The rise and transformation of Bronze Age pastoralists in the Caucasus
Ayshin Ghalichi, Sabine Reinhold, Adam B. Rohrlach, Alexey Kalmykov, Ainash Childebayeva, Yu He, Franziska Aron, Lena Semerau, Katrin Bastert-Lamprichs, Andrey B. Belinskiy, Natalia Berezina, Yakov B. Berezin, Nasreen Broomandkhoshbacht, Alexandra Buzhilova, Vladimir R. Erlikh, Lars Fehren‐Schmitz, Irina Gambashidze, Аnatoliy R. Kantorovich, Konstantin B. Kolesnichenko, David Lordkipanidze, Rabadan G. Magomedov, Katharina Malek-Custodis, Dirk Mariaschk, Vladimir Е. Maslov, Լեւոն Մկրտչյան, Anatoli Nagler, Hassan Fazeli Nashli, Maria Ochir, Yuri Y. Piotrovskiy, Mariam Saribekyan, Aleksandr G. Sheremetev, Thomas Stöllner, Judith Thomalsky, Benik Vardanyan, Cosimo Posth, Johannes Krause, Christina Warinner, Svend Hansen, Wolfgang Haak
Abstract
Abstract The Caucasus and surrounding areas, with their rich metal resources, became a crucible of the Bronze Age 1 and the birthplace of the earliest steppe pastoralist societies 2 . Yet, despite this region having a large influence on the subsequent development of Europe and Asia, questions remain regarding its hunter-gatherer past and its formation of expansionist mobile steppe societies 3–5 . Here we present new genome-wide data for 131 individuals from 38 archaeological sites spanning 6,000 years. We find a strong genetic differentiation between populations north and south of the Caucasus mountains during the Mesolithic, with Eastern hunter-gatherer ancestry 4,6 in the north, and a distinct Caucasus hunter-gatherer ancestry 7 with increasing East Anatolian farmer admixture in the south. During the subsequent Eneolithic period, we observe the formation of the characteristic West Eurasian steppe ancestry and heightened interaction between the mountain and steppe regions, facilitated by technological developments of the Maykop cultural complex 8 . By contrast, the peak of pastoralist activities and territorial expansions during the Early and Middle Bronze Age is characterized by long-term genetic stability. The Late Bronze Age marks another period of gene flow from multiple distinct sources that coincides with a decline of steppe cultures, followed by a transformation and absorption of the steppe ancestry into highland populations.