First, there should be no association of yDNA Q-M120 and other modern haplogroups with the kind of practice of artificial cranial deformation, recently discovered in Northeast China, according to the IVPP.

According to Ni et al, 2020, 10000-12000-yer-old archaeological finds from Australia (Homo Sapiens) and from Near Eastern Iraq’s Shanidar Cave (previously inhabited by Nenaderthals) represented one of the earliest known cases of artificial cranial deformation.

In Ni et al, 2020, ca. 11000-year-old cases of head deformation were reported from the Da’an County of the Jilin Province, Northeast China, joining one of the most ancient cases of head deformation.

The ancient 11000-year-old DNA, reported from the same Da’an site from another individual (a female), is mtDNA D4h1 or even mtDNA D4h1a.

However, “The deep population history of northern East Asia from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene” showed that the oldest ancient individual of the autosomal ancestry, related to mtDNA D4h1 population, is the ancient more than 11000-year-old AR10-13K, or AR11K, having yDNA DE (most likely not D-M174, as this individual does not cluster with yDNA D-M174-related populations) which was also once determined as C-M48*. Since yDNA E* or 11000-year-old non-modern branch of yDNA C-M48* did not survive in Northeast Asia, and since the genetic influence of “AR11K(yDNA DE(x D)) specimen<=>mtDNA D4h1 specimen-related” cline is extremely limited in “The deep population history of northern East Asia from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene”, it should be concluded that such an individual, whose populations fitted to initiate the artificial cranial deformation in Northeast China, later was assimilated by the local and new arriving populations, which became the people of the Kingdom of Puyo on the territory of the Jilin Province. Consequently, there is no possibility to state that this 11000-year-old, possibly akin to yDNA E*, individual, produced any substantial genetic input, which would influence the ancient linguistic situation in the area of the Jilin Province. Since the second Tokushima individual was determined as yDNA C-M217(xM48), that is, does not have M48 mutation, even if someone would be trying to ascribe 0,1% DNA in Hammer et al, 2006 to yDNA E, influencing C-M217, it is not possible to say that such a real ancient population as relatives of AR11K(yDNA DE(x D)/C-M48*) could have been a direct progenitor of the Tokushima C2-M217 individuals, but instead it is more likely that even more negligible indirect influence of the died-out AR11K(yDNA DE(x D)/C-M48*) in Tokushima (as compared to its negligible genetic influence in Jilin) was caused by the migration of some Puyo Kingdom’s individuals to Japan via Korea, while in the Kingdom of Puyo such an influence was caused by 11000-year-old AR11K-related substratum of various less ancient substrata of Jilin’s Puyo population.

According to https://www.anthropol.ac.cn/EN/10.16.../AAS.2023.0054 , tabular-annular cranial deformation in Northeast China, including the discussed ancient site in Da’an, is not related to the occipital cranial deformation of the Dawenkou culture and other numerous cultures of mainland China. The only common ancestors for these two different traditions might have been a 45000-year-old Neanderthal, as hinted in the article. Consequently, though the occipital cranial deformation originated in North China and entered the Hongshan culture, Yangshao culture and Yangtze cultures from North China, while “The deep population history of northern East Asia from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene” pointed to the ancient specimen of Yumin, who possibly had a slightly elevated archaic-like admixture, as a source of ancestry for correlates of the Dawenkou’s Beiqian site, where the occipital cranial deformation was observed, and the Yumin-like ancestry should have proceded to the Jiangsu Province.

Even if any specimens, belonging to yDNA Q-M120, are ever to be shown to possess the occipital cranial deformation of North China, “The deep population history of northern East Asia from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene” pointed to Jiangsu’s coastal zone as a place, where yDNA Q-M120 specimens might have adopted such an occipital cranial deformation tradition, inspired by a Yumin-related population in North China and distributing also in the coastal zone of the Beiqian site of the Dawenkou culture. Other populations to adopt such a head deformation tradition, in accordance with materials of “The deep population history of northern East Asia from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene” should be mtDNA F4a2-related populations, reaching Jiangsu along the coast and later distributing to various Yue-related populations.

1. The Q-M120 of the Foyemiaowan site

A few more words should be added about yDNA Q-M120.

In “The deep population history of northern East Asia from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene” northeastern yDNA N-M231-related populations can be modeled using yDNA N-M231-related Xiaojingshan, while it is impossible to model yDNA Q-M120-related population, using yDNA N-related Xiaojingshan, that is, yDNA Q-M120 population and even northeastern yDNA N-M231-related popultions were not related to each other, there should be no correlation for their distribution. Materials from “The deep population history of northern East Asia from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene” do not suggest the distribution of Q-M120 simultaneously with the distribution of any branch of yDNA N-M231.

In accordance with “The deep population history of northern East Asia from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene”, the pre-Q-M120 specimen-related ancestry should have already existed in the AR19K-related population 19000 years ago in Northeast China, while Q-M120 derived in Northeast China in an area to the north of the area, where the Pianpu culture later formed. Consequently, an area between the homeland of Q-M120 and the Pianpu culture became an area, where such Pianpu culture’s periphery formed, which was influenced by Q-M120-related populations and later was incorporated into an “Altaic-related” population, akin to Tungusics in the first place, but a part of this “Pianpu periphery” contributed not only to Altaics, but also to the Korean population, though “The deep population history of northern East Asia from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene” does not allow to conclude that any Q-M120-related population might have ever exhibited such an amount influence on Korean ancestors so as to hypothesize that any Q-M120-related population might have substantially contributed to the formation of the Korean language. This localization of Q-M120 also removes it from any substantial influence from the population, akin to AR11K(yDNA DE(x D)/C-M48*) population and population of the site in the Da’an county, where first signs of tabular-annular cranial deformation of Northeast China appeared. Additionally, it was suggested in https://www.anthropol.ac.cn/EN/10.16.../AAS.2023.0054 that the Manchu custom formed anew in a different form and is not related to this 11000-year-old tabular-annular cranial deformation of Northeast China.


From the localization in Northeast China, described above, yDNA Q-M120 gradually started to distribute to North China. “The deep population history of northern East Asia from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene” does not support the association of the whole Q-M120 with mtDNA D4a3 (instead, the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology highlighted the area between Shandong Province and Henan’s Qingtai site as an important area for the whole mtDNA D4a in general, from which various D4a branches could distribute). Nonetheless, “The deep population history of northern East Asia from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene” pointed that a group of Q-M120, including an ancestor of the Xiaowu_MN’s one, should have contacted an mtDNA D4a3b population and later start interacting with mtDNA F4a2 and mtDNA D4g2a1 and mtDNA D4g2b1 on the territory of the Jiangsu Province, which to a certain degree can explain the wide distribution of yDNA Q-M120 branches in China.
As for the territory, where the combination, such as mtDNA D4h1c+Q-M120, appeared:
G30414; 304-439 AD; Foyemiaowan site, China; Sixteen Kingdoms; mtDNA D4h1c Q1a1a-M120>Y647>FT9308>Y225388>FT6742 (×FT8312)
The material of “The deep population history of northern East Asia from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene” pointed to the Yangshao site of Xiaowu Middle Neolithic as an area which united the combination mtDNA D4h1c+Q-M120, to the territory of which mtDNA D4h1c came from the Qingtai site of the Yangshao culture (the Huanghe river basin), and yDNA Q-M120 came from the Neolithic coastal territory of the Jiangsu Province, after its ancestors interacted with mtDNA F4a2 population. Later mtDNA D4h1c+Q-M120 groups should have moved to the Shaanxi province, in accordance with “Ancient Mitogenomes Reveal the Origins and Genetic Structure of the Neolithic Shimao Population in Northern China”, which is already not far from the Gansu Province, where the Foyemiaowan site is located.

2. The Pei commandery


Unlike the history of Q-M120, as for (G10115; 304-439 AD; Foyemiaowan site, China; Sixteen Kingdoms; N1a1a1a1a-Z1956>Y149447>Y204354), the Pei Commandery, where one of the most well-known clans of this branch was distributed, was a Chinese commandery, starting from the Han dynasty (206 bce–220 ce). Its territory was located mainly in the Huai River basin, which is, however, close to the Yangtze River basin, where a much more numerous N- Y204354’s brother branch N-Y149575/N-F1139 (https://www.yfull.com/tree/N-F1139/) is distributed mainly in Sichuan and Anhui Provinces (according to 23mofang.com), accounting for 0,42% of the male population in China, according to 23mofang.com. Hmong-Mien rice farming She (those ones, having an affinity to N-F2930 in “Human population history at the crossroads of East and Southeast Asia since 11,000 years ago"), selected Hmong-Mien rice farming Miao have an increased affinity to the population, which formed on the substratum of a ca. 54000-year-old brother branch of Oase (yDNA K2a*, since Oase1 did not personally contribute to modern populations, according to “Ancient genomes reveal the complex genetic history of Prehistoric Eurasian modern humans”) and mtDNA R* population, separating from ancient East Asians 45000 years ago and distributing to Southeast Asia as far as the Timor Island (the mentioned Miao should include the Miao, selected in “Human population history at the crossroads of East and Southeast Asia since 11,000 years ago").