When modern Eurasia was born: Genetics yield clues to origins of Eurasians (2024)

When modern Eurasia was born: Genetics yield clues to origins of Eurasians (1)

Updated 13 June, 2015 - 20:57 ancient-origins

  • Read Later

Print

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Was it a massive migration? Or was it rather a slow and persistent seeping of people, items and ideas that laid the foundation for the demographic map of Europe and Central Asia that we see today? The Bronze Age (about 5,000 - 3,000 years ago) was a period with large cultural upheavals. But just how these upheavals came to be have remained shrouded in mystery.

Assistant Professor Morten Allentoft from the Centre for GeoGenetics at the Natural History Museum of Denmark at the University of Copenhagen is a geneticist and is first author on the paper in Nature. He says: "Both archaeologists and linguists have had theories about how cultures and languages have spread in our part of the world. We geneticists have now collaborated with them to publish an explanation based on a record amount of DNA-analyses of skeletons from the Bronze Age."

When modern Eurasia was born: Genetics yield clues to origins of Eurasians (2)

Bronze Age skeletons from Cliffs End Farm, Ramsgate, England (Wessex Archaeology / Flickr)

So far the archaeologists have been divided into two different camps. Professor Kristian Kristiansen of the University of Gothenburg, who initiated the project together with Lundbeck Foundation Professor Eske Willerslev says: "The driving force in our study was to understand the big economical and social changes that happened at the beginning of the third millennium BC, spanning the Urals to Scandinavia. The old Neolithic farming cultures were replaced by a completely new perception of family, property and personhood. I and other archaeologists share the opinion that these changes came about as a result of massive migrations."

With this new investigation the researchers confirm that the changes came about as a result of migrations. The researchers think that this is interesting also because later developments in the Bronze Age are a continuation of this new social perception. Things add up because the migrations can also explain the origin of the northern European language families. Both language and genetics have been with us all the way up to the present. Kristian Kristiansen even thinks that it was crucial events that happened during these few centuries, as crucial as the colonization of the Americas.

One of the main findings from the study is how these migrations resulted in huge changes to the European gene-pool, in particular conferring a large degree of admixture on the present populations. Genetically speaking, ancient Europeans from the time post these migrations are much more similar to modern Europeans than those prior the Bronze Age.

  • White Skin Developed in Europe Only As Recently as 8,000 Years Ago Say Anthropologists
  • New study reveals third group of ancient ancestors of modern Europeans
  • Most European Men are Descended from just Three Bronze Age Warlords, New Study Reveals

Mobile warrior people

The re-writing of the genetic map began in the early Bronze Age, about 5,000 years ago. From the steppes in the Caucasus, the Yamnaya Culture migrated principally westward into North- and Central Europe, and to a lesser degree, into western Siberia. Yamnaya was characterized by a new system of family and property. In northern Europe the Yamnaya mixed with the Stone Age people who inhabited this region and along the way established the Corded Ware Culture, which genetically speaking resembles present day Europeans living north of the Alps today.

Later, about 4,000 years ago the Sintashta Culture evolved in the Caucasus. This culture's sophisticated new weapons and chariots were rapidly expanding across Europe. The area east of the Urals and far into Central Asia was colonized around 3,800 years ago by the Andronovo Culture. The researchers' investigation shows that this culture had a European DNA-background.

During the last part of the Bronze Age, and at the beginning of the Iron Age, East Asian peoples arrived in Central Asia. Here it is not genetic admixture we see, but rather a replacement of genes. The European genes in the area disappear.

When modern Eurasia was born: Genetics yield clues to origins of Eurasians (3)

Bronze Age warriors (Mike Bishop / Flickr)

A new scale

These new results derive from DNA-analyses of skeletons excavated across large areas of Europe and Central Asia, thus enabling these crucial glimpses into the dynamics of the Bronze Age. In addition to the population movement insights, the data also held other surprises. For example, contrary to the research team's expectations, the data revealed that lactose tolerance rose to high frequency in Europeans, in comparison to prior belief that it evolved earlier in time (5,000 - 7,000 years ago). Co-author and Associate Professor Martin Sikora from the Centre for GeoGenetics says: "Previously the common belief was that lactose tolerance developed in the Balkans or in the Middle East in connection with the introduction of farming during the Stone Age. But now we can see that even late in the Bronze Age the mutation that gives rise to the tolerance is rare in Europe. We think that it may have been introduced into Europe with the Yamnaya herders from Caukasus but that the selection that has made most Europeans lactose tolerant has happened at a much later time."

The paper in Nature not only gives us a new glimpse into the Bronze Age. It is also the first time an actual population evolutionary study back in time has been made to this extent. Geneticist and director of the Centre for GeoGenetics Eske Willerslev elaborates:

"Our study is the first real large-scale population genomic study ever undertaken on ancient individuals. We analysed genome sequence data from 101 past individuals. This is more than a doubling of the number of genomic sequenced individuals of pre-historic man generated to date. The study is without any comparison to anything previously made. The results show that the genetic composition and distribution of peoples in Europe and Asia today is a surprisingly late phenomenon - only a few thousand years old."

Featured image: This image shows a Yamnaya skull from the Samara region colored with red ochre. Credit: Natalia Shishlina

Source: Faculty of Science - University of Copenhagen. (2015, June 10). When modern Eurasia was born. ScienceDaily.

    Login or Register in order to comment

    Comments

    Tom Carberry wrote on 29 June, 2015 - 18:17

    "The Bronze Age (about 5,000 - 3,000 years ago) was a period with large cultural upheavals."

    We know this for a fact, but archaeologists, anthorpologists, linguists, geneticists, and others who study populaton movements and changes, don't have a coherent theory as to why?

    Specialization causes much of the problem. How many of these people understand that before about 3000 to 4000 BCE, the Sahara Desert did not exist, but rather the entire area of North Africa had massive lakes, rivers, and streams, and harbored millions of humans and animals? Or that the same happened with the great northern desets of China, and probably with all of the massive deserts that circle the globe at about 30 degrees north latitude on every continent.

    People moved because of a massive climate disaster. The Aryans moved south into India and who knows where else. The Harappa civilization, which extended from modern Pakistan to Syria, disappeared. The Bible describes centuries of war fare. Egyptian and Sumerian/Akkadian history show the same. Rome arose worshiping Mars and war.

    What happened? I think that poses a much more interesting question than the particular genetic features of various current groups.

    Tom Carberry

    Ancient-Origins

    This is the Ancient Origins team, and here is our mission: “To inspire open-minded learning about our past for the betterment of our future through the sharing of research, education, and knowledge”.

    At Ancient Origins we believe that one of... Read More

    Related Articles on Ancient-Origins

    When modern Eurasia was born: Genetics yield clues to origins of Eurasians (2024)

    FAQs

    What are the origins of Eurasian? ›

    The origins of the Eurasians can be traced to the Europeans traders, administrators and private individuals who travelled to Asia between the 16th and 20th centuries. The Portuguese were among the earliest Europeans to arrive in Asia, exerting their presence in India from 1505 and in Malacca from 1511 to 1641.

    Who has the most ancient North Eurasian DNA? ›

    Having survived in a type of "genetic bottleneck" in the Tarim basin where they preserved and perpetuated their ANE ancestry, the Tarim mummies, more than any other ancient populations, can be considered as "the best representatives" of the Ancient North Eurasians among all sampled known Bronze Age populations.

    What is West Eurasian DNA? ›

    West-Eurasian refers to the genetic lineage distinct from East-Eurasians (East Asians and Australasians) and distinct from West, East, South Africans. It generally refers to the main ancestry of Northern Africans, Middle Easterners, Europeans, Central-South Asians, and Paleolithic Siberians.

    What is the share of yamnaya genetic component in present-day Europeans? ›

    Yamnaya–related ancestry is found in the DNA of modern Central, and Northern Europeans (c. 38.8–50.4 %), and is also found in lower levels in present-day Southern Europeans (c. 18.5–32.6 %), Sardinians (c. 2.4–7.1 %), and Sicilians (c. 5.9–11.6 %).

    Where did Eurasia come from? ›

    Eurasia formed between 375 and 325 million years ago with the merging of Siberia, Kazakhstania, and Baltica, which was joined to Laurentia (now North America), to form Euramerica.

    What is Eurasia's very short answer? ›

    Eurasia is the combined landmass of Europe and Asia in the northern part of Earth. It has the Atlantic Ocean on its west, and the Pacific Ocean to the east. The Arctic Ocean is to its north, and the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean to its south. It is the largest of the continents.

    Do Native Americans have Eurasian DNA? ›

    Overall, the 'Ancestral Native Americans' descended from the admixture of an Ancient East Asian lineage contributing about 65% ancestry, and a Paleolithic Siberian population known as Ancient North Eurasians, contributing about 35% ancestry.

    Which race has the most diverse DNA? ›

    African populations also have the highest levels of genetic and phenotypic variation among all humans.

    What is the oldest DNA in Europe? ›

    It is thought that modern humans began to inhabit Europe during the Upper Paleolithic about 40,000 years ago. Some evidence shows the spread of the Aurignacian culture. From a purely patrilineal, Y-chromosome perspective, it appears that Haplogroup C1a2, F and K2a may be those with the oldest presence in Europe.

    What race are Eurasians? ›

    It has expanded the definition of Eurasian to include any person of mixed European and Asian parentage. Previously, only persons whose fathers were of European origin or who had European surnames were considered Eurasian.

    Are Eurasians Neanderthals? ›

    The advances in genome sequencing and comparative analysis have shown that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens did interbreed. From these interactions, present-day Eurasians carry about two percent of Neanderthal-origin DNA.

    Do Mongolians have European DNA? ›

    Two autosomal genetic studies on Inner Mongolians found that they are best modeled as a mixture of Ancient Northeast Asian-like (ANA) and 10% to 25% East Asian Yellow River Farmer ancestry sources (increasing among Khorchins to around 62%), with only minor Western Eurasian genetic contributions (5.6–11.6%).

    Did Yamnaya have blue eyes? ›

    40,000 years ago, a group of hunter-gatherers, with brown eyes and dark skin and hair, descendants of migrations that left Africa 100,000 years ago, settled in the Pontic Steppe along the Black Sea, passing through Central Asia, where they encountered and mixed with the Neanderthal man already established in these ...

    Which European country has the best genetics? ›

    Icelanders at a glance. "We are probably the most productive entity in human genetics in the entire world," insists Kari. "For example we have recently published a mutation which provides almost complete protection against Alzheimer's disease. Most Icelanders support us in our work."

    What race were the Yamnaya? ›

    The Yamnaya were the ancestors of modern Europeans. They carried Haplogroup R1B-269, the majority Haplogroup of Western Europe. They migrated into the Corded Ware Population in Northern Europe, became assimilated and took Haplogroup R1A into Europe, parts of the Middle East, Central and South Asia.

    What ethnicity is Eurasian? ›

    A person of mixed European and Asian heritage; = Eurasian, n. Obsolete. A person of South-East or East Asian (especially Chinese or Japanese) ethnic origin; spec. a person of mixed white and Asian descent.

    What are the ancient Eurasian civilizations? ›

    The four major early Afro-Eurasian river valley civilizations are the Mesopotamian civilization, Egyptian civilization, Harappan civilization, and Chinese civilizations. All of these civilizations were located along rivers.

    Where did the Eurasian language come from? ›

    "Everybody in Eurasia can trace their linguistic ancestry back to a group, or groups, of people living around 15,000 years ago, probably in southern Europe, as the ice sheets were retreating," said Mark Pagel, an evolutionary biologist at Reading University.

    What is the difference between European and Eurasian? ›

    For our purposes, we'll call Europe the Western part of Eurasia, a massive landmass that stretches from Ireland to Indonesia. However, Europe is only a small part of that landmass, reaching from the Ural Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean.

    Top Articles
    Latest Posts
    Recommended Articles
    Article information

    Author: Kieth Sipes

    Last Updated:

    Views: 5663

    Rating: 4.7 / 5 (67 voted)

    Reviews: 90% of readers found this page helpful

    Author information

    Name: Kieth Sipes

    Birthday: 2001-04-14

    Address: Suite 492 62479 Champlin Loop, South Catrice, MS 57271

    Phone: +9663362133320

    Job: District Sales Analyst

    Hobby: Digital arts, Dance, Ghost hunting, Worldbuilding, Kayaking, Table tennis, 3D printing

    Introduction: My name is Kieth Sipes, I am a zany, rich, courageous, powerful, faithful, jolly, excited person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.