centered on macroblade technology. Eventually they became the first colonists of the Americas. Another migration from Mongolia and/or North China to the Baikal region may have been associated with carriers of haplogroup C. These mobile hunter-gatherers with a microblade industry initially colonized southern Siberia, and later the subarctic and arctic zones of North America, perhaps arriving there after the last Glacial Maximum and thus representing a second dispersal to the New World....

Ancient genomes trace the origin and decline of the Scythians

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210326151352.htm

The results of this study reveal that substantial genetic turnovers were associated with the decline of the long-lasting Bronze Age sedentary groups and the rise of Scythian nomad cultures in the Iron Age. Their findings show that, following the relatively homogenous ancestry of the late Bronze Age herders, at the turn of the first millennium BCE, influxes from the east, west and south into the steppe formed new admixed gene pools.... at least two main sources of origin for the nomadic Iron Age groups. An eastern source likely originated from populations in the Altai Mountains that, during the course of the Iron Age, spread west and south, admixing as they moved.... the groups located in the western Ural Mountains descend from a second separate, but simultaneous source. Contrary to the eastern case, this western gene pool, characteristic of the early Sauromatian-Sarmatian cultures, remained largely consistent through the westward spread of the Sarmatian cultures from the Urals into the Pontic-Caspian steppe.

The study also covers the transition period after the Iron Age, revealing new genetic turnovers and admixture events. These events intensified at the turn of the first millennium CE, concurrent with the decline and then disappearance of the Scythian cultures in the Central Steppe. In this case, the new far eastern Eurasian influx is plausibly associated with the spread of the nomad empires of the Eastern steppe in the first centuries CE, such as the Xiongnu and Xianbei confederations, as well as minor influxes from Iranian sources likely linked to the expansion of Persian-related civilization from the south....

Earth’s Largest-Ever Lake Engulfed Europe and Asia 12 Million Years Ago

https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/earth-s-largest-lake-0015433

Paratethys Sea. This 12-milion-year-old megalake was formed in Eurasia by the same tectonic shifts that created many European and Asian mountain ranges.... Central Europe and creating a watery border that separated northern from southern Asia. Before climate change caused it to shrink, the Paratethys Sea extended from the eastern Alps to what is now the nation of Kazakhstan....The end came for the Paratethys Sea between 6.9 and 6.7 million years ago. Erosion caused a massive breach in its southwest coastline, forming a rampaging river that eventually drained the lake’s remaining water into the Mediterranean....

Fossil finds have shown that the ancestors of giraffes, elephants, and other large mammals that reside on the African savannah originally lived along the southern shores of the Paratethys Sea. They survived by grazing on the grasslands that were formed when the lake’s water levels declined, carving out a niche in a unique ecosystem. At some point, these large mammals left the area and migrated to the southwest. They eventually settled in Africa and evolved into their modern forms after that....

Today, the most notable remaining remnant of this magnificent inland lake is the Black Sea...

KERMAN = GERMAN?

Kerman

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerman

10th most populous city of Iran... Founded c. 3rd century AD...

KERMAN ii. HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY

THE NAME OF KERMAN

https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kerman-historical-geography

In the early Achaemenid period, the name of Kerman is first found in a trilingual inscription of Darius I (r. 522-486 BCE; see DARIUS iii)—the “palace foundation charter” represented by inscriptions DSf (Old Persian) and DSz (Elamite; Vallat). The name occurs as Old Persian (ablative) Kṛmānā (DSf 35) and Elamite hkur-ma-na-mar (DSz 32), the name of a region from which sissoo wood (OPers. yakā-) was imported for the construction of the palace at Susa... The Arab geographers knew the name either in its present form, Kermān... the region was transcribed by Greek authors, from the Seleucid period on, as Karmanםa... As for the people, Strabo (15.2.14) refers to them once, as Karmanitoi, while Polybius (5.79.3, 7) gives Karmבnioi, as did Ctesias earlier (Karmanםōn, in Photius’s summary, Persica 8). Already in the fifth century BCE, Herodotus (1.125.3) was informed of a tribe called Germבnioi that was one among the tribes (gיnea) of the Persians who were cultivators, as opposed to being pastoral nomads....

According to Rdiger Schmitt (1996; 2003), the transcription Germanioi, which appears in the manuscripts of Herodotus and in the literary tradition derived from it, is doubtless the result of late contamination by the copyists (the earl

1ST DOMESTICATED HORSE FROM PONTIC STEPPES NORTH CAUCASUS 2200BCE SPREADS EASTWARD SIMULTANEOUSLY WITH INDO IRANIAN LANGUAGE AND CHARIOT. BUT, THE DOMESTIC HORSE CAME AFTER INDO EUROPEAN TO EUROPE AS THE EUROPEAN MIGRATION OF STEPPE PEOPLE CAME MUCH EARLIER THAN THE DOMESTIC HORSE....

Origin of domestic horses finally established

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/10/211020135922.htm

The modern horse was domesticated around 2200 years BCE in the northern Caucasus. In the centuries that followed it spread throughout Asia and Europe. An international team of 162 scientists collected, sequenced and compared 273 genomes from ancient horses scattered across Eurasia to come up with this finding.

Horses were first domesticated in the Pontic-Caspian steppes, northern Caucasus, before conquering the rest of Eurasia within a few centuries.... these 5500-year-old horses were not the ancestors of modern domestic horses...

although Eurasia was once populated by genetically distinct horse populations, a dramatic change had occurred between 2000 and 2200 BC. "That was a chance: the horses living in Anatolia, Europe, Central Asia and Siberia used to be genetically quite distinct" notes Dr Pablo Librado, first author of the study. Then, a single genetic profile, previously confined to the Pontic steppes (North Caucasus), began to spread beyond its native region, replacing all the wild horse populations from the Atlantic to Mongolia within a few centuries. "The genetic data also point to an explosive demography at the time, with no equivalent in the last 100,000 years" adds Pr Orlando. "This is when we took control over the reproduction of the animal and produced them in astronomic numbers."...

The study also reveals that the horse spread throughout Asia at the same time as spoke-wheeled chariots and Indo-Iranian languages. However, the migrations of Indo-European populations, from the steppes to Europe during the third millennium BC could not have been based on the horse, as its domestication and diffusion came later....

R1 YDNA LINEAGE TERRITORY STRETCH FROM ATLANTIS WEST EUROPE TO SIBERIA. THE YAMNAYA PEOPLE WERE RELATED TO THE ALTAI-SAYAN PEOPLE. UPPER PALEOLITHIC SOUTHERN SIBERIANS (ANE) WERE RELATED TO PALEOLITHIC/MESOLITHIC WESTERN HUNTER GATHERERS OF EUROPE. BOTAI PEOPLE ARE MESOLITHIC HUNTER GATHERER IN EUROPE+UPPER PALEOLITHIC SOUTHERN SIBERIAN+EAST ASIAN. BOTAI YDNA IS R1b-P297 (R1b-M343) DOES NOT FALL INTO EUROPEAN BRANCH R1b-L51 NOR YAMNAYA R1B-GG400. BOTAI SHOULD BELONG TO R1b-M73.

INNER EURASIANS FORM 3 DISTINCT ADMIXTURE CLINES. CAUCUSUS MTNS FORM A GENETIC BARRIER SEPARATES SOTHERN STEPPE AND STEPPE FOREST. ANOTHER BARRIER NORTH OF LAKE BAIKAL SEPARATES SOUTHERN SIBERIANS AND FOREST TUNDRA. ANOTHER BARRIER IS NORTH OF ALTAI-SAYAN SEPARATES STEPPE FOREST AND YENISEI RIVER. BOTAI EAST ASIAN COMPONENT MIGRATED INTO THE BOTAI. CONTEMPORARY INNER EURASIANS ARE NEW ADMIXTURES WIPING OUT THE ANCIENT WHG-ANE GENES SUCH AS THE BOTAI. THE NEW ALTAI-SAYAN ARE A 2-WAY MIX OF THE ANCIENT WHG-ANE + WESTERN STEPPE HERDERS+CONTEMPORARY EAST EURASIANS.

MEAN ADMIXTURE DATE FOR STEPPE-FOREST EUROPEAN AND SOUTHERN STEPPE CAUCUSUS/IRANIAN IS 24 GENERATIONS. FOREST TUNDRA SIBERIAN ADMIX DATE IS 40 GENERATIONS.

THE ANCIENT BOTAI DID NOT LEAVE MUCH GENETICS IN PRESENT DAY SIBERIAN POPULATIONS IN THE REGION. URALIC SPEAKERS WEST OF URALS FOREST TUNDRA REPRESENTED BY WHG+WSH+EEF+NGANASAN. EAST OF URALS ARE WSH+EHG+NGANASAN+LITTLE TO NO WHG. BOTAI GENES ARE PRE BRONZE AGE. BOTAI ADMIX IS PRE-NEOLITHIC WEST EURASIAN HUNTER GATHERER STRETCHING FROM POST ICE AGE WEST EUROPE TO EHG TO UPPER PALEOLITHIC SOUTH SIBERIAN. RACE MIXING HAS GENOCIDED THE ANCIENT ALTAI-SAYAN PEOPLE. RECENT ADMIXING FURTHER COMPLICATES DATING OF GENETIC SIGNATURES FROM THE ANCIENT GENES AS PALEOLTHIC R1b OF THE WEST EURASIAN MIXES WITH PALEOLTHIC R1b OF THE EAST EURASIAN MIXES WITH THE MESOLITHIC R1b OF THE EUROPEAN WHG WITH THE R1b EHG MIXES WITH NEOLITHIC R1b OF THE WEST EURASIAN MIXES WITH THE BRONZE AGE R1b IN SOUTH SIBERIA WITH THE SAMARAN R1b AND IRON AGE R1b FROM EAST EURASIAN WITH TODAYS R1b FROM ALL OVER, ETC... EAST ASIAN PEOPLE MIX IN DURING MORE RECENT TIMES AS THEY EXPAND WESTWARD....

Characterizing the genetic history of admixture across inner Eurasia

http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/327122

763 individuals from Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan... inner Eurasian populations are strucured into three distinct admixture clines stretching between various western and eastern Eurasian ancestries. This genetic separation is well mirrored by geography. The ancient Botai genomes suggest yet another layer of admixture in inner Eurasia that involves Mesolithic hunter-gatherers in Europe, the Upper Paleolithic southern Siberians and East Asians....

early Neolithic farming populations in Europe show a remarkable genetic homogeneity suggesting minimal genetic exchange with local hunter-gatherer populations through the initial expansion; genetic mixing of these two gene pools became evident only after thousands of years in the middle Neolithic. Modern Lebanese populations provide another example by showing a population stratification reflecting their religious community. There are also examples of geographically very distant populations that are closely related: for example, people buried in association with artifacts of the Yamnaya horizon in the Pontic-Caspian steppe and the contemporaneous Afanasievo culture 3,000 km east in the Altai-Sayan Mountains.... the Upper Paleolithic genomes from the Mal’ta and Afontova Gora archaeological sites in southern Siberia revealed a genetic profile, often referred to as “Ancient North Eurasians (ANE)”, which is deeply related to Paleolithic/Mesolithic hunter-gatherers in Europe and also substantially contributed to the gene pools of modern-day Native Americans, Siberians, Europeans and South Asians. Studies of Bronze Age steppe populations found the appearance of additional Western Eurasian-related ancestries across the steppe from the Pontic-Caspian region in the West to the Altai-Sayan region in the East, here we collectively refer to as “Western Steppe Herders (WSH)”...

To estimate the phylogenetic position of the Botai Y haplogroup more precisely...Twenty-two SNP positions relevant to the up-to-date haplogroup R1b tree confirmed that the sample was positive for the markers of R1b-P297 branch but negative for its R1b-M269 sub-branch....The initial frequencies were calculated as proportion of samples positive for “root” R1b marker M343 but negative for M269...

Inner Eurasians form distinct east-west genetic clines mirroring geography:

In a PCA of Eurasian individuals, we find that PC1 separates eastern and western Eurasian populations, PC2 splits eastern Eurasians along a north-south cline, and PC3 captures variation in western Eurasians with Caucasus and northeastern European populations at opposite ends.... A model-based clustering analysis using ADMIXTURE shows a similar pattern...The forest-tundra cline populations derive most of their eastern Eurasian ancestry from a component most enriched in Nganasans, while those on the steppe-forest and southern steppe clines have this component together with another component most enriched in populations from the Russian Far East, such as Ulchi and Nivkh. The southern steppe cline groups are distinct from the others in their western Eurasian ancestry profile, in the sense that they have a high proportion of a component most enriched in Mesolithic Caucasus hunter-gatherers (“CHG”) and Neolithic Iranians (“Iran_N”) and frequently harbor another component enriched in South Asians.

The genetic barriers splitting the inner Eurasian clines are also evidenced in the EEMS

(“estimated effective migration surface”) analysis. A strong genetic barrier is detected

between the Caucasus and the Pontic-Caspian steppe regions, separating the southern steppe and steppe forest clines. On the eastern side, another barrier north of Lake Baikal separates southern Siberians from the forest-tundra cline groups in the North. These two barriers are partially connected by a weaker barrier north of the Altai-Sayan region, likely reflecting both the east-west connection within the steppe-forest cline and the north-south connection along the Yenisei River...

To highlight the difference between the distinct inner Eurasian clines, we looked into f3 results with representative reference pairs comprising two western Eurasian (French to represent Europeans and Georgian to represent Caucasus populations) and three eastern Eurasian groups (Nganasan, Ulchi and Korean). In the populations of the southern steppe cline, reference pairs with Georgians tend to produce more negative f3 statistics than those with French while the opposite pattern is observed for the steppe-forest and forest-tundra populations. Reference pairs with Nganasans mostly result in more negative f3 statistic than those with Ulchi in the forest-tundra populations, but the opposite pattern is dominant in the southern steppe populations. Populations of the steppe-forest cline show an intermediate pattern: the northern ones tend to have more negative f3 statistics

with Nganasans while the southern ones tend to have more negative f3 statistics with Ulchi...

The European donors provide a major contribution for the western Eurasian-related source in the forest tundra and steppe-forest recipients while the Caucasus/Iranian donors do so in the southern steppe recipients. Similarly, Siberian donors make the highest contribution to the eastern Eurasian-related source in the forest-tundra recipients, followed by the steppe-forest and southern steppe ones.... We obtain a mean admixture date estimate of 24.3 generations for the steppe-forest and southern steppe cline populations, ranging from 10.7 to 38.1 generations (309 to 1104 years ago, using 29 years per generation.... The forest-tundra cline groups have older estimates with a mean of 40.1 generations and a range of 6.8-55.2 generations (197 to 1601 years ago)....

The Eneolithic Botai individuals are closer to each other in the PC space than to any other ancient or present-day individual, and are in proximity to the upper Paleolithic Siberians from the Mal’ta (MA-1) or Afontova Gora (AG3) archaeological sites. Consistent with this, Botai has the highest outgroup f3 statistic with AG3 and other upper Paleolithic Siberians, as well as with the Mesolithic eastern European hunter-gathers from Karelia and Samara (“EHG”)...suggesting East Asian gene flow into Botai... The Y-chromosome of the male Botai individual (TU45) belongs to the haplogroup R1b. However, it falls into neither a predominant European branch R1b-L51 nor into a R1b-GG400 branch found in Yamnaya individuals. Thus, phylogenetically this Botai individual should belong to the R1b-M73 branch which is frequent in the Eurasian steppe. This branch was also found in Mesolithic samples from Latvia as well as in numerous modern southern Siberian and Central Asian groups.

Admixture modeling of contemporary inner Eurasians shows multiple gene flows producing new genetic clines overwriting the ancient ones: Our results show that contemporary inner Eurasians form genetic clines distinct from the ancient WHG-ANE cline, from which a majority of the Botai ancestry is derived....

Contemporary Altai-Sayan populations are effectively modeled as a two-way mixture of ancient populations from the region with WSH ancestry and contemporary eastern Eurasians, either Afanasievo+Ulchi or Sintashta+Nganasan Altai-Sayan groups, respectively. Among the ancient groups, Sintashta+EAS generally fits Andronovo individuals well with a small eastern Eurasian contribution (6.4±1.4% for estimate ± 1 SE with Nganasans), while later Karasuk or Iron Age individuals from the Altai are modeled better with the older Afanasievo as their WSH-related source. If the pre-Bronze Age populations of the Altai-Sayan region were related to either Botai in the west or the Upper Paleolithic Siberians in the east, these results suggest that these pre-Bronze Age populations in southern Siberia did not leave a substantial genetic legacy in the present-day populations in the region...

For the forest-tundra cline populations...proxies for contemporary Europeans: WHG, WSH (represented by “Yamnaya_Samara”), and early Neolithic European farmers (EEF; represented by “LBK_EN”;). Adding Nganasans as the fourth reference, we find that most Uralic-speaking populations in Europe (i.e. west of the Urals) and Russians are well modeled by this four-way admixture...

For the four forest-tundra cline groups east of the Urals (Enets, Selkups, Kets and Mansi), the above four-way model estimates negative contribution from EEF (< -1.6%). Replacing EEF with EHG...with a small WHG contribution...The three-way model excluding WHG shows a good fit for Enets, Selkups and Kets...a legacy of the ancient WHG-ANE cline.

The Caucasus Mountains form a barrier to gene flow:

When the Altai-Sayan Mountains are often considered as a crossroad of migrations and mark the eastern boundary of the western Eurasian steppe, the Caucasus area plays a similar role for the western end of the steppe... Caucasus populations are clustered on the PC space in the vicinity of West Asians further in the south but far from eastern Europeans. The genetic structure within the Caucasus is less pronounced but still evident: populations from the North and South Caucasus, geographically divided by the Greater Caucasus ridge, also show a genetic differentiation. North Caucasus populations show a further subdivision into northwest and northeast groups....

Compared to both northwest and northeast groups, South Caucasians show extra affinity to Near Eastern populations, such as Neolithic Levantines and Anatolians (“Levant_N” and “Anatolia_N”, respectively; Table S2). In turn, North Caucasus populations have extra affinity with populations of the steppe and broadly of eastern Eurasia. Northeast Caucasians, for example Laks and Lezgins, show the strongest signals with ANE- and WSH related ancient groups, with MA-1, AG3, Botai and EHG at the top. Northwest Caucasians (e.g. Adygei and Ossetians) are closer to East Asians than Northeast or South Caucasians are. We speculate that these results may suggest at least two layers of gene flow into the North Caucasus region: an older layer related to the ANE- or WSH-related ancestries and the younger layer related to East Asians. The former may have involved an interaction with Iron Age nomads, such as Scythians or Sarmatians. The latter most strongly affected Northwest Caucasians and might be related to historical movements of Turkic populations with some East Asian ancestry into the Caucasus....

For 7 of 22 Caucasus populations, a two way admixture model using Armenians and an ancient Scythian individual is sufficient. Except for Georgians from the South Caucasus (6.8% contribution from Scythians), all the other groups have a substantial contribution from Scythians (38.0-50.6%). When we add Nanais as the third reference to model potential gene flow from Eastern Eurasians, most of the Caucasus populations are consistent with the model: 15 of 22 Caucasus populations...9 of the 15 groups are adequately modeled by the three references but not by the two: they indeed have positive admixture coefficients for Nanais. Except for Nogais (19.8% for Nogai1 and 48.0% for Nogai2), the other seven groups have only a small amount of East Asian ancestry that is

prominent neither in PCA nor in ADMIXTURE (2.7-5.1%)....

inner Eurasian populations being structured into three distinct clines shows a striking

correlation between genes and geography... The steppe cline populations derive their eastern Eurasian ancestry from a gene pool similar to contemporary Tungusic speakers from the Amur river basin, thus suggesting a genetic connection among the speakers of languages belonging to the Altaic macrofamily... a distinct Nganasan-related eastern Eurasian ancestry in the forest-tundra cline suggests a substantial separation between these two eastern ancestries. Nganasans have high genetic affinity with prehistoric individuals with the “ANE” ancestry in North Eurasia, such as the Upper Paleolithic Siberians or the Mesolithic EHG, which is exceeded only by Native Americans and by Beringians among eastern Eurasians. Northeast Asians are closer to Nganasans than they are to either Beringians or Native Americans, and the ANE affinity in East Asians is correlated well with their affinity with Nganasans (Figure S13). We hypothesize that Nganasans may be relatively isolated descendants of a prehistoric Siberian gene pool, which formed modern Northeast Asians by mixing with populations related to the Neolithic Northeast Asians.

The Botai genomes provide a critical snapshot of the genetic profile of pre-Bronze Age steppe populations. Our admixture modeling positions Botai primarily on an ancient genetic cline of the pre-Neolithic western Eurasian hunter-gatherers: stretching from the post-Ice Age western European hunter gatherers (e.g. WHG) to EHG in Karelia and Samara to the Upper Paleolithic southern Siberians (e.g.AG3). Botai’s position on this cline, between EHG and AG3, fits well with their geographic location and suggests that ANE-related ancestry in the East did have a lingering genetic impact on Holocene Siberian and Central Asian populations at least till the time of Botai.... This ancient cline in Altai-Sayan region has now largely been overwritten by waves of genetic admixtures. Starting from the Eneolithic Afanasievo culture, multiple migrations from the Pontic-Caspian steppe to the east have significantly changed the western Eurasian ancestry during the Bronze Age. Our admixture modeling finds that no contemporary population in the Altai-Sayan region is required to have additional ANE ancestry beyond what the mixture model of Bronze Age steppe plus modern Eastern Eurasians can explain....additional EHG-related ancestry is required to explain the forest-tundra populations to the east of the Urals. Their multi-way mixture model may in fact portrait a prehistoric two-way mixture of a WSH population and a hypothetical eastern Eurasian one that has an ANE-related contribution higher than that in Nganasans. Botai and Okunevo individuals prove the existence of such ANE ancestry-rich populations....

deep sharing of genes between western and eastern Eurasian populations in multiple layers: the Pleistocene ANE ancestry in Mesolithic EHG and contemporary Native Americans, Bronze Age steppe ancestry from Europe to Mongolia, and Nganasan-related ancestry extending from western Siberia into Eastern Europe. More recent historical migrations, such as the westward expansions of Turkic and Mongolic groups, further complicate genomic signatures of admixture and have overwritten those from older events. Ancient genomes of Iron Age steppe individuals, already showing signatures of west-east admixture in the 5th to 2nd century BCE, provide further direct evidence for the hidden old layers of admixture, which is often difficult to appreciate from present-day populations as shown in our finding of a discrepancy between the estimates of admixture dates from contemporary individuals and those from ancient genomes.

Figure 2. The genetic structure of inner Eurasian populations

EBA DZUNGARIAN LINKS TO AFANASIEVO 3000-2600BC OF THE ALTAI-SAYAN 3150-2750BC HAVING GENETICS WITH YAMNAYA 3500-2500BC.

TARIM 2100-1700BC ARE XIAOHE HORIZON CLUSTER TO PRE BRONZE AGE CENTRAL STEPPE AND SIBERIAN ANE (YENISEI AG3~ANE~TARIM) BUT, ONE SOUTH TARIM SLIGHTLY CLUSTER WITH EBA BAIKAL. TARIM GENETIC LINK WITH DZUNGARIAN BUT MORE DISTANT FROM AFANASIEVO AND CLOSER TO LOCAL AUTOCHTONOUS. BAIKAL_EBA~ ANCIENT NORTHEAST ASIAN.

DZUNGARIA= 50% TO 70% AFANASIEVO + 19% TO 36% AG3/TARIM_EMBA1 + 9% TO 21% BAIKAL_EBA.

CHEMURCHEK= 67% DZUNGARIAN_EBA1 + 33% TARIM_EMBA1/IAMC/BMAC.

TARIM= 72% AG3 + 28% BAIKAL_EBA.

TARIM_EMBA1 DATES TO 183 GENERATIONS OR 9,157+/-986 YA SIMILAR TO AG3, WEST_SIBERIA_N, AND BOTAI_CA R1b1a1a1 FROM EURASIA STEPPE BUT DISTINCT R1b FROM WEST BA STEPPE SUCH AS AFANASIEVO AND YAMNAYA R1b1a1a2. ONE BEIFANG IS MORE BASAL R1 THAN XIAOHE R1b1c.

HUMANS IN XINJIANG 40KYA BUT EARLIEST SUSTAINED IN TARIM 3RD TO 2ND MILLENIUM BC. TARIM WERE GENETIC ISOLATES OF R1 AND R1b UNLIKE DZUNGARIAN, IAMC, AND CHEMURCHEK WHOM INTERACTED WITH OTHERS. XIAOHE HAD BOAT SHAPE COFFINS AND WORE WOOLEN GARMENTS WITH OAR PLANK IN FRONT OF MALE BURIAL....

The genomic origins of the Bronze Age Tarim Basin mummies

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04052-7

Within and around the Dzungarian Basin, pastoralist Early Bronze Age (EBA) Afanasievo (3000–2600 bc) and Chemurchek (or Qiemu’erqieke) (2500–1700 bc)

sites have been plausibly linked to the Afanasievo herders of the Altai–Sayan region in southern Siberia (3150–2750 bc), who in turn have close genetic ties with the Yamnaya (3500–2500 bc) of the Pontic–Caspian steppe located 3,000 km to the west. Linguists have hypothesized that the Afanasievo dispersal brought the now extinct Tocharian branch of the Indo-European language family eastwards, separating it from other Indo-European languages by the third or fourth millennium bc....

Since the late 1990s, the discovery of hundreds of naturally mummified human remains dating to around 2000 bc to ad 200 in the Tarim Basin has attracted international attention due to their so-called Western physical appearance, their felted and woven woollen clothing, and their agropastoral economy that included cattle, sheep/goats, wheat, barley, millet and even kefir cheese. Such mummies have now been found throughout the Tarim Basin, among which the earliest are those found in the lowest layers of the cemeteries at Gumugou (2135–1939 bc), Xiaohe (1884–1736 bc) and Beifang (1785–1664 bc)...

Examining the skeletal material of 33 Bronze Age individuals from sites in the Dzungarian (Nileke, Ayituohan and Songshugou) and Tarim (Xiaohe,Gumugou and Beifang) basins, we successfully retrieved ancient genome sequences from 5 EBA Dzungarian individuals (3000–2800 bc) culturally assigned as Afanasievo, and genome-wide data from 13 Early–Middle Bronze Age (EMBA) Tarim individuals (2100–1700 bc) belonging to the Xiaohe horizon. We additionally report dental calculus proteomes of seven individuals from basal layers at the site of Xiaohe in the Tarim Basin. To the best of our knowledge, these individuals represent the earliest human remains excavated to date in the region....

EBA Dzungarian individuals from the sites of Ayituohan and Songshugou near the Altai Mountains (Dzungaria_EBA1) fall close to EBA Afanasievo steppe herders from the Altai–Sayan mountains to the north....In contrast to the EBA Dzungarian individuals, the EMBA individuals from the eastern Tarim sites of Xiaohe and Gumugou (Tarim_EMBA1) form a tight cluster close to pre-Bronze Age central steppe and Siberian individuals who share a high level of ancient North Eurasian (ANE) ancestry (for example, Botai_CA). A contemporaneous individual from the Beifang site (Tarim_EMBA2) in the southern Tarim Basin is slightly displaced from the Tarim_EMBA1 towards EBA individuals from the Baikal region.

Afanasievo genetic legacy in Dzungaria: Outgroup f3 statistics supports a tight genetic link between the Dzungarian and Tarim groups. Nevertheless, both of the Dzungarian groups are significantly different from the Tarim groups, showing excess affinity with various western Eurasian populations and sharing fewer alleles with ANE-related groups... AG3 is a distal representative of the ANE ancestry and shows a high affinity with Tarim_EMBA1. Although the Tarim_EMBA1 individuals lived a millennium later than the Dzungarian groups, they are more genetically distant from the Afanasievo than the Dzungarian groups, suggesting that they have a higher proportion of local autochthonous ancestry. Here we define autochthonous to signify a genetic profile that has been present in a region for millennia, rather than being associated with more recently arrived groups. We find that Dzungaria_EBA1 and Dzungaria_EBA2 are both best described by three-way admixture models in which they derive a majority ancestry from Afanasievo (about 70% in Dzungaria_EBA1 and about 50% in Dzungaria_EBA2), with the remaining ancestry best modelled as a mixture of AG3/Tarim_EMBA1 (19–36%) and Baikal_EBA (9–21%).... Thus, Afanasievo ancestry, without IAMC contributions, is sufficient to explain the western Eurasian component of the Dzungarian individuals. We also find that the Chemurchek, an EBA pastoralist culture that succeeds the Afanasievo inboth the Dzungarian Basin and Altai Mountains, derive approximately two-thirds of their ancestry from Dzungaria_EBA1 with the remainder from Tarim_EMBA1 and IAMC/BMAC-related sources.... the early dispersal of the Afanasievo herders into Dzungaria was accompanied by a substantial level of genetic mixing with local autochthonous populations, a pattern distinct from that of the initial formation of the Afanasievo culture in southern Siberia.

Genetic isolation of the Tarim group: The Tarim_EMBA1 and Tarim_EMBA2 groups, although geographically separated by over 600 km of desert, form a homogeneous population that had undergone a substantial population bottleneck, as suggested by their high genetic affinity without close kinship, as well as by the limited diversity in their uniparental haplogroups....the Tarim Basin individuals as a mixture of two ancient autochthonous Asian genetic groups: the ANE, represented by an Upper Palaeolithic individual from the Afontova Gora site in the upper Yenisei River region of Siberia (AG3) (about 72%), and ancient Northeast Asians, represented by Baikal_EBA (about 28%). Tarim_EMBA2 from Beifang can also be modelled as a mixture of Tarim_EMBA1 (about 89%) and Baikal_EBA (about 11%). For both Tarim groups, admixture models unanimously fail when using the Afanasievo or IAMC/BMAC groups as a western Eurasian source, thus rejecting a western Eurasian genetic contribution from nearby groups with herding and/or farming economies. We estimate a deep formation date for the Tarim_EMBA1 genetic profile, consistent with an absence of western Eurasian EBA admixture, placing the origin of this gene pool at 183 generations before the sampled Tarim Basin individuals, or 9,157 ± 986 years ago when assuming an average generation time of 29 years. Considering these findings together, the genetic profile of the Tarim Basin individuals indicates that the earliest individuals of the Xiaohe horizon belong to an ancient and isolated autochthonous Asian gene pool. This autochthonous ANE-related gene pool is likely to have formed the genetic substratum of the pre-pastoralist ANE-related populations of Central Asia and southern Siberia...

To better understand the dietary economy of the earliest archaeological periods, we analysed the dental calculus proteomes of seven individuals at the site of Xiaohe dating to around 2000–1700 bc. All seven individuals were strongly positive for ruminant-milk-specific proteins...diagnostic matches to cattle (Bos), sheep (Ovis) and goat (Capra) milk... These results confirm that dairy products were consumed by individuals of autochthonous ancestry (Tarim_EMBA1) buried in the lowest levels of the Xiaohe cemetery....

Although human activities in Xinjiang can be traced back to around 40,000 years ago, the earliest evidence for sustained human habitation in the Tarim Basin dates only to the late third to early second millennium bc. There, at the sites of Xiaohe, Gumugou and Beifang, well-preserved mummified human remains buried within wooden coffins and associated with rich organic grave good assemblages represent the earliest known archaeological cultures of the region.... the known sites from the IAMC do not provide a direct source of ancestry for the Xiaohe populations. Instead, the Tarim mummies belong to an isolated gene pool whose Asian origins can be traced to the early Holocene epoch. This gene pool is likely to have once had a much wider geographic distribution, and it left a substantial genetic footprint in the EMBA populations of the Dzungarian Basin, IAMC and southern Siberia. The Tarim mummies’ so-called Western physical features are probably due to their connection to the Pleistocene ANE gene pool, and their extreme genetic isolation differs from the EBA Dzungarian, IAMC and Chemurchek populations, who experienced substantial genetic interactions with the nearby populations mirroring their cultural links, pointing towards a role of extreme environments as a barrier to human migration....

Extended Data Fig. 1 Burial goods excavated from the Xiaohe cemetery: boat-shaped coffins and mummified remains dressed in woollen garments. A, a wooden sculpture excavated from the upper layer of a double-layer mud This burial style is common at Bronze Age cemeteries throughout the Tarim coffin of XHM75. B, an oar-plank placed in front of a male burial. C, a wooden Basin, including Beifang and Gumugou. E, Side view of the Xiaohe cemetery pole placed in front of a female burial. D, Burial XHM66 from layer 4 of the showing wooden grave markers and fencing. Xiaohe cemetery illustrating typical features of early burials, including Beifang and Gumugou. E, Side view of the Xiaohe cemetery showing wooden grave markers and fencing.

Extended Data Fig. 3 Unsupervised ADMIXTURE plot for the Bronze Age

Xinjiang individuals: Dzungaria_EBA individuals show an ancestry pattern close to Afanasievo and Yamnaya, while Tarim_EMBA individuals show a pattern similar to AG3, West_Siberia_N and Botai_CA from the Eurasia steppe.

Extended Data Fig. 4 Reduced genetic diversity of the Tarim_EMBA individuals Y chromosome phylogeny of the Bronze Age Xinjiang male individuals. Xiaohe male individuals fall into a branch distinct from western Bronze Age steppe pastoralists, such as Afanasievo and Yamnaya. One individual from Beifang falls in a position that is more basal than Xiaohe, but its phylogenetic position cannot be fixed due to low coverage, and its proximate position(s) are instead indicated with an asterisk.