http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/2/e1601877.fullGenome-wide data from two early Neolithic East Asian individuals dating to 7700 years ago
Veronika Siska1,*, Eppie Ruth Jones1,2, Sungwon Jeon3, Youngjune Bhak3, Hak-Min Kim3, Yun Sung Cho3, Hyunho Kim4, Kyusang Lee5, Elizaveta Veselovskaya6, Tatiana Balueva6, Marcos Gallego-Llorente1, Michael Hofreiter7, Daniel G. Bradley2, Anders Eriksson1, Ron Pinhasi8,*,†, Jong Bhak3,4,*,†,‡ and Andrea Manica1,*,†
Abstract
Ancient genomes have revolutionized our understanding of Holocene prehistory and, particularly, the Neolithic transition in western Eurasia. In contrast, East Asia has so far received little attention, despite representing a core region at which the Neolithic transition took place independently ~3 millennia after its onset in the Near East. We report genome-wide data from two hunter-gatherers from Devil’s Gate, an early Neolithic cave site (dated to ~7.7 thousand years ago) located in East Asia, on the border between Russia and Korea. Both of these individuals are genetically most similar to geographically close modern populations from the Amur Basin, all speaking Tungusic languages, and, in particular, to the Ulchi. The similarity to nearby modern populations and the low levels of additional genetic material in the Ulchi imply a high level of genetic continuity in this region during the Holocene, a pattern that markedly contrasts with that reported for Europe.