Humans were moving between Siberia and northern China far earlier than thought, according to a new study that offers a detailed new picture of East Asia’s population history.
Northern East Asia, which encompasses Siberia, the Mongolian Plateau and northern China, played a key role in human history.
Its rich water and forest resources likely made the Lake Baikal region a crucial hub for early human cultural and technological advancements.
Previous studies suggested that early human populations in the Eurasian Steppe and northern China were less connected with each other until the spread of pastoralism and metallurgy around the third millennium BC. This was due to the lack of strong, demonstrable evidence for large-scale interaction between people in the two areas.
The new study upends this belief, revealing a previously unknown "north-south corridor" of cultural exchange between the two regions 7,700 years ago.
The study assessed 42 ancient genomes from three archaeological sites, dating from 7,700 to 4,300 years ago.
It revealed that a key population served as a connection between the Lake Baikal region of Siberia and the Yan Mountain Region of northern China thousands of years before the rise of pastoralism.
This population from the early Stone Age Sitaimengguying site in northern China carried a distinct genetic signature linked to populations from Lake Baikal, according to the latest study published in the journal Science Bulletin.
“The Sitaimengguying population is the critical link,” Yinqiu Cui, an author of the study from Jilin University, said.
“They served as a crucial intermediary, preserving the genetic signal from the Baikal region and allowing us to trace this legacy into later populations in northern China.”
The study noted cultural connections between the Sitaimengguying and the Siberian populations.
For example, unique round-bottomed vessels found at Sitaimengguying were previously only seen in the Lake Baikal region.
Burial practice at the Chinese site, with males placed in a lateral position with overlapping limbs, was also prevalent around Lake Baikal.
Genome samples from human remains unearthed at the Yan Mountain Region add further evidence to the mixing of the populations.
“The Yan Mountain Region was clearly a dynamic border zone, a true sphere of interaction,” said Choongwon Jeong, another author of the study. “This highlights the YMR's pivotal role in shaping the genetic landscape of northern East Asia.”
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