Abstract
The 'Northern Eurasian Greenbelt' (NEG) is the northern forest zone stretching from the Japanese Archipelago to Northern Europe. The NEG has created highly productive biomes for humanity to exploit since the end of the Pleistocene. This research explores how the ecological conditions in northern Eurasia contributed to and affected human migrations and cultural trajectories by synthesizing the complimentary viewpoints of environmental archaeology, Geographic Information Science (GIS), genetics and linguistics. First, the environmental archaeology perspective raises the possibility that the NEG functioned as a vessel fostering people to develop diverse cultures and engage in extensive cross-cultural exchanges. Second, geographical analysis of genomic data on mitochondrial DNA using GIS reveals the high probability that population dynamics in the southeastern NEG promoted the peopling of the Americas at the end of the Pleistocene. Finally, a linguistic examination of environmental- and landscape-related vocabulary of the proto-Turkic language groups enables the outline of their original cultural landscape and natural conditions, demonstrating significant cultural spheres, i.e. from southern Siberia to eastern Inner Mongolia during Neolithization. All of these results combine to suggest that the ecological complex in the southern edge of the NEG in northeast Asia played a significant role in peopling across the continents during prehistory.
Highlights
Northern Eurasian Greenbelt The northern forest zone in Eurasia, hereafter the Northern Eurasian Greenbelt (NEG), is one of the largest biomes on Earth
This paper examines the cultural dynamics of societies in the NEG from the Late Pleistocene forward by an interdisciplinary approach, combining environmental archaeology, genetic geography and linguistics
Genomic evidence of mitochondrial DNA haplogroup, D4h3a, and Y-chromosome haplogroup, Q-L54*(xM3), in the Pleistocene Anzick-1 burial in North America and Q-L54*(xM3) in Central and South America point to a Pacific Rim migration from more southerly latitudes of the Far East, as opposed to central Siberia or northerly Beringia, prior to 16,000 BP (Battaglia et al, 2013; Rasmussen et al, 2014)
Summary
Northern Eurasian Greenbelt The northern forest zone in Eurasia, hereafter the Northern Eurasian Greenbelt (NEG), is one of the largest biomes on Earth. 8200–7400 BP) in the Liao River Basin in north-eastern China (Chifeng International Collaborative Archaeological Research Project, 2011) These suggest that more sedentary, complex hunting–gathering gradually spread in accordance with the warming of the climatic optimum, among societies along waterfronts, such as river basins and coastal areas, a pattern that we later argue has its roots in the late Pleistocene. Farming traditions in the NEG are limited to the southern mixed and temperate deciduous forests, whether they were diffused from urban-irrigation agricultural core areas in the south, such as Central China and the Middle East, or originated in and around the NEG itself, as millet agriculture in the Xinglongwa culture suggests. The questions that remain are: why was the hunting and gathering-based economy of the NEG persistent for such a long time period in history? What driving forces made these cultures innovative and active across the continent? And, how did the NEG contribute to the migration of human groups on Earth?
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