The genetic origin of the Indo-Europeans

The Yamnaya archaeological complex appeared around 3300 BC across the steppes north of the Black and Caspian Seas, and by 3000 BC it reached its maximal extent, ranging from Hungary in the west to Kazakhstan in the east. To localize Yamnaya origins among the preceding Eneolithic people, we assembled ancient DNA from 435 individuals, demonstrating three genetic clines. A Caucasus-lower Volga (CLV) cline suffused with Caucasus hunter-gatherer<sup>1</sup> ancestry extended between a Caucasus Neolithic southern end and a northern end at Berezhnovka along the lower Volga river. Bidirectional gene flow created intermediate populations, such as the north Caucasus Maikop people, and those at Remontnoye on the steppe. The Volga cline was formed as CLV people mixed with upriver populations of Eastern hunter-gatherer<sup>2</sup> ancestry, creating hypervariable groups, including one at Khvalynsk. The Dnipro cline was formed when CLV people moved west, mixing with people with Ukraine Neolithic hunter-gatherer ancestry<sup>3</sup> along the Dnipro and Don rivers to establish Serednii Stih groups, from whom Yamnaya ancestors formed around 4000 BC and grew rapidly after 3750-3350 BC. The CLV people contributed around four-fifths of the ancestry of the Yamnaya and, entering Anatolia, probably from the east, at least one-tenth of the ancestry of Bronze Age central Anatolians, who spoke Hittite<sup>4,5</sup>. We therefore propose that the final unity of the speakers of 'proto-Indo-Anatolian', the language ancestral to both Anatolian and Indo-European people, occurred in CLV people some time between 4400 BC and 4000 BC.

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Journal
Nature
Published
2025-02-05
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08531-5
Citations
78
Primary Topic
Forensic and Genetic Research
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
141.75

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article

The genetic origin of the Indo-Europeans

Andrey A. Chizhevsky, Ali Akbari, Jovan Koledin, David W. Anthony et al.
78 citations
Nature
Forensic and Genetic Research
141.75
article

The genetic origin of the Indo-Europeans

Andrey A. Chizhevsky, Ali Akbari, Jovan Koledin, David W. Anthony, Петр Константинович Дашковский, Leonid Vyazov, А. Тишкин, Aisling Kearns, Eszter Melis, Nadin Rohland, Alin Frînculeasa, Danila S. Agapov, Valeri Khartanovich, Pier Francesco Palamara, Nick Patterson, David Reich, Angela Simalcsik, Viktor Trifonov, Pavel Flegontov, Maria A. Ochir-Goryaeva, Harald Ringbauer, Alexeiy V. Kiyashko, Marina P. Rykun, R. A. Magomedov, Alena Šefčáková, Irina Shingiray, Marietta Csányi, Vladimir P. Semibratov, Elena Batieva, Pavol Jelínek, Anatoly Faifert, Ron Pinhasi, Francesca Candilio, Denise Keating, Mario Novak, Alexandra Buzhilova, Lijun Qiu, Elizabeth Curtis, Vladimir N. Shirokov, Tatyana M. Savenkova, Viktória Kiss, Zsolt Bereczki, Íñigo Olalde, Gabriella Kulcsár, П. А. Косинцев, Natalia Shishlina, Vyacheslav Moiseyev, Olga Flegontova, János Dani, Lora Iliev, Sorin Ailincăi, Adam Micco, Kendra Sirak, Swapan Mallick, Olivia Cheronet, Pavel Kuznetsov, Ion Ciobanu, Romain Fournier, Н. А. Николаева, Octav Negrea, Paweł Jarosz, Thomas Higham, Jonas Oppenheimer, Janet Monge, Sergey Vasilyev, Mihai Constantinescu, Aleksandr Khokhlov, K.N. Solodovnikov, Kimberly Callan, Esther S. Brielle, Arkady Ivanovich Korolev, Fatma Zalzala, Sergey A. Agapov, Tamás Hajdu, Erika Molnár, Anna Szécsényi‐Nagy, Iosif Lazaridis, Sándor Évinger, Aslan M. Mamedov, N. Seregin, Piya Changmai, J. Noah Workman, Ann Marie Lawson, Mădălina N. Frînculeasa, Judit Tárnoki, Matthew Mah, Megan Michel, Sergiu Popovici, Еgor Kitov, Baitanayev Bauyrzhan, Eduard N. Kirginekov, Alexandera Kitova, György Pálfi, Raikhan S. Mussayeva
article en
78 citations

Abstract

The Yamnaya archaeological complex appeared around 3300 BC across the steppes north of the Black and Caspian Seas, and by 3000 BC it reached its maximal extent, ranging from Hungary in the west to Kazakhstan in the east. To localize Yamnaya origins among the preceding Eneolithic people, we assembled ancient DNA from 435 individuals, demonstrating three genetic clines. A Caucasus-lower Volga (CLV) cline suffused with Caucasus hunter-gatherer<sup>1</sup> ancestry extended between a Caucasus Neolithic southern end and a northern end at Berezhnovka along the lower Volga river. Bidirectional gene flow created intermediate populations, such as the north Caucasus Maikop people, and those at Remontnoye on the steppe. The Volga cline was formed as CLV people mixed with upriver populations of Eastern hunter-gatherer<sup>2</sup> ancestry, creating hypervariable groups, including one at Khvalynsk. The Dnipro cline was formed when CLV people moved west, mixing with people with Ukraine Neolithic hunter-gatherer ancestry<sup>3</sup> along the Dnipro and Don rivers to establish Serednii Stih groups, from whom Yamnaya ancestors formed around 4000 BC and grew rapidly after 3750-3350 BC. The CLV people contributed around four-fifths of the ancestry of the Yamnaya and, entering Anatolia, probably from the east, at least one-tenth of the ancestry of Bronze Age central Anatolians, who spoke Hittite<sup>4,5</sup>. We therefore propose that the final unity of the speakers of 'proto-Indo-Anatolian', the language ancestral to both Anatolian and Indo-European people, occurred in CLV people some time between 4400 BC and 4000 BC.

NatureVol. 639(8053)
University College Dublin (IE), Eötvös Loránd University (HU), Broad Institute (US), Ikerbasque (ES), University of Primorska (SI), University of Vienna (AT), Ural Federal University (RU), Russian Academy of Sciences (RU), Centre for Human Genetics (GB), Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US), Harvard University (US), Southern Federal University (RU), University of Bucharest (RO), Altai State University (RU), University of the Basque Country (ES), University of Ostrava (CZ), National Research Tomsk State University (RU), University of Szeged (HU), Hungarian Natural History Museum (HU), Klinički centar Vojvodine (RS), Slovak National Museum (SK), Harvard University Press (US), Hungarian National Museum (HU), University of Oxford (GB), Institute for Anthropological Research (HR), Krasnoyarsk State Medical University (RU), Samara State University of Social Sciences and Education (RU), Valahia University of Targoviste (RO), Dagestan Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RU), Kalmyk Institute for Humanities Research (RU), Peter the Great's Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (RU), Katanov Khakass State University (RU), Evolutionary Genomics (United States) (US), Natural History Museum Aarhus (DK), Don State Agrarian University (RU), Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (DE), Institute of History (RU), Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RU), ELTE Research Centre for the Humanities (HU), Institute of Anthropology and Ethnography (RU), Institute of Archaeology (HU), Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology (RU), Federal Research Centre «Fundamentals of Biotechnology» of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RU), Damjanich János Múzeum (HU), Institute of History of Material Culture (RU), Tatarstan Academy of Sciences (RU), Institute of Archaeology named after A.Kh.Margulan (KZ), Institute of Parasitology (CZ), Institute of History and Archaeology (RU), Czech Academy of Sciences, Biology Centre (CZ), National Agency for Archaeology, Romanian Academy (RO), Hartwick College (US)
John Templeton Foundation, European Commission, Grantová Agentura České Republiky, Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Nemzeti Kutatási, Fejlesztési és Innovaciós Alap
Reduced inequalities
Openalex Percentile: Top 0%
Forensic and Genetic Research
141.75
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