The genetic prehistory of the Greater Caucasus

Wang, C.-C.; Reinhold, S. R.; Kalmykov, A.; Wissgott, A.; Brandt, G.; Jeong, C.; Cheronet, O.; Ferry, M.; Harney, E.; Keating, D.; Mallick, S.; Rohland, N.; Stewardson, K.; Kantorovich, A. R.; Maslov, V. E.; Petrenko, V. G.; Erlikh, V. R.; Atabiev, B. C.; Magomedov, R. G.; Kohl, P. L.; Alt, K. W.; Pichler, S. L.; Gerling, C.; Meller, H.; Vardanyan, B.; Yeganyan, L.; Rezepkin, A. D.; Mariaschk, D.; Berezina, N. Y.; Gresky, J.; Fuchs, K.; Knipper, C.; Schiffels, S.; Balanovska, E.; Balanovsky, O.; Mathieson, I.; Higham, T.; Berezin, Y. B.; Buzhilova, A. P.; Trifonov, V.; Pinhasi, R.; Belinskiy,

doi:10.1101/322347

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bioRxiv · 10.1101/322347

The genetic prehistory of the Greater Caucasus

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Abstract

Archaeogenetic studies have described the formation of Eurasian steppe ancestry as a mixture of Eastern and Caucasus hunter-gatherers. However, it remains unclear when and where this ancestry arose and whether it was related to a horizon of cultural innovations in the 4th millennium BCE that subsequently facilitated the advance of pastoral societies likely linked to the dispersal of Indo-European languages. To address this, we generated genome-wide SNP data from 45 prehistoric individuals along a 3000-year temporal transect in the North Caucasus. We observe a genetic separation between the groups of the Caucasus and those of the adjacent steppe. The Caucasus groups are genetically similar to contemporaneous populations south of it, suggesting that - unlike today - the Caucasus acted as a bridge rather than an insurmountable barrier to human movement. The steppe groups from Yamnaya and subsequent pastoralist cultures show evidence for previously undetected farmer-related ancestry from different contact zones, while Steppe Maykop individuals harbour additional Upper Palaeolithic Siberian and Native American related ancestry.

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Wang, C.-C., Reinhold, S. R., Kalmykov, A., Wissgott, A., Brandt, G., Jeong, C., Cheronet, O., Ferry, M., Harney, E., Keating, D., Mallick, S., Rohland, N., Stewardson, K., Kantorovich, A. R., Maslov, V. E., Petrenko, V. G., Erlikh, V. R., Atabiev, B. C., Magomedov, R. G., Kohl, P. L., Alt, K. W., Pichler, S. L., Gerling, C., Meller, H., Vardanyan, B., Yeganyan, L., Rezepkin, A. D., Mariaschk, D., Berezina, N. Y., Gresky, J., Fuchs, K., Knipper, C., Schiffels, S., Balanovska, E., Balanovsky, O., Mathieson, I., Higham, T., Berezin, Y. B., Buzhilova, A. P., Trifonov, V., Pinhasi, R., Belinskiy,. 2018-05-16. The genetic prehistory of the Greater Caucasus. https://doi.org/10.1101/322347

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