Biology subjects

Nikitin, A. G.

Publications and source records attributed to Nikitin, A. G..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Tracing mobility among Eneolithic-Bronze Age Kurgan populations in the North Pontic steppe

Five millennia ago, nomadic people from the North Pontic steppe left a profound impact on the course of Eurasian prehistory. However, little is known about their mobility patterns within their home region. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted a survey of the strontium isotope landscape of people interred in the 4th-3rd millennium BCE burial mounds (kurgans) of the western part of the North Pontic steppe. By analyzing the strontium signature in human bone and dentin, we established strontium baseline values for the region. We subsequently correlated enamel strontium ratios from 25 selected individuals with the baseline obtained and with published strontium data across the North Pontic steppe. Enamel strontium ratios show that some individuals interred in the northwest North Pontic fall within the regional baseline range, whereas others overlap with values reported for the eastern North Pontic steppe. In conjunction with carbon ({delta}13C) and nitrogen ({delta}15N) stable isotope data, we further determined that some individuals interred in the western Pontic steppe either spent the later part of life in the west Caspian steppe or were affected by physiological stress during lifetime. By integrating our data with published isotopic datasets, we produced a first baseline heatmap of the North Pontic steppe for the c. 4000-2000 BCE chronological period.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2024

A genomic history of the North Pontic Region from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age

The north Black Sea (Pontic) Region was the nexus of the farmers of Old Europe and the foragers and pastoralists of the Eurasian steppe1,2, and the source of waves of migrants that expanded deep into Europe3-5. We report genome-wide data from 78 prehistoric North Pontic individuals to understand the genetic makeup of the people involved in these migrations and discover the reasons for their success. First, we show that native North Pontic foragers had ancestry not only from Balkan and Eastern hunter-gatherers6 but also from European farmers and, occasionally, Caucasus hunter-gatherers. More dramatic inflows ensued during the Eneolithic, when migrants from the Caucasus-Lower Volga area7 moved westward, bypassing the local foragers to mix with Trypillian farmers advancing eastward. People of the Usatove archaeological group in the Northwest Pontic were formed ca. 4500 BCE with an equal measure of ancestry from the two expanding groups. A different Caucasus-Lower Volga group, moving westward in a distinct but temporally overlapping wave, avoided the farmers altogether, and blended with the foragers instead to form the people of the Serednii Stih archaeological complex7. A third wave of expansion occurred when Yamna descendants of the Serednii Stih forming ca. 4000 BCE expanded during the Early Bronze Age (3300 BCE). The temporal gap between Serednii Stih and the Yamna expansion is bridged by a genetically Yamna individual from Mykhailivka in Ukraine (3635-3383 BCE), a site of uninterrupted archaeological continuity across the Eneolithic-Bronze Age transition, and the likely epicenter of Yamna formation. Each of these three waves propagated distinctive ancestries while also incorporating outsiders during its advance, a flexible strategy forged in the North Pontic region that may explain its peoples outsized success in spreading their genes and culture across Eurasia3-5,8-10.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2022

Interactions between Trypillian farmers and North Pontic forager-pastoralists in Eneolithic central Ukraine

The establishment of agrarian economy in Eneolithic East Europe is associated with the Pre-Cucuteni-Cucuteni-Trypillia complex (PCCTC). PCCTC farmers interacted with Eneolithic forager-pastoralist groups of the North Pontic steppe as PCCTC extended from the Carpathian foothills to the Dnipro Valley beginning in the late 5th millennium BCE. While the cultural interaction between the two groups is evident through the Cucuteni C pottery style that carries steppe influence, the extent of biological interactions between Trypillian farmers and the steppe remains unclear. Here we report the analysis of artefacts from the late 5th millennium Trypillian site of Kolomiytsiv Yar Tract (KYT) in central Ukraine, focusing on a bone fragment found in the Trypillian context at KYT. Diet stable isotope ratios obtained from the bone fragment place the diet of the KYT individual within the range of forager-pastoralists of the North Pontic area. Strontium isotope ratios of the KYT individual are consistent with having originated from contexts of the Sredny Stog culture sites of the Middle Dnipro Valley. Genetic analysis of the KYT individual indicates ancestry derived from a proto-Yamna population such as Sredny Stog. Overall, the KYT archaeological site presents evidence of interactions between Trypillians and Eneolithic Pontic steppe inhabitants of the Sredny Stog horizon and suggests a potential for gene flow between the two groups as early as the beginning of the 4th millennium BCE.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2019

Interactions between earliest Linearbandkeramik farmers and central European hunter gatherers at the dawn of European Neolithization

Archaeogenetic research over the last decade has demonstrated that European Neolithic farmers (ENFs) were descended primarily from Anatolian Neolithic farmers (ANFs). ENFs, including early Neolithic central European Linearbandkeramik (LBK) farming communities, also harbored ancestry from European Mesolithic hunter gatherers (WHGs) to varying extents, reflecting admixture between ENFs and WHGs. However, the timing and other details of this process are still imperfectly understood. In this report, we provide a bioarchaeological analysis of three individuals interred at the Brunn 2 site of the Brunn am Gebirge-Wolfholz archeological complex, one of the oldest LBK sites in central Europe. Two of the individuals had a mixture of WHG-related and ANF-related ancestry, one of them with approximately 50% of each, while the third individual had approximately all ANF-related ancestry. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios for all three individuals were within the range of variation reflecting diets of other Neolithic agrarian populations. Strontium isotope analysis revealed that the ~50% WHG-ANF individual was non-local to the Brunn 2 area. Overall, our data indicate interbreeding between incoming farmers, whose ancestors ultimately came from western Anatolia, and local HGs, starting within the first few generations of the arrival of the former in central Europe, as well as highlighting the integrative nature and composition of the early LBK communities.

genetics↗