Modern genetic similarity of early Tarim Basin mummies

[XenophobicPrussian]

First off, from a poster on Anthrogenica(although I got it off the Eurogenes comment section, don't read Anthrogenica). Mind you, these are among the earliest mummies, around 1800 BC, later mummies are likely going to be very different(namely more steppe/BMAC, more Mongoloid too).

https://i.imgur.com/jlsuyI0.png

https://i.imgur.com/grh149J.png

Genetic distance to moderns with G25:


Distance to: CHN_Tarim_EMBA2
0.21882437 Mansi
0.22062921 Khanty
0.22096995 Udmurt
0.23387532 Saami
0.26070785 Komi
0.26395120 Uzbek
0.26487086 Tatar_Kazan
0.27175094 Tatar_Lipka
0.27405309 Uygur
0.28475209 Tatar_Mishar
0.29144130 Russian_Pinega
0.29554866 Kazakh
0.29763147 Vepsian
0.29980366 Karelian
0.31068781 Ingrian
0.31094237 Russian_Kostroma
0.31822068 Kirghiz
0.32768906 Russian_Tver
0.33173016 Estonian
0.33528376 Russian_Kursk
0.33706071 Latvian
0.33939549 Russian_Orel
0.34145771 Lithuanian_RA
0.34146263 Lithuanian_PZ
0.34185141 Lithuanian_PA


Distance to: CHN_Tarim_EMBA1
0.23387511 Udmurt
0.23481622 Mansi
0.23539797 Khanty
0.24975947 Saami
0.27326792 Komi
0.27856938 Tatar_Kazan
0.27990193 Uzbek
0.28743849 Tatar_Lipka
0.29355892 Uygur
0.29794466 Tatar_Mishar
0.30450163 Russian_Pinega
0.31056256 Vepsian
0.31203130 Karelian
0.31779658 Kazakh
0.32219942 Ingrian
0.32250582 Russian_Kostroma
0.33906739 Russian_Tver
0.34060076 Kirghiz
0.34325271 Estonian
0.34576662 Russian_Kursk
0.34840614 Latvian
0.34962833 Russian_Orel
0.35211850 Lithuanian_PZ
0.35297404 Lithuanian_RA
0.35301001 Lithuanian_PA

A reminder of how southern the Tarim Basin is:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7e/Tarimrivermap.png/400px-Tarimrivermap.png

What this means: You can see the maps entirely skip populations around the region, Uigurs, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, etc. This means like the populations they are most similar to, namely Mansi/Khanty, they completely lack(Mansi/Khanty almost completely lack) southern Caucasoid/Basal Eurasian/steppe/BMAC/etc admixture. In 1800 BC, after Indo-Europeans from the west and urban dwellers from Iran had spread so widely.

G25 models of the mummies themselves and Mansi/Khanty(also throwing in Udmurts but these mummies are really closest to Mansi/Khanty all things considered) to get an idea, as well as present day Uyghurs/Uzbeks:


Target: CHN_Tarim_EMBA2
Distance: 6.8209% / 0.06820946
82.2 RUS_AfontovaGora3
17.8 RUS_Devils_Gate_Cave_N

Target: CHN_Tarim_EMBA1
Distance: 6.2881% / 0.06288090
86.2 RUS_AfontovaGora3
13.8 RUS_Devils_Gate_Cave_N

Target: Mansi
Distance: 12.3013% / 0.12301266
42.0 RUS_Devils_Gate_Cave_N
25.2 RUS_Sidelkino_HG
24.6 RUS_AfontovaGora3
4.6 TKM_Gonur1_BA
3.6 Yamnaya_RUS_Samara

Target: Mansi
Distance: 12.3013% / 0.12301266
42.0 RUS_Devils_Gate_Cave_N
25.2 RUS_Sidelkino_HG
24.6 RUS_AfontovaGora3
4.6 TKM_Gonur1_BA
3.6 Yamnaya_RUS_Samara

Target: Udmurt
Distance: 7.6445% / 0.07644457
40.6 Yamnaya_RUS_Samara
28.0 RUS_Sidelkino_HG
20.6 RUS_Devils_Gate_Cave_N
10.8 TKM_Gonur1_BA

Target: Uygur
Distance: 4.4092% / 0.04409155
45.4 RUS_Devils_Gate_Cave_N
32.6 TKM_Gonur1_BA
16.8 Yamnaya_RUS_Samara
5.2 RUS_Sidelkino_HG

Target: Uzbek
Distance: 4.2086% / 0.04208556
38.0 TKM_Gonur1_BA
36.6 RUS_Devils_Gate_Cave_N
18.4 Yamnaya_RUS_Samara
7.0 RUS_Sidelkino_HG


Model:


Yamnaya_RUS_Samara,0.1255849,0.089028,0.0426986,0. 1153479,-0.0287232,0.0450564,0.0036033,-0.0025642,-0.0559032,-0.0728943,0.0018222,3.32e-05,-0.0026924,-0.0233041,0.0366141,0.0157633,-0.0012316,-0.0017879,-0.0038408,0.0137704,-0.0031749,0.0007557,0.0110649,0.0186102,-0.004537
TKM_Gonur1_BA,0.0797711,0.0788728,-0.1109992,0.0083172,-0.0985823,0.0210331,0.0070112,-0.006269,-0.0638796,-0.0407905,-0.0022328,0.0026476,-0.0055005,-0.0064683,0.0183108,0.0248938,-0.0047916,0.0007389,0.0045462,-0.0232508,-0.0020797,-0.0143128,-0.0016537,-0.0157552,0.0111767
RUS_Sidelkino_HG,0.118376,0.039606,0.133501,0.1957 39,0.001846,0.054105,-0.019271,-0.018922,-0.0045,-0.071437,0.010068,-0.012139,0.030475,-0.043351,0.027008,0.02201,-0.002738,-0.003927,-0.008547,0.019509,-0.003868,0.011623,0.005546,-0.022413,-0.001796
RUS_AfontovaGora3,0.093335,-0.01828,0.083344,0.231592,-0.091402,0.042949,-0.063688,-0.078228,-0.035383,-0.096221,0.047417,-0.010491,0.023637,-0.074454,0.020358,0.02254,-0.012908,0.003801,-0.003394,0.000625,-0.03706,0.015209,0.013927,0.009278,-0.005149
RUS_Devils_Gate_Cave_N,0.0162197,-0.4440402,0.0722185,-0.0511148,-0.0373912,-0.0395328,0.0034075,0.0084802,0.0064935,0.019408,-0.048595,-0.004833,-0.0030848,0.0086702,-0.0096025,-0.0133915,-0.0007825,0.0089,0.0174408,0.0100362,0.008828,-0.027729,-0.0174702,-0.00244,-0.0145795

In terms of ancients, these Tarim mummies are pretty much just ANE+15% recent East Eurasian, basically almost identical to West Siberia HG(Tyumen_HG).

We already knew such people existed as south as Botai in Kazakhstan(and Keltiminar culture stretching down to Turkmenistan could've been the same, maybe more ANE and less recent Mongoloid), but we're talking 3500 BC and in northern Kazakhstan, the Tarim Basin is much more southernly and closer to heavy Basal Eurasian populations in BMAC, Indus Valley, etc, albeit protected by much more mountains, but we've seen significant geneflow pass vast mountain ranges. Truly remarkable.

This also shows how flawed physical anthropology is, as all the earliest Tarim Basin mummies were supposed to be "of the Caucasian physical type"(not just "Caucasian influenced", but simply "Caucasian"), and "Mongoloid" physical features are supposedly not present until much later. You even have recent studies claiming this:
In 1995, Mair claimed that "the earliest mummies in the Tarim Basin were exclusively Caucasoid, or Europoid" with east Asian migrants arriving in the eastern portions of the Tarim Basin around 3,000 years ago while the Uyghur peoples arrived around the year 842. In terms of whether ANE or more recent East Eurasian was in the region first, these samples can't answer that, can speculate based on Afontova Gora(meaning ANE was first at the Yenisei river just above the Altai), but not really as the Tarim Basin is about as far from that site from definite East Eurasian areas. As for the linguistic implications(specifically regarding where Tocharian IE came from), I doubt there can be any as Tocharian is only attested 400 AD.

[Synapsid]

First off, from a poster on Anthrogenica(although I got it off the Eurogenes comment section, don't read Anthrogenica). Mind you, these are among the earliest mummies, around 1800 BC, later mummies are likely going to be very different(namely more steppe/BMAC, more Mongoloid too).

https://i.imgur.com/jlsuyI0.png

https://i.imgur.com/grh149J.png

Genetic distance to moderns with G25:





A reminder of how southern the Tarim Basin is:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7e/Tarimrivermap.png/400px-Tarimrivermap.png

What this means: You can see the maps entirely skip populations around the region, Uigurs, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, etc. This means like the populations they are most similar to, namely Mansi/Khanty, they completely lack(Mansi/Khanty almost completely lack) southern Caucasoid/Basal Eurasian/steppe/BMAC/etc admixture. In 1800 BC, after Indo-Europeans from the west and urban dwellers from Iran had spread so widely.

G25 models of the mummies themselves and Mansi/Khanty(also throwing in Udmurts but these mummies are really closest to Mansi/Khanty all things considered) to get an idea, as well as present day Uyghurs/Uzbeks:



Model:



In terms of ancients, these Tarim mummies are pretty much just ANE+15% recent East Eurasian, basically almost identical to West Siberia HG(Tyumen_HG).

We already knew such people existed as south as Botai in Kazakhstan(and Keltiminar culture stretching down to Turkmenistan could've been the same, maybe more ANE and less recent Mongoloid), but we're talking 3500 BC and in northern Kazakhstan, the Tarim Basin is much more southernly and closer to heavy Basal Eurasian populations in BMAC, Indus Valley, etc, albeit protected by much more mountains, but we've seen significant geneflow pass vast mountain ranges. Truly remarkable.

This also shows how flawed physical anthropology is, as all the earliest Tarim Basin mummies were supposed to be "of the Caucasian physical type"(not just "Caucasian influenced", but simply "Caucasian"), and "Mongoloid" physical features are supposedly not present until much later. You even have recent studies claiming this: In terms of whether ANE or more recent East Eurasian was in the region first, these samples can't answer that, can speculate based on Afontova Gora(meaning ANE was first at the Yenisei river just above the Altai), but not really as the Tarim Basin is about as far from that site from definite East Eurasian areas. As for the linguistic implications(specifically regarding where Tocharian IE came from), I doubt there can be any as Tocharian is only attested 400 AD.

These people were basically WSHG but without the EHG component. Crazy that group that was 85% ANE lived until recorded history. Imagine if there was no Afanesievo invasion, Turkic migration etc. Basically the purest ANE group one could ever get

[Synapsid]

Its defo proof that ANE had West Eurasian morphology. Recent Jomon paper mentions ANE derived Terminal Upper Palaeolithic groups contributing morphology associated genes found in Europeans/West Asians being selected for in North Hokkaido hunter gatherers

[Leto]

ANE, what the frick? Weren't they just Bronze Age Aryans? There might be something wrong with those samples.

[Synapsid]

ANE, what the frick? Weren't they just Bronze Age Aryans? There might be something wrong with those samples.

Its pre Afanesievo migrations

[XenophobicPrussian]

ANE, what the frick? Weren't they just Bronze Age Aryans? There might be something wrong with those samples.
No, they aren't noisy(you'd see a lot more wrong with them if there was something wrong with them, SSA, Papuan, you name it, contamination will usually look the part of either W Euro admixture, Chinese admixture or Russian admixture because those are what most of the people who deal with the DNA are, and they're decent coverage). Both samples are nearly identical too.

[Ajeje Brazorf]

https://i.imgur.com/FI9iv9P.png

[Peterski]

It seems that physical anthropologists were not wrong in this case. Based on ph2ter's map the mummies are closest to Besermyan Udmurts. If you google search Besermyan Udmurts you will see they look Caicasoid:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Besermyan

[Zanzibar]

First off, from a poster on Anthrogenica(although I got it off the Eurogenes comment section, don't read Anthrogenica). Mind you, these are among the earliest mummies, around 1800 BC, later mummies are likely going to be very different(namely more steppe/BMAC, more Mongoloid too).

https://i.imgur.com/jlsuyI0.png

https://i.imgur.com/grh149J.png

Genetic distance to moderns with G25:





A reminder of how southern the Tarim Basin is:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7e/Tarimrivermap.png/400px-Tarimrivermap.png

What this means: You can see the maps entirely skip populations around the region, Uigurs, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, etc. This means like the populations they are most similar to, namely Mansi/Khanty, they completely lack(Mansi/Khanty almost completely lack) southern Caucasoid/Basal Eurasian/steppe/BMAC/etc admixture. In 1800 BC, after Indo-Europeans from the west and urban dwellers from Iran had spread so widely.

G25 models of the mummies themselves and Mansi/Khanty(also throwing in Udmurts but these mummies are really closest to Mansi/Khanty all things considered) to get an idea, as well as present day Uyghurs/Uzbeks:



Model:



Can you post the Eurogenes comment section where this is discussed?

The models for Mansi, Khanty and Udmurt are terrible. Should also include Krasnoyarsk_BA, Nganasan and Barcin_N/Tepecik_Ciftlik_N improve the fits.

Anyhow, looks like it can be insinuate that ANE probably have look "Caucasoid" themselves.

[Komintasavalta]

You can see the maps entirely skip populations around the region, Uigurs, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, etc.

Those maps just show scaled G25 distance, but the color scheme is a bit misleading, because for example the distance of XHM110 is .227 to Udmurts, .237 to Mansi, .280 to Uzbeks, and .295 to Uyghurs, but Udmurts have a bright red color, Mansi have a light yellow color, and Uzbeks and Uyghurs are not distinguished from the background color.


Based on ph2ter's map the mummies are closest to Besermyan Udmurts.

Actually they're the closest to Tlingits but Tlingits are not included on his map. And they're also closer to regular Udmurts than to Besermyans.


$ printf %s\\n ais\ 1UrhcfNMLW0oMXIbHGUE60v2taCM7PFw1 aas\ 1F2rKEVtu8nWSm7qFhxPU6UESQNsmA-sl mis\ 1HYrDwxEXv82DvDLoq736pS5ZTGJA4dn5 mas\ 1wZr-UOve0KUKo_Qbgeo27m-CQncZWb8y|while read l m;do curl "https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=$m" -Lso $l;done
$ dist()(awk -F, 'NR==FNR{for(i=2;i<=NF;i++)a[i]=$i;next}$1{s=0;for(i=2;i<=NF;i++)s+=($i-a[i])^2;print s^.5,$1}' "$2" "$1"|sort -n|awk '{printf"%."x"f %s\n",$1,$2}' "x=${3-3}"|sed s,^0,,)
$ dist mas <(grep CHN_Tarim_EMBA1:XHM110 ais)|head
.219 Tlingit
.227 Udmurt
.237 Mansi
.238 Saami
.238 Tatar_Siberian_Zabolotniye
.238 Khanty
.239 Besermyan
.244 Bashkir
.248 Ket
.252 Tatar_Siberian
$ dist mas <(grep CHN_Tarim_EMBA2:11KBM1 ais)|head
.199 Tlingit
.219 Mansi
.220 Tatar_Siberian_Zabolotniye
.221 Khanty
.221 Udmurt
.227 Saami
.230 Bashkir
.232 Ket
.234 Greenlander_West
.234 Besermyan

[Roy]

These people were basically WSHG but without the EHG component. Crazy that group that was 85% ANE lived until recorded history. Imagine if there was no Afanesievo invasion, Turkic migration etc. Basically the purest ANE group one could ever get

I am bewildered too. One have to wonder how they managed to remain so pure and I guess isolated for so long. Bushmen style?

Also I remember that blonde hair is common among Tarim mummies and was among Tocharians too and the earliest instance of blonde hair was recorded among ANE-rich people was as well. I don't think it is coincidental.

[Token]

ANE, what the frick? Weren't they just Bronze Age Aryans? There might be something wrong with those samples.

The later, R1a ones that people commonly post on the internet were. These samples are uniformly R1b of a very weird (non-IE) variety and come from the earliest layer of Tarim mummies.

[Komintasavalta]

One have to wonder how they managed to remain so pure and I guess isolated for so long.

The Botai samples from northern Kazakhstan are also mostly WSHG, but they're only about 1,500 years older than the Tarim samples.

Distance to KAZ_Botai:
.044 RUS_Sosonivoy_HG
.045 RUS_Tyumen_HG
.060 CHN_Tarim_EMBA1
.066 CHN_Tarim_EMBA2
.067 KAZ_Dali_EBA
.092 RUS_MA1
.096 RUS_Sintashta_MLBA_o3
.098 RUS_AfontovaGora3
.101 RUS_Sintashta_MLBA_o1
.107 KAZ_Kumsay_EBA

There were two male Botai samples, but the other one was R1b:


The Y-chromosome of the male Botai individual (TU45) belongs to the haplogroup R1b (Table 411 S6). However, it falls into neither a predominant European branch R1b-L5165 nor into a R1b-GG400 branch found in Yamnaya individuals. Thus, phylogenetically this Botai individual should belong to the R1b-M73 branch which is frequent in the Eurasian steppe (Figure S9). This branch was also found in Mesolithic samples from Latvia as well as in numerous modern southern Siberian and Central Asian groups.

[Faklon]

Make China Komi again

[Komintasavalta]

In this secondary PCA based on G25, the Tarim samples look like a more eastern version of WSHGs. Botai is intermediate between Tarim and WSHGs (Tyumen_HG and Sosonivoy_HG). On PC3, the Tarim samples and AG3 have the highest values, but WSHGs and MA1 have slightly lower values.

https://i.ibb.co/KN011rV/tarim-closest-g25-pca.jpg

To recreate the plots above, download R from here: https://cran.r-project.org. Then open the R console application, run `install.packages(c("tidyverse","ggforce"))`, and paste the code below the R console. (Or install R through your package manager and run `R` to start the R REPL.)


library(tidyverse)
library(ggforce)

t1=read.csv("https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1UrhcfNMLW0oMXIbHGUE60v2taCM7PFw1",r=1) # ancient individuals scaled
t2=read.csv("https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1HYrDwxEXv82DvDLoq736pS5ZTGJA4dn5",r=1) # modern individuals scaled
t3=rbind(t1,t2)
t3=t3[!grepl("_contam|_low_res|_o",rownames(t3)),]

t4=t1[grep("Tarim|Dzungaria",rownames(t1)),]
ave=colMeans(t4)
t5=aggregate(t3,list(sub(":.*","",rownames(t3))),mean)%>%data.frame(row.names=1)
closest=apply(t5,1,function(x)sum((x-ave)^2))%>%sort%>%head(256)%>%names
t=rbind(t4,t5[closest,])

p0=prcomp(t)
p=as.data.frame(p0$x)
pct=paste0(colnames(p0$x)," (",sprintf("%.1f",p0$sdev/sum(p0$sdev)*100),"%)")
# p[,1]=-p[,1]

k=cutree(hclust(dist(t)),32)
p$pop=as.factor(k)

set.seed(0)
hue=seq(0,360,length.out=length(unique(k))+1)%>%head(-1)%>%sample()
pal1=hcl(hue,100,55)
pal2=hcl(hue,.3,1)

i=1
xpc=sym(paste0("PC",i))
ypc=sym(paste0("PC",i+1))
dist=as.matrix(dist(t))
seg=lapply(1:3,function(j)apply(dist,1,function(x) unlist(p[names(sort(x)[j]),c(i,i+1)],use.names=F))%>%t%>%cbind(p[,c(i,i+1)]))%>%do.call(rbind,.)%>%setNames(paste0("V",1:4))

ggplot(p,aes(!!xpc,!!ypc))+
geom_segment(data=seg,aes(x=V1,y=V2,xend=V3,yend=V 4),color="gray50",size=.1)+
ggforce::geom_mark_hull(aes(group=pop),color=pal1[p$pop],fill=pal1[p$pop],concavity=100,radius=unit(.15,"cm"),expand=unit(.15,"cm"),alpha=.2,size=.2)+
geom_point(aes(x=!!xpc,y=!!ypc),color=pal1[p$pop],size=.3)+
geom_text(aes(x=!!xpc,y=!!ypc,label=rownames(p)),c olor=pal1[p$pop],size=2,vjust=-.6)+
labs(x=pct[i],y=pct[i+1])+
# coord_fixed()+
scale_x_continuous(breaks=seq(-1,1,.05))+
scale_y_continuous(breaks=seq(-1,1,.05))+
theme(
axis.text=element_text(color="black",size=6),
axis.text.x=element_text(margin=margin(.2,0,0,0,"cm")),
axis.text.y=element_text(angle=90,vjust=1,hjust=.5 ,margin=margin(0,.2,0,0,"cm")),
axis.ticks=element_line(size=.3,color="gray80"),
axis.ticks.length=unit(-.13,"cm"),
axis.title=element_text(color="black",size=8),
legend.position="none",
panel.background=element_rect(fill="white"),
panel.border=element_rect(color="gray80",fill=NA,size=.6),
panel.grid.minor=element_blank(),
panel.grid.major=element_line(color="white",size=.2),
plot.background=element_rect(fill="white",color=NA)
)

ggsave("a.png",width=13,height=7)
system("mogrify -trim -bordercolor white -border 20 a.png")

[Leto]

The later, R1a ones that people commonly post on the internet were. These samples are uniformly R1b of a very weird (non-IE) variety and come from the earliest layer of Tarim mummies.
Did those earliest people even leave a genetic legacy in the region?

[Token]

Did those earliest people even leave a genetic legacy in the region?

There is no autosomal data for the later mummies but some of them did carry East Asian mtDNA which may suggest that some of the later IE newcomers took local wives. It seems these ANE-rich people with a dose of East Asian ancestry were widespread in northern Eurasia immediately before IE expansions and the IE pioneers apparently saw no problem in breeding with native women (thus the several eastern Andronovo samples with this kind of ancestry). Samples from the adjacent Junggar basin (Dzungaria) from the same paper look like intermediates between Afanasievo and the early Tarim mummies.


Target: CHN_Dzungaria_EBA1:SSGM16
Distance: 0.8279% / 0.00827901 | R3P
74.0 RUS_Afanasievo
22.8 CHN_Tarim_EMBA1
3.2 MNG_North_N

Target: CHN_Dzungaria_EBA1:AYIM22BN
Distance: 1.7281% / 0.01728148 | R3P
75.4 RUS_Afanasievo
20.6 CHN_Tarim_EMBA1
4.0 MNG_North_N

It is possible that Dzungaria is where the actual Tocharians lived before they expanded and came to dominate the Tarim basin later on.

[Synapsid]

There is no autosomal data for the later mummies but some of them did carry East Asian mtDNA which may suggest that some of the later IE newcomers took local wives. It seems these ANE-rich people with a dose of East Asian ancestry were widespread in northern Eurasia immediately before IE expansions and the IE pioneers apparently saw no problem in breeding with native women (thus the several eastern Andronovo samples with this kind of ancestry). Samples from the adjacent Junggar basin (Dzungaria) from the same paper look like intermediates between Afanasievo and the early Tarim mummies.


Target: CHN_Dzungaria_EBA1:SSGM16
Distance: 0.8279% / 0.00827901 | R3P
74.0 RUS_Afanasievo
22.8 CHN_Tarim_EMBA1
3.2 MNG_North_N

Target: CHN_Dzungaria_EBA1:AYIM22BN
Distance: 1.7281% / 0.01728148 | R3P
75.4 RUS_Afanasievo
20.6 CHN_Tarim_EMBA1
4.0 MNG_North_N

It is possible that Dzungaria is where the actual Tocharians lived before they expanded and came to dominate the Tarim basin later on.

That amount of Tarim admix in IE Dzungarians could have diluted their funnelbeaker/TRB EEF ancestry, making them superficially like early Corded Ware like steppe folks with extra added ANE, albit without the East Eurasian

[Lucas]

My distances to them

Distance to: Lukasz_scaled
0.35935951 CHN_Tarim_EMBA1:XHM110
0.35943551 CHN_Tarim_EMBA2:11KBM1
0.36079193 CHN_Tarim_EMBA1:XHM135
0.36152235 CHN_Tarim_EMBA1:L6101
0.36727434 CHN_Tarim_EMBA1:L6103
0.37059931 CHN_Tarim_EMBA1:XHM100
0.37113536 CHN_Tarim_EMBA1:XHM75
0.37212996 CHN_Tarim_EMBA1:L5213
0.37374179 CHN_Tarim_EMBA1:L5209
0.37648645 CHN_Tarim_EMBA1:L6106
0.37669289 CHN_Tarim_EMBA1:GMGM1
0.37882106 CHN_Tarim_EMBA1:L6105

[Leto]

SurviveTheJive commenting on the study

https://youtu.be/sCRsTDXzMFo

[CommonSense]

Since those later Tarim mummies are R1a, I assume at some point Indo-Europeans descended from the Andronovo culture overran the entire basin. It would be great if we could get autosomal data from them as well one day.

However, since the Tocharian language deviates so much from the Indo-Iranian ones, I assume it originally came Afanasievo/Dzungaria instead.

[Tanais]

https://i.imgur.com/jlsuyI0.png

https://i.imgur.com/grh149J.png
good maps super!

[Tanais]

First off, from a poster on Anthrogenica(although I got it off the Eurogenes comment section, don't read Anthrogenica). Mind you, these are among the earliest mummies, around 1800 BC, later mummies are likely going to be very different(namely more steppe/BMAC, more Mongoloid too).

https://i.imgur.com/jlsuyI0.png

https://i.imgur.com/grh149J.png
These maps are wrong (maybe error), because you compared scaled Tarim_EMBA with unscaled modern populations. It's like running iOs on android. Also, the wrong distance lists say there should be Tatars, Uzbeks and Uygurs on your map, but they aren't. So it's another huge error. I did a scaled Tarim_EMBA with scaled modern populations correction.
https://i.imgur.com/I4m5jnh.png

[Kenshiro]

First off, from a poster on Anthrogenica(although I got it off the Eurogenes comment section, don't read Anthrogenica). Mind you, these are among the earliest mummies, around 1800 BC, later mummies are likely going to be very different(namely more steppe/BMAC, more Mongoloid too).

https://i.imgur.com/jlsuyI0.png

https://i.imgur.com/grh149J.png

Genetic distance to moderns with G25:





A reminder of how southern the Tarim Basin is:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7e/Tarimrivermap.png/400px-Tarimrivermap.png

What this means: You can see the maps entirely skip populations around the region, Uigurs, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, etc. This means like the populations they are most similar to, namely Mansi/Khanty, they completely lack(Mansi/Khanty almost completely lack) southern Caucasoid/Basal Eurasian/steppe/BMAC/etc admixture. In 1800 BC, after Indo-Europeans from the west and urban dwellers from Iran had spread so widely.

G25 models of the mummies themselves and Mansi/Khanty(also throwing in Udmurts but these mummies are really closest to Mansi/Khanty all things considered) to get an idea, as well as present day Uyghurs/Uzbeks:



Model:



In terms of ancients, these Tarim mummies are pretty much just ANE+15% recent East Eurasian, basically almost identical to West Siberia HG(Tyumen_HG).

We already knew such people existed as south as Botai in Kazakhstan(and Keltiminar culture stretching down to Turkmenistan could've been the same, maybe more ANE and less recent Mongoloid), but we're talking 3500 BC and in northern Kazakhstan, the Tarim Basin is much more southernly and closer to heavy Basal Eurasian populations in BMAC, Indus Valley, etc, albeit protected by much more mountains, but we've seen significant geneflow pass vast mountain ranges. Truly remarkable.

This also shows how flawed physical anthropology is, as all the earliest Tarim Basin mummies were supposed to be "of the Caucasian physical type"(not just "Caucasian influenced", but simply "Caucasian"), and "Mongoloid" physical features are supposedly not present until much later. You even have recent studies claiming this: In terms of whether ANE or more recent East Eurasian was in the region first, these samples can't answer that, can speculate based on Afontova Gora(meaning ANE was first at the Yenisei river just above the Altai), but not really as the Tarim Basin is about as far from that site from definite East Eurasian areas. As for the linguistic implications(specifically regarding where Tocharian IE came from), I doubt there can be any as Tocharian is only attested 400 AD.
I seem to have 2% tarim basin on yourdnaportal pangea, cool, and i seem to be modelable with Mansi, Besermyan and with more Finnic ethnic group on illustrative dna, even if I still have some questions, how could this dna have arrived in southeast Italy (Indo-European expansion?)