Diverse origin of mitochondrial lineages in Iron Age Black Sea Scythians

Abstract

Scythians were nomadic and semi-nomadic people that ruled the Eurasian steppe during much of the first millennium BCE. While having been extensively studied by archaeology, very little is known about their genetic identity. To fill this gap, we analyzed ancient mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from Scythians of the North Pontic Region (NPR) and successfully retrieved 19 whole mtDNA genomes. We have identified three potential mtDNA lineage ancestries of the NPR Scythians tracing back to hunter-gatherer and nomadic populations of east and west Eurasia as well as the Neolithic farming expansion into Europe. One third of all mt lineages in our dataset belonged to subdivisions of mt haplogroup U5. A comparison of NPR Scythian mtDNA linages with other contemporaneous Scythian groups, the Saka and the Pazyryks, reveals a common mtDNA package comprised of haplogroups H/H5, U5a, A, D/D4, and F1/F2. Of these, west Eurasian lineages show a downward cline in the west-east direction while east Eurasian haplogroups display the opposite trajectory. An overall similarity in mtDNA lineages of the NPR Scythians was found with the late Bronze Age Srubnaya population of the Northern Black Sea region which supports the archaeological hypothesis suggesting Srubnaya people as ancestors of the NPR Scythians.

Mitochondrial genomes from Bronze Age Poland reveal genetic continuity from the Late Neolithic and additional genetic affinities with the steppe populations

“…Such links apply mainly to similarities in funerary practices with the post‐CAT Babino group which was present in the western Pontic steppe from 2,200 BC up to 1,800 BC (Kryvaltsevich, 2013; Lytvynenko, 2011; Włodarczak, 2017). Moreover, higher frequency of haplogroup U5a found in individuals from different sites associated with STC, although represented by only three samples, resembled that observed in much later Iron Age Scythians from the Black See steppe, where 31.6% of individuals were assigned to this particular haplogroup (Juras et al, 2017; Krzewińska et al, 2018). Haplogroup U5a was also very common in other steppe origin pastoralists such as YAM (Juras et al, 2018; Nikitin, Ivanova, Kiosak, Badgerow, & Pashnick, 2017) and CAT (Nikitin et al, 2017).…”

Genetic resiliency and the Black Death: No apparent loss of mitogenomic diversity due to the Black Death in medieval London and Denmark

“…Haplogroup C4a1a has been found in a modern sample from Poland but has a higher frequency in northern, central, and eastern Asia (Mielnik‐Sikorska et al, ). Haplogroup N1b1a has previously been found in an individual from Ukraine, dating to the 7th century BC and may be associated with the Neolithic expansion (Juras et al, ). There are very few exact sequences shared between samples; there is only one exact sequence match between an individual from pre‐Black Death London and an individual from late period Denmark.…”

Mitochondrial Genome Diversity in the Central Siberian Plateau with Particular Reference to Prehistory of Northernmost Eurasia

“…The Yenisei region was outside the main routes of Eurasian agricultural exchange up to the time of the Late Bronze Age Karasuk Culture [24][25][26]. One of the remarkable features of the Ket mtDNA pool is a lineage of hapogroup N2a distinguished by a set of mutations that we newly document here (m.1633T>C, m.11722C>T, and m.12192G>A) ( Fig.…”