Genetic analysis traces 5000 years of Xinjiang population history

Ancient genomes recovered from skeletal material found at 39 archaeological sites indicate that the Xinjiang region of China was settled by people with central and eastern Eurasian Steppe ancestry during the Bronze Age, while the region received an inflow of people with East and Central Asian ancestry during the end of the Bronze Age and the start of the Iron Age. The findings by Vikas Kumar and colleagues offer a unique window into population shifts and perhaps the spread of important metallurgical technologies and foods such as barley and wheat through this historically busy crossroads region between east and west Eurasia. 

After sampling genomes from 201 individuals at the archaeological sites, Kumar et al. conclude that Xinjiang’s Bronze Age (about 5000-3000 years ago) populations were characterized by Steppe, Tarim Basin, and Central Asian ancestry until the late Bronze Age (around 3000 years ago), when populations with East and Central Asian ancestry came into the region. Xinjiang populations became genetically mixed throughout the Iron Age and into the Historical Era (from about 2000 years ago), but a core Steppe component has remained, suggesting some genetic continuity since the Iron Age. This type of continuity is surprising, the authors suggest, since it usually occurs in populations that have been much more geographically isolated than those in Xinjiang.

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IMAGE: OVERLOOK OF TOMBS IN HIGH ALTITUDES. EXCAVATED FROM JIERZANKALE SITE IN TASHIKUERGAN, KASHI REGION view more 

CREDIT: YAN XUGUANG, KASHI DAILY

Xinjiang, in northwest China, lays at an important junction between east and west Eurasia and has played a historically important role in the exchange of goods and technologies between these two regions along the Silk Road. It is a complex mix of cultures and populations.

However, the interflow and blending of these diverse populations in Xinjiang can be traced further back. Bronze Age mummies discovered in Tarim Basin were purported to have western features and textiles, and the discovery of 5th century C.E. texts of an extinct Indo-European language group, Tocharian, has spurred great interest in archeologists, linguists, and anthropologists.

Now, a research team led by Prof. FU Qiaomei from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has unravel the past population history of Xinjiang, China, based on information from 201 ancient genomes from 39 archeological sites.

Their findings were published in Science on March 31.

A mix of local northern Asian and western Steppe ancestry in Bronze Age

The peopling of Bronze Age Xinjiang is key to understand the later population dynamics of the region. It had been proposed that the Bronze Age settling of the Tarim Basin was originally by people related to either western Steppe Cultures ("Steppe hypothesis") or Central Asian populations related to the Bactria Margiana Complex (BMAC) ("Bactrian oasis hypothesis").

FU and her team discovered the earliest inhabitants of Xinjiang showed genomic similarities with both of these groups, but broadly mixed with a unique ancestry found in the local Tarim Basin mummies, who were recently shown to be linked to a population found 25,000 years ago in southern Siberia known as the Ancient North Eurasians (ANE).

"In all, Bronze Age Xinjiang populations were found to contain ancestral components of the 'local' Tarim Basin population mixed to varying degrees with those of three groups from the surrounding regions: the Afanasievo, an Indo-European-associated Steppe culture, a group called the Chemurchek, who contained BMAC ancestry from Central Asia, and ancestry from a Northeast Asian population called the Shamanka," said  Prof. FU, the last corresponding author of this paper.

The appearance of an individual with almost exclusive Northeast Asian ancestry in northern Xinjiang at this time indicated these early populations may have been already highly mobile. This evidence fits a scenario where incoming Steppe, Chemurchek and Northeast Asian populations entered the region and mixing with the existing inhabitants, who are closest to the oldest Tarim Basin mummies.

In the later part of the Bronze Age, they found the existing genomic profiles shifted to include an influx of a newer western Steppe group linked to the Steppe Middle-Late Bronze Age (MLBA) Andronovo culture, as well as an increasing influx of ancestry from East Asia found in southern Siberia. Furthermore, an expansion of ancestry related to Central Asia (BMAC) at this time indicated an increase in interactions with Central Asia across the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor.

Early entry of Indo-European speakers in Bronze Age Xinjiang

Interestingly, they also found ancestry of several Early Bronze Age individuals identified as unmixed Afanasievo ancestry. This finding corroborates an early entry of these Indo-Europeans, who may have played a role in introducing Tocharian languages to Xinjiang, the easternmost Indo-European languages recorded. This early date would make the appearance of Indo-European languages in Xinjiang roughly contemporary with their entrance into Western Europe, clarifying the origin and spread of the language family with the largest number of speakers today.  

Iron Age influx of East and Central Asians established the ancestry still present today

Compared to the Bronze Age, Iron Age populations showed an increased influx of people from East and Central Asia, with the presence of the East Asian component following a West-to-East gradient of increasing East Asian ancestry. Unlike the Northeast Asian ancestry present during the Bronze Age, the East Asian ancestry entering during the Iron Age showed more diverse origins including mainland East Asia.

These Iron Age populations could be linked to populations such as the Xiongnu and Han, which coincided with a historically documented westward expansion of Xiongnu in ~2200 BP after the defeat of Yuezhi in Gansu region. Additional Iron Age movements of people from Central Asia or the Indus periphery region into Xinjiang supported early activity along routes such as the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor.

The Iron Age appearance of ancestry linked to the Sakas, a nomadic confederation derived from the Iranian peoples, helps to date the entrance of Indo-Iranian languages like Khotanese, known to be spoken by the Sakas, into Xinjiang. This Iron Age genetic profile of the region, linking Steppe, East Asian, and Central Asian people, was found to have been maintained into the Historical Era (HE). Despite the cultural shifts of the past millennia, similar ancestries to those established in the Iron Age are still observed in present day Xinjiang populations.

Phenotypic analysis of several remains, the first reported for ancient Xinjiang, gave depth to the genetic results. The majority of individuals investigated had dark brown to black hair and brown eye color throughout Bronze Age, Iron Age, and HE. Corresponded with the appearance of Andronovo Steppe ancestry, a small proportion of the Iron Age individuals are marked blond hair, blue eyes and lighter skin tone in the west and north of Xinjiang. Two Early Bronze Age Tarim Basin mummies in east Xinjiang were found likely to have had dark brown to black hair and darker skin, despite their archeologically-identified "western" features, and a more recent third mummy from the Late Bronze Age was likely to have had a more intermediate skin tone.

"With the widespread population movements documented in the study, it is intriguing to see the degree of genetic continuity that has been maintained in Xinjiang over the past 5000 years." said Associate Prof. Vikas KUMAR from IVPP, the first author of this study.  

"What is striking about these results is that the demographic history of a cross-roads region as Xinjiang has been marked not by population replacements, but by the genetic incorporation of diverse incoming cultural groups into the existing population, making Xinjiang a true 'melting-pot'," said Prof. FU.

This detailed aspect had not been so clear looking only at archeological and cultural evidence. These findings suggest the importance of combining genetic and archaeological evidence to provide a more comprehensive insight into population history.

The current ancient DNA analysis highlights a holistic approach to unravelling the complex history of locations like Xinjiang, where the many interactions between different groups and cultures in the past make detailed demographic studies difficult. Future studies in this area could reveal more about the finer points of Xinjiang's history.

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JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.abk1534 

Patterns of Neandertal extinction in the Iberian Peninsula

 

 

IMAGE: SELECTED LITHIC ARTEFACTS FROM THE CHÂTELPERRONIAN AT ARANBALTZA II (BARRIKA, SPAIN). view more 

CREDIT: RIOS-GARAIZAR ET AL., 2022, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0 (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY/4.0/)

Neandertal populations in the Iberian Peninsula were experiencing local extinction and replacement even before Homo sapiens arrived, according to a study published March 30, 2022 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Joseba Rios-Garaizar of the Archaeological Museum of Bilbao, Spain and colleagues.

Neandertals disappeared around 40,000 years ago, but many details of their extinction remain unclear. To elucidate the situation, it is useful to explore how Neandertal populations were changing during their final millennia. In this study, researchers examined the distribution of a tool complex known as the Châtelperronian, which is thought to be unique to certain populations of Neandertals in France and the Iberian Peninsula.

The researchers examined over 5,000 remains of Châtelperronian tools from a site called Aranbaltza II in Barrika, in the Northern Iberian Peninsula, dating to around 45,500 years ago. Comparing this site with other nearby Neandertal tool sites, they document that the Châtelperronian system does not overlap in time with older Neandertal technologies in this region, suggesting that Châtelperronian tools were not developed from earlier Iberian technology, but instead originated elsewhere before migrating into the region. They also found that Châtelperronian tools appear earlier than the first Homo sapiens tools in the Iberian Peninsula.

Based on this evidence, the authors suggest that older Iberian Neandertal populations disappeared, taking their tool styles with them, and were replaced by different Neandertal groups using Châtelperronian tools, likely migrating from France, and these populations were in turn replaced by Homo sapiens. The researchers propose that these patterns of local Neandertal extinction and replacement will be an important area of future study, as they might have played a significant role in the decline and ultimate demise of Neandertals.

The authors add: “Neandertals with Châtelperronian technology occupied the Northern Iberian Peninsula ca. 43,000 years ago. This territory was unoccupied at the time, following the earlier disappearance of local Neandertal groups, along with their Mousterian technology.”

Last of the giant camels and archaic humans lived together in Mongolia until 27,000 years ago

 

A species of giant two-humped camel, Camelus knoblochi, is known to have lived for approximately a quarter of a million years in Central Asia. A new study in Frontiers in Earth Science shows that C. knoblochi’s last refuge was in Mongolia, until approximately 27,000 years ago. In Mongolia, the last of the species coexisted with anatomically modern humans and maybe the extinct Neanderthals or Denisovans. While the main cause of C. knoblochi’s extinction seems to have been climate change, hunting by archaic humans may also have played a role.

“Here we show that the extinct camel, Camelus knoblochi persisted in Mongolia until climatic and environmental changes nudged it into extinction about 27,000 years ago,” said Dr John W Olsen, Regents’ professor emeritus at the School of Anthropology of the University of Arizona, Tucson, US.

Paradoxically, today, southwestern Mongolia hosts one of the last two wild populations of the critically endangered wild Bactrian camel, C. ferus. The new results suggest that C. knoblochicoexisted with C. ferus during the late Pleistocene in Mongolia, so that between-species competition may have been a third cause of C. knoblochi’s extinction. Standing nearly three meters tall and weighing more than a ton, C. knoblochi would have dwarfed C. ferus. The precise taxonomic relationships between these two species, other extinct Camelus, and the ancient Paracamelus aren’t yet resolved.

Olsen said: “C. knoblochi fossil remains from Tsagaan Agui Cave [in the Gobi Altai Mountains of southwestern Mongolia], which also contains a rich, stratified sequence of human Paleolithic cultural material, suggest that archaic people coexisted and interacted there with C. knoblochi and elsewhere, contemporaneously, with the wild Bactrian camel.”

Steppe specialists driven into extinction by desertification

The new study describes five C. knoblochi leg and foot bones found in Tsagaan Agui Cave in 2021, and one from Tugrug Shireet in today’s Gobi Desert of southern Mongolia. They were found in association with bones of wolves, cave hyenas, rhinoceroses, horses, wild donkeys, ibexes, wild sheep, and Mongolian gazelles. This assemblage indicates that C. knoblochi lived in montane and lowland steppe environments, less dry habitats than those of its modern relatives.

The authors conclude that C. knoblochi finally went extinct primarily because it was less tolerant of desertification than today’s camels, C. ferus, the domestic Bactrian camel C. bactrianus, and the domestic Arabian camel C. dromedarius.

In the late Pleistocene, much of Mongolia’s environment became drier and changed from steppe to dry steppe and finally desert.

“Apparently, C. knoblochi was poorly adapted to desert biomes, primarily because such landscapes could not support such large animals, but perhaps there were other reasons as well, related to the availability of fresh water and the ability of camels to store water within the body, poorly adapted mechanisms of thermoregulation, and competition from other members of the faunal community occupying the same trophic niche,” wrote the authors.

Towards the end, the last of the species may have lingered, at least seasonally, in the milder forest steppe – grassland interspersed with woodland – further north in neighboring Siberia. But this habitat probably wasn’t ideal either, which could have sounded the death knell for C.knoblochi. The world would not see giant camels again.

Prey upon or scavenged by humans

What were the relations between archaic humans and C. knoblochi?

Corresponding author Dr Arina M Khatsenovich, senior researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Archeology and Ethnography in Novosibirsk, Russia, said: “A C. knoblochimetacarpal bone from Tsagaan Agui Cave, dated to between 59,000 and 44,000 years ago, exhibits traces of both butchery by humans and hyenas gnawing on it. This suggests that C. knoblochi was a species that Late Pleistocene humans in Mongolia could hunt or scavenge.”

“We don’t yet have sufficient material evidence regarding the interaction between humans and C. ferus in the Late Pleistocene, but it likely did not differ from human relationships with C. knoblochi – as prey, but not a target for domestication.”

First author Dr Alexey Klementiev, a paleobiologist with the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Siberian Branch, said: “We conclude that C. knoblochi became extinct in Mongolia and in Asia, generally, by the end of Marine Isotope Stage 3 (roughly 27,000 years ago) as a result of climate changes that provoked degradation of the steppe ecosystem and intensified the process of aridification.”

 

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JOURNAL

Frontiers in Earth Science

DOI

10.3389/feart.2022.861163 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

OldestHebrew text in Israel, including the name of God?

 

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Scholars date tiny ‘curse tablet,’ found at Mt. Ebal, to 1200 BCE – which would prove Israelites were literate when they entered Holy Land; but findings have not been peer-reviewed

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  Close-up of the outside of the arguably Late Bronze Age lead curse tablet discovered on Mt. Ebal in 2019. (Michael C. Luddeni/Associates for Biblical Research)
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  'Joshua's Altar' at the Mount Ebal archaeological site, February 15, 2021. (Courtesy Shomrim Al Hanetzach)
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  Dr. Scott Stripling, head of the current excavation at biblical Shiloh, exhibits a find. May 22, 2017. (Amanda Borschel-Dan/Times of Israel)
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  Views of the outside of the arguably Late Bronze Age lead curse tablet discovered on Mt. Ebal in 2019. (Michael C. Luddeni/Associates for Biblical Research)
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  'Joshua's Altar' at the Mount Ebal archaeological site, February 15, 2021. (Courtesy Shomrim Al Hanetzach)
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  Arguably the earliest written evidence of the name of God, YHVH, according to epigrapher Haifa University Prof. Gershon Galil. (courtesy Associates for Biblical Research)

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Archaeologist Dr. Scott Stripling and a team of international scholars held a press conference on Thursday in Houston, Texas, unveiling what he claims is the earliest proto-alphabetic Hebrew text — including the name of God, “YHVH” — ever discovered in ancient Israel. It was found at Mount Ebal, known from Deuteronomy 11:29 as a place of curses.

If the Late Bronze Age (circa 1200 BCE) date is verified, this tiny, 2-centimeter x 2 centimeter folded-lead “curse tablet” may be one of the greatest archaeological discoveries ever. It would be the first attested use of the name of God in the Land of Israel and would set the clock back on proven Israelite literacy by several centuries — showing that the Israelites were literate when they entered the Holy Land, and therefore could have written the Bible as some of the events it documents took place.

“This is a text you find only every 1,000 years,” Haifa University Prof. Gershon Galil told The Times of Israel on Thursday. Galil helped decipher the hidden internal text of the folded lead tablet based on high-tech scans carried out in Prague at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.

Zelensky warns of ‘real’ threat Russia will use chemical weapons in Ukraine

Based on epigraphical analysis of the scans and lead analysis of the artifact, Stripling and his team date the curse tablet (or defixio) to the late Bronze Age, before or around 1200 BCE. If this dating is verified, it would make the text centuries older than the previous recordholder for oldest Hebrew text in Israel and 500 years older than the previously attested use of YHVH, according to Galil. Writing in a similar alphabet was discovered in the Sinai Peninsula dating to the beginning of the 16th century BCE.

However, the researchers have not yet published the find in a peer-reviewed academic journal. Likewise, they are not yet releasing clear images and scans of the inscription for other academics to weigh in on.

Migrants from south carrying maize were early Maya ancestors

 

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IMAGE: SCIENTISTS EXCAVATE FINDINGS AT THE BELIZE ROCK SHELTER SITE. view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO

New research published this week by University of New Mexico archaeologist Keith Prufer shows that a site in Belize was critical in studying the origins of the ancient Maya people and the spread of maize as a staple food.

According to the paper South-to-north migration preceded the advent of intensive farming in the Maya region, published this week in Nature Communications and co-led by Prufer, excavations in Belize, along with ancient DNA analysis, indicate a previously unknown migration of people–carrying maize–from an area of South America northward to the Maya region.

Prufer and his colleagues excavated 25 burials dating from 10,000 to 3,700 years ago from two cave or rock shelter sites located in the remote Maya Mountains of Belize, Central America. These sites were located below the overhang of tall limestone cliffs that sheltered the people living below and protected the deposits of the everyday debris and burials of the dead for over 7,000 years. 

The excavated skeletons revealed a range of ancient DNA information on the movements of early populations in the Americas: An early southward migration of people from the north by 9,600 to 7,300 years ago show only distant relatedness to present-day Mesoamericans, including Maya-speaking populations; Then, a previously unknown movement from the south starting about 5,600 years ago made a major demographic impact on the region, contributing more than 50 percent of the ancestry of all later individuals. This new ancestry derived from a source ancestral to present-day Chibchan speakers living from Costa Rica to Colombia, according to Prufer, whose lab led the archaeological and isotope research.  

The genetic prehistory of human populations in Central America was largely unexplored, leaving an important gap in our knowledge of the global expansion of humans, which is why this research is really exciting and ground-breaking, Prufer remarked.

The excavations and DNA analysis “support a scenario in which Chibchan-related horticulturalists moved northward into the southeastern Yucatan carrying improved varieties of maize, and possibly also manioc and chili peppers, and mixed with local populations to create new horticultural traditions that ultimately led to more intensive forms of maize agriculture much later in time…”

“We see the migration of these people as fundamentally important for development of farming and, eventually, large Maya speaking communities,” Prufer said, noting that maize provided essential protein and sugar energy, and could be stored in a dry place. Once people had a reliable source of food in maize, they tended to farm and stay in one place, leading to larger, established communities.

Maize wasn’t always an important part of the diet of these people, Prufer said. The earliest migrants likely gathered and ate the tiny cobs of a grass known as teosinte, as well as the earliest maize domesticates, even though the cobs were very small, along with other plants, shellfish, and game. By selecting the biggest and best seeds, they began to domesticate the plant, growing larger cobs, and increasingly altering the landscape and biodiversity, a process that likely occurred largely in South America. 

Eventually the consumption of maize grew until it became a diet staple, much like the Europeans used wheat, Prufer said. The dispersal of maize grew, moving from the south, northward to the Maya population, and eventually across both continents so that when the Spanish arrived around 1500 AD, maize, or corn, was a staple of every Native American group’s diet.