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Population History of the Baraba Forest Steppe from the Neolithic-Iron age
I found an incredible Ancient DNA paper(Molodin 2012) yesterday while updating my Copper-Bronze age DNA map. I was ready to add samples from the Ust-Tartas culture to my map but I could not find the location of the site the samples came from. So I searched on Google to find their location and while searching I found an article about Molodin 2012 at For what they were... we are and another one at Dienekes(Population strata in the West Siberian plain (Baraba forest steppe). While reading the Dienekes article I realized there were many other cultures Molodin 2012 has mtDNA samples from and they discovered some pretty amazing stuff about the population history of the Baraba forest Steppe that I did not know about.
This is a short summary of my conclusions after reading Molodin 2012 multiple times.
>East Asians and ANE mixed at least as far back as 20,000 years ago(prove in native Americans).
>Much of Siberia and eastern Europe was mixed WHG+ANE and east Asian during the Upper Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, and even into the metal ages. WHG+ANE was stronger in the west and east asian was stronger in the east.
>The mtDNA of east European, central Asian, and Siberian ANE+WHG hunter gatherers was close to 100% U and almost entirely under subclades U5a1, U4, and U2e at least as early as the Mesolithic age.
>During the Mesolithic U5a and U5a1 were the main U5 subclades of primarily or significantly ANE people in eastern Europe, central Asia, and Siberia. U5b and U5b2 were the main U5 subclades of WHG people(with maybe some non WHG ancestry) who took up most of Europe.
> Since at least 6,000BC there were mainly east Asian populations with significant ANE+WHG ancestry in western Siberia(and other areas of Siberia). There was continuum with these populations until the Andronovo and related peoples who were mixed WHG+ANE and near eastern arrived.
>The next major genetic impact around the Baraba steppe that can be documented by ancient mtDNA was during the early Iron age and was caused by the Berlik culture who had mainly west Asian mtDNA and can from Kazakhstan. But migrations from other areas and at different times probably also made a genetic impact.
Here are the mtDNA results from Molodin 2012.
Fig. 1 | Location of the archaeological sites from which samples for the genetic studies were obtained. 1 Sopka-2; 2 Tartas-1; 3 Preobrazhenka-6; 4 Stariy Sad; 5 Chicha-1(including Kurgan Zdvinsk-1)
Ust-Tartas culture 4th – first half of 3rd century BC
Sopka-2/3: D=2, C=2, A=2, Z=2, D=1, U2e=1
Sopka-2/3a: U=5(U5a1=2, U2e=2, U4=1), Z=2, C=2
Total N=17
1.U=6 37.5%* of total, sub=6
2.U2e=3 50%* of U, 18.75%* of total, sub=0
2.U5a1=2 33.3%* of U, 12.5%* of total, sub=0
2.U4=1 16.7%* of U, 6.25%* of total, sub=0
1.Z=4 25%* of total, sub=0
1.C=4 25%* of total, sub=0
1.A=2 12.5%* of total, sub=0
1.D=1 6.25%* of total, sub=0
Odinovo culture Beginning of 3rd millennium BC
Preobrajenka: C=1, Z=1, D=1
Sopka-2/4a: D=5, C=1, U5a1=1
Total N=10
1.D=6, 60%* of total, sub=0
1.C=2, 20%* of total, sub=0
1.Z=1, 10%* of total, sub=0
1.U5a1=1, 10%* of total, sub=0
Early Krotovo Culture End of 3rd – beginning of 2nd century
Sopka-2/4b N=5: U2e=2, C=1, Z=1, A=1
Late Krotovo culture First quarter of 2nd century BC
Sopja-2/5: U5a=4(U5a*=2, U5a1=2), T*=3, C=2, A=1, G2a=1
Tartas I: C=6, A=2, U5a1=1
Total N=20
1.C=8 40%* of total, sub=0
1.U5a=5 25%* of total, sub=5
2.U5a1=3 60%* of U5a, 15%* of total, sub=0
2.U5a*=2 40%* of U5a, 10%* of total, sub=0
1.A=3 15%* of total, sub=0
1.T*=3 15%* of total, sub=0
1.G2a=1 5%* of total, sub=0
Andronovo(Fedorovo) culture First half of 2nd century BC
Tartas-I N=20: C=10, U5a1=4, T*=3, A=3
Baraba Late Bronze age culture End of 2nd century BC
Stariy Sad N=5: C=2, A=1, U5a=1, T1=1
Late Irmen Culture 9th–8th centuries BC
Chicha-I N=14: U=6(U4=3, U5b=1, U1a=1, U3=1), K=3, H=2(H6a1=1), J=1, W=1, D=1
First lets get an idea of where the Baraba forest Steppe is(I know very little about geography). Molodin 2012 writes.
According to Molodin 2012 modern humans first arrived in the "Ob-Irtysh interfluve" ~13,000-14,000 years ago but there are no burials in this region from that period so they can not "conduct a biological investigation" of its earliest inhabitants. The oldest "anthropological material" is from the "Neolithic period (4th–5th millennium BC)."Our work is devoted to the analysis of human migration processes that occurred during the Bronze Age (4th–early 1st millennium BC) in the forest steppe zone between the Ob and Irtysh rivers (about 800 km from west to east). This area, known as Baraba forest steppe, stretches over 200 km from the taiga zone in the north to the steppes in the south
The Neolithic people of the Baraba forest steppe were apart of an anthropological formation that was a mixture of Caucasoid and Mongoloid features named the North Eurasian anthropological formation.
This Anthropological formation was not exclusive to the Baraba forest steppe.
Here is a map from Molodin 2012 of the North Eurasian Anthropological formation with marked locations of ancient human groups who had high amounts of mtDNA U5, U4, and U2e.This anthropological type developed in a zone that is intermediate to the geographic areas occupied by the classic Caucasoids and the Mongoloids. The exists substantial anthropological evidence showing a wide geographic distribution of this anthropological formation: from the Trans-Urals forest and the Barabian province of Western Siberia in the east to Karelia and the Baltic in the west (Chikisheva, 2010)
The earliest bronze age people of the Baraba forest steppe were apart of the Ust-Tartas culture. This culture is dated between the "4th millennium BC and the first half of the 3rd millennium BC." The “Comb-pit Ware culture” of the Baraba forest steppe was contemporary to the Ust-Tartas culture. Both were apart of the North Eurasian anthropological formation like previous Neolithic people of the Baraba forest steppe.
Genetically the Baraba forest steppe probably did not change during the early bronze age and the begging of the middle bronze age, so until the begging of the 2nd millennium BC and culturally they mainly evolved from previous cultures in that region. There are two cultures that existed in the Baraba Steppe during this time, Odinovo(began in the 3rd millennium BC) and its likely descendant Krotovo culture(began in the at the end of the 3rd and begging of the 2nd millennium BC). Anthropologically the Odinovo and Krotovo people were obviously descended of previous Ust Tartas, Comb-pit Ware, and Neolithic people of the Baraba forest steppe.Representatives of the Ust-Tartas culture belonged to a single craniological type preceding the Neolithic populations of the region (Chikisheva, 2010). Craniometric analyses of materials from burials with comb-pit ware also show the characteristic features of the northern Eurasian anthropological formation, but demonstrate greater affinity with the northern periphery of the West Siberian Neolithic cultures (Chikisheva, 2010), suggesting a predominantly autochthonous development of the Baraba populations from the Early Metal period.
The Krotovo culture though probably had some foreign influence from central Asia.
The aboriginal people(since at least the Neolithic) of the Baraba forest Steppe mtDNA is mixed west Eurasian U5a1, U2e, U4 and east Eurasian A,C,D,Z, G2a( G2a, could be from later mixing with east Asians) which is constant with the North Eurasian anthropological formation having mixed Caucasoid and Mongoloid features.However, undeniable innovations are observed in the Krotovo funerary practices and inventories. These new features were probably associated with episodic migrations of representatives of the Petrovo culture from the modern North Kazakhstan territory (Zdanovich, 1988) to the Baraba forest steppe. Moreover, present among the Krotovo materials were specific forms of daggers, stalked spearheads and beads of chalcedony, jaspilite and enstatite (the nearest deposits of these minerals are located in Central Asia and Kazakhstan) (Fig. 7a,b,c), suggesting the influence of Central Asian cultures in the Baraba region during the Middle Bronze Age (end of 3rd–beginning of 2nd millennium BC) (Molodin, 1988). This is the most ancient external influence on the material culture of the Baraba population from the Bronze Age that might have been accompanied by a migration wave.
Nearly all Mesolithic European hunter gatherers had mtDNA U5, U4, or U2e. The majority of U5 samples(that discovered subclade) from Mesolithic and Neolithic central-west Europe, Lithuania, and Poland are U5b but all U5 samples(that discovered subclade) from Mesolithic Russia are U5a(after that U5a1) and the same is true for Mesolithic Sweden+Gotland(U5a1 and U5a2), Eneolithic and bronze age Potaic Caspien steppe(9/10 U5a's with identifiable subclade were U5a1 and one was U5a2a and all U5 with identifiable subclade was U5a), bronze-iron age Indo Iranians, and Neolithic and bronze age Ukraine.
No U5a1 samples have been found from the Mesolithic age outside of eastern Europe and there is only one from the Neolithic, U5a1a'g from LBK Germany, but those LBK farmer's ancestors first migrated through eastern Europe to get to Germany so that U5a1 lineage may be of east European origin. Even more evidence of a mainly eastern distribution of U5a1 in ancient times is that most U5 from early Indo Europeans in central Europe is U5a1 even though that was not true for previous Neolithic and Mesolithic central Europeans.
More specifically the aboriginal people(since at least the Neolithic) of the Baraba forest Steppe had mainly east Asian mtDNA with some western(WHG+ANE) influence. Genomes of 24,000 year old MA-1(who ANE is based on) and 17,000 year old AG2 prove that an ANE people lived in Siberia during the Upper Palaeolithic age. Since mtDNA U5, U4, and U2e dominated WHG in Europe their eastern brothers ANE may have also had some U5, U4, and U2e lineages.
mtDNA samples from the Kitoi culture in Irkutsk, Siberia(same area as MA-1 boy and AG2 lived) dated to 6125–4885 BC are very similar to the native people of the Baraba forest steppe(since at least the Neolithic). Here are their mtDNA results N=10: U5a=2, A=2, D=2, F=2, C=1, G2a=1. Even their east Asian haplogroups are the same except F was not found in the aboriginal(since at least the Neolithic) Baraba forest steppe people. This probably means that there was very ancient ANE+WHG U5a1-U4-U2e mixing with east Asian A-D-C-F-G2a in Siberia and that there were also mixed WHG+ANE and east Asian populations even farther east into Siberia and I think there were also some much farther west in eastern Europe. Native Americans are primarily east Asian but also have a large amount of ANE ancestry so ANE and east Asians had been mixing since at least 20,000 years ago.
mtDNA U5a1 may be an ANE lineage or at least was popular in purely ANE people of eastern Europe, central Asia, and Siberia. It has not yet been found in Mesolithic central-west Europe but has been found in Mesolithic eastern Europe and Sweden. So far we know that Mesolithic Swedes had some ANE ancestry and it is very likely Mesolithic east Europeans had even more but Mesolithic central-west Europeans did not have any ANE ancestry. More evidence U5a1 is an ANE lineage is that the vast majority of U5 in the near east is U5a1 and there is little to no WHG admixture in the near east but large amounts of ANE admixture.
Much of the U5a1-U4-U2e in the native people of the Baraba forest steppe and the Kitoi culture may be more original to Siberia than their east Asian lineages, because an ANE population lived in Siberia(same area as samples from Kitoi culture) from at least 24,000-17,000 years ago and had no east Asian ancestry.
Genetic and cultural continuum of the Baraba steppe ended in the 2nd millennium BC with the migration of a new Indo European(most likely early Indo Iranian) people.
The Krotovo culture continued to develop indigenously for several centuries. At the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC, the migration of the Andronovo culture population to the south of the West Siberian Plain started, probably originating in the territory of present-day Central KazakhstanThere is skeletal evidence of admixture with native late Krotovo people and Andronovo immigrants. The changes though may actually be from admixture with people who were not Andronovo but mixed with them which may be why there were some changes in the late Krotovo people that cannot be explained by admixture only with Andronovo people.The newly arrived Caucasian Andronovo population had a great influence on the development of the indigenous cultures of the West Siberian steppe and forest steppe regions (including the Baraba forest steppe). According to the archaeological evidence, the newly arrived groups coexisted with the aborigines for some time which can be explained by the differing nature of their economic activities(nomadic and seminomadic pastoralism in the Andronovo group and sedentary or semisedentary pastoralismin the aboriginal Late Krotovo group). During this time the migrants had a strong impact on the material culture of the indigenous group. As a result, the bronze weapons and adornments of the aboriginal cultural group changed from Seima-Turbino to Srubno-Andronovo forms (Fig. 8a; 9a). The contact between these two groups is also reflected in their funerary practices and inventories, which combined novel and traditional features of the Baraba region. Archaeological evidence indicates that the Andronovo impact on the Late Krotovo population was in fact manifold. The adaptation of the migrant Andronovo group in the West Siberian forest steppe was a long processthat resulted in the absolute dominance of this population in the region.
There has already been plenty of mtDNA, Y DNA, and pigmentation genes taken from the Andronovo people and later related peoples in other studies. Their overall genetic makeup was definitely very similar to modern north-east Europeans, mainly ANE-WHG and had a significant amount of near eastern ancestry via near easterns who spread farming to Europe. The Andronovo people probably had close to 40% eastern WHG+ANE mtDNA U5a1, U4, and U2e and 60% or more near eastern mtDNA T(mainly T1a but also T2a1b, T3, and likely other T2 subclades), K(at least K2b but also probably K1a), H(at least H5, H6, H2a1), J, HV, and I(at least I3). Their Y DNA was close to 100% R1a1 and almost all was probably in subclade Z93 or at least Z283.At the late stage of the development of the Krotovo culture, the craniological complex had changed markedly in comparison to the anthropological type common in all preceding Neolithic and Bronze Age populations in the Baraba region. The changes observed in males from the Late Krotovo group could be attributed to the influence of Andronovo representatives. Some Mongoloid features, which were not related to the previous autochthonous substrate, appeared in females from the Late Krotovo group. The Europoid component observed in these females does not fall within the generally accepted criteria for the Andronovo anthropological type.
Some anthropological data suggest that the Krotovo population probably did not interact directly with the Andronovo populations, but rather with population groups displaced from the south and west by the Andronovo migration wave. In these groups, the Andronovo influence was already present (Chikisheva,2010).
mtDNA haplogroup T in this study pops up in Late Krotovo culture, Andronovo(Fedorovo) culture, and Baraba late bronze age culture but is absent in samples in previous people of the Baraba forest steppe. As you can see from the map all the samples in this study were taken from a small area of the Baraba forest steppe. So the appearance of mtDNA haplogroup T and typical bronze-iron age Indo Iranian T1 is definitely from the Andronovo people. Most of the mtDNA though of Andronovo people in the Baraba forest steppe is typical of the native people(C, A, U5a1) the U5a1 could be either of Andronovo or Krotovo origin since it existed at about the same rate in both.
There is a much smaller amount of east Asian mtDNA in samples from the Andronovo people and later Indo Iranians all the way to the Iron age in the Krasnoyarsk region and other locations. This means that the Andronovo people mainly assimilated the native Krotovo population, at least the women. I think there was a smaller amount of native ancestry in the Andronovo people of the Baraba steppe than what the mtDNA shows because of how Molodin 2012 describes their skeletal features. The mtDNA of the tarim mummies from ~2,000BC in tarim basin China is almost entirely east Asian(mainly subclade C4) but their Y DNA was entirely Indo European R1a1 and their physical features were more Caucasoid than their mtDNA would suggest.
The Andronovo culture did not last forever in this region.
The Irmen people though were possible of mainly Andronovo decent(which had a significant amount of native Baraba steppe ancestry).The Andronovo group in the south of West Siberia was replaced by the Irmen culture, which was originally from the West Siberian steppe and forest steppe zones around the 14th century BC, and occupied the region extending from the Achinsk and Mariinsk forest steppe in the east to the Irtysh River in the west (Molodin, 1985; Bobrov et al., 1993; Matveev,1993).
The Irmen culture was influenced from other peoples in almost all directions and as a result of some of these influences a new culture named the Baraba late bronze age culture formed at the end of the 2nd millennium BC.Obviously, one major component in the genesis of the group is represented by the preceding Andronovo population, which had already assimilated features from West Siberian aborigines. Analysis of the anthropological material from the Irmen culture in the Baraba region showed that their average craniological features are consistent with Caucasoid values, or indicate the presence of a small Mongoloid admixture. Anthropologically, the local Irmen group from Baraba was relatively homogenous.The results of the cross-group statistical analysis confirm the participation of the Andronovo population in the development of the anthropological type of all local Irmen groups (Chikisheva, 2010).
Five mtDNA samples taken from the Baraba late bronze age culture in the archeological site Stariy Sad(named in the second paragraph of the quote above) though show no difference to the previous Iremen culture and has mainly mtDNA typical of aboriginal people of the Baraba steppe(since at least the Neolithic).The Irmen population engaged in intense contact with neighbouring groups in different parts of its vast territory. These interactions are reflected in the peculiarities of its material and spiritual culture and in the structure of the Irmen population as based on the physical anthropology data available. In the east, the Irmen population interacted with the neighbouring Karasuk culture group (Chlenova, 1972). In the west, including the Baraba forest steppe region, interactions with neighbours were of a different nature. Several migration waves to Baraba occurred in this period. The first was associated with the migration of representatives of the Suzgun culture from the north-west. Accordingly, a syncretic culture, known as the Baraba variant of Suzgun culture, emerged in the northern part of the Baraba forest steppe(Molodin, Chemyakina, 1984). Two other migratory waves simultaneously occurred in the southern part of the West Siberian forest steppe. The first was associated with the Roller Ware Culture, which occupied the vast Eurasian steppes during the Late Bronze Age (Chernykh, 1983). This population also spread from the West Siberian steppe zone up to Kulunda steppe in the east. Apparently, a small proportion of this group migrated to the southern forest steppe, as evidenced by the presence of roller ware in the Irmen settlements (Molodin et al., 2000).
The largest migration wave to the steppe and forest steppe zones of Western Siberia was that of the Begazy-Dandybay populations during the Final Bronze Age, who came from the territory currently corresponding to modern Central Kazakhstan. The adaptation of these populations in the West Siberian steppe zone resulted in the development of syncretic groups, which then spread farther north and east. One such group was the Pahomov culture (Korochkova, 2009). This group migrated to the Baraba forest steppe and interacted intensively with the Irmen and Suzgun populations. A consequence of this process is the emergence of archaeological sites, such as the Stariy Sad burial ground in the Baraba region, where specific burial practices and anthropological types are found (Molodin and Neskorov, 1992). This cultural group is referred to as Baraba Late Bronze Age culture.
The Baraba forest steppe became even more diverse in the early Iron age, 9th-8th centuries BC.
As a result many of the native people migrated out of their native land.Thus, a complex ethno-cultural structure developed in the end of the Bronze Age in the West Siberian forest steppe region, becoming even more complex during the transition from the Bronze to the Early Iron Age (9th–8th century BC). The abrupt cooling of the climate of Western Siberia (at its strongest in the Holocene [Levina, Orlova, 1993]) led to the deterioration of ecological conditions in the taiga zone. In consequence, intense migration of taiga populations to the forest steppe zone in the south occurred in the territory that extends from the Urals in the west to the Yenisei River in the east. As a result, an ensemble of syncretic archaeological cultures developed in the West Siberian forest steppe region, including the Gamajun, Krasnoozersk and Zavyalovo cultures.
The Irmen culture did not die out but were still influenced by foreign immigrants.This powerful migration wave triggered intense movement of various ethnic and cultural groups in the forest, forest steppe and even steppe zones towards the meridional and latitudinal directions. The study of the Baraba forest steppe area suggests that such processes occurred.
mtDNA from the Chicha-1 settlement is radically different from early people in the same area. Only one had an east Asian haplogroup(D) out of 14 samples and there were many new west Eurasian haplogroups(K=3, H=2(H6a1=1), U5b=1, U1a=1, J=1, U3=1, W=1). U1a and U3 are typical U subclades of west Asians so from the Berlik culture and the K, J, H, U5b, and W could be from Andronovo or Berilk. The vast majority of west Asian and Andronovo U5 is U5a not U5b so the U5b is surprising. I think most of the new west Eurasian mtDNA is from the Berlik culture. The influence of northern migrations may have been much less influencel south of the Baraba steppe.On the one hand, the autochthonous Irmen culture evolved into the Late Irmen culture, an evolutionary process that was detected in the materials obtained from a large numbe rof archaeological sites. On the other hand, the discovery and excavation of the Chicha-1 settlement in the south of the Baraba forest steppe demonstrated both the occasional appearance of migrants from the north (representatives of the Suzgun and even northern taiga Atlym cultures) and permanent migration flows of representatives from the Krasnoozersk culture from the north-west and from the Berlik culture from the Kazakhstan steppes in the south-west (Fig. 10) (Molodin et al., 2009). It is important to note that the members of the above mentioned cultural groups and the aboriginal Late Irmen group lived indifferent parts of the same settlement (Molodin and Parzinger, 2009). Obviously, this led to intense interactions between the ethno-cultural groups, resulting both in the combination of cultural traits and traditions, as well as in the genetic admixture of populations as a result of intergroup marriages.
Fig. 10 | Directions of migration waves in West Siberian forest steppe region during the transition from Bronze to Early Iron Age
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