Только что вышла новая статья:
The rise and transformation of Bronze Age
pastoralists in the Caucasus
Ayshin Ghalichi1,32 ✉, Sabine Reinhold2,32 ✉, Adam B. Rohrlach1,3, Alexey A. Kalmykov4,
Ainash Childebayeva1,5, He Yu1,6, Franziska Aron1, Lena Semerau1, Katrin Bastert-Lamprichs2,
Andrey B. Belinskiy7, Natalia Y. Berezina8, Yakov B. Berezin8, Nasreen Broomandkhoshbacht9,
Alexandra P. Buzhilova8, Vladimir R. Erlikh10, Lars Fehren-Schmitz9,11, Irina Gambashidze12,
Anatoliy R. Kantorovich13, Konstantin B. Kolesnichenko7, David Lordkipanidze14,15,
Rabadan G. Magomedov16, Katharina Malek-Custodis17, Dirk Mariaschk2, Vladimir E. Maslov18,
Levon Mkrtchyan19, Anatoli Nagler2, Hassan Fazeli Nashli20, Maria Ochir21,
Yuri Y. Piotrovskiy22, Mariam Saribekyan19, Aleksandr G. Sheremetev23, Thomas Stöllner24,25,
Judith Thomalsky2, Benik Vardanyan19,26, Cosimo Posth1,27,28, Johannes Krause1,29,30,
Christina Warinner1,29,30,31, Svend Hansen2 & Wolfgang Haak1 ✉
The Caucasus and surrounding areas, with their rich metal resources, became a
crucible of the Bronze Age1 and the birthplace of the earliest steppe pastoralist
societies2. Yet, despite this region having a large influence on the subsequent
development of Europe and Asia, questions remain regarding its hunter-gatherer past
and its formation of expansionist mobile steppe societies3–5. Here we present new
genome-wide data for 131 individuals from 38 archaeological sites spanning 6,000
years. We find a strong genetic differentiation between populations north and south
of the Caucasus mountains during the Mesolithic, with Eastern hunter-gatherer
ancestry4,6 in the north, and a distinct Caucasus hunter-gatherer ancestry7 with
increasing East Anatolian farmer admixture in the south. During the subsequent
Eneolithic period, we observe the formation of the characteristic West Eurasian
steppe ancestry and heightened interaction between the mountain and steppe
regions, facilitated by technological developments of the Maykop cultural complex8.
By contrast, the peak of pastoralist activities and territorial expansions during the
Early and Middle Bronze Age is characterized by long-term genetic stability. The Late
Bronze Age marks another period of gene flow from multiple distinct sources that
coincides with a decline of steppe cultures, followed by a transformation and
absorption of the steppe ancestry into highland populations.