The genetic history of the Southern Arc: A bridge between West Asia and Europe


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Lazaridis I., Alpaslan-Roodenberg S., Acar A., AÇIKKOL A., Davtyan R., Agelarakis A., ...More

SCIENCE, vol.377, no.6609, pp.939-952, 2022 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 377 Issue: 6609
  • Publication Date: 2022
  • Doi Number: 10.1126/science.abm4247
  • Journal Name: SCIENCE
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, Aerospace Database, Agricultural & Environmental Science Database, Animal Behavior Abstracts, Applied Science & Technology Source, Aquatic Science & Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA), Artic & Antarctic Regions, ATLA Religion Database, BIOSIS, CAB Abstracts, Chemical Abstracts Core, Communication Abstracts, Computer & Applied Sciences, EBSCO Education Source, EMBASE, Environment Index, Gender Studies Database, Geobase, Linguistic Bibliography, MEDLINE, Metadex, MLA - Modern Language Association Database, Pollution Abstracts, Psycinfo, Public Affairs Index, Veterinary Science Database, zbMATH, DIALNET, Civil Engineering Abstracts
  • Page Numbers: pp.939-952
  • Çukurova University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

By sequencing 727 ancient individuals from the Southern Arc (Anatolia and its neighbors in Southeastern Europe and West Asia) over 10,000 years, we contextualize its Chalcolithic period and Bronze Age (about 5000 to 1000 BCE), when extensive gene flow entangled it with the Eurasian steppe. Two streams of migration transmitted Caucasus and Anatolian/Levantine ancestry northward, and the Yamnaya pastoralists, formed on the steppe, then spread southward into the Balkans and across the Caucasus into Armenia, where they left numerous patrilineal descendants. Anatolia was transformed by intra-West Asian gene flow, with negligible impact of the later Yamnaya migrations. This contrasts with all other regions where Indo-European languages were spoken, suggesting that the homeland of the IndoAnatolian language family was in West Asia, with only secondary dispersals of non-Anatolian IndoEuropeans from the steppe.