Tracing population movements in ancient East Asia through the linguistics and archaeology of textile production

Nelson, Sarah Milledge; Zhushchikhovskaya, Irina S.; Li, Tao; Hudson, Mark; Robbeets, Martine

doi:10.1017/ehs.2020.4

Cited by 19 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…The remaining three steps (Steps III–V) involved sudden population expansions in northern China, Korea and Japan, and agriculture-driven environmental change is considered a major factor shaping these sudden regional population expansions (e.g., Nelson et al 2020 ). Mouse colonisation 7000–9000 years ago in the eastern region of northern China is supported by archaeological evidence from the unique culture called Peiligang Culture, which is characterised by the cultivation of millet (Zheng et al 2009 , 2012 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

House mouse Mus musculus dispersal in East Eurasia inferred from 98 newly determined complete mitochondrial genome sequences

Fujiwara

Osada

et al. 2020

Heredity

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The Eurasian house mouse Mus musculus is useful for tracing prehistorical human movement related to the spread of farming. We determined whole mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences (ca. 16,000 bp) of 98 wild-derived individuals of two subspecies, M. m. musculus (MUS) and M. m. castaneus (CAS). We revealed directional dispersals reaching as far as the Japanese Archipelago from their homelands. Our phylogenetic analysis indicated that the eastward movement of MUS was characterised by five step-wise regional extension events: (1) broad spatial expansion into eastern Europe and the western part of western China, (2) dispersal to the eastern part of western China, (3) dispersal to northern China, (4) dispersal to the Korean Peninsula and (5) colonisation and expansion in the Japanese Archipelago. These events were estimated to have occurred during the last 2000–18,000 years. The dispersal of CAS was characterised by three events: initial divergences (ca. 7000–9000 years ago) of haplogroups in northernmost China and the eastern coast of India, followed by two population expansion events that likely originated from the Yangtze River basin to broad areas of South and Southeast Asia, including Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Indonesia (ca. 4000–6000 years ago) and to Yunnan, southern China and the Japanese Archipelago (ca. 2000–3500). This study provides a solid framework for the spatiotemporal movement of the human-associated organisms in Holocene Eastern Eurasia using whole mtDNA sequences, reliable evolutionary rates and accurate branching patterns. The information obtained here contributes to the analysis of a variety of animals and plants associated with prehistoric human migration.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

House mouse Mus musculus dispersal in East Eurasia inferred from 98 newly determined complete mitochondrial genome sequences

Fujiwara

Osada

et al. 2020

Heredity

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“…Although population movements were not linked with monothetic archaeological cultures, Neolithic farming expansions in Northeast Asia were associated with some diagnostic features, such as stone tools for cultivation and harvesting and textile technology 32 (Supplementary Data 7). Domesticated animals and dairying had an important role in the spread of the Neolithic in western Eurasia but, except for dogs and pigs, our database shows little evidence for animal domestication in Northeast Asia before the Bronze Age (Supplementary Data 6).…”

Section: Archaeologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Triangulation supports agricultural spread of the Transeurasian languages

Robbeets

Bouckaert

Conte

et al. 2021

Nature

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The origin and early dispersal of speakers of Transeurasian languages—that is, Japanese, Korean, Tungusic, Mongolic and Turkic—is among the most disputed issues of Eurasian population history1–3. A key problem is the relationship between linguistic dispersals, agricultural expansions and population movements4,5. Here we address this question by ‘triangulating’ genetics, archaeology and linguistics in a unified perspective. We report wide-ranging datasets from these disciplines, including a comprehensive Transeurasian agropastoral and basic vocabulary; an archaeological database of 255 Neolithic–Bronze Age sites from Northeast Asia; and a collection of ancient genomes from Korea, the Ryukyu islands and early cereal farmers in Japan, complementing previously published genomes from East Asia. Challenging the traditional ‘pastoralist hypothesis’6–8, we show that the common ancestry and primary dispersals of Transeurasian languages can be traced back to the first farmers moving across Northeast Asia from the Early Neolithic onwards, but that this shared heritage has been masked by extensive cultural interaction since the Bronze Age. As well as marking considerable progress in the three individual disciplines, by combining their converging evidence we show that the early spread of Transeurasian speakers was driven by agriculture.

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“…With the exception of stone arrowheads, these are all tools that could reasonably be linked with agriculture, although the processing of nuts is of course another possibility for the grinding stones. As discussed in detail by Nelson et al (2020), textile technology provides further support for Neolithic farming dispersals in Northeast Asia, including Korea. Textile weaving, often using spindle whorls, became widespread in temperate climatic zones from the early Holocene (Gilligan, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Archaeolinguistic evidence for the farming/language dispersal of Koreanic

Hudson

Robbeets

2020

Evolut. Hum. Sci.

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While earlier research often saw Altaic as an exception to the farming/language dispersal hypothesis, recent work on millet cultivation in northeast China has led to the proposal that the West Liao basin was the Neolithic homeland of a Transeurasian language family. Here, we examine the archaeolinguistic evidence used to associate millet farming dispersals with Proto-Macro-Koreanic, analysing the identification of population movements in the archaeological record, the role of small-scale cultivation in language dispersals, and Middle-Late Neolithic demography. We conclude that the archaeological evidence is consistent with the arrival and spread of Proto-Macro-Koreanic on the peninsula in association with millet cultivation in the Middle Neolithic. This dispersal of Proto-Macro-Koreanic occurred before an apparent population crash after 3000 BC, which can probably be linked with a Late Neolithic decline affecting many regions across northern Eurasia. We suggest plague (Yersinia pestis) as one possible cause of an apparently simultaneous population decline in Korea and Japan.

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Tracing population movements in ancient East Asia through the linguistics and archaeology of textile production

Abstract: Abstract

Cited by 19 publications

References 51 publications

House mouse Mus musculus dispersal in East Eurasia inferred from 98 newly determined complete mitochondrial genome sequences

House mouse Mus musculus dispersal in East Eurasia inferred from 98 newly determined complete mitochondrial genome sequences

Triangulation supports agricultural spread of the Transeurasian languages

Archaeolinguistic evidence for the farming/language dispersal of Koreanic

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