The rise and transformation of Bronze Age pastoralists in the Caucasus

The Caucasus and surrounding areas, with their rich metal resources, became a crucible of the Bronze Age and the birthplace of the earliest steppe pastoralist societies . Yet, despite this region having a large influence on the subsequent development of Europe and Asia, questions remain regarding it...

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Published in:	Nature (London)
Main Authors:	Ghalichi, Ayshin, Reinhold, Sabine, Rohrlach, Adam B, Kalmykov, Alexey A, Childebayeva, Ainash, Yu, He, Aron, Franziska, Semerau, Lena, Bastert-Lamprichs, Katrin, Belinskiy, Andrey B, Berezina, Natalia Y, Berezin, Yakov B, Broomandkhoshbacht, Nasreen, Buzhilova, Alexandra P, Erlikh, Vladimir R, Fehren-Schmitz, Lars, Gambashidze, Irina, Kantorovich, Anatoliy R, Kolesnichenko, Konstantin B, Lordkipanidze, David, Magomedov, Rabadan G, Malek-Custodis, Katharina, Mariaschk, Dirk, Maslov, Vladimir E, Mkrtchyan, Levon, Nagler, Anatoli, Fazeli Nashli, Hassan, Ochir, Maria, Piotrovskiy, Yuri Y, Saribekyan, Mariam, Sheremetev, Aleksandr G, Stöllner, Thomas, Thomalsky, Judith, Vardanyan, Benik, Posth, Cosimo, Krause, Johannes, Warinner, Christina, Hansen, Svend, Haak, Wolfgang
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	England 30-10-2024
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	The Caucasus and surrounding areas, with their rich metal resources, became a crucible of the Bronze Age and the birthplace of the earliest steppe pastoralist societies . Yet, despite this region having a large influence on the subsequent development of Europe and Asia, questions remain regarding its hunter-gatherer past and its formation of expansionist mobile steppe societies . Here we present new genome-wide data for 131 individuals from 38 archaeological sites spanning 6,000 years. We find a strong genetic differentiation between populations north and south of the Caucasus mountains during the Mesolithic, with Eastern hunter-gatherer ancestry in the north, and a distinct Caucasus hunter-gatherer ancestry with increasing East Anatolian farmer admixture in the south. During the subsequent Eneolithic period, we observe the formation of the characteristic West Eurasian steppe ancestry and heightened interaction between the mountain and steppe regions, facilitated by technological developments of the Maykop cultural complex . By contrast, the peak of pastoralist activities and territorial expansions during the Early and Middle Bronze Age is characterized by long-term genetic stability. The Late Bronze Age marks another period of gene flow from multiple distinct sources that coincides with a decline of steppe cultures, followed by a transformation and absorption of the steppe ancestry into highland populations.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0028-0836 1476-4687 1476-4687
DOI:	10.1038/s41586-024-08113-5