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North Pontic crossroads: Mobility in Ukraine from the Bronze Age to the early modern period.

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posted on 2025-01-13, 13:05 authored by Lehti Saag, Olga Utevska, Stanislav Zadnikov, Iryna Shramko, Kyrylo Gorbenko, Mykola Bandrivskyi, Dmytro Pavliv, Igor Bruyako, Denys Grechko, Vitalii Okatenko, Gennadi Toshev, Svitlana Andrukh, Vira Radziyevska, Yurii Buynov, Viktoriia Kotenko, Oleksandr Smyrnov, Oleg Petrauskas, Borys Magomedov, Serhii Didenko, Anatolii Heiko, Roman Reida, Serhii Sapiehin, Viktor Aksonov, Oleksii Laptiev, Svyatoslav Terskyi, Viacheslav Skorokhod, Vitalii Zhyhola, Yurii Sytyi, Mari Järve, Christiana Lyn Scheib, Kyriaki Anastasiadou, Monica Kelly, Mia Williams, Marina Silva, Christopher Barrington, Alexandre Gilardet, Ruairidh Macleod, Pontus Skoglund, Mark G Thomas
The North Pontic region, which encompasses present-day Ukraine, was a crossroads of migration, connecting the vast Eurasian Steppe with Central Europe. We generated shotgun-sequenced genomic data for 91 individuals dating from around 7000 BCE to 1800 CE to study migration and mobility history in the region, with a particular focus on historically attested migrating groups during the Iron Age and the medieval period. We infer a high degree of temporal heterogeneity in ancestry, with fluctuating genetic affinities to different present-day Eurasian groups. We also infer high heterogeneity in ancestry within geographically, culturally, and socially defined groups. Despite this, we find that ancestry components which are widespread in Eastern and Central Europe have been present in the Ukraine region since the Bronze Age. In short, our study reveals a diverse range of ancestries in the Ukraine region through time as a result of frequent movements, assimilation, and contacts.

Funding

Crick (Grant ID: CC1107, Grant title: STP Bioinformatics & Biostatistics) Crick (Grant ID: CC2109, Grant title: Skoglund CC2109) European Research Council (Grant ID: 852558, Grant title: ERC 852558 - AGRICON) Wellcome Trust (Grant ID: 217223/Z/19/Z, Grant title: WT 217223/Z/19/Z) The Bert L & N Kuggie Vallee Foundation (Grant title: Vallee Scholar)

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