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Zhang F, Ning C, Scott A, Fu Q, Bjørn R, Li W, Wei D, Wang W, Fan L, Abuduresule I, Hu X, Ruan Q, Niyazi A, Dong G, Cao P, Liu F, Dai Q, Feng X, Yang R, Tang Z, Ma P, Li C, Gao S, Xu Y, Wu S, Wen S, Zhu H, Zhou H, Robbeets M, Kumar V, Krause J, Warinner C, Jeong C, Cui Y. The genomic origins of the Bronze Age Tarim Basin mummies. Nature 2021; 599:256-261. [PMID: 34707286 PMCID: PMC8580821 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04052-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/19/2020] [Accepted: 09/23/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
The identity of the earliest inhabitants of Xinjiang, in the heart of Inner Asia, and the languages that they spoke have long been debated and remain contentious1. Here we present genomic data from 5 individuals dating to around 3000-2800 BC from the Dzungarian Basin and 13 individuals dating to around 2100-1700 BC from the Tarim Basin, representing the earliest yet discovered human remains from North and South Xinjiang, respectively. We find that the Early Bronze Age Dzungarian individuals exhibit a predominantly Afanasievo ancestry with an additional local contribution, and the Early-Middle Bronze Age Tarim individuals contain only a local ancestry. The Tarim individuals from the site of Xiaohe further exhibit strong evidence of milk proteins in their dental calculus, indicating a reliance on dairy pastoralism at the site since its founding. Our results do not support previous hypotheses for the origin of the Tarim mummies, who were argued to be Proto-Tocharian-speaking pastoralists descended from the Afanasievo1,2 or to have originated among the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex3 or Inner Asian Mountain Corridor cultures4. Instead, although Tocharian may have been plausibly introduced to the Dzungarian Basin by Afanasievo migrants during the Early Bronze Age, we find that the earliest Tarim Basin cultures appear to have arisen from a genetically isolated local population that adopted neighbouring pastoralist and agriculturalist practices, which allowed them to settle and thrive along the shifting riverine oases of the Taklamakan Desert.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fan Zhang
- School of Life Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Chao Ning
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany.
| | - Ashley Scott
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
| | - Qiaomei Fu
- Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Rasmus Bjørn
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
| | - Wenying Li
- Xinjiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Ürümqi, China
| | - Dong Wei
- School of Archaeology, Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Wenjun Wang
- Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Linyuan Fan
- School of Life Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | | | - Xingjun Hu
- Xinjiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Ürümqi, China
| | - Qiurong Ruan
- Xinjiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Ürümqi, China
| | - Alipujiang Niyazi
- Xinjiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Ürümqi, China
| | - Guanghui Dong
- MOE Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems, College of Earth & Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China
| | - Peng Cao
- Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Feng Liu
- Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Qingyan Dai
- Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Xiaotian Feng
- Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Ruowei Yang
- Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Zihua Tang
- Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Pengcheng Ma
- School of Life Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Chunxiang Li
- School of Life Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Shizhu Gao
- College of Pharmacia Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Yang Xu
- School of Life Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Sihao Wu
- School of Life Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Shaoqing Wen
- Institute of Archaeological Science, Fudan University, Shanghai, China
| | - Hong Zhu
- School of Archaeology, Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Hui Zhou
- School of Life Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Martine Robbeets
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
| | - Vikas Kumar
- Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Johannes Krause
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany. .,Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
| | - Christina Warinner
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany. .,Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
| | - Choongwon Jeong
- School of Biological Sciences, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
| | - Yinqiu Cui
- School of Life Sciences, Jilin University, Changchun, China. .,Key Laboratory for Evolution of Past Life and Environment in Northeast Asia, Ministry of Education, Jilin University, Changchun, China. .,Research Center for Chinese Frontier Archaeology of Jilin University, Jilin University, Changchun, China.
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