Bronze Age Northern Eurasian Genetics in the Context of Development of Metallurgy and Siberian Ancestry

Abstract

The Eurasian Bronze Age (BA) has been described as a period of substantial human migrations, the emergence of pastoralism, horse domestication, and development of metallurgy. This study focuses on individuals associated with BA metallurgical production, specifically the Seima-Turbino (ST) phenomenon (∼2,200-1,900 BCE) associated with elaborate metal objects found across Northern Eurasia. The genetic profiles of nine ST-associated individuals vary widely ranging between ancestries maximized in individuals from the Eastern Siberian Late Neolithic/BA, and those of the Western Steppe Middle Late BA. The genetic heterogeneity observed is consistent with the current understanding of the ST metallurgical network as a transcultural phenomenon. The new data also shed light on the temporal and spatial range of an ancient Siberian genetic ancestry component, which is shared across many Uralic-speaking populations, and which we explore further via demographic modeling using additional genome-wide (2 individuals) and whole genome data (5 individuals, including a ∼30x genome) from northwestern Russia.