<%@LANGUAGE="JAVASCRIPT" CODEPAGE="65001"%> Rachel Huang

Rachel Huang

 

Autosomal STR Analysis by DNA Tribes

Native Population Match: Thailand, Thailand, Basque (Alava, Spain), Java (Indonesia), Malay (Singapore), Balearic Islands (Spain), Ashkenazi (Budapest, Hungary), Eastern Anatolia (Turkey), Italy, Sicilia (Italy), Germany, Lille (France), Sicily (Italy), Marmara (Turkey), Javanese, Székely (Romania), Switzerland, Extremadura (Spain), Mulao (Guangxi), Kirgiz (Xinjiang).

Global Population Match: Thailand, Malay, Thailand, Basque (Alava, Spain), Java (Indonesia), Malay (Singapore), Moroccan (Belgium), Balearic Islands (Spain), Ashkenazi (Budapest, Hungary), Maracaibo (Venezuela), Caucasian, Eastern Anatolia (Turkey), Caracas (Venezuela), Brazil, Italy, Sicilia (Italy), Central Mexico, Germany, Lille (France), Caucasian (New York, USA).

World Region Match: Malay Archipelago, Southeast Asian, Asia Minor, Northwest European, Eastern European, Mongolian, Finno-Ugrian, Chinese, Japanese, Mestizo, North India, India, Arabian, North African, Tibetan, Southern African, West African.

* Repeat means match to a different population sample from the same country.

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Excerpts from Wikipedia.org

Turkic People

The Turkic peoples (or simply Turks) are Asian peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, Mongolia, southern Siberia and northwestern China. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds. The term Turkic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people including existing societies such as the Azerbaijani, Kazakhs, Tatar, Kyrgyz, Turkish, Turkmen, Uyghur, Uzbeks, and as well as past civilizations such as the Huns, Bulgars, Kumans, Avars, Seljuks, Khazars, Ottomans, Mamluks, Timurids, and possibly the Xiongnu.

Demographics: The distribution of people of Turkic cultural background ranges from Siberia, across Central Asia, to Eastern Europe. Presently, the largest groups of Turkic people live throughout Central Asia—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Azerbaijan, in addition to Turkey. Additionally, Turkic people are found within Crimea, East Turkistan region of western China (Xinjiang), northern Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Israel, Russia, Afghanistan, Cyprus, and the Balkans: Moldova, Bulgaria, Romania, and former Yugoslavia. A small number of Turkic people also live in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. There is also a small number in eastern Poland and southeastern part of Finland.

Sometimes the above list is grouped into six branches: the Oghuz Turks, Kipchak, Karluk, Siberian, Chuvash, and Sakha/Yakut branches. The Oghuz have been termed Western Turks, while the remaining five, in such a classificatory scheme, are called Eastern Turks.

The Turkic people display a great variety of ethnic types. They possess physical features ranging from Caucasoid to Northern Mongoloid. Mongoloid and Caucasoid facial structure is common among many Turkic groups, such as Chuvash people, Tatars, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Hazara, and Bashkirs. There has been much debate about the racial nature of the original Turkic-speaking ancestors, with some in the past presuming a "Ural-Altaic race" with Caucasoid features at one end of the spectrum and Mongoloid features at the other.

Origins: It is generally believed that the first Turkic people lived in a region extending from Central Asia to Siberia. The earliest clearly Turkic peoples appeared on the peripheries of the late Xiongnu confederation. If not their ethnic descendants, they at least had strong ties to the Xiongnu. Turkic tribes, such as Khazars and Pechenegs, probably lived as nomads for many years before establishing the Göktürk Empire in the 6th century. The first mention of Turks was in a Chinese text that mentioned trade of Turk tribes with the Sogdians along the Silk Road. The first recorded use of "Turk" as a political name is a sixth-century reference to the word pronounced in Modern Chinese as Tujue. The Ashina clan migrated from Li-jien (modern Zhelai Zhai) to the Juan Juan seeking inclusion in their confederacy and protection from China. The tribe were famed metal smiths and was granted land near a mountain quarry which looked like a helmet, from which they were said to have gotten their name 突厥 (tūjué). A century later, their power had increased such that they conquered the Juan Juan and established the Gök Empire.

It has often been suggested that the Xiongnu, mentioned in Han Dynasty records, were Proto-Turkic speakers. Although little is known for certain about the Xiongnu language(s), it seems likely that at least some Xiongnu tribes spoke an Altaic (Turkic) language. Some scholars see a possible connection with the Iranic-speaking Sakas, while others believe they were probably a confederation of various ethnic and linguistic groups. On the other hand, genetics research from 2003 confirms the studies indicating that the Turkic people originated from the same area and so are related with the Xiongnu.

The Hun hordes of Attila, who invaded and conquered much of Europe in the 5th century, might have been Turkic and descendants of the Xionghu. The issue is controversial because their ethnic and linguistic background is uncertain. Some scholars argue that the Huns were one of the earlier Turkic tribes, while others argue that they were of Mongolic origin. linguistic studies by Otto Maenchen-Helfen's support a Turkic origin.

Turkic peoples and related groups migrated west from Turkestan and what is now Mongolia towards Eastern Europe, Iranian plateau and Anatolia and modern Turkey in many waves. The date of the initial expansion remains unknown. After many battles, they established their own state and later created the Ottoman Empire. The main migration occurred in medieval times, when they spread across most of Asia and into Europe and the Middle East. They also participated in the Crusades.

Later Turkic peoples include the Avars, Karluks (mainly eighth century), Uyghurs, Kyrgyz, Oghuz (or Ğuz) Turks, and Turkmens. As these peoples were founding states in the area between Mongolia and Transoxiana, they came into contact with Muslims, and most gradually adopted Islam. However, there were also (and still are) small groups of Turkic people belonging to other religions, including Christians, Jews (Khazars), Buddhists, and Zoroastrians.

Videos: Turan: An epic of identity, Nomad: The Warrior

 

The Turkic Speaking Peoples: 2,000 years of art and culture from Inner Asia to the Balkans by Ergun Cagatay (Editor), Dogan Kuban (Editor)

 

 

 

The Turks in World History by Carter Vaughn Findley

 

 

 

 

 

Turkish People

The Turkish people (Turkish: Türk halkı), also known as the "Turks" (Türkler) are defined mainly as citizens of the Republic of Turkey. An early historic text provided the definition of being a Turk as "any individual within the Republic of Turkey; whatever his/her faith or racial/ethnic background; who speaks Turkish, grows up with Turkish culture and adopts the Turkish ideal, is a Turk." This ideal came from the beliefs of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

Ethnogenesis and Genetic Links: It is difficult to understand the complex cultural and demographic dynamics of the Turkic speaking groups that have shaped the Anatolian landscape for the last millennium. During the Bronze Age the population of Anatolia expanded, reaching an estimated level of 12 million during the late Byzantine Empire period. Such a large pre-existing Anatolian population would have reduced the impact by the subsequent arrival of Turkic speaking groups from Seljuk Persia, whose ethno-linguistic roots could be traced back to the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea basin in Central Asia. The Seljuk Turks were the main Turkic people who moved into Anatolia, starting from the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. Around 1,000,000 Turkic migrants settled in Anatolia during the 12th and 13th centuries.

The question of to what extent a gene flow from Central Asia, via Persia, to Anatolia has contributed to the current gene pool of the Turkish people, and the role of the 11th century invasion by Seljuk Turks, has been the subject of several studies. It is concluded that aboriginal Anatolian groups may have given rise to the present-day Turkish population. DNA analysis research studies suggest that the Anatolians do not significantly differ from other Mediterraneans, indicating that while the Seljuk Turks carried out a permanent territorial conquest with strong cultural, linguistic and religious significance, it is barely genetically detectable.

Another significant flow into the present-day Turkish gene pool occurred during the Ottoman period, when large groups of non-Turks were culturally Turkicized through the Devshirme (Devşirme) system; including many of the leading Ottoman Grand Viziers such as Sokollu Mehmed Pasha and members of the Köprülü family. The famous Janissary (Yeniçeri) corps were entirely formed of non-Muslim children recruited at a very young age and raised with Turkish culture. Many Ottoman sultans (as well as other members of the Ottoman society) preferred to marry women from the European provinces of the empire, such as the famous sultanas Hürrem, Kösem, Nurbanu, Safiye and numerous others; and to a lesser extent with women from the Ottoman provinces in the Near East and North Africa. The naval battles between the Ottoman Empire and other European powers around the Mediterranean Sea also played an important role in large population exchanges (see, for instance, Uluç Ali Reis and Cigalazade Yusuf Sinan Pasha.)

 

Map of the Marmara Region

The Marmara Region (Turkish: Marmara Bölgesi), with a surface area of 67.000 km², is the smallest but most densely populated of the seven geographical regions of Turkey. It represents approximately 8.6% of the Turkish national territory.

This region was officially put in existence after the Geography Congress of 1941 in Ankara and is geographically divided into four regional parts, or areas.

Its name derives from the Sea of Marmara, which itself is named for the island of Marmara, derived from the Greek μάρμαρον (marmaron) and that from μάρμαρος (marmaros), "crystalline rock", "shining stone", perhaps from the verb μαρμαίρω (marmairō), "to flash, sparkle, gleam".

* Video: Marmara Region Turkey, Istanbul

 

 

Map of Eastern Anatolia

The Eastern Anatolia Region (Turkish: Doğu Anadolu Bölgesi) is one of seven non-administrative subdivisions of Turkey and encompasses its eastern provinces. Much of the Armenian Highland is located within this region. It has the highest average altitude, largest area, and lowest population density of all regions of Turkey.

Eastern Anatolia Region is located in the easternmost part of Turkey. It is bounded by Turkey's Central Anatolia Region on the west, its Black Sea Region on the north, its Southeast Anatolia Region and Iraq on the south, and with Iran, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia on the east.

The Armenian Highland is a plateau of Transcaucasia, connecting the Lesser Caucasus with the Taurus Mountains.

Most of the Armenian Highland is in Turkey's Eastern Anatolia Region, and also includes northwestern Iran, all of Armenia, southern Georgia and western Azerbaijan. Its eastern parts are also known as the Transcaucasian highland.

The Armenian Plateau has been called the "epicenter of the Iron Age", since it appears to be the location of the first appearance of Iron Age metallurgy in the late 2nd millennium BC.

The apricot, a native to China, spread to Europe through the Armenia Highlands. It came to be known throughout the ancient world as the Armenian fruit, and its botanical name Prunus armeniaca, derives from the Latin vernacular for apricot, Armeniacum.

In 1984, it was suggested by Thomas Gamkrelidze and Vyacheslav V. Ivanov that the Proto-Indo-European homeland is located in the Armenian Highland.

Videos: Turkey Eastern Anatolia

 

 

* Ancient Metallurgy in the Circumpontic Area: From unity to disintegration by E. N. Chernykh, et al

Abstract: Anatolia is known as a cradle for the development of metallurgy on our Planet. Since the 8th to the second half of the 4th mill. BC mining and metallurgy processes there were characterised by slackness. A brilliant explosion in improvement of these technologies took place in the North Balkans and Carpathian basin in the 50th-38th cc. BC and led to formation of the Carpatho-Balkan metallurgucal province of the Copper Age. It influenced greatly East European steppe cultures as well. A sharp contrast is observed between the impressive production of the focuses comprised within this earliest European province, from the one hand, and the metal from coeval Anatolian and Caucasian cultures, from the other. The situation had changed rapidly after formation of the gigantic Circumpontic metallurgical province (CMP) in the second half of the 4th mill. BC; this system covered an area from 5 to 6 million sq. km. It is associated with the periods of the Early and Middle Bronze Ages in Eurasia. The unify of producing technologies, functional and morphological sets of artefacts produced can be seen in standards of the sets of main and diagnostic categories of tools and weapons, and the technological modes applied for manufacturing them. The same unity is observed in production of metallurgical and metal-working centres that belonged to different blocks of archaeological cultures within the CMP. The differences between certain regions and cultural blocks are mirrored by rich sets of ornaments, and first of all, gold and silver ones. At present the computer database created and processed by the authors for metal artefacts from the territory of the CMP has exceeded 84 thousand items. Copper and bronze artefacts number around 24 thousand, gold ones - nearly 54 thousand, and silver - over 6 thousand objects. Approximately at the turn of the 3rd and 2nd mill. BC the CMP system had disintegrated, within its territory a number of new entities emerged....

 

 

The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians are a range of mountains forming an arc roughly 1,500 km (932 mi) long across Central and Eastern Europe, making them the largest mountain range in Europe. They provide the habitat for the largest European populations of brown bears, wolves, chamois and lynxes, with the highest concentration in Romania, as well as over one third of all European plant species.

The chain of mountain ranges stretches in an arc from the Czech Republic in the northwest to Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Ukraine and Romania in the east, to the Iron Gates on the Danube River between Romania and Serbia in the south.

 

The Pontic-Caspian steppe is the vast steppeland stretching from the north of the Black Sea (called Pontus Euxinus in antiquity) as far as the east of the Caspian Sea, from western Ukraine across the Southern Federal District and the Volga Federal District of Russia to western Kazakhstan, forming part of the larger Eurasian steppe, adjacent to the Kazakh steppe to the east.

The area corresponds to Scythia and Sarmatia of Classical antiquity. Across several millennia the steppe was used by numerous tribes of nomadic horsemen, many of which went on to conquer lands in the settled regions of Europe and in western and southern Asia. It was finally brought under the control of a sedentary people by the Russian Empire in the 16th to 18th centuries.

The term Ponto-Caspian region is used in biogeography for plants and animals of these steppes, and animals from the Black, Caspian and Azov seas. Genetic research has identified this region as the most probable place where horses were first domesticated.

 

 

* Genetic Analysis on Tuoba Xianbei Remains Excavated from Qilang Mountain Cemetery in Qahar Right Wing Middle Banner of Inner Mongolia by Yu Changchun, et al.

Unrooted Neighbor-joining Tree of Tuoba Xianbei Group and 13 Populations Compared

 

 

* HLA Alleles and Haplotypes in the Turkish Population: Relatedness to Kurds, Armenians and other Mediterraneans by A. Arnaiz-Villena, et al.

Abstract: Turkish and Kurdish HLA profiles are studied for the first time. The comparative study of their allele frequencies, characteristic haplotypes, genetic distances with other Mediterraneans is complemented by neighbor-joining dendrograms and correspondence analyses. Turks, Kurds, Armenians, Iranians, Jews, Lebanese and other (Eastern and Western) Mediterranean groups seem to share a common ancestry: the older "Mediterranean" substratum. No sign of the postulated Indo-European (Aryan) invasion (1200 B.C.) is detected by our genetic analysis. It is concluded that this invasion, if occurred, had a relatively few invaders in comparison to the already settled populations, i.e. Anatolian Hittite and Hurrian groups (older than 2000 B.C.). These may have given rise to present-day Kurdish, Armenian and Turkish populations.

 

 

Mediterranean Sea

A shallow submarine ridge (the Strait of Sicily) between the island of Sicily and the coast of Tunisia divides the sea in two main subregions (which in turn are divided into subdivisions), the Western Mediterranean and the Eastern Mediterranean.

Twenty-one modern states have a coastline on the Mediterranean Sea. They are:

Large islands in the Mediterranean include Cyprus, Crete, Euboea, Rhodes, Lesbos, Chios, Kefalonia, Corfu, Naxos and Andros in the eastern Mediterranean; Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily, Cres, Krk, Brač, Hvar, Pag, Korčula and Malta in the central Mediterranean; and Ibiza, Majorca and Minorca (the Balearic Islands) in the western Mediterranean.

 

 

The Székely

Territory of Kingdom of Hungary by the end of the 15th century

The Székely or Szekler people (Hungarian: Székely, Romanian: Secui, German: Szekler, Latin: Siculi) are an ethnic subgroup of the Hungarian nation. Their origin has been much debated, it is, however, now generally accepted that they are either Hungarians, or the descendants of a Magyarized Turkic peoples, transplanted there to guard the frontier, their name meaning simply “frontier guards”. Their organization was of the Turkic type, and they are probably of Turkic (possibly Avar) stock. By the 11th century they had adopted the Hungarian language.

In the middle ages, the Székely, along with the Saxons, played a key role in the defense of the Kingdom of Hungary against the Turks. in their role as guards of the eastern border. Today they live mostly in Székely Land of Transylvania, which roughly correponds to the current counties of Harghita, Covasna and Mureş in Romania, with a significant population also living in Tolna, Hungary. Based on official 2002 Romanian census numbers, approximately 1,434,000 ethnic Hungarians live in Romania, mostly in Transylvania. Of these, about 665,000 live in the counties of Harghita, Covasna and parts of Mureş, with a Székely majority (65%). The Székely therefore account for a significant part (45%) of the Hungarians in Romania. When given the choice on the Romanian census between ethnically identifying as "Székely" or "Hungarian," the overwhelming majority of Székely choose the latter. Note that they were not allowed to choose both of them. On the last Romanian census (2002), only 150 persons declared their ethnicity as "Székely".

With the Treaty of Trianon of 1920, Transylvania (including Székely Land) became part of Romania, and the Székely population was a target of Romanianization efforts. In post-Cold War Romania, where the Székely form roughly a third of the ethnic Hungarian population, members of the group have been among the most vocal of Hungarians seeking an autonomous Hungarian region in Transylvania.

Controversy About Origins: There are various ideas about Szeklers' ancestry:

* Videos: Szeklers of Transylvania: History & Controversy, Szekler Dances from Transylvania, Proud to be a Magyar (Hungarian), Beauty Budapest - Hungary

 

 

* Probable Ancestors of Hungarian Ethnic Groups: An Admixture Analysis by C. R. Guglielmino, et al.

Hungarians and Their Ancestors

Székely, Palóc, Csángó, Jász, Lapps, Uralics, Iranians, Finns, Turkic people, Poles, Slavs, Italians, Germans

 

 

* Y-Chromosome Analysis of Ancient Hungarian and Two Modern Hungarian-Speaking Populations from the Carpathian Basin by B Csányi, et al.

Abstract: The Hungarian population belongs linguistically to the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic family. The Tat C allele is an interesting marker in the Finno-Ugric context, distributed in all the Finno-Ugric-speaking populations, except for Hungarians. This question arises whether the ancestral Hungarians, who settled in the Carpathian Basin, harbored this polymorphism or not. 100 men from modern Hungary, 97 Szeklers (a Hungarian-speaking population from Transylvania), and 4 archaeologically Hungarian bone samples from the 10(th) century were studied for this polymorphism. Among the modern individuals, only one Szekler carries the Tat C allele, whereas out of the four skeletal remains, two possess the allele. The latter finding, even allowing for the low sample number, appears to indicate a Siberian lineage of the invading Hungarians, which later has largely disappeared. The two modern Hungarian-speaking populations, based on 22 Y-chromosomal binary markers, share similar components described for other Europeans, except for the presence of the haplogroup P*(xM173) in Szekler samples, which may reflect a Central Asian connection, and high frequency of haplogroup J in both Szeklers and Hungarians. MDS analysis based on haplogroup frequency values, confirms that modern Hungarian and Szekler populations are genetically closely related, and similar to populations from Central Europe and the Balkans.

 

 

* Analysis of Paternal Genetic Relationship of Ancient Hungarian, Modern Hungarian and Modern Szekler Populations by Kovácsné Bernadett Csányi

Excerpt: In case of the ancient sample T2/41 out of four Y-chromosomal DNA fragments, containing the four basal markers (M96, M89, M9 and M45), the two shorter fragments (106 bp (marker M45) and 121 bp (marker M9) long specific PCR products) were successfully amplified. In case of these markers the ancestral C allele was typed. The ancestral state at marker M9 indicates that this sample could not carry the derived Tat C allele in accordance with Y-chromosome phylogeny (YCC 2002, Jobling & Tyler-Smith 2003). This finding confirms the result of the PCR-RFLP analysis of this sample.

The markers used allowed the classification of the modern samples into the E, F*, G, I, J, K*, N3, P* and R1 haplogroups. The modern Hungarian and Szekler populations share similar components described for other Europeans, except for P-M45*(xM173) in Szekler samples. The presence of central-Asian haplogroup P-M45*(xM173) in Szeklers is unusual for a European population, since it is almost absent in continental Europe and presumably reflects some Asian contribution.

In the present study, haplogroup J was unexpectedly common in the Hungarian speaking populations (Hungarians: 16%, Szeklers: 21.6%). The elevated frequency of haplogroup J may reflect Anatolian and southern Balkan contributions to the gene pools of Hungarians and Szeklers, however in the Szekler samples it might be partially attributed to genetic drift, since they lived in relative isolation for a long time. On the other hand, the elevated frequency of J in both groups could also be due to a range of historical events. One is the expansion of the Ottoman Empire from the 16th century AD; refugees from the Balkan area fled to Hungarian territory. Historical data and the comparative analyses of maternal lineages of ancient Hungarian population suggest that the earlier migrations of the Magyars may also have contributed to the presence of this lineage in the Carpathian Basin.

 

 

Kyrgyz

Map of Xinjiang

The Kyrgyz (also spelled Kirgiz, Kirghiz) are a Turkic ethnic group found primarily in Kyrgyzstan.

Origins: The early Kyrgyz people, known as Yenisei Kyrgyz or Xiajiasi (黠戛斯), first appear in written records in the Chinese annals of the Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian (compiled 109 BC to 91 BC), as Gekun or Jiankun (鬲昆 or 隔昆). The Middle Age Chinese composition "Tanghuiyao" of the 8-10th century transcribed the name "Kyrgyz" Tsze-gu (Kirgut), and their tamga was depicted as identical to the tamga of present day Kyrgyz tribes Azyk, Bugu, Cherik, Sary Bagysh and few others. According to recent historical findings, Kyrgyz history dates back to 201 BC. The Yenisei Kyrgyz lived in the upper Yenisey River valley, central Siberia. Yenisei Kyrgyzes in the Late Antique times were a part of the Tiele tribes. Later, in the Early Middle Age, Yenisei Kyrgyzes were under the rule of Göktürk Kaganate and Uigur Kaganate. In 840 a revolt led by Yenisei Kyrgyzes brought down the Uigur Kaganate, and brought the Yenisei Kyrgyzes to a dominating position in the former Turkic Kaganate. With the rise to power, the center of the Kyrgyz Kaganate moved to Jeti-su, and brought about a spread south of the Kyrgyz people, to reach Tian Shan mountains and Eastern Turkestan, bringing them immediately to the borders of China and Tibet. By the 16th century the carriers of the ethnonym "Kirgiz" lived in South Siberia, Eastern Turkestan, Tian Shan, Pamir-Alay, Middle Asia, Urals (among Bashkorts), in Kazakhstan. In the Tian Shan and Eastern Turkestan area, the term "Kyrgyz" retained its unifying political designation, and became a general ethnonym for the Yenisei Kirgizes and aboriginal Turkic tribes that presently constitute the Kyrgyz population. Though it is obviously impossible to directly identify the Yenisei and Tien Shan Kyrgyzes, a trace of their ethnogenetical connections is apparent in archaeology, history, language and ethnography. Majority of modern researchers came to a conclusion that the ancestors of the southern Kyrgyz tribes had their origin in the most ancient tribal unions of Sakas and Usuns, Dinlins and Huns. Approximately 300,000 Yenisei Kyrgyzes survived in the Tuva depression until present.

V.V. Bartold cites Chinese and Muslim sources of the 7th–12th centuries AD that describe the Kyrgyz as having red, sometimes blond hair, blue or green eyes, and white skin. These features were markedly different from those of modern Kyrgyz, which led Ibn al-Muqaffa to suggest in the 8th century AD that the Kyrgyz were related to the Slavs.

The descent of the Kyrgyz from the autochthonous Siberian population is confirmed by recent genetic studies. Remarkably, 63% of modern Kyrgyz men share Haplogroup R1a1 (Y-DNA) with Tajiks (64%), Ukrainians (54%), Poles and Hungarians (~60%), and even Icelanders (25%). Haplogroup R1a1 (Y-DNA) is often believed to be a marker of the Proto-Indo-European language speakers.

Because of the processes of migration, conquest, intermarriage, and assimilation, many of the Kyrgyz peoples that now inhabit Central and Southwest Asia are of mixed origins, often stemming from fragments of many different tribes, though they speak closely related languages.

The Kyrgyz in China: The Kyrgyz form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. There are more than 145,000 Kyrgyz in China. They are known in China as Kēěrkèzī zú (柯爾克孜族).

They are found mainly in the Kizilsu Kirghiz Autonomous Prefecture in the southwestern part of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, with a smaller remainder found in the neighboring Wushi (Uqturpan), Aksu, Shache (Yarkand), Yingisar, Taxkorgan and Pishan (Guma), and in Tekes, Zhaosu (Monggolkure), Emin (Dorbiljin), Bole (Bortala), Jinghev (Jing) and Gonliu in northern Xinjiang. Several hundred Kyrgyz whose forefathers emigrated to Northeast China more than 200 years ago now live in Wujiazi Village in Fuyu County, Heilongjiang Province.

Videos: Kirghiz, Beauty of Kyrgyz Culture, Kyrgyzstan & Kyrgyz People

 

The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey by Spencer Wells

Videos on Kyrgyzstan/Kazakhstan: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

 

 

 

 

* Admixture, Migrations, and Dispersals in Central Asia: Evidence from maternal DNA lineages by David Comas, et al.

Frequencies of East Asian, West Eurasian, and Indian Lineages (shown in white, pale gray, and dark gray, respectively)

Crimean Tatars, Iranian, Turkmen, Karakalpak, Kharemian Uzbek, Uzbek, Bukharan Arabs, Tajik, Kazak, Kyrgyz, Dungan, Uigur

 

 

* Different Matrilineal Contributions to Genetic Structure of Ethnic Groups in the Silk Road Region in China by Yong-Gang Yao, et al.

Principal Component (PC) Map of the Populations in the Silk Road Region Based on the Basal Haplogroup Frequency Matrix

 

 

* Sex-Specific Migration Patterns in Central Asian Populations, Revealed by Analysis of Y-Chromosome Short Tandem Repeats and mtDNA by Anna Pérez-Lezaun, et al.

Abstract: Eight Y-linked short-tandem-repeat polymorphisms (DYS19, DYS388, DYS389I, DYS389II, DYS390, DYS391, DYS392, and DYS393) were analyzed in four populations of Central Asia, comprising two lowland samples Uighurs and lowland Kirghiz and two highland samples namely, the Kazakhs (altitude 2,500 m above sea level) and highland Kirghiz (altitude 3,200 m above sea level). The results were compared with mtDNA sequence data on the same individuals, to study possible differences in male versus female genetic-variation patterns in these Central Asian populations. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed a very high degree of genetic differentiation among the populations tested, in discordance with the results obtained with mtDNA sequences, which showed high homogeneity. Moreover, a dramatic reduction of the haplotype genetic diversity was observed in the villages at high altitude, especially in the highland Kirghiz, when compared with the villages at low altitude, which suggests a male founder effect in the settlement of high-altitude lands. Nonetheless, mtDNA genetic diversity in these highland populations is equivalent to that in the lowland populations. The present results suggest a very different migration pattern in males versus females, in an extended historical frame, with a higher migration rate for females.

Material and Methods: ... Two samples from Kirghizstan were analyzed: one from the high-altitude village of Sary Tash, in the Pamir region (3,200 m above sea level), and one from the lowland village of Bakai Ata in the Talas Valley (900 m above sea level)....

Discussion: ... The Kirghiz seem to have come to the high valleys of the Tien Shan, Pamir, Alay, and Qara Qorum no earlier than the 16th or 17th centuries (Menges 1994), whereas for the Talas valley an archaeological record dating back to the Bronze Age is available....

 

 

* Trading Genes Along the Silk Road: mtDNA sequences and the origin of central Asian populations by D. Comas, et al.

Neighbor-joining Tree of Several European and Asian Ppopulations

 

 

Highland Kirgyz

Sary-Tash (yellow rock) is a minor village and major crossroads in the Alay Valley of Osh Province, Kyrgyzstan. Nearby towns and villages to the north include Akbosaga (5 miles), Shumkar (7 miles) and Chagyr (9 miles).

Although this remote village has only a shop, a basic cafe and possibly a guest house, it is an important road junction. To the north, M41 goes Over the Taldyk Pass to Gulcha and Osh in the Ferghana Valley. One travel guide describes this as spectacular and one of the most beautiful drives in Kyrgyzstan. To the south, after leaving the Alay Valley the M41 deteriorates quickly and rises to the 4280m Kyzyl-Art pass into Tajikistan. This route requires considerable preparation and paper work. The route is little used and there are few services between Sary-Tash and Murgab. This is part of the Pamir Highway. Thirty-five miles to the east on A371 is the Irkestam pass into Xinjiang, China. To the west, A372 leads down the Alay Valley (map). The pass at the west end is closed to foreigners.

 

Lowland Kirgyz

The Talas River rises in the Talas Province of Kyrgyzstan and flows west into Kazakhstan. It is formed from the confluence of the Karakol and Uch-Koshoy. It runs through the city of Taraz in Zhambyl Province of Kazakhstan and vanishes before reaching Lake Aydyn.

During the Battle of Talas (named after the river) in 751, the combined Arab, Kyrgyz, and Nepali forces defeated the invading Tang Chinese blocking Tang Dynasty's westward expansion, and acquiring the Chinese secret of paper manufacturing.

The Ili, Chu and Talas rivers are three steppe rivers that flow west and then northwest. The Ili River rises in Xinjiang, flows west to a point north of Lake Issyk Kul and then turns northwest to reach Lake Balkash. The Chu River rises west of Lake Issyk Kul, flows out into the steppe and dries up before reaching the Syr Darya. The Talas River starts west and south of the Chu, flows west and northwest, but dries up before reaching the Chu.

Talas is a small town in northwestern Kyrgyzstan, located in the Talas River valley between two imposing mountain ranges. Its economy traditionally oriented towards the ancient city of Taraz (once named Talas and Dzhambul) in present day Kazakhstan.

The discovery of chest ornaments, bronze statues of kings and remnants of ceramic products in separate parts of the Talas river valley are the evidence of the existence of the life in Taraz region in the bronze epoch. According to the archaeological excavation and available written sources, tribal unions of Saka Scythians had been formed in this territory by the 7th-8th centuries B.C.

Hanshu, 70 from 1st-century, talk about the fortress constructed on Talas River by Zhizhi Chanyu, a prince of Hun (Xiongnu). The fortress is believed to have been at the site of modern Taraz.

Lake Issyk Kul is an endorheic lake in the northern Tian Shan mountains in eastern Kyrgyzstan. Lake Issyk Kul was a stopover on the Silk Road, a land route for travelers from the Far East to Europe. Many historians believe that the lake was the point of origin for the Black Death that plagued Europe and Asia during the early and mid-14th century. The lake's status as a byway for travelers allowed the plague to spread across these continents via medieval merchants who unknowingly carried infested vermin along with them. A 14th century Armenian monastery was found on the northeastern shores of the lake by retracing the steps of a medieval map used by Venetian merchants on the Silk Road.

The lake level was some 8 meters lower in medieval times. Divers have found the remains of drowned settlements in shallow areas around the lake. In December 2007, a report was released by a team of Kyrgyz historians, led by Vladimir Ploskikh, vice president of the Kyrgyz Academy of Sciences, that archaeologists have discovered the remains of a 2500-year-old advanced civilization at the bottom of the Lake. The data and artifacts obtained suggest that the ancient city was a metropolis in its time. The discovery consisted of formidable walls, some stretching for 500 meters as well as traces of a large city with an area of several square kilometers. Other findings included Scythian burial mounds eroded over the centuries by waves, as well as numerous well-preserved artifacts, including bronze battleaxes, arrowheads, self-sharpening daggers, objects discarded by smiths, casting molds, and a faceted gold bar that was a monetary unit of the time.

Articles identified as the world's oldest extant coins were also found underwater with gold wire rings used as small change and a large.

 

 

Yenisei Kirghiz

Map of Asia (200 BC): Yenesel Kyrgyz

The Yenisei Kirghiz or Xiajiasi (黠戛斯) were an ancient people that dwelled at the headwaters of the Yenisei River and Minusinsk Depression between the 3rd century BC to 9th century AD. From the 6th century onwards, they were subjugated by various peoples including the Gokturks, Xueyantuo, Chinese and Uyghurs.

The Yenisei Kirghiz can be correlated to the Tashtyk culture, which flourished in the Minusinsk Depression from the first to the fourth century AD. Settlements and hill-forts have been unearthed throughout the Yenisei region, particularly the Sayan canyon area. Their most imposing monuments were immense barrows-crypt structures, which have yielded large quantities of clay and metal vessels and ornaments. In addition, numerous rock carvings have been found. During the excavation of the Oglakhty cemetery south of Minusinsk, Leonid Kyzlasov discovered a number of mummies with richly decorated plaster death masks, and there were also well-preserved fur hats, silk clothes, and footwear (now in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg).

Some of the graves contained leather models of human bodies with their heads wrapped in tissue and brightly painted. Inside the models there were small leather bags probably symbolising the stomach and containing burned human bones. Scaled-down replicas of swords, arrows and quivers were placed nearby.

Judging by the death masks, the Tashtyk tribes were mainly Europoids, possibly of mixed Turkic, Iranian and Tocharian origin.

The Xiajiasi first appeared as Gekun or Jiankun in Han period records. Unlike the Dingling, the Gekun remained in the far north in post-Han times and were still in approximately the same region in the 9th century when they participated in the overthrow of the Uyghur Empire.

There is a discussion of the change of name in the Tang Huiyao (961 AD) article on Jiegu which very likely comes from the Xu Huiyao of Yang Shaofu and others completed in 852, the passage begins:

Now there are those who change the designation to Hegesi. This is also an old name among the the northern barbarians... The change to Xiajiasi is probably because barbarian sounds are sometimes quick and sometimes slow so that the transcription of the words are not the same. When it is sometimes pronounced Xiajiasi, it is just that the word is quick. When I enquired from the translation clerk, he said that xiajia had the meaning of "yellow head and red face" and that this was what the Uyghurs called them'.'

This passage follows after immediately on a quotation from a lost Records of Western Regions by Gai Jiayun, who was Protector General of Anxi, the point of which is to record a legend that dark haired people among the Kirghiz were descendants of Chinese general Li Ling, who was captured by the Xiongnu. Since the Turks were being described as people of small stature in the Tangshu. The description of the Kirghiz as tall, blue-eyed blonds early excited the interest of scholars, who assumed that they could not have originally been Turkic in language. We find even Ligeti cited the opinions of various scholars who had proposed to see them as Germanic, Slav, Yenisei Ostiaks, while he himself, following Castrén and Schott, favoured a Samoyed origin on the basis of an etymology for a supposed Kirghiz word qaša or qaš for "iron". As stated by Pullyblank:

As far as I can see the only basis for the assumption that the Kirghiz were not originally Turkic in language is the fact that they are described as blonds, hardly an acceptable argument in the light of present day ideas about the independence of language and race. As Ligeti himself admitted, other evidence about the Kirghiz language in Tang (618 AD – 907 AD) sources shows clearly that at that time they were Turkic speaking and there is no earlier evidence at all about their language. Even the word qaša or qaš may, I think, be Turkic. The Tongdian says: "Whenever the sky rains iron, they gather it and use it. They call it jiasha (LMC kiaa-şaa). They make knives and swords with it that are very sharp." The Tang Huiyao is the same except that it leaves out the foreign word jiasha. "Raining iron" must surely refer to meteorites. The editor who copied the passage into the Xin Tangshu unfortunately misunderstood it and changed it to, "Whenever it rains, their custom is always to get iron," which is rather nonsensical. Ligeti unfortunately used only the Xin Tangshu passage without referring to the Tongdian. His restoration of qaša or qaš seems quite acceptable but I doubt that word simply meant "iron". It seems rather to refer specifically to "meteorite" or "meteoric iron".

 

 

Map of the Yenisey River

 

 

Tashtyk Culture

A funerary mask from Tashtyk; see more Tashtyk death masks at the State Hermitage Museum

Tashtyk culture was an archaeological culture that flourished in the Yenisei valley (Minusinsk Depression, environs of modern Krasnoyarsk, eastern part of Kemerovo Oblast) from the first to the fourth century AD, equivalent to the Yenisei Kirghiz. It was preceded by Tagar culture.

Tashtyk settlements and hill-forts have been unearthed throughout the Yenisei region, particularly the Sayan canyon area. Their most imposing monuments were immense barrows-crypt structures; these have yielded large quantities of clay and metal vessels and ornaments. In addition, numerous petrographic carvings have been found.

During his excavations of the Oglahty cemetery south of Minusinsk, Leonid Kyzlasov discovered a number of mummies with richly decorated plaster funerary masks. There were also intact fur hats, silk clothes, and footware (now in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg).

Some of the graves contained leather models of human bodies with their heads wrapped in tissue and brightly painted. Inside the models there were small leather bags probably symbolising the stomach and containing burned human bones. Scaled-down replicas of swords, arrows and quivers were placed nearby.

Judging by the funerary masks, the Tashtyk tribes were Europoids, probably of mixed Turkic, Iranian, and Tocharian origin. With the help of the plaster masks in graves of the Tashtyk culture, we are able to trace back to the times of Yenisei Kirghiz.

 

 

Tagar Culture

Bbronze stag from the Tagar culture, 5th century BC

Tagar culture was a Bronze Age archeological culture which flourished between the 7th and 3rd centuries BC in South Siberia (Khakassia, southern part of Krasnoyarsk Krai, eastern part of Kemerovo Oblast). Named after an island in the Yenisey River opposite Minusinsk, the civilization was one of the largest centres of bronze-smelting in ancient Eurasia.

The Tagar tribes are thought to have been Europoids of the Scythian circle. They lived in timber dwellings heated by clay ovens and large hearths. Some settlements were surrounded by fortifications. They made a living by raising livestock, predominantly large horned livestock and horses, goats and sheep. Harvest was collected with bronze sickles and reaping knives. Their artifacts were heavily influenced by Scythian art from Pazyryk. Perhaps the most striking feature of the culture are huge royal kurgans fenced by stone plaques, with four vertical stelae marking the corners.

 

 

Karasuk Culture

The Karasuk culture describes a group of Bronze Age societies who ranged from the Aral Sea or the Volga River to the upper Yenisei catchment, ca. 1500-800 BC, subsequent to the Afanasevo culture. The remains are minimal and entirely of the mortuary variety. At least 2000 burials are known. The Karasuk period persisted down to c. 700 BC. From c. 700 to c. 200 BC, culture developed along similar lines. Vital trade contact is traced from northern China and the Baikal region to the Black Sea and the Urals, influencing the uniformity of the culture.

The economy was mixed agriculture and stockbreeding. Arsenical bronze artefacts are present. They succeeded the Andronovo culture in this region and were farmers who primarily raised sheep.

Their settlements were of pit houses and they buried their dead in stone cists covered by kurgans and surrounded by square stone enclosures.

Industrially, they were skilled metalworkers, the diagnostic artifacts of the culture being a bronze knife with curving profiles and a decorated handle and horse bridles. The pottery has been compared to that discovered in Inner Mongolia and the interior of China, with bronze knives similar to those from northeastern China.

It is believed by some scholars that the culture has its origin in Mongolia, Northern China and Korea. Other scholars have suggested a connection with the Yeniseian and Burushaski people, even suggesting a Karasuk languages group. Skeletal remains indicate a relation with Central Asian Europids, making an Indo-iranian language (Indo-european family) also a strong possibility (especially considering the cultural link to the west that implies the Kurgan funerary practice).

The Karasuk culture is followed by the Tagar culture, whose people use the same burial places, indicating a continuity in settlements.

Ancient DNA extracted from the remains of two males who dated back to the Karasuk culture were determined to be of Y-chromosome haplogroup R1a. Extracted mtDNA from two female remains from this cultural horizon revealed they possessed the U5a1 and U4 lineages

 

 

Kurgan

Sarmatian Kurgan 4th c. BC, Fillipovka, S.Urals, Russian Federation.

Kurgan is the Russian word (of Turkic origin) for a tumulus, a type of burial mound or barrow, heaped over a burial chamber, often of wood. The distribution of such tumuli in Eastern Europe corresponds closely to the area of the Pit Grave or Kurgan culture in South-Eastern Europe.

Kurgans were built in the Eneolithic, Bronze, Iron, Antiquity and Middle Age, with old traditions still smoldering in Southern Siberia and Central Asia. Kurgan Cultures are divided, archeologically, into different sub-cultures, such as Timber Grave, Pit Grave, Scythian, Sarmatian, Hunnish and Kuman-Kipchak.

Archaeology: Kurgan barrows were characteristic of Bronze Age peoples, from the Altay Mountains to the Caucasus, Romania, and Bulgaria. Burial mounds are complex structures with internal chambers. Within the burial chamber at the heart of the kurgan, elite individuals were buried with grave goods and sacrificial offerings, sometimes including horses and chariots. Kurgans were used in the Russian Steppes but spread into eastern, central, and northern Europe in the third millennium BC.

The monuments of these cultures coincide with Scythian-Saka-Siberian monuments. Scythian-Saka-Siberian monuments have common features, and sometimes common genetic roots. Also associated with these spectacular burial mounds are the Pazyryk, an ancient people who lived in the Altai Mountains lying in Siberian Russia on the Ukok Plateau, near the borders with China, Kazakhstan and Mongolia. The archaeological site on the Ukok Plateau associated with the Pazyryk culture is included in the Golden Mountains of Altai UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Scythian-Saka-Siberian classification includes monuments from the 8th c. BC to the 3rd c. BC. This period is called Early or Ancient Nomads epoch. "Hunnic" monuments date from the 3rd c. BC to the 6th century AD, and other Turkic ones from the 6th century AD to the 13th century AD, leading up to the Mongolian epoch. In all periods, the development of the kurgan structure tradition in the various ethnocultural zones can be distinguished by common components or typical features in the construction of the monuments. Depending on a combination of elements, each historical and cultural nomadic zone has its architectural peculiarities.

The Bronze Pre-Scythian-Saka-Sibirian culture developed in close similarity with the cultures of Yenisei, Altai, Kazakhstan, southern and southeast Amur regions.

The Scythian-Saka-Sibirian kurgans in the Early Iron Age are notable for their grandiose mounds throughout the Eurasian continent. The base diameters of the kurgans reach 500 m in Siberia (Great Salbyk kurgan of the settled Tagar culture), in the neighboring China they reach 5000 m (kurgan of the first emperor of China in the 3rd c. BC near Sian; 西安). The height of the kurgans reached astronomical marks: Great Salbyk kurgan is 22 - 27 m, i.e. the height of a 7-story building; the kurgan of the Chinese emperor is over 100 m. The presence of such structures in Siberia testifies to a high standard of living and a developed construction culture of the nomads.

 

 

Map of Krasnoyarsk

* Ancient DNA Provides New Insights into the History of South Siberian Kurgan People by C. Keyser, et al.

Abstract: To help unravel some of the early Eurasian steppe migration movements, we determined the Y-chromosomal and mitochondrial haplotypes and haplogroups of 26 ancient human specimens from the Krasnoyarsk area dated from between the middle of the second millennium BC. to the fourth century AD. In order to go further in the search of the geographic origin and physical traits of these south Siberian specimens, we also typed phenotype-informative single nucleotide polymorphisms. Our autosomal, Y-chromosomal and mitochondrial DNA analyses reveal that whereas few specimens seem to be related matrilineally or patrilineally, nearly all subjects belong to haplogroup R1a1-M17 which is thought to mark the eastward migration of the early Indo-Europeans. Our results also confirm that at the Bronze and Iron Ages, south Siberia was a region of overwhelmingly predominant European settlement, suggesting an eastward migration of Kurgan people across the Russo-Kazakh steppe. Finally, our data indicate that at the Bronze and Iron Age timeframe, south Siberians were blue (or green)-eyed, fair-skinned and light-haired people and that they might have played a role in the early development of the Tarim Basin civilization. To the best of our knowledge, no equivalent molecular analysis has been undertaken so far.

 

 

Tarim Basin

The Tarim Basin (塔里木盆地; Uyghur: تارىم ئويمانلىقى 'Tarim Oymanliqi') is a large endorheic basin occupying an area of more than 400,000 km2 (150,000 sq mi). It is located in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China's far west. Its northern boundary is the Tian Shan mountain range and its southern is the Kunlun Mountains on the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. The Taklamakan Desert dominates much of the basin. The area is sparsely settled by the Uyghurs, other Turkic peoples and Tajiks.

History: Surrounded by mountains, the Tarim Basin may be one of the last places in Asia to be inhabited, its aridity requiring that technology for water transport and storage be developed before people could live there. The Silk Road, a series of caravan routes through Asia, splits into two paths, the North Silk Road, passing along the northern edge, and another, along the southern edge, of the Taklamakan Desert. A middle path was deserted in the sixth century. The southern path includes the oases of Yarkand, Niya, Pishan, Marin and Khotan. The key oases along the northern route are Aksu, Korla, Turpan, Gaochang and Loulan. Other key towns include Kashgar in the southwest, Kuqa in the north, and Dunhuang in the east.

The Tocharian languages were once spoken in the Tarim Basin. They were the easternmost of the Indo-European languages, and may be related to the "Yuezhi" (月氏).

The Han Chinese wrested control of the Tarim Basin from the Xiongnu at the end of the first century under the leadership of Gen. Ban Chao (32–102 AD).

The powerful Kushans expanded back into the Tarim Basin in the 1st–2nd centuries AD, where they established a kingdom in Kashgar and competed for control of the area with nomads and Chinese forces. They introduced the Brahmi script, the Indian Prakrit language for administration, and Buddhism, playing a central role in the Silk Road transmission of Buddhism to Eastern Asia.

Lop Nur, a marshy, saline depression at the east end of the Tarim Basin, is the site of the bronze-age Xiaohe Tomb complex from which more than 30 well-preserved mummies have been excavated.

Archaeology: Recent research with help of GIS database have provided a fine-grained analysis of the ancient oasis of Niya on the Silk Road. This research led to significant findings; remains of hamlets with wattle and daub structures as well as farm land, orchards, vineyards, irrigation pools and bridges. The oasis at Niya preserves the ancient landscape. Here also have been found hundreds of 3rd and 4th century wooden accounting tablets at several settlements across the oasis. These texts are in the Kharosthi script native to today's Pakistan and Afghanistan. The texts are legal documents such as tax lists, and contracts containing detailed information pertaining to the administration of daily affairs.

Additional excavations have unearthed tombs with mummies, tools, ceramic works, painted pottery and other artistic artifacts. Such diversity was encouraged by the cultural contacts resulting from this area's position on the Silk Road. Early Buddhist sculptures and murals excavated at Miran show artistic similarities to the traditions of Central Asia and North India and stylistic aspects of paintings found there suggest that Miran had a direct connection with the West, specifically Rome and its provinces.

Videos: Indo-European Mummies in Central Asia and China

 

 

* Early Eurasian Migration Traces in the Tarim Basin Revealed by mtDNA Polymorphisms by Cui Y, et al.

Abstract: The mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) polymorphisms of 58 samples from the Daheyan village located in the central Taklamakan Desert of the Tarim Basin were determined in this study. Among the 58 samples, 29 haplotypes belonging to 18 different haplogroups were analyzed. Almost all the mtDNAs belong to a subset of either the defined Western or Eastern Eurasian pool. Extensive Eastern Eurasian lineages exist in the Daheyan population in which Northern-prevalent haplogroups present higher frequencies. In the limited existing Western Eurasian lineages, two sub-haplogroups, U3 and X2, that are rare in Central Asia were found in this study, which may be indicative of the remnants of an early immigrant population from the Near East and Caucasus regions preserved only in the Tarim Basin. The presence of U3 in modern and archeological samples in the Tarim Basin suggests that the immigration took place earlier than 2,000 years ago and points to human continuity in this area, with at least one Western lineage originating from the Near East and Caucasus regions.

 

Near East: The term, as used by Western archaeologists, geographers, and historians, refers to the region encompassing Anatolia (the Asian portion of modern Turkey), the Levant (Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Cyprus, Israel and the Palestinian territories), Mesopotamia (Iraq) and, occasionally, Transcaucasia (Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan).

The Caucasus or Caucas is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia. It is home to the Caucasus Mountains, including Europe's highest mountain (Mount Elbrus).

North Caucasus comprises:

South Caucasus comprises:

 

 

* Mitochondrial DNA Analysis of Ancient Sampula Population in Xinjiang by Chengzhi Xie, et al.

Abstract: The archaeological site of Sampula cemetery was located about 14 km to the southwest of the Luo County in Xinjiang Khotan, China, belonging to the ancient Yutian kingdom. 14C analysis showed that this cemetery was used from 217 B.C. to 283 A. D. Ancient DNA was analysed by 364 bp of the mitochondrial DNA hypervariable region 1 (mtDNA HVR-1), and by six restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) sites of mtDNA coding region. We successfully extracted and sequenced intact stretches of maternally inherited mtDNA from 13 out of 16 ancient Sampula samples. The analysis of mtDNA haplogroup distribution showed that the ancient Sampula was a complex population with both European and Asian Characteristics. Median joining network of U3 sub-haplogroup and multi-dimensional scaling analysis all showed that the ancient Sampula had maternal relationship with Ossetian and Iranian

 

 

* Ancient Xinjiang Niya People Are the Scythians or Not ——The evidence from mitochondrial DNA study by
Chengzhi Xie, et al.

Excerpt: The Niya lineage was compared with the U3 lineages from modern Eurasian populations and ancient Xinjiang samples, and the result indicates that the Niya sample is possibly of an Iranian origin. It seems that the Niya population was the Scythians who settled in ancient Xinjiang.

 

 

* Prehistorical East–West Admixture of Maternal Lineages in a 2,500-Year-Old Population in Xinjiang by Fan Zhang, et al.

Abstract: As an area of contact between Asia and Europe, Central Asia witnessed a scenario of complex cultural developments, extensive migratory movements, and biological admixture between West and East Eurasians. However, the detanglement of this complexity of diversity requires an understanding of prehistoric contacts of the people from the West and the East on the Eurasia continent. We demonstrated the presence of genetic admixture of West and East in a population of 35 inhabitants excavated in Gavaerk in southern Xinjiang and dated 2,800–2,100 years before present by analyzing their mitochondrial DNA variations. This result indicates that the initial contact of the East and the West Eurasians occurred further east than Central Asia as early as 2,500 years ago.

 

Plots of Shared Haplotypes of Four GAV Specimens.

A dot represents a Contemporary Sample that has the same haplotype with the specific GAV specimen (a) specimen 4B (hg C, 16223-16298-16309-16327); (b) 4E (hg M13a, 16145-16148-16188-16189-16223); (c) 3G and 27 (hg H, 16311); (d) 7D (hg K, 16224-16311).

 

 

* Evidence that a West-East Admixed Population Lived in the Tarim Basin as Early as the Early Bronze Age by Li C, et al.

BACKGROUND: The Tarim Basin, located on the ancient Silk Road, played a very important role in the history of human migration and cultural communications between the West and the East. However, both the exact period at which the relevant events occurred and the origins of the people in the area remain very obscure. In this paper, we present data from the analyses of both Y chromosomal and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) derived from human remains excavated from the Xiaohe cemetery, the oldest archeological site with human remains discovered in the Tarim Basin thus far. RESULTS: Mitochondrial DNA analysis showed that the Xiaohe people carried both the East Eurasian haplogroup (C) and the West Eurasian haplogroups (H and K), whereas Y chromosomal DNA analysis revealed only the West Eurasian haplogroup R1a1a in the male individuals. CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrated that the Xiaohe people were an admixture from populations originating from both the West and the East, implying that the Tarim Basin had been occupied by an admixed population since the early Bronze Age. To our knowledge, this is the earliest genetic evidence of an admixed population settled in the Tarim Basin.

 

 

Haplogroup R1a (Y-DNA)

Central and Northern Asia: R1a1a frequencies vary widely between populations within central and northern parts of Eurasia, but it is found in areas including Western China and Eastern Siberia. This big variation is possibly a consequence of population bottlenecks in isolated areas and the large movements of Turco-Mongols during the historic period. For example, exceptionally high frequencies of R1a1a (R-M17 or R-M198; 50 to 70%) are found among the Ishkashimis, Khojant Tajiks, Kyrgyzs, and in several peoples of Russia's Altai Republic. Although levels are comparatively low amongst some Turkic-speaking groups (e.g. Turks, Azeris, Kazakhs, Yakuts), levels are very high in certain Turkic or Mongolic-speaking groups of Northwestern China, such as the Bonan, Dongxiang, Salar, and Uyghurs. R1a1a is also found among certain indigenous Eastern Siberians, including: Kamchatkans and Chukotkans, and peaking in Itel'man at 22%.

Europe: In Europe, R1a, again almost entirely in the R1a1a sub-clade, is found at highest levels among peoples of Eastern European descent (Sorbs, Poles, Russians and Ukrainians; 50 to 65%). Levels in Hungarians have been noted between 20 and 60% The Balkans shows lower frequencies, and significant variation between areas, for example >30% in Slovenia, Croatia and Greek Macedonia, but <10% in Albania, Kosovo and parts of Greece. In the Baltic countries R1a frequencies decrease from Lithuania (45%) to Estonia (around 30%).

R1a1 was present in Europe at least 4600 years ago, as demonstrated by Y-DNA with the Y-SNP marker SRY10831.2 extracted from the remains of three individuals near Eulau, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, discovered in 2005. The discovery demonstrated the appearance of R1a1 with Corded Ware culture in Central Europe.

The Corded Ware culture is an enormous European archaeological horizon that begins in the late Neolithic (Stone Age), flourishes through the Copper Age and finally culminates in the early Bronze Age, developing in various areas from ca. 3200 BC/2900 BC to ca. 2300 BC/1800 BC. It represents the introduction of metal into Northern Europe.

The role of the Corded Ware culture in the history of the Indo-European languages is actively debated. The Corded Ware people are mostly seen as ancestral to Proto-Balto-Slavic in its eastern regions, and to the Centum dialects (i.e. Proto-Germanic, Proto-Celtic and Proto-Italic) in the western parts.

There is a significant presence in peoples of Scandinavian descent, with highest levels in Norway and Iceland, where between 20 and 30% of men are in R1a1a. Vikings and Normans may have also carried the R1a1a lineage westward; accounting for at least part of the small presence in the British Isles.

In Southern Europe R1a1a is not normally common but it is widespread and found in significant pockets. Scozzari et al. (2001) found significant levels in the Pas Valley in Northern Spain, and also the areas of Venice, and Calabria in Italy.

Origins and Hypothesized Migrations of R1a1a: Most discussions of R1a origins concern the dominant R1a1a (R-M17 or R-M198) sub-clade. There are two foci of high frequency of R1a1a, one in South Asia, near North India, and the other in Eastern Europe, in the area of the Ukraine. Until 2009 claims regarding the oldest R1a populations varied greatly between different articles, with Eastern Europe and South Asia being the main contenders. Such studies generally look at the STR haplotypes of each major population of R1a positive men. (These are the same markers mentioned above as being useful in trying to discover potential new branches within the R1a1a family tree.) Higher variation of STR haplotype in any particular region is normally seen as an rough indicator that a haplogroup has been present longer in that region. In order to gain more insight, the STR haplotypes are also often examined in detail, looking for clusters of more or less related male lines.

In 2009, several large studies of both old and new STR data, including Mirabal et al. (2009), Underhill et al. (2009), and Klyosov (2009) concluded that not only are there are two separate "poles of the expansion" with similar ages, but also that of these two poles, Asian R1a1a is apparently older than European R1a1a. The data is therefore said to be more consistent with Asian origins for R1a1a, as opposed to European origins, with a particular focus remaining upon South Asia

Central Eurasian Origin Proposals: Cordaux et al. (2004) argued, citing data from 3 earlier publications, that R-M17 (R1a1a) Y chromosomes most probably have a central Asian origin. Central Asia is still considered a possible place of origin by Mirabal et al. (2009) after their larger analysis of more recent data. However these authors do not clearly distinguish the case being made for Central Asia for the case being made for Asia, particularly South Asia, more generally.

Recently, looking at Chinese STR data not included in other studies Klyosov (2009) concluded that the common source of Indian and European R1a must be somewhere near the modern Chinese ethnic groups known as the Hui, Bolan, Dongxiang and Sala and approximately 20,000 years ago, possibly somewhere near southern Siberia.

Steppe Cultures: From the late Neolithic and into the Iron Age, archaeologists recognize a complex of inter-related and relatively mobile cultures living on the Eurasian steppe, part of which protrudes into Europe. Many of these are in turn associated with the dispersal of Indo-European languages, the most recent dispersal being the one which led to the Indo-Iranian family of languages becoming the dominant modern languages of regions from Kurdistan to Western China, including such civilizations as Persia and India. (With the Slavic and Baltic languages considered to represent a relatively closely related branch.)

Geneticists believing that they see evidence of R1a1a gene-flow from the Eurasian Steppe to India have frequently proposed the involvement of these Steppe cultures, Indo-European languages, and possibly with specific cultural traits such as Kurgan burials and horse domestication. All of these are generally felt to originate in the specifically European part of the steppes, which stretches as far west as the Ukraine.

Such a Steppe origin for R1a1a has also been argued by Keyser et al. (2009) on the basis of DNA results from ancient remains from several South Siberian late Kurgan sites, including some from the Andronovo culture. 9 out of 10 male specimens were found to be in R1a1a. Two of the three from the Andronovo culture, "matched the most frequent R1a1 haplotype (12 loci) seen in the southern Siberian population" (a haplotype found also in Eastern Europe and Anatolia). More generally, the authors considered 8 of these 9 R1a1a haplotypes to be of a type typical of Slavic, Baltic and South Siberian populations. The R1a1a evidence was felt by the authors to support the proposal that the Steppes Kurgan culture spread from Europe to Siberia. R1a1a has also been found in central European ancient DNA samples Late Neolithic and Bronze Age. In combination with the above-mentioned DNA samples found in Central Asia, the ancient DNA evidence is therefore thought to make it highly likely that R1a1a was present in or near any of the normally proposed staging points for the original dispersals of the Indo-Iranian and Balto-Slavic branches of the Indo-European language family, both thought to have originated in Eastern Europe, and both in the so-called "satem" cluster of Indo-European languages. (Balto-Slavic and Indo-Iranian also share the Ruki sound law.)

Based on analyses of STR diversity and clustering, Klyosov (2009) gives the most recent genetics based argument that there was a movement of R1a1a from Eastern Europe (specifically from the Balkans, he proposes) via the Steppes, to India, and associated with languages ancestral to Indo-Iranian and Slavic. According to Klyosov's analysis modern Indian R1a1a is made up of two components, an "Indo European" component which came from the direction of Europe, and another which must have been in India earlier, and which does not appear to derive from European lineages.

Middle Eastern Origin Hypothesis: As mentioned above, R1a haplotypes are less common in most of the Middle East than they are in either South Asia or Eastern Europe or much of Central Asia. It has nevertheless been mentioned in speculation about the origins of the clade. This is both because there are interesting pockets of high frequency and diversity, for example in some parts of Iran and amongst some Kurdish populations, and also because the rarer branches of R1a (R1a*, R1a1*) are more common in some of these regions.

Semino et al. (2000) proposed that a Middle Eastern origin for R1a should be considered, depending upon the strength of arguments for a Middle Eastern origin for Indo-European languages. However, Nasidze et al. (2004) suggested that R1a must have originally arrived there prior to any Kurgan/Indo-European expansion into the area, and that the R haplogroup as a whole including R1a may even have roots near Iran.

Most recently, Underhill et al. (2009) points out, as did Regueiro et al. (2006), and Kivisild et al. (2003) that the evidence used to argue for South Asian origins of R1a, does not exclude the possibility of a Middle Eastern origin:

“ The most distantly related R1a chromosomes, that is, both R1a* and R1a1* (inset, Figure 1), have been detected at low frequency in Europe, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Caucasus and Iran (Supplementary Table S1). The highest STR diversity of R1a1a*(xM458) chromosomes are observed outside Europe, in particular in South Asia (Figure 1, Supplementary Table S4), but given the lack of informative SNP markers the ultimate source area of haplogroup R1a dispersals remains yet to be refined.

* The Genetic Link of the Viking – Era Norse to Central Asia: An Assessment of the Y Chromosome DNA, Archaeological, Historical and Linguistic Evidence by David K. Faux

 

 

* Geographical Distributions of Y-chromosomal Haplogroups P*(xR1a), R1a, and J from Male Demography in East Asia: A North–South Contrast in Human Population Expansion Times by Yali Xue, et al.

 

 

 

Haplogroup P (M45) is contains the patrilineal ancestors of most Europeans and almost all of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. It also contains approximately one third to two thirds of the males among various populations of Central Asia and Southern Asia.

Haplogroup P is a branch of Haplogroup K (M9). It is believed to have arisen north of the Hindu Kush, in Siberia, Kazakhstan, or Uzbekistan, approximately 35,000 to 40,000 years ago.

The descendant haplogroups of P include Q (M242) and R (M207).

Besides the typically European/South Asian Haplogroup R and South-Central Siberian/Native American Haplogroup Q, other patrilines derived from Haplogroup P-M45 are labeled for sake of convenience as Haplogroup P* and are reported to have been found at low to moderate frequency among modern populations of Central Asia, Siberia, East Asia, and the Russian Far East. There is a conspicuous presence of Haplogroup P* on the Isle of Hvar in the Adriatic Sea off the Dalmatian coast of Croatia, which may be due to historical immigration of Avars from Central Asia. There have also been reports of Haplogroup P* from samples of Ashkenazi Jews, Native Americans, and some populations of South Asia and Oceania, but it is not entirely clear whether these were truly Haplogroup P* or rather instances of a haplogroups derived from Haplogroup P, such as Haplogroup R2 or Haplogroup Q.

 

Haplogroup J (Y-DNA) is believed to have arisen roughly 30,000 years ago in Southwest Asia (31,700±12,800 years ago according to Semino et al.. 2004).

Haplogroup J is found in greatest concentration in Southwest Asia. Outside of these regions, haplogroup J has a moderate presence in Southern Europe (especially in central and southern Italy, Greece, and Albania), Central Asia, and South Asia, particularly in the form of its subclade J2-M172. Haplogroup J is also found in North Africa and the Horn of Africa, particularly in the form of its subclade J1-M267. Subclades J2a and J2a1b1 are found mostly in Greece, Anatolia, and southern Italy.

J1: Haplogroup J1, defined by the 267 marker is most frequent in the Arabian Peninsula Yemen (76%), Saudi (64%), Qatar (58%), and Dagestan (56%). J1 is generally frequent amongst Arab Bedouins (62%). It is also very common among other Arabs such as those of the southern Levant, i.e. Palestinian Arabs (38.4%), in Algeria (35%), Iraq (68%), Tunisia (31%), Syria (30%), Lebanon (19%), Egypt (20%), and the Sinai Peninsula. The frequency of Haplogroup J1 collapses suddenly at the borders of Arabic speaking countries with mainly non-Arabic speaking countries, such as Turkey (9%) and Iran (9.5%).

J2: Haplogroup J2 is found in the highest concentrations in the Fertile Crescent and is found throughout the Mediterranean (including Southern Europe and North Africa), the Balkan peninsula, the Caucasus, the Iranian plateau and into Central Asia. More specifically it is found in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Israel, Greece, Italy, the Balkans and the eastern coasts of the Iberian Peninsula, and most frequently in Lebanese 30% (Wells et al. 2001), Iraqis 29.7% (Sanchez et al. 2005), Syrians 29%, Sephardic Jews 29%, Kurds 28.4%, Iranians 24%.

J*: Haplogroup J* includes all of J except for J1 and J2. J* is rarely found outside of the island of Socotra, where it is quite frequent at 71.4%. Haplogroup J* has also been found with lower frequency in Oman, Ashkenazi Jews, Pakistan, Greece, the Czech Republic, and several Turkic peoples.

 

 

Chinese and Muslim sources of the 7th–12th centuries AD describe the Kyrgyz as red-haired with fair complexion and green (blue) eyes

 

The green eye color is the most unusual, only 1-2% of the the world population have true green eyes.Green eyes are the product of moderate amounts of melanin. According to some researchers, green eyes are the result of mutations that change the melanin structure. Green eyes are most common in Europe and to a lesser extent in the Middle East, Northern parts of India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. 88% of the Icelandic population have either green or blue eye color.

Blue eyes contain low amounts of melanin within the iris stroma. The type of melanin present is eumelanin. The inheritance pattern followed by blue eyes is considered similar to that of a recessive trait, however it is a polygenic trait (meaning that it is controlled by the interactions of several genes, not just one). Eiberg and colleagues showed in a study published in Human Genetics that a mutation in the 86th intron of the HERC2 gene, which is hypothesized to interact with the OCA2 gene promoter, reduced expression of OCA2 with subsequent reduction in melanin production. The authors concluded that the mutation may have arisen in a single individual around the Black Sea region 6,000-10,000 years ago, perhaps suggesting that all people with true blue eyes are more closely related. However, blue eyes with brown spots around the pupil are not related to this mutation. Blue eyes are most common in Poland, Ireland, Netherlands, Iceland, Austria, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Russia, Finland, France, Estonia, and the United Kingdom They are also present in Southern Europe, Spain, Italy and the Balkans, the Middle East (especially in Israel and Lebanon), India and are also found in Afghanistan.

Red hair varies from a deep orange-red through burnt orange to bright copper. It is characterized by high levels of the reddish pigment pheomelanin and relatively low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin. Approximately 1% to 2% of the human population has red hair. It occurs more frequently (between 2% and 6% of the population) in northern and western Europeans, and their descendants, and at lower frequencies throughout other parts of Europe, Asia and Africa. Red hair appears in people with two copies of a recessive gene on chromosome 16 which causes a change in the MC1R protein. It is associated with fair skin color, freckles, and sensitivity to ultraviolet light, as the mutated MC1R protein is found in the skin and eyes instead of the darker melanin. Red hair is the rarest natural hair color in humans. The pale skin associated with red hair may be of advantage in far-northern climates where sunlight is scarce. Studies by Bodmer and Cavalli-Sforza (1976) hypothesized that lighter skin pigmentation prevents rickets in colder latitudes by encouraging higher levels of Vitamin D production and also allows the individual to retain heat better than someone with darker skin. Estimates on the original occurrence of the currently active gene for red hair vary from 20,000 to 100,000 years ago.

Several accounts by Greek writers detail redheaded people. A fragment by the Greek poet Xenophanes describes the Thracians as blue-eyed and red haired. The Greek historian Herodotus described the "Budini", probably Udmurts and Permyak Finns located on the Volga in what is modern-day Russia, as being predominantly redheaded. The Greek historian Dio Cassius described Boudica, the famous Celtic Queen of the Iceni, to: "be tall and terrifying in appearance ... a great mass of red hair ... over her shoulders". The Roman Tacitus commented on the "red hair and large limbs of the inhabitants of Caledonia (Scotland)", which he linked with some red haired Gaulish tribes of Germanic and Belgic relation. Red hair has also been found in Asia, notably among the Tocharians who occupied the northwesternmost province of what is modern-day China, Xinjiang. The 2nd millennium BC caucasian Tarim mummies in China were found with red and blonde hair and most likely were of European origin.

Blond or fair-haired is a hair color characterized by low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin. The resultant visible hue depends on various factors, but always has some sort of yellowish color, going from the very pale blond caused by a patchy, scarce distribution of pigment, to reddish "strawberry" blond colors or golden-brownish blond colors, the latter with more eumelanin.

Lighter hair colors occur naturally in Europeans, and less frequently in other ethnicities. In certain European populations, the occurrence of blonde hair is very frequent. The hair color gene MC1R has at least seven variants in Europe and the continent has an unusually wide range of hair and eye shades. Based on recent genetic information carried out at three Japanese universities, the date of the genetic mutation that resulted in blonde hair in Europe has been isolated to about 11,000 years ago during the last ice age. Before then, Europeans mostly had darker hair and eyes, which is predominant in the rest of the world.

The consensus explanation for the evolution of light hair is related to the requirement for Vitamin D synthesis and northern Europea's seasonally deficiency in sunlight. Lighter skin is due to a low concentration in pigmentation, thus allowing more sunlight that triggers the production of Vitamin D. In this way, high frequencies of light hair in Northern latitudes are a result of the light skin adaptation to lower levels of sunlight, that reduces the prevalence of rickets caused by Vitamin D deficiency. The darker pigmentation at higher latitudes in certain ethnic groups such as the Inuit is explained by a greater proportion of seafood in their diet.

Blond hair is at the highest frequency among the indigenous peoples of Northern Europe. Blond and light hair constitute the majority in the populations of Fennoscandia, Poland, Netherlands, Belgium, much of Germany, and Belarus as well as the Baltic states, most parts of Great Britain, eastern Europe and Russia. Ireland, France, Italy, Czech, Slovakia, Ukraine and other Slavic countries from Balkan such as Slovenia, Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia and Albania also have a significant portion of blonde-haired people.

In Central, Western Asia (Western Middle East) and South Asia there is a very low frequency of natural blonds found among some ethnic populations. In Afghanistan blonds are also found in the Pashtuns and Nuristani people (up to one third of the Nuristani). Blonds are also found in Turkey (especially in northern (Caucasus) and western (European) parts of the country), northern and western parts Iran (amongst the Lurs, Kurds, Gilakis, Persians, and Azeris). The Levant (Israel (especially among the Ashkenazim, who are of European origin), western Syria, the Palestinian territories and Lebanon) have a low frequency of blonds as well. Blond hair is also common among some Berbers of North Africa, especially in the Rif

 

 

Black Sea

 

The Black Sea is an inland sea between southeastern Europe and the Anatolian peninsula (Turkey) and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas and various straits. The Bosporus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and then the long island-bound strait of the Dardanelles connects it to the Aegean Sea region of the Mediterranean. These waters separate eastern Europe and western Asia.

The Black Sea forms in an east-west trending elliptical depression which lies between Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. It is constrained by the Pontic mountain range to the south, the Caucasus mountain range to the east and features a wide shelf to the north-west.

 

 

Majority of modern researchers came to a conclusion that the ancestors of the southern Kyrgyz tribes had their origin in the most ancient tribal unions of Sakas and Usuns, Dinlins and Huns

 

The Sakas were a population of Iranian nomadic tribesmen residing in and migrating over the plains of Eurasia from Eastern Europe to Xinjiang Province, China, from the Old Persian Period (c. 600 BC to 300 BC). to the Middle Persian Period (224-654 AD) when they were displaced by or integrated with Turkic language speakers during the Turkic migration. In the Achaemenid Empire much of their range was made a satrapy, Saka, named after them. They also resided in other provinces of ancient Iran.

The ancient Greeks called the Sakas the Scythians but recognized that in the language of the Persian Empire they were called more nearly Sakai. To them the name Sakai in addition to meaning all the Scyths meant explicitly also the ones of Central Asia and the Far East. These latter lived in what is now Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, parts of India, parts of Iran, the Altay Mountains, Siberia in Russia, and Xinjiang Province of China in the centuries before 300 AD, the start of the Middle Persian period. Hence the Romans recognized both Sacae and Scythae.

The Scythians were recognized in ancient languages at either end of their range. They were known to the Chinese as the Sai (塞). On the west they were among the first Iranians to enter the Middle East. The Assyrians of the time of Esarhaddon record campaigning against a people they called in the Akkadian the Ashkuza or Ishhuza. Hugo Winckler was the first to associate them with the Scyths and the identification remains without serious question. They were closely associated with the Gimirrai, who were the Cimmerians known to the ancient Greeks. These Scythians were mainly interested in settling in the kingdom of Urartu, which later became Armenia. The district of Shacusen, Uti Province, reflects their name. In ancient Hebrew texts, the Ashkuz (Ashkenaz) are even considered to be a direct offshoot from the Gimirri (Gomer). The Scythians also extended into the Ukraine south of Kiev and into Thrace and Macedon.

There is no proof that in the Old Iranian period the Scythians spoke anything other than Old Iranian, despite the fact that they were assigned regional names. The linguistic picture is quite different in the Middle Iranian period, however. The only remnants of the Saka language come from Xinjiang, China, but the language there is widely divergent from the rest of Iranian and accordingly is called eastern or northeastern Iranian. It also is divided into two divergent dialects.

By the time of the Middle Iranian period, the Scyths had either dissimilated into peoples of other names, such as the Sarmatians, Alans and Roxolani, or had been displaced by or assimilated to the Huns.

The Wusun (烏孫), were a nomadic, Turkic speaking people who, according to the Chinese histories, originally lived to the northwest of China near the Yuezhi people but fled circa 176 BC to the region of the Ili river and (lake) Issyk Kul and formed a powerful force there after being defeated by the Xiongnu where they remained for at least five centuries. The last reference to the Wusun in the Chinese historical sources is in 436 AD, when a Chinese envoy was sent to their country and the Wusun reciprocated.

Their later fate is connected with the Turkic Kaganates and the sudden reversals of fortune that fell on Central Asia and, specifically, the Jeti-su area. Considerable remains of their traces and their impact on the events and surrounding peoples were left in the Persian, Muslim, Turkic, and Russian sources extending from the 6th century AD to the present (see Uysyn). At present, their descendants number approximately 250,000 people, about a half of their number in the 1st century AD, Uysyns have two branches, Dulat and Sary Uysyn ("Yellow Uysyn").

There are theories that the Wusun may have been identical with the people described by Herodotus (IV.16-25) and in Ptolemy's Geography as Issedones. The exact location of their country in Central Asia is unknown; the Issedones are "placed by some in Western Siberia and by others in Chinese Turkestan (Xinjiang)," according to E. D. Phillips.

The Dingling (丁零) or Gaoche (高車), Chile (敕勒), Tiele (鐵勒) were an ancient Siberian people. They originally lived on the bank of the Lena River in the area west of Lake Baikal and began to expand westward in the 3rd century. They were still around during the time of the Xiongnu Empire. They appear under alternate names in historic records. It is not certain whether an earlier name for them existed, but they might have been correlated with the Guifang (鬼方), a northern tribe that appears in the oracle bone inscriptions from Yinxu during the 1st millennium BC.

The Huns were an early confederation of Central Asian equestrian nomads or semi-nomads, with a Turkic core of aristocracy. Some of these Eurasian tribes moved into Europe in the 4th and 5th centuries, most famously under Attila the Hun. Huns remaining in Asia are recorded by neighboring peoples to the south, east, and west as having occupied Central Asia roughly from the 4th century to the 6th century, with some surviving in the Caucasus until the early 8th century.

The modern research shows that each of the large confederations of steppe warriors (such as the Scythians, Xiongnu, Huns, Avars, Khazars, Cumans, Mongols, etc.) were not ethnically homogeneous, but rather unions of multiple ethnicities such as Turkic, Yeniseian, Tungusic, Ugric, Iranic, Mongolic and many other peoples.

 

 

"Han" Taiwanese

Hoklo (or Minnan, or Hokkien) commonly refers to those Taiwanese people who claim Han Chinese ancestry from the southern part of Fujian province of China. Large populations of similar background can also be found in Malaysia, Guangdong, Hong Kong, Philippines, Singapore, Burma, Thailand, and Indonesia where they are usually referred to as Hokkien, meaning Fujian in Min Nan language. In Hong Kong's New Territories, "Fukienese" often refers to all Min Nan speakers relocating from Fujian.

In Taiwan, the Hoklos are the largest ethnic group (see Demographics of Taiwan). Most Hoklos trace their paternal ancestry to male settlers who migrated to Taiwan from Fujian in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Because about 70% of the population in Taiwan are Hoklo, Taiwanese is often used interchangeably with Hoklo. People who are aware of the multi-ethnic nature of Taiwan recognize the two are not identical, although most people will know by context when this word refers to people from Taiwan and when this word refers specifically to Hoklos.

* Video: Taiwan Touch Your Heart, Betel Nut Marketing In Taiwan, History of Taiwan

 

 

* Phylogeographic Differentiation of Mitochondrial DNA in Han Chinese by Yong-Gang Yao, et al

PC Map of the mtDNA Data of 13 Regional Han Samples

(Taiwan-2 clusters with Xinjiang)

 

 

* Genetic Relationship of Chinese Ethnic Populations Revealed by mtDNA Sequence Diversity by Yong-Gang Yao, et al.

Unrooted NJ Tree

 

 

* Extreme mtDNA Homogeneity in Continental Asian Populations by Hiroki Oota, et al.

 

 

* The Eurasian Heartland: A continental perspective on Y-chromosome diversity by R. Spencer Wells, et al.

Neighbor-joining tree of 61 Eurasian populations, based on Y-chromosome biallelic haplotype frequencies

Cluster I: Greek, Yagnobi, Armenian, Turkmen, Czeck/Slovak, Orkney, British, Basque
Cluster II: Iranian, Turkish, Kazbegi, Azeri
Cluster III: Tuvinian, Nenets
Cluster IV: Kazak, Mongolia, Cambodian, Dungan, Taiwanese, Chinese, Korean, Japanese
Cluster V: Macedonian, Russian/North, Russian/Tashkent, Ukrainian, Kyrgyz, Tajik/Khojant, Ishkashim
Cluster VI: Bartangi, Hunza, Sinte Roman
Cluster VII: Arab/Bukhara, Tajik/Samarkand, Shugnan, Tajik/Dushanbe, Yadhava, Sourashtran, Kallar
Cluster VIII: Uzbek, Tatar, Karakalpak, Uighur

 

 

Ancient DNA from Linzi (Yixi), Shandong Peninsula

Map of Shandong Peninsula

Linzi (臨淄) was the capital of Qi from 859 BC to 221 BC during the Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period in China. The ruins of the city lie in modern day Linzi District, Shandong, China. The city was one of the largest and richest during the Spring and Autumn Period. It was conquered by Qin in 221 BC. The ruins of the ancient city were excavated in 1926 by Japanese archaeologists and in 1964 by Chinese archaeologists.

The ruins of the city are surrounded by over 100 tumulus, some as far as 10 km away. Many of the tombs around Linzi had been looted in antiquity. Over 600 horses were sacrificed in two rows, found in a tomb pit, near what is considered the tomb of Duke Jing of Qi. The sacrificial horse pit is now the site of a museum, the Museum of the State of Qi.

Qi State: Qi (齊國) was a powerful state during the Spring and Autumn Period and Period of the Warring States. Its capital was Linzi, which is part of the present city of Zibo in Shandong Province.

Qi was founded around 1046 B.C. as one of the many states of the Zhou Dynasty. The first ruler appointed for Qi is Jiang Shang, the most powerful official during that time. The Jiang family (姜) ruled Qi for several centuries before it was replaced by the Tian family (田) in 384 BC (田氏代齊). In 221 BC, Qi was the last state of pre-Imperial China to be conquered by the State of Qin, the final obstacle which allowed the Qin Dynasty to consolidate the first centralized and imperial empire over China.

Lord Huan of Qi (齊桓公, died 643 BC) was the best-known ruler of the state of Qi in the Spring and Autumn Period. His personal name was Jiāng Xiǎobái (姜小白) . Lord Huan of Qi appointed Guan Zhong (管仲, given name Yíwú, 夷吾), the famous thinker and economist, as his prime minister, and adopted Guan's thoughts and policies to administer his country, reform the economic system and develop relations with other states, After scores of years, Qi became the strongest state for its economic and military strength, and was named as the "state with one thousand chariots" and the "head of the five strongest states". The culture and education undertakings were rather developed in Qi. Both poetry and music were of high level. Linzi District remained its capital for as long as 638 years, and was the biggest city in the orient.

The Silk Road, prosperous through the Han (漢朝; 206 BC–220 AD) and Tang Dynasties (唐朝; 618 AD–907 AD) is the famous passageway in China's history for economic and cultural exchange between East and West. As a result of textual research, Shandong area, with Zibo as its center, was the major place of silk supply at that time, and was one of the origins of the "Silk Road".

* Video: 臨淄中國古車博物館, 山東淄博「東周殉馬坑」

 

 

* The Ancestor of Zhou Dynasty's Royal Family, 后稷 by China History Forum

Excerpt: 姜 Jiang was a great clan in pre-Qin China. They helped the forming of Zhou dynasty and were given several states to rule. The famous state in the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring State period, 齊 (Qi State), was one of the 姜 (Jiang) states. They were also famous for their tall and fair women. A few famous Zhou dynasty beauties came from this clan, and not a few poems were written about them in the Book of Poems. The Zhou’s royal families of 姬 Ji and the families of 姜 Jiang frequently married each other. This custom was based on the ancient marriage traditions that two clans would establish the marriage relationship and married each other throughout the generations. Later on, the so-called “親上加親”(closeness added on closeness) in Chinese culture of marrying cousins at the mother’s side of family was the extension of this old custom. This custom was practiced till modern era.

Many scholars believed that 姜 (Jiang) belonged to the ethnic group of 羌 (Qiang) and probably was originally a nomadic tribe. Zhou people also claimed that they were originally descendents of 夏 Xia people and they lived (mixed) among the 戎 (rong – ancient tribes at the west of China) and 狄 (di – ancient tribes at the north of China) and had close relationships with 羌 (qiang) people.

 

 

Zhou Dynasty -- Qin Dynasty -- Yan (燕國) -- He Bei Yu (Hebei Province)
Zhou Dynasty -- Qin Dynasty -- Ba (巴國) / Shu (蜀國) -- Cantonese Language (Cantonese People)
Zhou Dynasty -- Qin Dynasty -- Qin / Jin (晉國) -- Guan Zhong Yu -- Northern (Mandarin)
Zhou Dynasty -- Qin Dynasty -- Guan Dong Yu -- Zhong Yuan Yu -- Gan Language
Zhou Dynasty -- Qin Dynasty -- Guan Dong Yu -- Zhong Yuan Yu -- Hakka Language (Hakka People)
Zhou Dynasty -- Qin Dynasty -- Guan Dong Yu -- Zhong Yuan Yu -- Min Language (Hokkien People)
Zhou Dynasty -- Qi (齊國) -- Min Language (Min Dong, Minnan People)
Zhou Dynasty -- Wu (吳國) -- Shanghainese Language (Shanghainese People)
Zhou Dynasty -- Wu -- Hui Language (Anhui Province)
Zhou Dynasty -- Chu (楚國)-- Xiang Language (Hunan Province)

 

Map of Sinitic Languages (map by Gohu1er)

 

Chinese Language Tree (Source: glossika.com)

 

The “Least Controversial “Phylogeny of the 40 East Asian Languages (bold) from HLA Genetic Diversity and Linguistic Variation in East Asia by Alicia Sanchez-Mazas, et al.

This tree has been reconstructed on the basis of linguistic and archaeological information. Absolute divergence dates are given in years before present (BP)

 

 

* Molecular Genetic Analysis of Remains of a 2,000-year-old Human Population in China-and Its Relevance for the Origin of the Modern Japanese Population by H. Oota, et al. (1999)

Abstract: We extracted DNA from the human remains excavated from the Yixi site (approximately 2,000 years before the present) in the Shandong peninsula of China and, through PCR amplification, determined nucleotide sequences of their mitochondrial D-loop regions. Nucleotide diversity of the ancient Yixi people was similar to those of modern populations. Modern humans in Asia and the circum-Pacific region are divided into six radiation groups, on the basis of the phylogenetic network constructed by means of 414 mtDNA types from 1, 298 individuals. We compared the ancient Yixi people with the modern Asian and the circum-Pacific populations, using two indices: frequency distribution of the radiation groups and genetic distances among populations. Both revealed that the closest genetic relatedness is between the ancient Yixi people and the modern Taiwan Han Chinese. The Yixi people show closer genetic affinity with Mongolians, mainland Japanese, and Koreans than with Ainu and Ryukyu Japanese and less genetic resemblance with Jomon people and Yayoi people, their predecessors and contemporaries, respectively, in ancient Japan."

 

 

* Genetic Structure of a 2,500-Year-Old Human Population in China and Its Spatiotemporal Changes by Li Wang, et al. (2000)

Abstract: To examine temporal changes in population genetic structure, we compared the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences of three populations that lived in the same location, Linzi, China, in different periods: 2,500 years ago (the Spring–Autumn era), 2,000 years ago (the Han era), and the present day. Two indices were used to compare the genetic differences: the frequency distributions of the radiating haplotype groups and the genetic distances among the populations. The results indicate that the genetic backgrounds of the three populations are distinct from each other. Inconsistent with the geographical distribution, the 2,500-year-old Linzi population showed greater genetic similarity to present-day European populations than to present-day east Asian populations. The 2,000-year-old Linzi population had features that were intermediate between the present-day European/2,500-year-old Linzi populations and the present-day east Asian populations.

Result: The smallest genetic distance for the present-day Linzi population was that from the Mongols, followed by those from mainland Japanese and Koreans. Surprisingly, the three smallest genetic distances for the 2,000-year-old Linzi population were from the present-day central Asian populations: the Kirghiz (Sary-Tash), followed by the Kazakh and the Uighurs. Even more surprisingly, the three smallest genetic distances for the 2,500-year-old Linzi population were from the Turkish, Icelander, and Finnish, rather than from the east Asian populations.

 

 

* Reconstructing the Evolutionary History of China: A caveat about inferences drawn from ancient DNA by Yong-Gang Yao, et al. (2003)

Abstract: The decipherment of the meager information provided by short fragments of ancient mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is notoriously difficult but is regarded as a most promising way toward reconstructing the past from the genetic perspective. By haplogroup-specific hypervariable segment (HVS) motif search and matching or near-matching with available modern data sets, most of the ancient mtDNAs can be tentatively assigned to haplogroups, which are often subcontinent specific. Further typing for mtDNA haplogroup-diagnostic coding region polymorphisms, however, is indispensable for establishing the geographic/genetic affinities of ancient samples with less ambiguity. In the present study, we sequenced a fragment (982 bp) of the mtDNA control region in 76 Han individuals from Taian, Shandong, China, and we combined these data with previously reported samples from Zibo and Qingdao, Shandong. The reanalysis of two previously published ancient mtDNA population data sets from Linzi (same province) then indicates that the ancient populations had features in common with the modern populations from south China rather than any specific affinity to the European mtDNA pool. Our results highlight that ancient mtDNA data obtained under different sampling schemes and subject to potential contamination can easily create the impression of drastic spatiotemporal changes in the genetic structure of a regional population during the past few thousand years if inappropriate methods of data analysis are employed.

 

 

* Reanalysis of Eurasian Population History: Ancient DNA Evidence of Population Affinities by C.C. Bennett, F.A. Kaestle (2006)

Abstract: Mitochondrial hypervariable region I genetic data from ancient populations at two sites in Asia-Linzi in Shandong (northern China) and Egyin Gol in Mongolia-were reanalyzed to detect population affinities. Data from 51 modern populations were used to generate distance measures (F^sub ST^'s) to the two ancient populations. The tests first analyzed relationships at the regional level and then compiled the top regional matches for an overall comparison to the two probe populations. The reanalysis showed that the Egyin Gol and Linzi populations have clear distinctions in genetic affinity. The Egyin Gol population as a whole appears to bear close affinities with modern populations of northern East Asia. The Linzi population seems to have some genetic affinities with the West, as suggested by the original analysis, although the original attribution of "European-like" seems to be misleading. We suggest that the Linzi individuals are potentially related to early Iranians, who are thought to have been widespread in parts of Central Eurasia and the steppe regions in the first millennium B.C., although some significant admixture between a number of populations of varying origin cannot be ruled out. We also examine the effect of sequence length on this type of genetic data analysis and discuss the results of previous studies on the Linzi sample.

Results:

Table 4 contains the comparisons of the Linzi and Egyin Gol samples to East and Central Asia .... The top half of the Linzi list is dominated by Southeast Asians, southern Chinese, and Central Asians. The lower half is dominated by northern Asians (save for the lowland Kirghiz and Akha). It is not clear how and why both Southeast Asians (and southern Chinese) and Central Asians are similar to the Linzi population, although this is only a relative comparison within the region. However, there is some debate over the nature of ancient East Asian genetic history, so possibly there are issues here that have yet to be illuminated ....

Table 5 is the total comparison of modern populations to Linzi and Egyin Gol from a composite of the top matches from each region, .... As for the Linzi individuals, they seem to be most highly related to Near Easterners (Turks, Iranians, and Iraqis), Armenians, and Eastern Europeans (Slavs, Hungarians), although others, such as Catalans and Iraqis, are mixed in. The Icelanders are twelfth on this list. The high placement of the Vietnamese may be an anomaly, error, or some element of ancient genetic history that is not clear ....

 

 

* Mitochondrial DNA Analysis of Yayoi Period Human Skeletal Remains from the Doigahama Site by Kazunari Igawa, et al.

Excerpt: The 2500-year-old Linzi population (group I: 15%, group II: 6%, group III: 3%, group IV: 65%, group V: 3%, group VI: 9%) resembled the 2000–2300-year-old Doigahama Yayoi population with respect to the high frequency for group IV. It was suggested that there were phylogenetically similar populations in China and Japan during the ancient period, from 2500 to 2000 years ago.

On the other hand, the low frequencies of group IV in the modern East-Asian populations were reported by Wang et al. In addition, their study indicated that the 2500-year-old Linzi populations showed less genetic resemblance to modern East-Asian populations. These findings suggest that more than one ancient population, which had different phylogenetic characteristics from modern East-Asian populations, existed in the past in East Asia. This is informative for estimating the phylogenetic relationships among ancient East-Asian populations. The resemblance between the ancient populations in China and Japan might support the notion that ancient China is the place from which the Doigahama Yayoi population immigrated. The amount of genetic data is still not sufficient enough to discuss the phylogenetic relationships among the ancient East-Asian populations. Further genetic studies are required to shed light on the phylogenetic relationships among the ancient East-Asian populations.

 

Geographicl Distribution of HVI Sequence Types Observed in Doigahama Yayoi Specimens

Individual Number Sharing Populations (number of individuals)
1, 124, 1601 Vietnam (1)
1301, 1405, 1406, 1903, 88A Thai (15), China Nei Mongol (11), China Xinjiang (11), China Hainan (10), China Yunnan (8), Vietnam (7), China Guizhou (6), Russia Buryat (6), Japan Okinawa (4), China Shandong (3), China Shanghai (2), Indonesia (1), China Bouyei (1), China Dai (1), Taiwan Yami (1) and other China (2)
914, 1604 China Guangxi (4), China Nei Mongol (4), China Guizhou (2), China Xinjiang (2), Taiwan Chinese (1), China Hubei (1), and other China (1)
1904 China Xinjiang (1)
1305 China Yunnan (7), China Shandong (4), Japan mainland (3), China Hainan (3), Thai (3), China Liaoning (2), China Guangxi (2), Russia Nivhi (2), South Korea (1), Taiwan Chinese (1), Indonesia (1) and other China (4)
913 Not found in East-Asian Population

 

 

Ancient Iranian Peoples

Ancient Iranian peoples who settled Greater Iran in the 2nd millennium BC first appear in Assyrian records in the 9th century BC. They remain dominant throughout Classical Antiquity in Scythia and Persia.

The Iranian languages form a sub-branch of the Indo-Iranian sub-family, which is a branch of the family of Indo-European languages. Having descended from the Proto-Indo-Iranians, the Proto-Iranians separated from the Indo-Aryans around in the early 2nd millennium BC. The Proto-Iranians are traced to the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex, a Bronze Age culture of Central Asia. The area between northern Afghanistan and the Aral Sea is hypothesized to have been the region where the Proto-Iranians first emerged, following the separation of Indo-Iranian tribes.

By the 1st millennium BC, Medes, Persians, Bactrians and Parthians populated the Iranian plateau, while others such as the Scythians, Sarmatians, Cimmerians and Alans populated the steppes north of the Black Sea. The Saka and Scythian tribes remained mainly in the south and spread as far west as the Balkans and as far east as Xinjiang.

 

 

Qi State (齊國) was named the "state with one thousand chariots"

 

Historical spread of the chariot

The chariot is the earliest and simplest type of carriage, used in both peace and war as the chief vehicle of many ancient peoples. Chariots were built in Mesopotamia by the Mesopotamians as early as 3000 BC and in China during the 2nd millennium BC. The original chariot was a fast, light, open, two- or four-wheeled conveyance drawn by two or more horses hitched side by side. The car was little else than a floor with a waist-high semicircular guard in front. The chariot, driven by a charioteer, was used for ancient warfare during the Bronze and Iron Ages, armor being provided by shields.

The critical invention that allowed the construction of light, horse-drawn chariots for use in battle was the spoked wheel. Cavalry had been in use in Central Asia since 3000 BC and eventually replaced chariotry (the part of a military force that fought from chariots).

The chariot probably originated in Mesopotamia about 3000 BC. The earliest depiction of vehicles in the context of warfare is on the Standard of Ur in southern Mesopotamia, ca. 2500 BC.

The earliest fully developed chariots known are from the chariot burials of the Andronovo (Timber-Grave) sites of the Sintashta-Petrovka culture in modern Russia and Kazakhstan from around 2000 BC. This culture is at least partially derived from the earlier Yamna culture. It built heavily fortified settlements, engaged in bronze metallurgy on a scale hitherto unprecedented and practiced complex burial rituals reminiscent of Aryan rituals known from the Rigveda. The Sintashta-Petrovka chariot burials yield spoke-wheeled chariots. The Andronovo culture over the next few centuries spread across the steppes from the Urals to the Tien Shan, likely corresponding to early Indo-Iranian cultures which eventually spread to Iran and India in the course of the 2nd millennium BC.

Horses in East Asian warfare: The Chinese do not appear to have ridden horses before the 4th Century BC; but once they came in contact with the nomadic tribes of the western steppes, the use of horses in warfare was understood. Although mounted archers represented an initial tactical advantage over Chinese armies, the Chinese learned to adapt. Conservative forces opposed change, which affected the proportional balance amongst cavalrymen, horse-drawn chariots and infantrymen in Chinese armies.

Feeding horses was a significant problem; and many people were driven from their land so that the Imperial horses would have adequate pastures. Climate and fodder south of the Yangtze River were unfit for horses raised on the grasslands of the western steppes. The Chinese army lacked a sufficient number of good quality horses. Importation was the only remedy but the only potential suppliers were the steppe-nomads. The strategic factor considered most essential in warfare was controlled exclusively by the merchant-traders of the most likely enemies.

The Chinese used chariots for horse-based warfare until light cavalry forces became common during the Warring States era (402-221 BC); and speedy cavalry accounted in part for the success of the Qin dynasty (221 BC–206 BC)

The Chinese warhorses were culled from the vast herds roaming free on the grassy plains of northeastern China and the Mongolian plateau. The hardy Central Asian horses were generally short-legged with barrel chests. Speed is not anticipated from this configuration, but strength and endurance are characteristic features. (Other than the domestic Mongolian horse, the wild Przewalski's Horse also living in that region has never been domesticated.).

* Tocharian Loan Words in Old Chinese: Chariots, chariot gear, and town building by Alexander Lubolsky

 

 

* Ancient China and Its Enemies: The rise of nomadic power in East Asian history by Nicola Di Cosmo

Excerpt: The Andronovo people's unquestioned economic superiority propelled this culture across the Eurasian steppe from the Urals to South Siberia whether by horseback or by chariot, and numerous studies indicate that the chariot was imported into China from the west, through Central Asia, possibly around the thirteenth century B.C. Although no definite evidence has emerged yet, it is plausible that the Andronovo culture's contacts with the eastern part of Central Asia, and especially its interaction with teh archaeological context of northwestern China (present-day Sinkiang), may be responsible for the introduction into China of the chariot, whose western origin is doubted only by few. These contacts are attested to by the archaeological evidence, including similar bronze artifacts such as axes, celts shaped as spades, and other implements.

The earliest Chinese chariots to have been found were discovered in burials of the Shang dynasty at An-yang; buried with the chariots were their horses and drivers, who served as sacrificial victims. This type of vehicle was used by the aristocracy for display, for hunting, and in war.... The chariot appears in China already fully formed. There seem to have been no other wheeled vehicles, such as wagons or carts, pulled by cattle or equids, in use in China before the introduction of the chariot. Later during the Chou dynasty, chariots were a common feature of the funerary inventory of the richest tombs, as well as forming the core of both the Chou and foreign armies.

 

 

Bronze Age

Bronze Age of a culture is the period when the most advanced metalworking (at least in systematic and widespread use) in that culture utilised bronze. This could either have been based on the local smelting of copper and tin from ores, or trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere. Many, though not all, Bronze Age cultures flourished in prehistory. The Bronze Age is regarded as the second part of a three-age system for prehistoric societies, though there are some cultures that have extensive written records during their Bronze Ages. In this system, in some areas of the world the Bronze Age followed the Neolithic age.

Origin: The place and time of the invention of bronze are controversial. It is possible that bronze was invented independently in the Maykop culture in the North Caucasus as far back as the mid 4th millennium BC, which would make them the makers of the oldest known bronze; however, others date the same Maykop artifacts to the mid 3rd millennium BC. However, the Maykop culture only had arsenical bronze, which is a naturally occurring alloy. Tin bronze, which developed later, requires more sophisticated production techniques: tin has to be mined (mainly as the tin ore cassiterite) and smelted separately, then added to molten copper to make the bronze alloy. The Bronze Age was a time of heavy usage of metals and of developing trade networks (see tin sources and trade in ancient times).

Central Asia: The Altai Mountains in what is now southern Russia and central China have been identified as the point of origin of a cultural enigma termed the Seima-Turbino Phenomenon. It is conjectured that climatic problems in this region around the start of the second millennium BC created ecological, economic and political changes which triggered a rapid and massive migration of peoples westward into northeast Europe and eastward into southeast China, Vietnam and Thailand across a frontier of some 4,000 miles. This migration took place in just five to six generations and led to peoples from Finland in the west to Thailand in the east employing the same metal working technology and, in some areas, horse breeding and riding. It is further conjectured that this phenomenon may have been the medium through which the Uralic group of languages spread across Europe and Asia, ultimately producing 39 modern languages including Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian and Lappish.

Southeast Asia: Dating back to the Neolithic Age,the first bronze drums, called the Dong Son drums have been uncovered in and around the Red River Delta regions of Vietnam and Southern China. These relate to the prehistoric Dong Son Culture of Vietnam.

In Ban Chiang, Thailand, (Southeast Asia) bronze artifacts have been discovered dating to 2100 BC.

In Nyaunggan, Burma bronze tools have been excavated along with ceramics and stone artifacts. Dating is still currently broad (3500–500 BC).

 

 

Altai Mountains

The Altai Mountains (阿爾泰山脈,) are a mountain range in central Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan come together, and where the rivers Irtysh, Ob and Yenisei have their sources. The Altai Mountains are known as the Turkic peoples' birthplace. The proposed Altaic language family (include the Turkic, Mongolic, Tungusic, Korean, and Japonic languages) takes its name from the mountain range.

The Copper Age in the Middle East and the Caucasus begins in the late 5th millennium BC and lasts for about a millennium before it gives rise to the Bronze Age. The population during the Copper Age has been described as paleomongolid in the east of what is now Mongolia, and as Europid in the west.

* Videos: Altai Mountains • Russia, Kara-Chad, Altai, A Celebration of Altaic Cultures

 

 

* Origin of Caucasoid-Specific Mitochondrial DNA Lineages in the Ethnic Groups of the Altai–Sayan Region by M.V. Derenko, et al.

Abstract: The data on sequence variation in the first hypervariable segment (HVSI) of human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) representing Caucasoid mtDNA lineages in the gene pools of Altaians and Khakassians are presented. Identification of the subgroups of Caucasoid mtDNA lineages found in the gene pools of the ethnic groups of the Altai–Sayan region and the adjacent territories, Altaians, Khakassians, Tuvinians, Buryats, and Yakuts was carried out. All Caucasoid mtDNA lineages belonged to groups H, HV1, J*, J1, J1b1, T1, T4, U1a, U2, U3, U4, U5a1, I, X and N1a. Taking into consideration possible contribution of southern Caucasoid and eastern European components to the formation of the anthropological type of Altai–Sayan ethnic groups, distribution of the revealed Caucasoid mtDNA lineages among the ethnic groups of the Central Asia, Western Asia, Caucasus, and Eastern Europe was examined. The applied approach permitted identification of 60% of mtDNA types the majority of which had southern Caucasoid origin. Less than 10% of mtDNA types were of eastern European origin. The gene pools of Altaians and Khakassians displayed the presence of autochthonous components represented by mtDNA types from subgroups U2 and U4.

 

 

* Reconstruction of the Genofond Peculiarities of the Ancient Pazyryk Population (I-II Millenium BC) from Gorny Altai According to the mtDNA Structure by M.I. Voevoda, et al.

Conclusions: Of special interest was to compare the results of molecular genetic studies to the modern paleoanthropological characteristics of Pazyryk population.

Craniological studies of all presently available materials on burials of this culture have demonstrated both Mongoloid and Europoid components in the anthropological composition of Pazyrykians.

Craniological variant occurring in the cattle-breeding tribes in the 2nd millennium BC on the territories of the Southern Tadjikistan, Southern and Southwestern Turkmenistan, and Northern Iran represents the Europoid component. In the epochs followed, this variant disappears from the territory of the Western and Middle Asia. It was suggested that the carriers of this morphological complex have been few and gradually assimilated into the mass of Eastern-Mediterranean Europoids.

The Mongoloid component includes two anthropological types.

One type, autochthonous, has been found on the Altai territory on the boundary of Neolithic and Eneolithic periods in the people buried in the Nijnetitkeskenskaya and Kaminnaya caves and in the second half of the 2nd millennium BC in Karakol Culture population. The typical combination of anthropological parameters characteristic of this type is similar to Southern-Siberian race complex, met currently in Kazakh, Kirgiz peoples, and certain groups of Khakas and Southern-Altaian (Predominantly Tele) peoples.

The second type, Paleosiberian, dominated on the territory near Baikal during the Neolithic period. Currently, it occurs only in Evenki people in Northern Baikal region.

Comparison of the above-described data with the results of molecular genetic analysis demonstrates that it is currently impossible to give a comprehensive interpretation of all aspects of Pazyryk people anthropogenesis related with paleoanthropological consideration, mainly due to limited molecular genetic data on the majority of contemporary populations of the Northern, Middle, and Central Asia.

However, certain questions, in particular the question connected with the Paleosiberian component, received a convincing confirmation and development.

The data currently available also suggest certain genetic connections of Pazyrykians with the contemporary population of Gorny Altai.

Discovery of the mitotype 2, possessing a marked similarity with the Northern-Asian Mongoloid mitotypes, in the individual with Europoid anthropological characteristics is one more essential finding. This fact demonstrates the absence of an absolute parallelism in anthropological and molecular-genetic characteristics.

Note in conclusion that the interpretation potential of the molecular genetic data obtained will increase considerably with the accumulation of the information concerning the contemporary populations geographically and historically related with Pazyryk people.

 

 

Iron Age

In archaeology, the Iron Age was the stage in the development of any people in which tools and weapons whose main ingredient was iron were prominent. The adoption of this material often coincided with other changes in society, including differing agricultural practices, religious beliefs and artistic styles.

In history, the Iron Age is the last principal period in the three-age system for classifying prehistoric societies, preceded by the Bronze Age. Its date and context vary depending on the country or geographical region.

Classically, the Iron Age is taken to begin in the 12th century BC in the ancient Near East, ancient Iran, ancient India, and ancient Greece. In other regions of Europe, it started much later. The Iron Age began in the 8th century BC in Central Europe and the 6th century BC in Northern Europe. Iron use, in smelting and forging for tools, appears in West Africa by 1200 BC, making it one of the first places for the birth of the Iron Age. (It is believed that meteoric iron, or iron-nickel alloy, was used by various ancient peoples thousands of years before the Iron Age. This iron, being in its native metallic state, required no smelting of ores.)

The Iron Age is usually said to end in the Mediterranean with the onset of historical tradition during Hellenism and the Roman Empire, in India with the onset of Buddhism and Jainism, in China with the onset of Confucianism, and in Northern Europe with the early Middle Ages.

Transition: The Iron Age in the Ancient Near East is believed to have begun with the discovery of iron smelting and smithing techniques in Anatolia or the Caucasus in the late 2nd millennium BC (circa 1300 BC).

The use of iron weapons instead of bronze weapons spread rapidly throughout the Near East by the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. Anatolians had begun forging weapons out of iron, which was a superior metal to bronze, by 1500 BC at the latest.

The use of iron weapons by the Hittites was believed to have been a major factor in the rapid rise of the Hittite Empire. Because the area in which iron technology first developed was near the Aegean, the technology expanded into both Asia and Europe simultaneously, aided by Hittite expansion.

As stated in the Bible, the Philistines maintained a monopoly on iron working, keeping their Israelite neighbors in military inferiority and economic dependance. A major objective of the Hebrews' prolonged wars with the Philistines, recounted in the Book of Samuel, was to obtain the iron-working technology - an aim achieved by the later time of King David.

Eastern Europe: The early 1st millennium BC marks the Iron Age in Eastern Europe. In the Pontic steppe and the Caucasus region, the Iron Age begins with the Koban and the Chernogorovka and Novocherkassk cultures from ca. 900 BC. By 800 BC, it was spreading to Hallstatt C via the alleged "Thraco-Cimmerian" migrations.

Along with Chernogorovka and Novocherkassk cultures, on the territory of ancient Russia and Ukraine the Iron Age is to a significant extent associated with Scythians, who developed iron culture since the 7th century BC. The majority of remains of their iron producing and blacksmith's industries from 5th to 3rd century BC was found near Nikopol in Kamenskoe Gorodishche, which is believed to be the specialized metallurgic region of the ancient Scythia.

From the Hallstatt culture, the Iron Age spreads west with the Celtic expansion from the 6th century BC. In Poland, the Iron Age reaches the late Lusatian culture in about the 6th century, followed in some areas by the Pomeranian culture.

The ethnic ascriptions of many Iron Age cultures has been bitterly contested, as the roots of Germanic, Baltic and Slavic peoples were sought in this area.

China: In 1972, near the city of Gaocheng (藁城) in Shijiazhuang (now Hebei province), an iron-bladed bronze tomahawk (铁刃青铜钺) dating back to the 14th century BC was excavated. After a scientific examination, the iron was shown to be made from meteoric siderite.

The Iron Age in East Asia began, however, when iron objects began to appear in present-day Xinjiang between the 10th century BC and the 7th century BC, such as those found at the cemetery site of Chawuhukou. This was soon followed by the development of iron metallurgy on the Manchurian plain by the 9th century BC.

Iron metallurgy reached the Yangzi Valley toward the end of the 6th century BC. The few objects were found at Changsha and Nanjing. According to the mortuary evidence suggests that the initial use of iron in Lingnan belongs to the mid to late Warring States period (from about 350 BC). The techniques used in Lingnan is a combination of bivalve moulds of distinct southern tradition and the incorporation of piece mould technology from the Zhongyuan The products of the combination of these two periods are bells, vessels, weapons and ornaments and the sophisticated cast.

Lingnan (嶺南) is a geographic area referring to lands in the south of China's "Five Ranges" which are Tayu, Qitian, Dupang, Mengzhu, Yuecheng. The region covers the Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan and Jiangxi provinces of modern China. The area was inhabited by the Hundred Yue tribes and the motherland of ancient Nanyue.

An Iron Age culture of the Tibetan Plateau has tentatively been associated with the Zhang Zhung culture described in early Tibetan writings.

 

 

Silk Road

The silk road is an extensive interconnected network of trade routes across the Asian continent connecting East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean world, including North Africa and Europe.

Chinese and Central Asian contacts: From the 2nd millennium BC nephrite jade was being traded from mines in the Xinjiang region of Yarkand and Khotan to China. Significantly, these mines were not very far from the lapis lazuli and spinel ("Balas Ruby") mines in Badakhshan and, although separated by the formidable Pamir Mountains, routes across them were, apparently, in use from very early times.

The Tarim mummies, Xinjiang mummies of non-Mongoloid, apparently Caucasoid, individuals, have been found in the Tarim Basin, in the area of Loulan located along the Silk Road 200 km East of Yingpan, dating to as early as 1600 BC and suggesting very ancient contacts between East and West. It has been suggested that these mummified remains may have been of people related to the Tocharians whose Indo-European language remained in use in the Tarim Basin until the 8th century. Following contacts of metropolitan China with nomadic western border territories (East Turkestan) in the 8th century BC, gold was introduced from Central Asia, and Hotan Kashteshi Hotan jade carvers began to make imitation designs of the steppes, adopting the Scythian-style animal art of the steppes (descriptions of animals locked in combat). This style is particularly reflected in the rectangular belt plaques made of gold and bronze with alternate versions in jade and steatite.

Iranian and Scythian Connections: The expansion of Scythian Iranian cultures stretching from the Hungarian plain and the Carpathians to the Chinese Kansu Corridor and linking Iran, and the Middle East with Northern India and the Punjab, undoubtedly played an important role in the development of the Silk Road. These nomadic peoples were dependent upon neighbouring settled populations for a number of important technologies, and in addition to raiding vulnerable settlements for these commodities, also encouraged long distance merchants as a source of income through the enforced payment of tariffs. Soghdian Scythian merchants played a vital role in later periods in the development of the Silk Road.

 

 

Ancient Chinese Glass

Ancient Chinese Glass refers to all types of [glass] manufactured in [China] prior to the [Qing Dynasty] (1644-1911). In Chinese history, glass played a peripheral role in the arts and crafts, when compared to ceramics and metal work. The limited archaeological distribution and use of glass objects are evidence of the rarity of the material. Literary sources date the first manufacture of glass to the 5th century AD. However, the earliest archaeological evidence for glass manufacture in China comes from the late Zhou Dynasty (1046 BC to 221BC).

Chinese learned to manufacture glass comparably later than the Mesopotamians and Egyptians. Imported glass objects first reached China during the late Spring and Autumn period – early Warring States period (early 5th century BC), in the form of polychrome ‘eye beads’. These imports created the impetus for the production of indigenous glass beads. During the Han period (206 BC to 220 AD) the use of glass diversified. The introduction of glass casting in this period encouraged the production of moulded objects, such as bi disks and other ritual objects. The Chinese glass objects from the Warring States period and Han Dynasty vary greatly in chemical composition from the imported glass objects. The glasses from this period contain high levels of barium oxide (BaO) and lead, distinguishing them from the soda-lime-silica glasses of Western Asia and Mesopotamia. At the end of the Han Dynasty (AD 220), the lead-barium glass tradition declined, with glass production only resuming during the 4th-5th centuries AD.

Eye Beads: The earliest types of glass objects found in China are polychrome eye beads or dragonfly-eyed beads. The beads are found in burials from the late Spring and Autumn and early Warring States periods (early 5th century BC) up to late Warring State – early Western Han period. Most beads have a monochrome glass body covered by several layers of coloured glass. The layers of different colour glass are applied in alternating fashion to produce concentric circles. The patterns of circles resemble eyes, giving the beads their name. This style of bead originated in the Near East during the mid 2nd millennium BC. The stylistic influence later spread to the Mediterranean, Central Asia and China.

During the early 5th century BC, the imported eye beads were considered exotic objects. They were mainly deposited in high status burials, such as the tomb of a male aristocrat of the Qi state at Langjiazhuang, Shandong. This situation changes during the middle and late Warring States Period. Eye beads from this period are manufactured from Chinese lead-barium glass and are mainly found in the regions of the middle Yangzi River Valley, indicating a connection to the Chu kingdom. In this context, the beads became more common and available to a larger part of the Chinese society. Evidence of this is the presence of eye beads in medium and small burials, with modest funerary furnishings, as well as large, high-status burials.

The use of eye beads in burials rapidly declined at the beginning of the Western Han period. This is believed to be a result of the invasion of Chu kingdom territories by Qin and Han armies at the end of the 3rd century. The collapse of the Chu kingdom would have brought production of eye-beads to an end.

 

 

Scythians

The Scythians or Scyths were an Ancient Iranian people of horse-riding nomadic pastoralists who throughout Classical Antiquity dominated the Pontic-Caspian steppe, known at the time as Scythia. By Late Antiquity the closely-related Sarmatians came to dominate the Scythians in this area. Much of the surviving information about the Scythians comes from the Greek historian Herodotus (c. 440 BC) in his Histories and Ovid in his poem of exile Epistulae ex Ponto, and archaeologically from the exquisite goldwork found in Scythian burial mounds in Ukraine and Southern Russia.

The name "Scythian" has also been used to refer to various peoples seen as similar to the Scythians, or who lived anywhere in a vast area covering present-day Central Asia, Russia, and Ukraine—known until medieval times as Scythia.

Scholars generally classify the Scythian language as a member of the Eastern Iranian languages. The Scythians are thought to have originated from the Central Asian region of Greater Iran (Persia), as a branch of the ancient Iranian peoples expanding north into the steppe regions from around 1000 BC.

Sakas: Asians, especially Persians, knew the Scythians in Asia as Sakas. The Indo-Scythians had the name "Shaka" in South Asia, an extension on the name "Saka". Herodotus (VII.64) describes them as Scythians, called by a different name:

The Sacae, or Scyths, were clad in trousers, and had on their heads tall stiff caps rising to a point. They bore the bow of their country and the dagger; besides which they carried the battle-axe, or sagaris. They were in truth Amyrgian (Western) Scythians, but the Persians called them Sacae, since that is the name which they gave to all Scythians.

Archaeology: Archaeological remains of the Scythians include kurgan tombs (ranging from simple exemplars to elaborate "Royal kurgans" containing the "Scythian triad" of weapons, horse-harness, and Scythian-style wild-animal art), gold, silk, and animal sacrifices, in places also with suspected human sacrifices Mummification techniques and permafrost have aided in the relative preservation of some remains. Scythian archaeology also examines the remains of North Pontic Scythian cities and fortifications.

The spectacular Scythian grave-goods from Arzhan, and others in Tuva have been dated from about 900 BC onward. One grave find on the lower Volga gave a similar date, and one of the Steblev graves from the eastern, European end of the Scythian area was dated to the late 8th century BC.

Archaeologists can distinguish three periods of ancient Scythian archaeological remains:

  • 1st period - pre-Scythian and initial Scythian epoch: from the 9th to the middle of the 7th centuries BC
  • 2nd period - early Scythian epoch: from the 7th to the 6th centuries BC
  • 3rd period - classical Scythian epoch: from the 5th to the 4th centuries BC

From the 8th century BC to the 2nd century BC, archeology records a split into two distinct settlement areas: the older in the Sayan-Altai area in Central Asia, and the younger in the North Pontic area in Eastern Europe.

Kurgans: Large burial mounds (some over 20 metres high), provide the most valuable archaeological remains associated with the Scythians. They dot the Ukrainian and south Russian steppes, extending in great chains for many kilometers along ridges and watersheds. From them archaeologists have learned much about Scythian life and art. The Ukrainian term for such a burial mound, "kurhan" (Ukrainian: Курган) as well as the Russian term kurgan, derives from a Turkic word for "castle".

Pazyryk Culture: Some of the first Bronze Age Scythian burials documented by modern archaeologists include the kurgans at Pazyryk in the Ulagan district of the Altay Republic, south of Novosibirsk in the Altay Mountains of southern Siberia. Archaeologists have extrapolated the Pazyryk culture from these finds: five large burial mounds and several smaller ones between 1925 and 1949, one opened in 1947 by Russian archaeologist Sergei Rudenko. The burial mounds concealed chambers of larch-logs covered over with large cairns of boulders and stones.

Pazyryk culture flourished between the 7th and 3rd centuries BC in the area associated with the Sacae.

Ordinary Pazyryk graves contain only common utensils, but in one, among other treasures, archaeologists found the famous Pazyryk Carpet, the oldest surviving wool-pile oriental rug. Another striking find, a 3-metre-high four-wheel funerary chariot, survived superbly preserved from the 5th century BC.

Although some scholars sought to connect the Pazyryk nomads with indigenous ethnic groups of the Altay, Rudenko summed up the cultural context in the following dictum:

All that is known to us at the present time about the culture of the population of the High Altay, who have left behind them the large cairns, permits us to refer them to the Scythian period, and the Pazyryk group in particular to the fifth century BC. This is supported by radiocarbon dating.

Belsk Excavations: Recent digs in Belsk near Poltava (Ukraine) have uncovered a "vast city", with the largest area of any city in the world at that time. It has been tentatively identified by a team of archaeologists led by Boris Shramko as the site of Gelonus, the purported capital of Scythia. The city's commanding ramparts and vast area of 40 square kilometers exceed even the outlandish size reported by Herodotus. Its location at the northern edge of the Ukrainian steppe would have allowed strategic control of the north-south trade-route. Judging by the finds dated to the 5th and 4th centuries BC, craft workshops and Greek pottery abounded.

China: Ancient influences from Central Asia became identifiable in China following contacts of metropolitan China with nomadic western and northwestern border territories from the 8th century BC. The Chinese adopted the Scythian-style animal art of the steppes (descriptions of animals locked in combat), particularly the rectangular belt-plaques made of gold or bronze, and created their own versions in jade and steatite.

Following their expulsion by the Yuezhi (the 2nd century BC), some Scythians may also have migrated to the area of Yunnan in southern China. Scythian warriors could also have served as mercenaries for the various kingdoms of ancient China. Excavations of the prehistoric art of the Dian civilization of Yunnan have revealed hunting scenes of Caucasoid horsemen in Central Asian clothing.

Genetics: Mitochondrial DNA extracted from skeletal remains obtained from excavated Scythian kurgans have produced a myriad of results and conclusions. Analysis of the HV1 sequence obtained from a male Scytho-Siberian's remains at the Kizil site in the Altai Republic revealed the individual possessed the N1a maternal lineage. The study also noted that haplogroup mtDNA N1a was found at a relatively high frequency in the southern fringes of the Eurasian steppe, Iran (8.3%), and within the Indian Havik group (8.3%), an upper Brahmin (North Indian Brahmins)) caste. From this, a possible link to ancient populations presumed to have come from Europe that lived in the neighboring Central Asian parts of India and Iran was suggested.

Additionally, mitochondrial DNA has been extracted from two Scytho-Siberian skeletons found in the Altai Republic (Russia) dating back 2,500 years. Both remains were determined to be of males from a population who had characteristics "of mixed Euro-Mongoloid origin". However it should be noted that "European individual ancestry" does not necessarily mean that these individuals were from Europe, as no test to distinguish between European and Asian Caucasoids was performed. One of the individuals was found to carry the F2a maternal lineage, and the other the D lineage, both of which are characteristic of East Eurasian populations.

Maternal genetic analysis of Saka period male and female skeletal remains from a double inhumation kurgan located at the Beral site in Kazakhstan determined that the two were most likely not closely related and were possibly husband and wife. The HV1 mitochondrial sequence of the male was similar to the Anderson sequence which is most frequent in European populations. Contrary, the HV1 sequence of the female suggested a greater likelihood of Asian origins. The study's findings were in line with the hypothesis that mixings between Scythians and other populations occurred. This was buttressed by the discovery of several objects with a Chinese inspiration in the grave. No conclusive associations with haplogroups were made though it was suggested that the female may have derived from either mtDNA X or D.

Y-Chromosome DNA testing performed on ancient Scythian skeletons from the Krasnoyarsk region found that all but one of 11 subjects to carry Y-DNA R1a1. Additional testing on the Xiongnu specimens revealed that the Scytho-Siberian skeleton (dated to the 5th century BC) from the Sebÿstei site exhibited R1a1 haplogroup. Moreoever, the STR haplotype motifs characterising these R1a1 haplogroups were found to closely resemble those found amongst current Balto-Slavic populations in eastern Europe, as well as in indigenous populations in southern Siberia. In contrast, they were found only sporadically amongst central and east Asian populations, and not at all amongst western Europeans .

Migration Period: Although the classical Scythians may have largely disappeared by the 1st century BC, Eastern Romans continued to speak conventionally of "Scythians" to designate Germanic tribes and confederations or mounted Eurasian nomadic barbarians in general: in 448 AD two mounted "Scythians" led the emissary Priscus to Attila's encampment in Pannonia. The Byzantines in this case carefully distinguished the Scythians from the Goths and Huns who also followed Attila.

The Sarmatians (including the Alans and finally the Ossetians) counted as Scythians in the broadest sense of the word — as speakers of Northeast Iranian languages — but nevertheless remain distinct from the Scythians proper.

Byzantine sources also refer to the Rus raiders who attacked Constantinople around 860 AD in contemporary accounts as "Tauroscythians", because of their geographical origin, and despite their lack of any ethnic relation to Scythians. Patriarch Photius may have first applied the term to them during the Siege of Constantinople (860).

Descent Claims: A number of groups have claimed possible descent from the Scythians, including the Ossetians, Pashtuns, the Turkic Kazakhs and Yakuts (whose endoethnonym is "Sakha"), and Parthians (whose homelands laid to the east of the Caspian Sea and thought to have come there from north of the Caspian). Some legends of the Picts; the Gaels; the Hungarians; Serbs and Croats (among others) also include mention of Scythian origins. In the second paragraph of the 1320 Declaration of Arbroath the élite of Scotland claim Scythia as a former homeland of the Scots. Some writers claim that Scythians figured in the formation of the empire of the Medes and likewise of Caucasian Albania.

The Carolingian kings of the Franks traced Merovingian ancestry to the Germanic tribe of the Sicambri. Gregory of Tours documents in his History of the Franks that when Clovis was baptised, he was referred to as a Sicamber with the words "Mitis depone colla, Sicamber, adora quod incendisti, incendi quod adorasti."'. The Chronicle of Fredegar in turn reveals that the Franks believed the Sicambri to be a tribe of Scythian or Cimmerian descent, who had changed their name to Franks in honour of their chieftain Franco in 11 BC. The Scythians also feature in some post-Medieval national origin-legends of the Celts.

Based on such accounts of Scythian founders of certain Germanic as well as Celtic tribes, British historiography in the British Empire period such as Sharon Turner in his History of the Anglo-Saxons, made them the ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons. The idea was taken up in the British Israelism of John Wilson, who adopted and promoted the "idea that the "European 'race', in particular the Anglo-Saxons, were descended from certain Scythian tribes, and these Scythian tribes (as many had previously stated from the Middle Ages onward) were in turn descended from the ten Lost Tribes of Israel."

Whatever the claims of various modern ethnic groups, the peoples once known as the Scythians of Antiquity were amalgamated into the various Slavic groups of eastern and southeastern Europe.

The Sarmatians, Sarmatae or Sauromatae (Old Iranian Sarumatah 'archer') were a people of Iranic origin. Mentioned by classical authors, they migrated from Central Asia to the Ural Mountains around fifth century B.C. and eventually settled in most of southern European Russia, Ukraine, and the eastern Balkans.

It is perhaps no coincidence that the boundary between the so-called Centum-Satem isogloss in the Indo-European languages apparently split at the European border of the Sarmatians.

Around the year 100 BC, Sarmatian land ranged from the Barents Sea or Baltic Sea ("Oceanus Sarmaticus") to a tributary of the Vistula River, to the Carpathian Mountains, to the mouth of the Danube, then eastward along the northern coast of the Black Sea, across the Caucasus to the Caspian Sea and north along the Volga up to the polar circle.

The Sarmatians flourished from the time of Herodotus and allied partly with the Huns when they arrived in the fourth century AD.

In 1947, the leading Soviet historian Boris Grakov defined a culture apparent in late Kurgan graves, sometimes reusing part of much older Kurgans. It is a nomadic steppe culture ranging from the Black Sea to beyond the Volga, and is especially evident at two of the major sites at Kardaielova and Chernaya in the trans-Uralic steppe.

The date of the culture (from the seventh century BC to the fourth century AD) and the location are in synchronicity with the written information we have about the Sarmatians.

The numerous Iranian personal names in the Greek inscriptions from the Black Sea Coast indicate that the Sarmatians there spoke a north-eastern Iranian dialect related to Sogdian and Ossetic. Like the Scythians, Sarmatians were of Caucasian appearance; before the arrival of the Huns it is thought that few of the western steppe peoples had Asiatic or Turco-Mongol features.

Ancient DNA of 13 Sarmatian remains from Pokrovka and Meirmagul kurgans was extracted for comparative analysis. Most of the genetic traits determined were of western Eurasian origin, while only a few were of central/east Asian origin.

World-wide spreading of Haplotypes which are identical with Pr11 and Pr6 from DNA Report: Pokrovka Warrior Women Compared to Meiramgul

* Videos: Scythians or Huns?, Scythian Ice Maiden - Indo-Europeans in the Altai 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Sarmatian Treasure, The (Scytho) Sarmatians

 

 

Dian Kingdom

Dian Kingdom Bronze Cowrie Container with Gilt Warrior and Four Oxen (Photo from "Barbarian Kingdoms": Ancient Treasures of South and Southwest China, The Art Institute of Chicago)

The Dian Kingdom (滇國 or 滇王國) was established by the Dian people, who lived around Lake Dian in northern Yunnan, China from the late Spring and Autumn Period until the Eastern Han Dynasty. The Dian buried their dead in vertical pit graves. The Dian language was likely related to Tibeto-Burman languages.

The Dian were first mentioned historically in Sima Qian's Shiji; some Chinese sources identified Chu general Zhuang Qiao as the founder of the Dian Kingdom. The Dian were subjugated by the Han Dynasty under the reign of Emperor Wu of Han in 109 BC. The Han Dynasty incorporated the territory of the Dian Kingdom into the Yizhou Commandery, but left the King of Dian as the local ruler.

Bronze Working: The Dian people were sophisticated metal workers, casting both bronze and iron. The Dian cast bronze objects using both the piece mould method and the lost wax method. Dian elite burials contained an impressive array of bronze objects, although late Dian burials also contained locally cast iron objects.

Large bronze drums were employed by the Dian to communicate in battle; ritual burials of Dian elites were accompanied by large bronze drums filled with cowrie shells. The tops of the drums were removed and replaced by a bronze lid.

Scythian influences? Iaroslav Lebedynsky and Victor Mair speculate that some Scythians may also have migrated to the area of Yunnan in southern China following their expulsion by the Yuezhi in the 2nd century BC. Excavations of the prehistoric art of the Dian civilization of Yunnan have revealed hunting scenes of Caucasoid horsemen in Central Asian clothing. The scenes depicted on these drums sometimes represent these horsemen practicing hunting. Animal scenes of felines attacking oxes are also at times reminiscent of Scythian art both in theme and in composition.

 

 

Map of Yunnan

 

 

Thai People

Map of Thailand

The Thai (or Tai) are the main ethnic group of Thailand and are part of the larger Tai ethnolinguistic peoples found in Thailand and adjacent countries in Southeast Asia as well as southern China. Their language is the Thai language, which is classified as part of the Kradai family of languages.

History: The precursors of the Thai may have been among the many peoples that comprised the Yi and Bai ruled kingdom of Nanzhao (or Nanman), which dominated Yunnan and much of northern mainland southeast Asia in the 8th and 9th centuries AD. These early Thai (known as Tai) emanated out of the Yunnan region and dispersed into the general area of what is today Thailand. These Tai peoples arrived in various waves and displaced the earlier native Mon and Khmer populations as they settled the region with a large group settling in Thailand during the Sung period of China roughly around 960 AD.

The founding of the Sukhothai kingdom culminated in the emergence of the first Thai nation-state founded in 1238. Various conflicts in Nanzhao and its successor state the Kingdom of Dali may have increased migration of the Thai, especially after the Mongol conquest of the region, and helped establish the Thai as a regional power.

* Videos: The History of Thailand, Tourism Thailand, Travelogue Ethnic Odssey - Yunnan 1, 2, 3 (Dai people)

Gradual Inland Migration of Tai Peoples from China: The Tai migration from the northern mountains into Thailand and Laos was a slow process, with the Tai generally remaining near to the mountainous regions within the region, where they were able to use their specialized agricultural knowledge relating to the use of mountain water resources for rice production. The earliest Tai settlements in Thailand were along the river valleys in along the northern border of the country. Eventually, the Tai settled the central plains of Thailand (which were covered with dense rainforest) and displaced and inter-bred with the pre-existing Austro-Asiatic population. The languages and culture of the Tai eventually came to dominate the regions of both modern-day Laos and Thailand.

Comparative linguistic research seems to indicate that the Tai people were a proto Tai-Kadai speaking culture of southern China, and that they, like the Malay-Polynesians, may have originally been of Austronesian descent. Prior to inhabiting mainland China, the Tai are suspected to have migrated from a homeland on the island of Taiwan where they spoke a dialect of Proto-Austronesian or one of its descendant languages. After the arrival of Sino-Tibetan speaking ethnic groups from mainland China to the island of Taiwan, the Tai would have then migrated into mainland China, perhaps along the Pearl River, where their language greatly changed in character from the other Austonesian languages under influence of Sino-Tibetan and Hmong-Mien language infusion. The coming of the Han Chinese to this region of southern China may have prompted the Tai to migrate in mass once again, this time southward over the mountains of southern China into Southeast Asia via the mountains of Burma and Laos to the north of Thailand. It is believed that the Tai ethnic groups began migrating southward from China and into Southeast Asia during the first millennium A.D. While this theory of the origin of the Tai is currently the leading theory, there is insufficient archaeological evidence to prove or disprove the proposition at this time, and the linguistic evidence alone is not conclusive. However, in further support of the theory, it is believed that the O1 Y-DNA haplogroup is associated with both the Austronesian people and the Tai.

Over the years, the Tai intermarried and absorbed many of the other populations who co-inhabited and/or politically occupied the region, particularly populations of Mon-Khmer, Burmese, and Chinese descent. This fusion of ethnicity has led to considerable genetic diversity in the modern Thai people, and has resulted in a Tai population significantly different in culture, language and physical appearance from the Tai ethnic groups who remained in China.

 

 

Mulao

Map of Guangxi

The Mulao (仫佬族; own name: Mulam) people are an ethnic group. They form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. A large portion of the Mulam in Guangxi live in Luocheng Mulao Autonomous County of Hechi, Guangxi. It is believed that the Mulam are the descendants of the ancient Ling and Liao tribes that inhabited the region during the time of the Jin Dynasty. The Mulam speak the Mulam language, a Kradai language.

* Video: Beautiful Scenery of Guangxi,China

 

 

Origin and Migrations of Kradai-speaking Peoples

The Tai-Kadai languages, also known as Daic, Kadai, Kradai, or Kra-Dai, are a language family of highly tonal languages found in southern China and Southeast Asia. They include Thai and Lao, the national languages of Thailand and Laos.

The diversity of the Tai-Kadai languages in southeastern China, especially on Hainan, suggests that this is close to their homeland. The Tai branch moved south into Southeast Asia only in historic times, founding the nations that later became Thailand and Laos in what had been Austroasiatic territory.

The study of over 100 East Asian populations including 30 Kadai-speaking peoples had reached the following conclusions.

  1. The Tai-Kadai-speaking populations show a great deal of genetic similarity although admixture with local populations did occur after its expansion.
  2. A significant proportion of southern Chinese populations carry a signature of Tai-Kadai-speaking populations.
  3. Taiwanese Aborigines are more similar to Tai-Kadai-speaking populations than they are to the other Austronesian populations, that is, the Malayo-Polynesians.
  4. The clustering of subfamilies of Tai-Kadai-speaking populations correlates well with that based on their genetic similarity indicating limited gene flow between them after their separation.

Tai-Kadai-speaking populations originated in the southern part of East Asia and then migrated northwards and eastwards with Kam-Sui probably being the oldest.

External Relationships: The Tai-Kadai languages were formerly considered to be part of the Sino-Tibetan family, but outside of China they are now classified as an independent family. They contain large numbers of words that are similar in Sino-Tibetan languages. However, these are seldom found in all branches of the family, and do not include basic vocabulary, indicating that they are old loan words (Ostapirat 2005).

Several Western scholars have presented suggestive evidence that Tai-Kadai is related to or a branch of the Austronesian language family. There are a number of possible cognates in the core vocabulary. Among proponents, there is yet no agreement as to whether they are a sister group to Austronesian in a family called Austro-Tai, a backmigration from Taiwan to the mainland, or a later migration from the Philippines to Hainan during the Austronesian expansion.

 

 

* The Prehistory of the Daic (Taikadai) Speaking Peoples and the Hypothesis of an Austronesian Connection by Roger Blench

Map Showing Hypothetical Expansion of Daic Speakers

 

 

* Distribution of HLA Gene and Haplotype Frequencies in Taiwan: A comparative study among Min-nan, Hakka, Aborigines and Mainland Chinese by C.K. Shaw, et al.

Abstract: A total of 8,497 blood samples were typed for HLA-A, B, DR and DQ. Of these, 7,137 Min-nan, 714 Hakka, 535 Mainland Chinese (152 from North China, 211 from Middle China, and 172 from South China) and 111 Aborigines were randomly selected from Tzu Chi Taiwan Marrow Donor Registry (TCTMDR). Differences in HLA gene and antigen frequencies have been observed between various ethnic groups of the Chinese population in Taiwan. The phylogenic tree shows Taiwan Aborigines and Javanese cluster together; Min-nan (Hoklo) shares a common cluster with Hakka, Southern Hans and Thai; and Northern Hans shares a cluster with Middle Hans. The separation between Northern/Middle and Southern Chinese Hans support the idea that Northern and Southern Chinese have different genetic background. Aborigines appeared to be quite distinct in the distribution of a majority of the class I and class II antigens. High frequency of HLA-A24 (60.4%) and relatively restricted HLA polymorphisms are noted in Aborigines. The HLA haplotypes with high frequency in Aborigines included A24-B60-DRB1*04, A24-B60-DRB1*14, A24-B48-DRB1*04, and A24-B48-DRB1*14, which are different from the other ethnic groups. Although the phylogenic tree separates Aborigines and Han Chinese populations, 4 out of 20 most common HLA-A, -B, and -DR haplotypes presented in both Aborigines and Han Chinese may reflect an ancient common origin or intermixture between early settlers of Han Chinese and Taiwan Aborigines. The results in this study are essentially a summary of the observed gene/haplotype frequencies and differences among various ethnic groups in Taiwan.

 

 

* The Origin of Minnan & Hakka, the So-Called "Taiwanese" Inferred by HLA Study by Marie Lin

Discussion: Because of the high degree of the polymorphism of HLA system, it is a useful genetic marker for the characterization of human populations and analysis of their relationships for anthropological purposes. Differences in the distribution of HLA alleles among various human populations are more marked when compared to other genetic markers. This becomes even more obvious if HLA haplotypes (particular combinations of alleles) are used as an index. It is interesting that many haplotypes were found to have a unique organization of HLA genes that have been well-conserved through thousands of years and also each characteristic haplotype shows a limited regional distribution. Therefore the HLA haplotype is a powerful marker and is useful for surveys among closely related ethnic groups (8). Family studies have been found to be the best method for studying multilocus HLA haplotype distribution in Taiwan, this studies is the first report based on family study in “Taiwanese” (Minnan and Hakka).

A33-B58-DRB1*03 was found to be the most common and also the best conserved A-B-DR three-locus haplotype among “Taiwanese” (6.3%), was exclusively related to the most common five locus haplotype, A33-Cw10-B58-DRB1*03-DQB1*02 (6.3%). Similar to our results, the haplotype A33-B58-DR17 (DRB1*03) was also proven to be the most common haplotype in Taiwan among Minnan (n = 7137, 5.59%) and Hakka (n = 714, 5.10%) by the Tzu Chi Taiwan Marrow Donor Registry as estimated by the maximum likelihood method (7). The three-locus haplotype A33-B58-DRB1*03 has also been found among southeast Asians (Thai-Chinese 7.1%; Singapore Chinese 4.4%) (5) and northern Asians (Han in Urumchi, China 3.5%; Khalha in Mongolia 3.4%; Uygur in Urumchi, China 1.8%; Kazakhs in Urumchi, China 1.8%; Korean 1.2%) (9, 10). The five-locus haplotype has also been found in Thais (Present-day Thais 2.2%; Black Thai 2.8%) (11). It is interesting to note that the HLA-A, B two-locus haplotype A33-B58 among southern Han (n = 138, samples collected in Human and Fuchien) was reported to be only 2.4%, with no significant A-B-DR three-locus haplotype frequency at the 11 IHW (5), while in an earlier report the A33-B17 haplotype frequency among southern Han (n = 844) was 1.53%, and for southern minorities (n = 621) was 1.29% (12). In another report, the haplotype A33-Cw10-B58 was found among northern Han (n = 196, 3.1%), however, the most frequently associated DR gene with this haplotype in northeast Asians is more likely DR13 than DR3 (13), and the distribution of haplotype B58-DR3 was found clearly focused in southeast Asian population (8). Therefore, although three- to five-locus haplotype of A33-Cw10-B58-DRB1*03-DQB1*02 has been found to be distributed among all east and southeast Asians, however, the highest frequencies have been found in “Taiwanese”, Singapore Chinese and Thai-Chinese, and these three populations are presumed to be the descendants on early settlers from the southeast coast of China. Therefore, this haplotype is probably the most well-conserved haplotype among these three populations.

The second most common three locus haplotype among “Taiwanese” in this study A2-B46-DRB1*09 (3.0%) has also been found in Singapore Chinese (7.7%); Vietnamese (5.2%); southern Han (5.1%); Thais (4.7%) and Thai-Chinese (2.4%) (5). The corresponding five-locus haplotype A2-Cw1-B46-DRB1*09-DQB1*0303 (2.7%) has also been found in Black Thai (8.3%), Dai Lui (Thais, 5.1%), and present-day Thais (2.1%) (11). This haplotype is thus characteristic for southern Asians (8).

It is well known from the results of HLA studies that there are genetic differences between southern and northern Han Chinese (7, 8, 14, 15). This corresponds well with the prehistory and history of China. The Central Plains (Chung Yuan) culture developed in the loess region of the Hunag Ho (Yellow River) basin in the north of China. And was dated to sixth or even seventh millennium BC from excavated millets (16). This culture went through the Shia civilization, followed by the Shang and Chou Dynasties and was limited to the north (north of Yangtze River). Only in the Chin Dynasty (221 – 206 B.C.), there was political control over the central region of the south gained (17). Recent new archeological discoveries showed that in the south of China there was an independent Yueh coastal culture (from the Yangtze delta to the Hong river delta in North Vietnam) in existence almost at the same period of time (18). However, the history of the south only began around 500 B.C. just before the battles between two countries of Yueh and Wu (17). There is a well known story about the King of the Yueh who slept on firewood for mattress and had gall hung over his bed to remind him of the bitterness of his defeat by Wu which finally enabled him to win the battle, and resulted in national recovery. The Yueh people lived along southeast coast of China (Chechiang, Fuchien, Kwangton and Kwangsi), and were named the Hundred (Pai) Yueh before the Han Dynasty (206 B.C – 220 A.D.) due to the great diversity of local cultures. Not very much Yueh history has been available from Chinese history (of the Central Plains) apart from battles between Yueh and Wu during the Spring and Autumn Warring States Period, and the dispersion of part of the Yueh peoples to the north during the Han Dynasty, since in Chinese history populations other than those of the Central Plains have considered as “barbarians” (17, 19). The Minnan (Min) were one of the ethnic groups among the Yueh who lived in Fuchien, and according to Lin (17) and Meacham (19) the present-day Minnan are descendants of indigenous Minnan peoples although probably limited gene flow from the northern Han occurred during the Chin and Han Dynasties and also during the following several centuries, due to invasions of nomads from Mongolia in the north which caused internal migration from north to south (17). As the barbarian status of the Yueh gradually disappeared and they were finally given Han status in history, thus probably resulting in misinterpretation and erroneous self-assertion of present-day Minnan as “pure” descendants of the northern Han. In Chinese history, many ethnic minorities adopted Han culture, and many peoples from these ethnic groups often announced that they were Han, most likely because the Han culture was more dominant at that time and so being a member of a Han ethnic group was both beneficial and a source of pride in the past (17, 19, 20). This also imply to Hakka, as during South Song Dynasty (1127 – 1279 A.D.) or even earlier there were limited immigrants from Central Plains to southeast region of China. These peoples with their dominant Han culture influenced culturally and linguistically the indigenous Yueh peoples especially those who live in Kwangton. Subsequently few initial immigrants and the vast majority of indigenous Yueh peoples forming the Hakka ethnic group.

Two phylogenetic trees constructed by calculation of the genetic distances D and DA showed a slight difference in the order of clustering among southern Asians. The D tree appears to better fit into the history of “Taiwanese”, Thai-Chinese and Singapore Chinese, since they originated from the same area of the southeast coast of China but migrated to different places during the last few centuries. However, the trees constructed both by D and DA separated the southern Asian populations, including “Taiwanese”, from northern Han. Correspondence analysis of “Taiwanese” and many other populations also showed that there was a clear separation between the “Taiwanese” and northern Han. A phylogenetic tree constructed by HLA gene frequencies on marrow donors also showed that” Taiwanese” (Minnan and Hakka) clustering together with the southern Han are separated from the northern Han (8). Many other studies including HLA as well as other genetic markers such as immunoglobulins (22), blood groups (23), glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (24) and microsatellites (25) also clearly separate the southern Han from the northern Han. A study on Chinese surnames and genetic differences between north and south China also separated southern Han from the northern Han (20). In that study, the southern Han cluster can be further subdivide into three subclusters: the lower Yangtze river centering around Shanghai; most of the Yangtze river basin; and the southeast coastal areas and islands off the coast (including Taiwan). Chinese surnames have a history of probably more than 4,000 years and are transmitted via the male line and can thus be considered as a Y-chromosome gene. The finding of southeast coastal subdivisions of the southern Han corresponds well with the history and populations of the Yueh. Also in that study, the map of the first two principal coordinates calculated by the gene frequencies for ABO, MN, and Rh(D) of 28 provinces of China plus Taiwan, it was revealed that there was a clear split between the populations of Taiwan and the southeast coastal provinces from all other parts of China, suggesting that “Taiwanese” and its originating southeast coastal populations (Yueh peoples) might be genetically distinct from the others.

These genetic data indicate that the southern Han are basically of southern origin and remain genetically distinct from the northern Han. “Taiwanese” who are descendants of the ancient Yueh peoples preserve the ancestral HLA haplotype A33-Cw10-B58-DRB1*03-DQB1*02 of the Yueh. The genetic distance between “Taiwanese” and southern Han warrant further study because half of the population samples contributing to the HLA data of southern Han used in this study were from Fuchien (5).

 

 

Ürümqi or Ürümchi (烏魯木齊), is the capital of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, in the northwest of the country.

Although Ürümqi is situated near the northern route of the Silk Road, it is a relatively young city. During the 22nd year of Emperor Taizong's reign in the Tang Dynasty, AD 648, the Tang government set up the town of Luntai in the ancient town seat of Urabo, 10 kilometers from the southern suburb of present-day Ürümqi. Ancient Luntai Town was a seat of local government, and collected taxes from the caravans along the northern route of the Silk Road.

Little is heard of the region following the Tang Dynasty until the conquest of Dzungaria in 1755 under the Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty. The Dzungars were deliberately exterminated in a brutal campaign of ethnic genocide. One writer, Wei Yuan, described the resulting desolation in what is now northern Xinjiang as: "an empty plain for a thousand li, with no trace of man." After 1759 state farms were established, "especially in the vicinity of Urumchi, where there was fertile, well-watered land and few people." It has been estimated that more than a million people were slaughtered, and it took generations for it to recover.

During the Qing Dynasty (1763) the Qianlong Emperor named the expanded town of Luntai "Dihua" (迪化), meaning "to enlighten." In 1884, the Guangxu Emperor established Xinjiang as a Province, with Dihua as its capital.

Following the founding of the People's Republic of China, on February 1, 1954, the city was renamed Ürümqi, meaning "beautiful pasture" in the Mongolian language of the Dzungar people.

The city was the site of major rioting in July 2009 due to conflicts between Han and Uyghur ethnic groups in which nearly 200 people were left dead; most of the victims were Han-Chinese. Reports of extensive police retaliation againt the Uyghur minority have circulated ever since, despite the Chinese government having shut down access to emails and overseas phone calls.

 

HLA-DQ2 (DQ2) is a serotype group within HLA-DQ (DQ) serotyping system. The serotype is determined by the antibody recognition of β2 subset of DQ β-chains. The β-chain of DQ is encoded by HLA-DQB1 locus and DQ2 are encoded by the HLA-DQB1*02 allele group. This group currently contains 2 common alleles, DQB1*0201 and DQB1*0202. HLA-DQ2 and HLA-DQB1*02 are almost synonymous in meaning. DQ2 β-chains combine with α-chains, encoded by genetically linked HLA-DQA1 alleles, to form the cis-haplotype isoforms. These isoforms, nicknamed DQ2.2 and DQ2.5, are also encoded by the DQA1*0201 and DQA1*0501 genes, respectively.

DQ2 is most common in Western Europe, North and West Africa. Highest frequencies are observed in parts of Spain and Ireland, this distribution correlates with the frequency of two of the most prevalent autoimmune diseases. There is also a increase in DQB1*0201 in Central Asia, peaking in Kazakhstan and declining slowly east to west into China and finally Southeast Asia. DQA1*0501 : DQB1*0201. DQ2.5 is one of the most predisposing factors for autoimmune disease. DQ2.5 is encoded, often, by a haplotype associated with a large number of diseases. This haplotype, HLA A1-B8-DR3-DQ2 is associated with diseases in which HLA-DQ2 has suspect involvement. Direct involvement of DQ2 is certain in coeliac disease.

 

 

HLA DR3-DQ2

HLA DR3-DQ2 is not spread evenly in the among humans. It is has a substantially higher frequency in the western world, except indigenous Native American. It is virtually absent in some Asian populations. Its current world distribution suggest that it spread from Africa with a wave that spread late in human evolution which reached central Asia more recently, a possibility is that it spread with agrarian cultures that migrated from Africa.

Frequencies in Europe: European DR3-DQ2 is ancestrally derived from Africa, probably from Southwestern Europe or the Levant (in which DQ2.5 may have undergone negative, coeliac disease, selection during the holocene). Since the last glacial maximum there appears to be two sources of DR3-DQ2. The first, propagating "super b8" is from Iberia into much of western and central Europe. The second, propagating A30-B18-DR3-DQ2, is from Africa into Sardinia, Iberia, France and Italy.

DR3-DQ2 was probably the predominant HLA haplotype in the early holocene Western and Central Europe, archaeological studies of France, particularly of the Paris Basin region indicate a cultural shift that occurs as a result of the neolithic revolution. In this region of France DR3-DQ2 specifically associated with super-B8 forms an anti-node of frequencies, whereas HLA types more common in Italy, Greece and the middle east are more common within this region of France. Other haplotypes indicate this introgression was significant over and the primary wheat farming regions of Europe.

Because of the central location of the anti-node, the center of expansion of DR3-DQ2 with the recolonization of western Europe after the last glacial maximum has been obscured. However, the frequency is still high within the Basque of NE Spain, including some Super-B8 haplotype. The highest frequency of this node is in Western Ireland. Despite its high frequency Ireland is not likely the source of the haplotype in European, but a region that has been least disturbed by the negative selection of wheat culture and migrations. Much of Ireland was covered in glacial ice in the late paleolithic and few exploitable resources. Colonization started about 10500 years ago, whereas neolithization started about 6500 years ago and was dominated by cattle culture with some wheat and minor barley cultivation. The paleontology of Europe during the last glacial maximum suggests that the most likely places of origin are NE Iberia, Southern France and new ice-core evidence suggests that final spread northward probably occurred after Younger Dryas.

Frequencies in Asia: Based on frequencies in Central and East Asia, DR3_DQ2 appears to have spread eastward recently. Of particular interest to the West African/Central Asian comparison, not only is DQ3-DQ2.5 elevated in both places, but a linked HLA A-B haplotype, A33-B58, is found in West Africans and both the A33 and B58 alleles show more allelic and haplotype diversity in West Africa. This similarity would be remarkable if this haplotype came with migrations 50,000 to 130,000 years ago, since considerable equilibration and long range migrations are expected over this time frame. Ironically, there is no convincing route of travel between West Africa and Central Asia suggested by gene frequencies in the peoples between the two. This recent migation hypothesis is supported by HLA-A36 which shows a similar African/Central Asian bimodal distribution. One population that might have been related to this migration are non-caucasians of northern Africa.

DR3-DQ2 is notably higher in W. Mongolia, Kazakhstan and W. China. One eastern haplotype is "A33-B58" and has some punctuated distribution in Western Europe at relatively low levels, and is also in extreme disequilibrium where it is found, elsewhere. In Thailand it is elevated, particularly in the Thai Chinese, but in the south and most parts of Indonesia its frequency is zero. Elevated DR3-DQ2 levels in the Muong suggest a similar North to South spread.

DR3-DQ2 presence in the Koreans and lack thereof in the Japanese suggest a recent spread into Western Pacific Rim of Asia. By HLA, Y chromosome, or mitochondrial DNA the Japanese are about 60-85% of post-Jōmon period Korean origin, and the level of DR3-DQ2 in Japanese is about 1/10th that of Koreans suggesting that DR3-DQ2 did not spread in the Yayoi and that it spread recently with Mongol spread in Eastern Asia, it is rare both east and south of China (except in regions with strong historic migrations of Chinese), rare in Indigenous Austronesians, and isolated Indigeonous American groups.

 

DR3 and DQ2.5 Levels in Asians (given as frequency in %)

 
Population DR3 DR3DQ2 Estimated DQ2.5
  Kazakh 13.1 13.1
  Uygar (China) 14.0 12.6 12.6
  Tsaatan (Mongolia) 12.5 12.5
  Khalka (Mongolia) 9.0 11.5 11.5
  Australo (N.S.Wales) 11.4 11.4
  Iranian 10.0 10.0 10.0
  Muong (Viet Nam) 12.7 9.8 9.8
  Oold (Mongolia) 8.7 8.7
  Jing (China) 8.1 8.1
  N.W. Han (China) 7.6 7.6 7.6
  Mansi (Russia) 7.4 7.4
  N.India 7.4 7.4 7.4
  Iran (Yadz) 5.4 5.4 5.4
  Hanoi (Viet Nam) 4.4 4.0 4.0
  Buryat (Siberia) 4.0 4.0
  Shangdong (China) 3.6 3.6
  Korean 2.9 2.9
  Nusa Ten. (Indonesia) 2.4 2.4
  Ulchi 1.4 1.4
  Ryūkyū (Japan) 0.0 0.0 0.0
  Japanese 0.3 0.3
  Ainu (Japan) 0.0 0.0
  Ket (Russia) 0.0 0.0 0.0
  Ngasan (Siberia) 0.0 0.0 0.0
  Negidal (Siberia) 0.0 0.0
  Molacca (Indonesia) 0.0 0.0

 

 

HLA Gene Frenquencies from the Origin of Minnan and Hakka, the So-Called "Taiwanese", Inferred by HLA Study by M. Lin, et al.

 

HLA
DQB1*02
8.8
10.6
DRB1*03
7.4
8.6

 

 

* Prevalence of Celiac Disease in the Asia-Pacific Region by AG Cummins, et al.

Abstract: The development of sensitive and specific serological assays for celiac disease has led to a revision of the prevalence of this disease in many countries. In the Asia-Pacific region, prevalence has been determined in only a minority of countries but those with prevalence rates of 1:50-1:500 adults include Australia, Iran, Israel, New Zealand, Syria and Turkey. In contrast, celiac disease appears to be extremely rare in Japan and may be rare in China. In India, prevalence rates are high in the northern states but much lower in the southern states. In individual countries, important determinants of prevalence include the per capita consumption of wheat and the frequency of a specific human leukocyte antigen (HLA) type genetically defined as HLA-DQB1*02 (*0201 or *0202) and serologically defined as HLA-DQ2. These determinants predict low prevalence rates for celiac disease in the Pacific Islands, South-East Asia and eastern China but higher rates in countries west of India and China. There is also the potential for a rising incidence of celiac disease if traditional rice-based diets are replaced by Western-style diets with a higher content of wheat products.

 

 

Iron Age in Taiwan

 

* The Biological Evidence of the San-pau-chi People and Their Affinities by Hsiu-Man Lin

Abstract: In Taiwan, the beginning of the manufacture and use of iron began around the birth of Christ (e.g., Liu 1992, 1993, Tsang 2000). During the prehistoric Iron Age, regional cultures continued to flourish all over Taiwan, including the Shih-San-Hang culture in the north (e.g., Chang 1993, Huang 1994, Lin Jia-Wei 1996, Lin Hsiu-Man 1997, Liu Chin-Hsin 2005, Liu Yi-Chang 1992, Peitrusewsky et al. 2001, Tsang and Liu 2001a, Tsang et al. 2001, Yang 1961), the Fan-Tsu-Yuan and Ta-Chiu-Yuan cultures in the west-central region (e.g., Chiu 1991, Sun 1962), the Niao-Sung culture in the south (e.g., Chen 1977, Huang 1982, Wu and Lee 1979), and the Chi-Pu culture in the east (e.g., Guo 2005). A newly excavated site at Kuei-Shan in the Pingtung Prefecture reveals unique features in comparison with aforementioned cultures stepping into the Iron Age and may represent a culture of its own (e.g., Huang et al. 1987, Li Kuang-Chou et al. 1985, Sun et al. 1992).

 

 

* Three Case Studies for mtDNA Analysis of Iron Age People in Central Taiwan by Ling-Dai Yen

Abstract: This study is focused on Central area of Taiwan and based on three important Iron Age plains and coastal archaeological sites-Fan-Zai-Uan (番仔園), Lu-Liao (鹿寮) and Hui-Lai (惠來), dating between 2000 and 400 B.P. This period is so called “Iron Age”. Mitochondrial DNA extracted from human remains of these three sites will tell us the genetic relation between the Iron Age people and modern aboriginal populations of Taiwan. Combing other pertinent researches of this subject, we can delineate the possible migration route of Iron Age people. The results of ancient DNAs（aDNAs）indicate that Iron Age people in Central Taiwan have genetic affinities with some modern aboriginal populations. The haplogroups of aDNAs show that their maternal origin might be the mainland of Asia.

Based on haplotyes shared with modern aboriginal populations, Fan-Zai-Yuan sample is closely related to Atayal ethnic group. Atayal came from mountain area of central Taiwan. The haplotype of Fan-Zai-Yuan sample possibly has a connection with Da-Ma-Lin archaeological site, which is located in the central mountain area and affected by cultures from plains. Lu-Liao sample is close to Bunun ethnic group. Lu-Liao site is where Papora used to live. A linguistic study suggests that Papora might come from the Zhuo-Shui river, which is a possible homeland of Luan community of Bunun. The Hui-Lai sample shares no haplotyes with any modern aboriginal populations. The haplogourp is also hardly found in modern Austronesian, possibly because lots of populations lived here and had a large gene pool.

Recent genetic researches show that modern aboriginal populations are heterogenous because of geographic reasons. However, people who live in plains interacted frequently and belonged to the same culture system for a long time. Based on the results of aDNAs analysis, the Iron Age people arrived lowland central Taiwan as early as part of modern indigenous people who live in mountain area today. Moreover, people who live in plains were more likely to be affected by other cultures. Genetically speaking, their population structures tend to be more diverse.

 

Excerpt

* Haplogroup M9 (mtDNA): Shandong, Liaoning, Xinjiang, Qinghai

 

 

* 鐵器 iron artifact by 陳光祖

Excerpt: 臺灣地區在新石器時代晚期如圓山、植物園、以及卑南等遺址都曾發現鐵器，是從島外輸入的貴重物品。進入金屬器時代，先民已自行冶煉鐵金屬並製作鐵器，但仍有部分鐵金屬來自島外。此時鐵器已取代石器，成為主要的生產工具，但臺灣潮濕多雨，不利於鐵器的保存，加上鐵器損壞後可以重新製作，不必然成為廢料而被丟棄。因此，此一時期許多遺址即使出土很少或未出土鐵器，考古學者仍然推論當時的生產工具主要是鐵器。

臺灣北部沿海地區的十三行文化、東海岸的靜浦文化、以及東南海岸的舊香蘭遺址先民，已掌握煉鐵與鐵器製作技術，前二者採用塊煉法冶煉鐵金屬，並以鍛打方式製作鐵器。舊香蘭的煉鐵技術尚未經研究，但應與靜浦文化的技術相近。十三行文化的煉鐵原料來自遺址鄰近自然力經常補充的海濱鐵砂，靜浦文化的煉鐵原料可能有所不同，但二者採用的鼓風方式應為近代東南亞地區仍在流行的「馬來式」立式鞴piston type bellow。

 

____________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Native Population Match: Thailand, Thailand, Basque (Alava, Spain), Java (Indonesia), Malay (Singapore), Balearic Islands (Spain), Ashkenazi (Budapest, Hungary), Eastern Anatolia (Turkey), Italy, Sicilia (Italy), Germany, Lille (France), Sicily (Italy), Marmara (Turkey), Javanese, Székely (Romania), Switzerland, Extremadura (Spain), Mulao (Guangxi), Kirgiz (Xinjiang).

 

 

Spain: Basque (Pais Vasco), Balearic Islands (Islas Baleares), Extremadura

Autonomous Communities of Spain: Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, Euskladi Pais Vasco (Basque), Navarra, La Rioja, Aragón, Catalunya (Catalonia), Illes Balears (Balearic Islands), Valencia, Castilla-La Mancha, Madrid, Castilla y León, Extremadura, Andalucia, Murcia, Islas Canarias, Ceuta, Melilla

 

 

Spanish Formosa

Spanish Formosa was a Spanish colony established in the north of Taiwan (then known as Formosa) from 1626 to 1642. Designed to protect Spanish and Portuguese trade from interference by the Dutch base in the south of Taiwan, the colony was short-lived due to the unwillingness of colonial authorities in Manila to commit men and materiel to defending it. After seventeen years the last fortress of the Spanish was besieged by Dutch forces, and eventually fell, giving the Dutch control over most of the island.

Background: In the early seventeenth century Catholic Spain was in competition with Protestant Holland for trade and influence in East Asia. With the establishment of a Dutch colony at Tayouan (present-day Anping) in the south of Taiwan, the Dutch gained the ability to effectively threaten Spanish trade in the region. As a counter to this threat, the Spanish decided to establish their own colony in the north of the island.

The Early Years (1626–1629): After landing at Cape Santiago (now Sandiao) in the north-east of Taiwan but finding it unsuitable for defensive purposes, the Spanish continued westwards along the coast until they arrived at Keelung. A deep and well-protected harbour plus a small island in the mouth of the harbour made it the ideal spot to build the first settlement, which they named Santissima Trinidad. Forts were built, both on the island and in the harbour itself.

In 1629 the Spanish set up their second base, centred around Fort San Domingo in Danshui.

First Battle with the Dutch: In 1641 the Spanish had become such an irritant to the Dutch in the south that it was decided to take northern Taiwan from the Spanish by force. In courteous terms, the Dutch Governor Paulus Traudenius informed the Spanish governor of their intentions.

Sir,
I have the honor to communicate to you that I have received the command of a considerable naval and military force with the view of making me master by civil means or otherwise of the fortress Santissima Trinidad in the isle of Ke-lung of which your Excellency is the Governor.
In accordance with the usages of Christian nations to make known their intentions before commencing hostilities, I now summon your Excellency to surrender. If your Excellency is disposed to lend an ear to the terms of capitulation which we offer and make delivery to me of the fortress of Santissima Trinidad and other citadels, your Excellency and your troops will be treated in good faith according to the usages and customs of war, but if your Excellency feigns to be deaf to this command there will be no other remedy than recourse to arms. I hope that your Excellency will give careful consideration to the contents of this letter and avoid the useless effusion of blood, and I trust that without delay and in a few words you will make known to me your intentions.
May God protect your Excellency many years,
The Friend of your Excellency,
PAULUS TRAUDENIUS

The Spanish governor was not inclined to give in so easily, and replied in kind.

Sir; I have duly received your communication of August 26th, and in response I have the honor to point out to you that as becomes a good Christian who recalls the oath he has made before his king, I cannot and will not surrender the forts demanded by your Excellency, as I and my garrison have determined to defend them. I am accustomed to find myself before great armies, and I have engaged in numerous battles in Flanders as well as other countries, and so I beg of you not to take the trouble of writing me further letters of like tenor. May each one defend himself as best he can. We are Spanish Christians and God in whom we trust is our protector.
May the Lord have mercy on you.
Written in our principal fortress San Salvador the 6th of September 1641.
GONSALO PORTILIS

Subsequently the Dutch launched an assault on the northern regions, but the Spanish positions were well-defended and the attacking troops were not able to breach the walls of the fortresses. They returned, thwarted, to the Dutch base at Fort Zeelandia.

* Video: Formosa española

* The "Justification" of the Spanish Intrusion in Taiwan in 1626 by Jose Eugenio Borao

 

 

Extremadura

Extremadura: This region was conquered by the Kingdom of Castile, but repopulated by many Leonese people, and their dialect (castúo) is thought to be a variety of the Leonese language. In the South they speak something related to the Andalusian dialect or accent of Spanish. There are some parts where Portuguese is also spoken near Olivenza, over which the Portuguese Republic holds a claim.

Extremadura was the source of many of the most famous Spanish conquerors ("conquistadores") and settlers in America. Hernán Cortés, Francisco Pizarro, Pedro de Alvarado, Pedro de Valdivia, Francisco de Orellana, Pedro Gomez Duran y Chaves and Vasco Nunez de Balboa were all born in Extremadura and many towns and cities in America carry a name from their homeland: Mérida is the name of the administrative capital of Extremadura, and also of important cities in Mexico and Venezuela; Medellín is now a little town in Extremadura, but also the name of the second largest city in Colombia; Albuquerque is the largest city in New Mexico and its name is due to a transcription mistake of Alburquerque, another town in Extremadura. Pedro de Valdivia founded numerous cities in Chile with names from small villages in Extremadura, such as Valdivia and La Serena. The capital Santiago de Chile was founded as "Santiago de Nueva Extremadura" (Santiago of New Extremadura).

* Video: Extremadura Ismael Sánchez "Con los cinco Sentidos", Extremqadura-Tierra de Conquistadores

 

 

Balearic Islands

The Balearic Islands (Catalan and official: Illes Balears; Spanish: Islas Baleares) are an archipelago in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula.

The four largest islands are (from largest to smallest): Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza, and Formentera. The archipelago forms an autonomous community and a province of Spain, of which the capital city is Palma. The co-official languages in the Balearic Islands are Spanish and Catalan (i.e. Mallorquí, Menorquí and Eivissenc, as Catalan is known by its speakers in this territory).

* Video: Illes Balears - Rafa Nadal - Spot 2010, Illes Balears - Islas Baleares - Balearic Islands

 

 

Basque

The Basques (Basque: Euskaldunak) are the native people of the Basque Country (Euskal Herria).

The name Basque derives from the ancient tribe of the Vascones, described by Ancient Greek historian Strabo as living south of the western Pyrenees and north of the Ebro River, in modern day Navarre and northern Aragon. This tribal name, of unknown etymology, was extended in late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages to cover all Basque-speaking people on either side of the Pyrenees.

The Basques as an ethnic group primarily inhabit an area traditionally known as the Basque Country, a region that is located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and straddles parts of north-eastern Spain and south-western France.

Genetics: Although they are genetically distinctive in some ways, the Basques are still very typically west European in terms of their mt-DNA and Y-DNA sequences, and in terms of some other genetic loci. These same sequences are widespread throughout the western half of Europe, especially along the western fringe of the continent. The Sami people of northern Scandinavia show an especially high abundance of a mt-DNA type found at 11% among Basques. Somewhat higher among neighbouring Cantabrians, the isolated Pasiegos have a mt-DNA V haplogroup of wider microsatellite variation than Sami. Autosomal genetic studies confirm that Basques have a very close relationship with other Europeans, especially with Spaniards - who have a common genetic identity of over 70% with Basques.

It is thought that the Basque Country and neighbouring regions served as a refuge for palaeolithic humans during the last major glaciation when environments further north were too cold and dry for continuous habitation. When climate warmed into the present interglacial, populations would have rapidly spread north along the west European coast. Genetically, in terms of Y-chromosomes and mt-DNA, inhabitants of Britain and Ireland are closely related to the Basques, reflecting their common origin in this refugial area. Basques, along with Irish, show the highest frequency of the Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup R1b in Western Europe; some 90% to 95% of males residing in the Basque country and Navarre have this haplogroup. The rest is mainly I and a minimal presence of E3b.The Y-chromosome and mtDNA relationship between Basques and people of Ireland and Wales is of equal ratios as to neighbouring areas of Spain, where similar "ethnically Spanish" people now live in close proximity to the Basques, although this genetic relationship is also very strong among Basques and other Spaniards. In fact, as Stephen Oppenheimer has stated in "The Origins of the British" (2006), although Basques have been more isolated than other Iberians, they are a population representative of south western Europe. As to the genetic relationship among Basques, Iberians and Britons, he also states (pages 375 and 378):

By far the majority of male gene types in the British Isles derive from Iberia (modern Spain and Portugal), ranging from a low of 59% in Fakenham, Norfolk to highs of 96% in Llangefni, north Wales and 93% Castlerea, Ireland.

In fact, according to a European-wide study, the main components in the European genomes appear to derive from ancestors whose features were similar to those of modern Basques and Near Easterners, with average values greater than 35% for both these parental populations, regardless of whether or not molecular information is taken into account. The lowest degree of both Basque and Near Eastern admixture is found in Finland, whereas the highest values are, respectively, 70% ("Basque") in Spain and more than 60% ("Near Eastern") in the Balkans.

Before the development of modern genetics based on DNA sequencing, Basques were noted as having the highest global apportion of the Rh- blood type (35% phenotypically, 60% genetically). Additionally, the Basque population has virtually no B blood type, nor the related AB type. These differences are thought to reflect their long history of isolation, as well as times during which the Basque population contracted, allowing genetic drift to dramatically influence genetic makeup. The history of isolation reflected in gene frequencies has presumably also been key to the retention of the distinctive Basque language. In fact, in accordance with other genetic studies, a recent genetic piece of research from 2007 claims: "The Spanish and Basque groups are the furthest away from other continental groups (with more diversity within the same genetic groups) which is consistent with the suggestions that the Iberian peninsula holds the most ancient West European genetic ancestry."

* Videos: The Basque Country ( Euskal Herria ), Bilbao. Do You Know Any City

Basques in Asia: There is a little known, but thriving Basque population based in Asia, especially in the Philippines. The Philippines having been a Spanish colonial asset for over 300 years, was populated by the conquistadors, merchants, clergy, sailors and entreupeneurs that were mostly of Basque origin. These families of Basque lineage over time entrenched themselves and slowly integrated into the Philippine social landscape, developing themselves into some of the most prominent families in the country. This is evident to this day in the market dominance of Basque-originating families such as the Aboitiz shipping magnates, the Zobel de Ayala family and political clans like the Zubiris and the Ozámiz. A majority of names of Iberian (mostly Castilian and Catalan) origin in the Philippines, however, come not from actual peninsular ancestors but from the Catálogo alfabético de apellidos, a list of surnames imposed on the former Spanish province’s native inhabitants by then Captain-General Narciso Clavería. As a result of this, most Basque surnames in the Philippines are a veritable indicator of actual Iberian Peninsular ancestry, while common Castilian and Catalan family names in the Philippines could very well be traced to the catalog used by the colonial administrators in issuing out family names to natives of the Philippines who did not yet use surnames.

Some of the first Christian missionaries in Asia were of Basque descent such as the Jesuit Francis Xavier who died on Sancian Island off the Chinese Coast.

* Videos: Spanish Sailor F.Magellan vs Lapu-Lapu, Spanish Philippines: Colonial Era, Filipinos of Spanish Descent

 

Álava

Álava (Basque: Araba and officially Álava-Araba) is a province of northern Spain in the southern part of the Basque Autonomous Community. The province numbers a population of 301,926 inhabitants (2006 official estimate) in an area of 2,963 km². The vast majority of the population clusters in the capital city of Álava Vitoria-Gasteiz (Vitoria is the Spanish name, Gasteiz the Basque name), which also serves as the capital of the autonomous community.

* Video: Vitoria-Gasteiz

 

 

* Reduced Genetic Structure of the Iberian Peninsula Revealed by Y-chromosome Analysis: Implications for population demography by Carlos Flores, et al.

 

* Estimating the Impact of Prehistoric Admixture on the Genome of Europeans by Isabelle Dupanloup

Abstract: Complete sequencing of 62 mitochondrial DNAs (mtDNAs) belonging (or very closely related) to haplogroup H revealed that this mtDNA haplogroup—by far the most common in Europe—is subdivided into numerous subhaplogroups, with at least 15 of them (H1–H15) identifiable by characteristic mutations. All the haplogroup H mtDNAs found in 5,743 subjects from 43 populations were then screened for diagnostic markers of subhaplogroups H1 and H3. This survey showed that both subhaplogroups display frequency peaks, centered in Iberia and surrounding areas, with distributions declining toward the northeast and southeast—a pattern extremely similar to that previously reported for mtDNA haplogroup V. Furthermore, the coalescence ages of H1 and H3 (∼11,000 years) are close to that previously reported for V. These findings have major implications for the origin of Europeans, since they attest that the Franco-Cantabrian refuge area was indeed the source of late-glacial expansions of huntergatherers that repopulated much of Central and Northern Europe from ∼15,000 years ago. This has also some implications for disease studies. For instance, the high occurrence of H1 and H3 in Iberia led us to re-evaluate the haplogroup distribution in 50 Spanish families affected by nonsyndromic sensorineural deafness due to the A1555G mutation. The survey revealed that the previously reported excess of H among these families is caused entirely by H3 and is due to a major, probably nonrecent, founder event.

 

 

Basque Language

Basque (Euskara) is the language spoken by the Basque people who inhabit the Basque Country, a region spanning an area in north-eastern Spain and south-western France.

Geographically surrounded by Indo-European languages, Basque is classified as a language isolate, the last remaining pre-Indo-European language in Western Europe. Consequently its prehistory may not be reconstructible by means of the comparative method except by applying it to language internal dialectal differences. Little is known of its origins but it is likely that an early form of the Basque language was present in Western Europe before the arrival of the Indo-European languages to the area.

The impossibility of linking Basque with its Indo-European neighbours in Europe has inspired many scholars to search for its possible relatives elsewhere. Besides many pseudoscientific comparisons, the appearance of long-range linguistics gave rise to several attempts to connect Basque with geographically very distant language families. All hypotheses on the origin of Basque are controversial, and the suggested evidence is not generally accepted by most linguists.

The Dené-Caucasian language family is a proposed language superfamily containing at least the Caucasian (blanket term for two language phyla spoken chiefly in the north Caucasus and Turkey), Yeniseian, Burushaski, Sino-Tibetan, and Na-Dené languages. The relationship among these languages and the existence of a Dene-Caucasian family is disputed or rejected by most historical linguists, but due to its recentness, with most research beginning in the 1990s, there has yet been little discussion between supporters and skeptics.

The first glimpses appeared in the works of Robert Bleichsteiner, Karl Bouda, E. J. Furnée, René Lafon, Edward Sapir, Robert Shafer, Morris Swadesh, Olivier Guy Tailleur, Vladimir N. Toporov, Alfredo Trombetti and other scholars of the early 20th century. Morris Swadesh proposed the grouping under the name "Vasco-Dene" (for Basque and Navajo, the geographic extremes) in 1959, but Mary Haas attributes the Vasco-Dene hypothesis to Edward Sapir.

 

 

* Intergenic DNA Sequences from the Human X Chromosome Reveal High Rates of Global Gene Flow by Murray P Cox, et al.

Geographic Representation of Population Migration Rates Nm

 

 

Swiss Mercenaries

Swiss mercenaries were soldiers notable for their service in foreign armies, especially the armies of the Kings of France, throughout the Early Modern period of European history, from the Later Middle Ages into the Age of the European Enlightenment. Their service as mercenaries was at its apogee during the Renaissance, when their proven battlefield capabilities made them the most sought-after mercenary troops in the world.

Another prime employer of Swiss mercenaries from the later 16th century on was Spain. After the Protestant Reformation, Switzerland was split along religious lines between Protestant and Catholic cantons. Swiss mercenaries from the Catholic cantons were thereafter increasingly likely to be hired for service in the armies of the Spanish Habsburg superpower in the later sixteenth century. The first regularly embodied Swiss regiment in the Spanish army was that of Walter Roll of Uri (a Catholic canton) in 1574, for service in the Spanish Netherlands, and by the middle of the seventeenth century there were a dozen Swiss regiments fighting for the Spanish army. From the latter part of the seventeenth century these could be found serving in Spain itself or in its possessions.

 

 

Jewish People in the Philippines

The history of the Jewish Community in Manila begins with the Spanish Inquisition of the 16th century, when many Jews of Spain, who were forcibly converted to Christianity, observed their Jewish life in secret and found themselves tried, convicted, and expelled for heretical behavior. Known as Marranos or "New Christians," these Crypto-Jews accompanied Spanish adventurers who settled in many Far Eastern ports, Manila included.

Two "New Christian" brothers, Jorge and Domingo Rodríguez, arrived in the Spanish Philippines in the 1590s. By 1593 both were tried and convicted at an auto da fe in Mexico City because the Inquisition did not have an independent tribunal in the Philippines. The Inquisition imprisoned the Rodríguez brothers and subsequently tried and convicted at least eight other "New Christians" from the Philippines. Such was the precarious status of Jewish settlers in the Philippines. Jewish presence during the subsequent centuries of Spanish colonization remained small and unorganized. Spanish Christianized laws would not have permitted the presence of an organized Jewish community.

Ashkenazi Jews (Standard Hebrew: sing. אַשְׁכֲּנָזִי, pl. אַשְׁכֲּנָזִים) are descended from the medieval Jewish communities of the Rhineland, "Ashkenaz" being the Medieval Hebrew name for Germany.

Many later migrated, largely eastward, forming communities in Germany, Hungary, Poland, Russia, Eastern Europe and elsewhere between the 10th and 19th centuries.

* Gene Test Shows Spain’s Jewish and Muslim Mix by Nicholas Wade

 

 

Dutch Formosa

Dutch Formosa refers to the period of colonial Dutch government on Formosa (now known as Taiwan), lasting from 1624 to 1662. In the context of the Age of Discovery the Dutch East India Company established its presence on Taiwan to trade with China and Japan, and also to interdict Portuguese and Spanish trade and colonial activities in East Asia.

The time of Dutch rule saw economic development in Taiwan, including both large-scale hunting of deer and the cultivation of rice and sugar by imported labour from Fujian in China. The government also attempted to convert the aboriginal inhabitants to Christianity and suppress some cultural activities they found disagreeable (such as forced abortion and habitual nakedness), in other words, to "civilise" the inhabitants of the island.

However, they were not universally welcomed and uprisings by both aborigines and recent Han Chinese arrivals were crushed brutally by the Dutch military on more than one occasion. The colonial period was brought to an end by the invasion of Koxinga's army after just 37 years.

History

Early years (1624–1625): On deciding to set up in Taiwan and in common with standard practice at the time, the Dutch built a defensive fort to act as a base of operations. This was built on the sandy peninsula of Tayouan (now part of mainland Taiwan, in the current-day district of Anping). The site chosen was accessible from the sea and had good sightlines for defensive purposes, but lacked fresh water, which had to be shipped from the mainland.

Growing control, pacification of the aborigines (1626–1636): The first order of business was to punish villages that had violently opposed the Dutch and unite the aborigines in allegiance with the VOC. The first punitive expedition was against the villages of Bakloan and Mattau, north of Saccam near Tayowan. The Mattau campaign had been easier than expected and the tribe submitted after having their village razed by fire. The campaign also served as a threat to other villages from Tirosen (Chiayi) to Longkiau (Hengchun).

Pax Hollandica and the ousting of the Spanish (1636–1642): Following the pacification campaigns of 1635–6, more and more villages came to the Dutch to swear allegiance, sometimes out of fear of Dutch military action, and sometimes for the benefits which Dutch protection could bring (food and security). These villages stretched from Longkiau in the south (125 km from the Dutch base at Fort Zeelandia to Favorlang in central Taiwan, 90 km to the north of Fort Zeelandia. The relative calm of this period has been called the Pax Hollandica (Dutch Peace) by some commentators (a reference to the Pax Romana).

One area not under their control was the north of the island, which from 1626 had been under Spanish sway, with their two settlements at Tamsuy and Keelung. The fortification at Keelung was abandoned because the Spanish lacked the resources to maintain it, but Fort Santo Domingo in Tamsuy was seen as a major obstacle to Dutch ambitions on the island and the region in general.

In 1642, the Dutch sent an expedition of soldiers and aboriginal warriors in ships to Tamsuy, managing to dislodge the small Spanish contingent from their fortress and drive them from Taiwan. Following this victory, the Dutch set about bringing the northern villages under their banner in a similar way to the pacification campaign carried out in the previous decade in the south.

Growing Chinese presence and the Guo Huaiyi Rebellion (1643–1659): The Dutch began to encourage large-scale Chinese immigration to the island, mainly from Fujian. Most of the immigrants were young single males who were discouraged from staying on the island often referred to by Han as "The Gate of Hell" for its reputation in taking the lives of sailors and explorers. After one uprising by Han Chinese in 1640, the Guo Huaiyi Rebellion in 1652 saw an organised insurrection against the Dutch, fuelled by anger over punitive taxes and corrupt officials. The Dutch again put down the revolt hard, with fully 25% of those participating in the rebellion being killed over a period of a couple of weeks.

Siege of Zeelandia and the end of Dutch government on Formosa (1660–1662): In 1661, a naval fleet of 1000 warships, led by the Ming loyalist Koxinga, landed at Lu'ermen to attack Taiwan in order to destroy and oust the Dutch from Zeelandia. Following a nine month siege, Koxinga captured the Dutch Fort Zeelandia and defeated the Dutch. Koxinga then forced the Dutch Government to sign a peace treaty at Zeelandia on 1 February 1662, and leave Taiwan. From then on, Taiwan became Koxinga's base for the Kingdom of Tungning.

Coda: The Dutch retake Keelung (1664–1668): After being ousted from Taiwan the Dutch allied with the new Qing Dynasty in China against the Zheng regime in Taiwan. Following some skirmishes the Dutch retook the northern fortress at Keelung in 1664. Zheng Jing sent troops to dislodge the Dutch, but they were unsuccessful. The Dutch held out at Keelung until 1668, when aborigine resistance (likely incited by Zheng Jing) and the lack of progress in retaking any other parts of the island persuaded them to give up their last stronghold and retreat from Taiwan altogether.

Demographics

Prior to the arrival of the Dutch colonists, Taiwan was almost exclusively populated by Taiwanese aborigines; Austronesian peoples who lived in a hunter-gatherer society while also practicing swidden agriculture. It is difficult to arrive at an estimate of the numbers of these native Formosans when the Dutch arrived, as there was no island-wide authority in a position to count the population, while the aborigines themselves did not keep written records. Even at the extent of greatest Dutch control in the 1650s there were still large regions of the island outside the pale of Dutch authority, meaning that any statistics given necessarily relate only to the area of Dutch suzerainty.

The population of Dutch Formosa was composed of three main groups; the aborigines, the Dutch contingent, and the Chinese. There were also a number of Spanish people resident in the north of the island between 1626 and 1642 in the area around Keelung and Danshui. At times there were also a handful of Japanese trader-pirates known as Wakō operating out of coastal areas outside Dutch control.

The Aborigines: The native Formosan peoples had been in Taiwan for many thousands of years before the Dutch arrived. Estimates of the total numbers of aborigines in Taiwan are difficult to come by, but one commentator suggests that there were 150,000 over the entire island during the Dutch era. They lived in villages with populations ranging from a couple of hundred up to around 2,000 people for the biggest towns, with different groups speaking different Formosan languages which were not mutually intelligible.

The Dutch: The Dutch contingent was initially composed mostly of soldiers, with some slaves and other workers from the other Dutch colonies, particularly the area around Batavia (current day Jakarta). The number of soldiers stationed on the island waxed and waned according to the military needs of the colony, from a low of 180 troops in the early days to a high of 1,800 shortly before Koxinga's invasion. There were also a number of other personnel, from traders and merchants to missionaries and schoolteachers, plus the Dutch brought with them slaves from their other colonies, who mainly served as personal slaves for important Dutch people.

 

 

Dutch People

The Dutch people are the dominant ethnic group of the Netherlands. They share a common culture, speaking the Dutch language and being of Dutch descent.

As with all ethnic groups the ethnogenesis of the Dutch (and their predecessors) has been a lengthy and complex process. Though the majority of the defining characteristics (such as language, religion, architecture or cuisine) of the Dutch ethnic group have accumulated over the ages, it is difficult (if not impossible) to clearly pinpoint the exact emergence of the Dutch people.

Following the end of the migration period in the West around 500 AD, with large federations (such as the Franks, Vandals, Alamanni and Saxons) settling the decaying Roman Empire, great changes occur among the Germanic peoples; who inhabited much of Northwestern Europe at the time.

Prior to this, the Germanic tribes formed tribal societies with no apparent form of autocracy (chiefs only being elected in times of war), beliefs based Germanic paganism and speaking a dialect still closely resembling Common Germanic. Yet following their incursions into (and eventual overthrow of) the Roman Empire, a series of monumental changes took place within these Germanic societies. Among the most important of these are their conversion from Germanic paganism to Christianity, the new emerging of a political system; centered on kings and, continuing process of emerging unintelligibility of their various dialects.

As the general situation described above is applicable to most if not all modern European ethnic groups with origins among the Germanic tribes; such as the Frisians, Germans, English and the North-Germanic peoples; this paragraph will detail the specific process for the Dutch.

In the Low Countries, this phase began when the Franks, themselves a union of multiple smaller tribes (many of them, such as the Batavi, Chauci, Chamavi and Chattuarii who were already living in the Low Countries prior to the forming of the Frankish confederation), began to incur the northwestern provinces of the Roman Empire. Eventually, in 358 AD, the Salian Franks, one of the three main subdivisions among the Frankish alliance settled the area's Southern lands as a foederati; Roman allies in charge of border defense.

As mentioned before, at this time no Dutch identity existed, but its first outlines emerged. Linguistically the Frankish language gradually evolved into Old Dutch, which was first attested in the 6th century, whereas religiously the Franks (beginning with the upper class) converted to Christianity from around 500 to 700 AD. On a political level, the Frankish warlords abandoned tribalism (thus beginning the process of de-identification as 'Frank' among the Franks) and founded a number of kingdoms, eventually culminating in the Frankish Empire of Charlemagne.

It should however be noted that the population make up of the Frankish Empire, or even early Frankish Kingdoms such as Neustria and Austrasia, was not dominated by Franks. Though the Frankish leaders indeed controlled most of Western Europe, the Franks themselves were confined to the Northwestern part (i.e the Low Countries and Northern France) of the Empire. Eventually, the Franks in Northern France were assimilated by the general Gallo-Roman population, and took over their dialects (which became French), whereas the Franks in the Low Countries retained their language, which would evolve into Dutch. The current Dutch-French language border has (with the exception of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais in France) remain virtually identical ever since, and could be seen as marking the furthest pale of gallicization among the Franks.

 

 

Flemish People

Nord-Pas de Calais

The Flemish people, the Flemings or the Flemish (de Vlamingen) are the over six million people of Flanders, the northern region of the country Belgium — and the majority of all Belgians.

Modern day Flanders however, does not correspond closely to the former County of Flanders, which included parts of present-day France and the Netherlands and did not include the central and eastern parts of present-day Flanders, which were part of other Holy Roman fiefs, chiefly the Duchy of Brabant and the County of Loon.

The Flemish once were, and sometimes still are, regarded as "Dutch". It is, however, inaccurate to view the Flemish as a Dutch offshoot. A more accurate view would be to consider the modern Dutch and Flemish as having been a single people which subsequently (due to all kinds of factors) split, with the Dutch 'keeping' the groups name in the international sphere. When this exact split occurred is open to debate (as is, in some circles, the split itself). Some claim it began when the Dutch Republic signed the Treaty of Münster, thus creating essentially the first political division between the Dutch, while others say it wasn't until the start of the Flemish movement at the beginning of the 20th century. As a result of this the Flemish people are generally not regarded as identical nowadays, and most Dutch people see them as a separate ethnic group. At the same time however, the Dutch and Flemish see themselves as the most similar people, and some institutions see "Fleming" as an alternative term for "Dutch".

The situation in Belgium itself was/is very vague. Until 1980, for example, the Flemish community was called the Nederlandse Cultuurgemeenschap (Dutch for "Dutch cultural community") and there are people who deny the existence of the Flemish as an ethnic group, and refer to them as Dutch-speaking Belgians instead.

French Flanders (French: La Flandre française; Dutch: Frans-Vlaanderen) is a part of the historical, originally Dutch-speaking region Flanders in present-day France. The region today lies in the modern-day région of Nord-Pas de Calais, the departement of Nord, and roughly corresponds to the arrondissements of Lille, Douai, and Dunkirk on the Belgian border.

French Flanders is mostly flat marshlands in the coal-rich area just south of the North Sea. French Flanders consists of two regions:

  1. French Westhoek to the northwest, lying between the Lys River and the North Sea, roughly the same area as the Arrondissement of Dunkirk
  2. Lille Flanders (French: La Flandre Lilloise; Dutch: Rijsels-Vlaanderen), the French parts of Romance Flanders (historically also Walloon Flanders) to the southeast, south of the Lys and now the arrondissements of Lille and Douai

The region was originally part of the feudal County of Flanders, then part of the Spanish Netherlands, in present-day Belgium. It was separated from the county in 1659 due to the Peace of the Pyrenees, which ended the French-Spanish conflict in the Thirty Years War, and other parts of the region were added in successive treaties in 1668 and 1678. The region was ceded to the Kingdom of France, and became part of the province of Flanders and Hainaut. The bulk became part of French the modern administrative Department of Nord, although some western parts of the region which separated in 1237 and became County of Artois before the cession to the French are now part of Pas-de-Calais.

* Videos: France - Lille March 2009, Flemish Painting

 

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Celiac Disease DNA Test: Positive for a celiac disease-associated HLA allele (DNA test by Health Check USA)

 

DQ8 (DQB1*0302): Positive

DQB1*0302: Detected

DQ2 (DQA1*05/DQB1*02): Negative

DQA1*0501 or *0505: Not detected
DQB1*0201 or *0202: Not detected

 

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HLA-DQ8

HLA-DQ8 (DQ8) is a human leukocyte antigen serotype within the HLA-DQ (DQ) serotype group. DQ8 is determined by the antibody recognition of β8 and this generally detects the gene product of DQB1*0302.

DQ8 is commonly linked to autoimmune disease in the human population. DQ8 is the second most predominant isoform linked to coeliac disease and the DQ most linked to juvenile diabetes. DQ8 increases the risk for rheumatoid arthritis and is linked to the primary risk locus for RA, HLA-DR4. .

DQA1*0301:DQB1*0302 (DQ8.1) is the most common DQ8 subtype representing over 98% of the DQ8 bearing population. DQ8.1 is found almost ubiquitously in every human regional population, but because of its unique distribution it becomes an object of molecular anthropology. There are 3 places where haplotype frequency is elevated, Central and South America, NE Pacific Rim, and Northern Europe.

Global Spread of DQ8: DQ8 along with a few other Haplotypes appears to be split NW/SE in Eurasia and with the evidence for DQ2.5 and other haplotypes suggest an ancient Central Asian population was displaced by a more recent African migration. There are many common markers found in France, Germans, Danes, Swedes, Tibetans, Amur River, Japanese and Koreans that are potential indicators of this bilateral spread. The DQ8 haplotypes is found at high frequencies in the !kung, albeit one expects more DQ8 in Austronesia it is ubiquitously spread if at some times low frequencies, other times higher frequencies (Thai). The path of DQ8 spread to the New World is enigmatic, certainly Japan and Amur River are potent sources, but other displaced populations cannot be ruled out. If the mode of travel was through the Beringia corridor as proposed by archaeologist, the very low frequency of DQ8 at present is a very unusual find with regard to evidence for complete displacement elsewhere in the World. Markers that are shared between Japanese, TW-aboriginals tend to decline in frequency as one approaches Siberia, mtDNA markers decline in the Kuril chain. During the Jōmon period of Japan it appears there would have been displacement by Ninhvet/Ainu ancestors and depression of DQ8 through out northern Japan, but the decline throughout the region is somewhat inexplicable outside of a catastrophic climate event between the settling of the New World and the current time. An alternative model is that there were multiple sources of DQ8 in the peopling of NE Asia, some sources were from central Asia and some from the indochinese region, some of the DQ8 found in NW eurasia could be from an admixture of West pacific Rim and Central Asian sources, and were displaced from the more central regions but not from the more Eastern regions.

High Levels of DQ8 in Northern Europe: DQ8 is also abundant also in Northern Europe and is found at high frequencies in the German-Scandinavian-Uralic population north of Switzerland. HLA A-B haplotypes suggest that a migration from people east of the Urals is responsible for DQ8, possibly from as far east as the West Pacific Rim. The high level of DQ8 and DQ2.5 is something of great interest for DQ mediated diseases of Scandinavia and Northern Europe. DQ8 is also found in Iberia and places were east to west gene flow by other genetic markers cannot be substantiated, and the levels within the African or Middle Eastern population are possible sources, Iberia has considerable A1/B1 equilibration suggesting independent sources from Africa.

 

DQB1*0302 levels in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (given as frequency in %)
Reference Population DQB1 *0302
Nenets (N. Russia)
20.9
Murmansk Saomi (Russia)
18.5
Gaza (Israel/Palestine)
17.6
Arkhange Pomors (Russia)
17.1
Swedish
18.7
Caucasian (England)
16.4
Finland
15.7
France's CEPH
14.5
Dane
13.2
Dutch
11.2
NW Slavic (Russia)
11.0
German
10.5
Russian
8.9
Cantabarian (Spain)
8.4
Spanish
8.9
Basque Arratia Valley
6.7
Sardinian
4.9
Italian
4.6

 

DQ8 and Selection: Like DQ2.5, DQ8 might have been under selection for maritime, coastal foraging peoples and in particular for peoples adapted to the climate/habitat situation on the northern end of the habitable west pacific rim at the Last Glacial Maximum. Triticeae (wheat, barley, and rye) cultivation may apply negative selection on DQ8. While there were numerous members of Triticeae species similar to Mid Eastern wild Triticeae in the Americas, and a great number of domesticated plants in the new world, no single species of Triticeae appears to have been domesticated in the New World, and no clear examples in closely related tribes of grasses. Among new world grass species in post Columbian times, one species of Elymus has been domesticated for human consumption and another as a pastoral cultivar. This could be interpreted in 2 ways. First, that levels of DQ8, negatively, inhibited the domestication of Triticeae strains. Second, that the absence of such cultivars more suitable than already developed cultivars allowed DQ8 to rise or remain high, while DQ2.5 levels in NW under much longer term selection have fallen, or a little of both. Most of American cultivars were domesticated south of the Rio Grande river (exceptions are Caddo rice and Texas varigated squash, etc.). Wheat, particularly Barley and Rye are preferential cultivars in cooler climate, whereas Zea (maize) is more adaptive in tropical climates and some cultivars are relatively drought tolerant, Zea however lacks certain amino acids that must be supplimented by other foods to prevent malnutrition. The proximity of neolithization to the Equator in the New World may have much to do with the unapparent negative selection of DQ8 relative to the neolithization of Western Eurasia.

Abundance in Asia - Hiatus of DQ8 in the NE Siberian Arctic, Elevated Levels in Amur Region and Eastern Turks: The levels of DQ8 in SW to West Pacific Rim are at variable haplotype frequencies, from 2 to 30%, and level off around 10% for Ryūkyūan, Japanese, Koreans, Amur (黑龍江) Regions and in the NW Pacific Rim drop to less than 1% in the Nivkhi. There is a modern hiatus of DQ8 in the Alaska-Eastern Siberian region and it is unclear whether this is due to replacement, selection, or the mode in which first Americans arrived (i.e strictly maritime route). The DR types associated with DQ8 are DRB1*0403, *0404, *0406, *0407, *0408, and *0401 is split between many DQA1:B1 haplotypes. The Cook Island DQ8 had only one associated DR haplotype suggesting diversity limiting introduction into the region, either via the TW-(Japan/Korea/China) route or through the west, for example the Bunun have high DRB1*0403. The majority of DRB1*04 appear to have redistributed from eastern Asia from an unknown source, possibly in Central Asia or India. The distribution can be compared with Native Groups such as South Americans. Three groups with high levels, the Kogui, Sikuni, and Yucpa, have about 75% DQ8, the dominant DRB1* allele in 2 of 3 is the *0411 (N. China = 0), but *0407 (Ryūkyū, Japanese, Mansi-Eastern Ural, Naxi Chinese) and *0403 (Nganasan, Buryat, Negidal, Tunisians, Ryūkyū, Korea, Ainu) are also found. In North America DRB1*0404 and *0407 are more common than *0403 and, in the Lakota Souix, B1*0411 is rare. The DRB1*0404-DQ8 haplotype is more common in North Western Asia, and Northern Europe.

 

DQB1 *0302 levels in the Asia
(given as frequency in %)
Reference Population DQB1 *0302
Cook Isl. (Pacific) 25.0
Negidal (Siberia) 18.6
Kazahk 11.4
Uyghur, Urumqi (China) 11.4
Nganasan (Siberia) 11.4
Japanese 10.8
South Korea 10.3
Ket, Yenisey (Siberia) 8.4
Thais 7.4
Khalkha (Mongolia) 6.1
China Beijing and Xian 6.1
Shandong Han (China) 3.1
Ainu (Japan) 3.0
Naxi (Lijiang, China) 2.7
Yao (China) 2.6
Madang (Papua New Guinea) 1.5
Khoton (Mongolia) 1.2
Zorastra, Yadz (Iran) 0.8
Nivkh (NNE. Sakalin I.) 0

 

 

HLA Gene Frenquencies from the Origin of Minnan and Hakka, the So-Called "Taiwanese", Inferred by HLA Study by M. Lin, et al.

 

HLA

Minnan

(%)

Hakka

(%)
DQB1*0302c
19.4
7.6
DQB1*0302d
7.4
7.6

*0301c:0311-012/04/09/10, *0302d:0302/05/07-08

 

Survival of the Sickest by Sharon Moalem, et al.

 

 

 

 

Celiac Disease: A hidden epidemic by Peter H.R. Green, Rory Jones

 

 

 

 

* Celiac Disease

 

 

Prehistory of Central Asia

Recent genetic studies have concluded that humans arrived in the region 40,000 to 50,000 years ago, making the region one of the oldest known sites of human habitation. The archaeological evidence of population in this region is sparse, whereas evidence of human habitation in Africa and Australia prior to that of Central Asia is well-known. Some studies have also identified this region as the likeliest source of the populations who later inhabited Europe, Siberia, and North America. According to the Kurgan hypothesis, the northwest of the region is also considered to be the source of the root of the Indo-European languages.

As early as 4500 BC, small communities had developed permanent settlements and began to engage in agricultural practices as well as herding. Around this time, some of these communities began the domestication of the horse. Initially, the horses were bred solely for their meat, as a source of food. However, by 4000 BC it is believed that they were used for transportation purposes; wheeled wagons began making an appearance during this time. Once the utility of the horse as a means of transportation became clear the horses (actually ponies) began being bred for strength, and by the 3rd millennium BC they were strong enough to pull chariots. By 2000 BC, war chariots had spoked wheels, thus being made more maneuverable, and dominated the battlefields. The growing use of the horse, combined with the failure, roughly around 2000 BC, of the always precarious irrigation systems that had allowed for extensive agriculture in the region, gave rise and dominance of pastoral nomadism by 1000 BC, a way of life that would dominate the region for the next several millennia.

Scattered nomadic groups maintained herds of sheep, goats, horses, and camels, and conducted annual migrations to find new pastures (a practice known as transhumance). The people lived in yurts (or gers) - tents made of hides and wood that could be disassembled and transported. Each group had several yurts, each accommodating about five people.

While the semi-arid plains were dominated by the nomads, small city-states and sedentary agrarian societies arose in the more humid areas of Central Asia. The Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex of the early 2nd millennium BC was the first sedentary civilization of the region, practicing irrigation farming of wheat and barley and possibly a form of writing. Bactria-Margiana probably interacted with the contemporary Bronze Age nomads of the Andronovo culture, the originators of the spoke-wheeled chariot, who lived to their north in western Siberia, Russia, and parts of Kazakhstan, and survived as a culture until the 1st millennium BC. These cultures, particularly Bactria-Margiana, have been posited as possible representatives of the hypothetical Aryan culture ancestral to the speakers of the Indo-Iranian languages (see Indo-Iranians), and possibly the Uralic and Altaic cultures as well.

Later the strongest of Sogdian city states of the Fergana Valley rose to prominence. After the 1st century BC, these cities became home to the traders of the Silk Road and grew wealthy from this trade. The steppe nomads were dependent on these settled people for a wide array of goods that were impossible for transient populations to produce. The nomads traded for these when they could, but because they generally did not produce goods of interest to sedentary people, the popular alternative was to carry out raids.

A wide variety of people came to populate the steppes. Nomadic groups in Central Asia included the Huns and other Turks, the Tocharians, Persians, Scythians and other Indo-Europeans, and a number of Mongol groups. Despite these ethnic and linguistic differences, the steppe lifestyle led to the adoption of very similar culture across the region.

 

The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World by David W. Anthony

 

 

 

 

 

History of the Polynesian People

The Polynesian people are considered to be by ancestry a subset of the sea-migrating Austronesian people and the tracing of Polynesian languages places their prehistoric origins in the Malay archipelago.

There are three theories regarding the spread of humans across the Pacific to Polynesia. These are outlined well by Kayser et al., (2000) and are as follows:

  • Entangled Bank model: Supposes a long history of cultural and genetic interactions amongst southeast Asians, Melanesians, and already-established Polynesians.
  • Slow Boat model: Similar to the express-train model but with a longer hiatus in Melanesia along with admixture, both genetically, culturally and linguistically with the local population. This is supported by the Y-chromosome data of Kayser et al. [2000], which shows that all three haplotypes of Polynesian Y chromosomes can be traced back to Melanesia

Between about 3000 and 1000 BC speakers of Austronesian languages spread throughout the islands of Southeast Asia. These people, according to linguistic and archaeological evidence originated from Taiwan, as tribes whose natives were thought to have arrived from mainland South China about 8,000 years ago into the edges of western Micronesia and on into Melanesia.

In the archaeological record there are well-defined traces of this expansion which allow the path it took to be followed and dated with a degree of certainty. It is thought that roughly 3,500 years BP the Lapita culture appeared in the Bismarck Archipelago, northwest Melanesia. This culture is argued to have either been developed there or, more likely, to have spread from China/Taiwan. The most eastern site for Lapita archaeological remains recovered so far through archaeology in Samoa is at Mulifanua on Upolu. The Mulifanua site, where 4,288 pottery sherds have been found and studied, has a true age of circa 3,000 BP based on C14 dating.

Within a mere three or four centuries between about 1300 and 900 BC, the Lapita culture spread 6,000 km further to the east from the Bismarck Archipelago, until it reached as far as Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa which were populated around 2,000 years ago. In this region, the distinctive Polynesian culture developed.

The spread of pottery and domesticates in Polynesia are connected with the Lapita culture that started expanding from New Guinea to as far east as Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga. During this time the aspects of the Polynesian culture developed. Around 300 BC this new Polynesian people spread eastward from Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga to the Cook Islands, Tahiti, the Tuamotus, and the Marquesas Islands. This was supported by Patrick Kirch and Marshall Weisler when they performed X-ray fluorescence sourcing of basalt artifacts found on both islands.

Between AD 300 and 500, the Polynesians discovered and settled Easter Island. This is supported by archaeological evidence as well as the introduction of flora and fauna consistent with the Polynesian culture and characteristic of the tropics to this subtropical island. However, more recently, Jared Diamond and others have proposed the date of arrival to be closer to 800 AD, as scientific uncertainly clouded the evidence of an earlier arrival. Furthermore, Terry Hunt of the University of Hawaii has proposed that the arrival did not take place until approximately 1200 AD. Around AD 500, Hawai'i was settled by the Polynesians and around AD 1000 New Zealand was settled as well.

 

 

* Paternal Genetic Affinity Between Western Austronesians and Daic Populations by Hui Li, et al.

Geographic Distribution of Sampled Populations and Migration Routes Suggested by Y Chromosome Analysis

 

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Mitochondrial DNA Haplogroup: A (DNA test by FamilyTreeDNA)

 

HVR1 Haplogroup A

HVR1 differences

from CRS

 16148T
  16223T
  16290T
  16319A
  16362C

 

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Haplogroup A4

16223-16290-16319-16362

 

 

Haplogroup A

Haplogroup A is believed to have arisen in Asia some 30,000-50,000 years before present. Its ancestral haplogroup was Haplogroup N.

The higher frequency is among Indigenous peoples of the Americas the larger population is in East Asia and its greater variety in East Siberia. Thus it might have been originated in and spread from Far East or Central Asia.

Distribution: Its subgroup A1 is found in northern and central Asia, while its subgroup A2 is found in Siberia and is also one of five mtDNA haplogroups found in the indigenous peoples of the Americas, the others being B, C, D, and X.

Haplogroup A is the most common haplogroup among the Chukchis, Eskimos, Na-Denes, and many Amerind ethnic groups of North and Central America. 7.5% of the Japanese belong to haplogroup A (mostly A4 and A5).

Popular Culture: The mummy "Juanita" of Peru, also called the "Ice Maiden", has been shown to belong to mitochondrial haplogroup A.

In his popular book The Seven Daughters of Eve, Bryan Sykes named the originator of this mtDNA haplogroup Aiyana.

 

 

 

* mtDNA Haplogroup Specific Control Region Mutation Motifs by mtDNAmanager

 

 

* mtDNA Subtree A4 by PhyloTree.org

  A  (152)  235  663  1736  4248  4824  8794  16290  16319                     EU597494, AY255144 Derenko 2007, Tamm 2007, Kong 2006, Achilli 2008, Tanaka 2004
                               
    A4  16362                             Derenko 2007, Metspalu 2006, Kong 2006, Tamm 2007
                                 
      A4a  1442                         AP010699  
                                 
        A4a1  9713  16249                     EF153833, AP008617 Derenko 2007 ("A4")
                               
          A4a1a  4928                     EU597529, EF153783 Derenko 2007 ("A4a")