Researchers have long debated the origins of modern European and Central Asian peoples, and new research may finally help answer some of these questions.
Now, the largest ancient genomic study to date has shed light on the foundation of these populations, the University of Copenhagen reported. The findings focus on the Bronze Age (between 5,000 and 3,000 years ago), which is considered to have been a time of dramatic cultural "upheavals." The findings come from DNA-analyses of skeletons excavated across expansive areas of Europe and Central Asia. The study revealed Europeans from the post-migration period are genetically much closer to modern day Europeans than those occupying the region before the Bronze Age.
The researchers believe old Neolithic farming cultures were replaced by new perceptions of family and property brought about by massive migrations, and these changes continues through the Bronze Age. These migrations can also explain the origin of European languages.
The new genetic map suggests the Yamnaya Culture migrated from the steppes in the Caucasus westwards into northern and central Europe, and even into west Siberia. The migration, which occurred about 5,000 years ago, brought with a new system of family and property that changed the societal structures of the local Stone Age people.This established the Corded Ware Culture, which genetically resembles present-day people living in the northern Alps.
About 4,000 years ago, the Sintashta Culture evolved in the Caucasus and was characterized by the development of advanced new weapons and chariots, which quickly spread across Europe. Two-hundred years later, the area east of the Urals and far into Central Asia was colonized by the Andronovo Culture, which had genetic roots in Europe. Towards the end of the Bronze Age and beginning of the Iron Age, East Asian populations arrived in central Asia, and replaced the European genes instead of mixing with them.
Further findings suggest that lactose tolerance became prevalent in Europeans during the Bronze Age. In the past, researchers thought this genetic mutation developed in the Balkans or in the Middle East during the Stone Age. The new insights could mean lactose tolerance was introduced to Europeans by the Yamnaya herders from Caukasus.
"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," said Eske Willerslev, geneticist and director of the Centre for GeoGenetics.
The findings were published in a recent edition of the journal Nature.
