Between Volga and Ural River basins: concerning family ties of the Abashevo and Sintashta population of the Bronze Age in the context of genetic data

Abstract

The focus of our study is the burials of two young men who died in distant lands (Middle Volga region and Southern Urals). Whole genome sequencing revealed a remarkable genetic similarity between the individuals and their potential decent from common ancestors. Men from the excavations of the Pepkino mound (burial No. 8, bronze caster) and buried No. 3 at the settlement of Maloyuldashevo 1 (sacrificed individual) were the owners of haplogroup R1b (Z2103) with a common paternal ancestor. The search of genome fragments identical by origin (IBD method — Identity-By-Descent) showed patterns inherited from a common ancestor without recombination. In a pairwise comparison of Pepkino caster with other samples, the probability of the occurrence of at least one IBD fragment in the genomes was more than 0.9 for both the Maloyldashevo sample, as well for a female (sample POST_131) from Southern Bavaria with close AMS date. Using the PCA method, we identified the owner of a similar genotype in a burial of the Sintashta culture (Kamennyi Ambar 5 burial ground, mound 2, burial 16), for which a mixed origin was previously established with the participation of West Siberian hunter-gatherers and steppe dwellers of the Bronze Age. In addition, among other genetic outliers of the same necropolis, there were men with haplogroup of the Y chromosome R1b, which brings them closer to the individuals we studied from the Pepkino mound and Maloyuldashevo settlement. Thus, the distribution of a mobile group has been shown, which was incorporated into different cultural traditions.