The genomic origins of the Bronze Age Tarim Basin mummies
Homo sapiens
Here we present genomic data from 5 individuals dating to ca. 3000-2800 BCE from the Dzungarian Basin and 13 individuals dating to ca. 2100-1700 BCE 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, while the Early-Middle Bronze Age Tarim individuals only harbor a local ancestry. 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 Afanasievo or to have originated among the BMAC or IAMC cultures. 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 neighboring pastoralist and agriculturalist practices, which allowed them to settle and thrive along the shifting riverine oases of the Taklamakan Desert.
ENA-FIRST-PUBLIC
2023-12-31T01:25:35Z
ENA-LAST-UPDATE
2023-12-31T01:25:35Z
External Id
SAMEA9459517
INSDC center name
School of Life Sciences, Jilin University
INSDC first public
2023-12-31T01:25:35Z
INSDC last update
2023-12-31T01:25:35Z
INSDC status
public
Submitter Id
G218M5-3N.merged.fixedHeader.rmdup.sorted.q30.bam
collection date
2017
common name
human
environment (biome)
terrestrial
environment (feature)
lake
environment (material)
soil
geographic location (country and/or sea)
China
geographic location (latitude)
75
geographic location (longitude)
42
human-associated environmental package
human-associated
investigation type
eukaryote
project name
PRJEB46798
sample name
G218M5-3N.merged.fixedHeader.rmdup.sorted.q30.bam
scientific_name
Homo sapiens
sequencing method
Illumina X Ten