Bioarchaeological perspective on the expansion of Transeurasian languages in Neolithic Amur River basin.

Yinqiu Cui,Martine Robbeets,Pengcheng Ma,Linyuan Fan,Lixin Wang,Fan Zhang,Wei Zhang,Quanchao Zhang,Chao Ning

doi:10.1017/ehs.2020.16

Abstract

Owing to the development of sequencing technology, paleogenomics has become an important source of information on human migration and admixture, complementing findings from archaeology and linguistics. In this study, we retrieved the whole genome and Y chromosome lineage from late Neolithic Honghe individuals in the Middle Amur region in order to provide a bioarchaeological perspective on the origin and expansion of Transeurasian languages in the Amur River basin. Our genetic analysis reveals that the population of the Amur River basin has a stable and continuous genetic structure from the Mesolithic Age up to date. Integrating linguistic and archaeological evidence, we support the hypothesis that the expansion of the Transeurasian language system in the Amur River basin is related to the agricultural development and expansion of the southern Hongshan culture. The spread of agricultural technology resulted in the addition of millet cultivation to the original subsistence mode of fishing and hunting. It played a vital role in the expansion of the population of the region, which in its turn has contributed to the spread of language.

Highlights

Humans have been on the move throughout their long history, spreading their language and culture with them
We confirmed the authenticity of our results with a number of different observations: (a) the negative extraction and amplification controls were free of contamination; (b) the nucleotide misincorporation patterns characteristic of ancient DNA at the 3′- and 5′- ends of the DNA sequences were observed (Figure S1); (c) the sequences show very low contamination estimates for mtDNA (1–2%; Table 1); and (d) blank controls were carried along during every step of library preparation
Our genetic analysis reveals that the population of the Amur River (AR) basin has a stable and continuous genetic structure from the Mesolithic Age up to date

Summary

Introduction

Humans have been on the move throughout their long history, spreading their language and culture with them. Archaeologists study material remains of past human life to understand minor and major innovations in culture across time. In addition to material remains and languages, the human genome retains traces of the past. With the development of sequencing technology, beginning around 2010, genomic data can be retrieved directly from ancient human remains. These data provide an independent source of information to understand the biological relationships among populations across time. A bioarchaeological perspective is expected to complement linguistic and archaeological approaches as a source of knowledge on prehistoric human populations and migrations

Methods

Results

Conclusion