A History of the Southern Arc through the Sequence of 777 Ancient Human Genomes

Every known Indo-European language may be traced back to a common source that existed roughly 6,000 years ago

The Southern Arc encompasses southern Europe and Western Asia. Specifically, it is the area that includes the Anatolian Peninsula, the Pontic Steppe, and the Caucasus and is bordered by the Black Sea. It has been home to human civilization for thousands of years and is regarded as the “Cradle of Western Civilization." We are aware of the human populations and people who resided in the Southern Arc thanks to historical accounts. However, more precise historical timelines may now be produced because to archaeology, paleobiology, and DNA sequencing.

By analyzing the ancient DNA of 777 humans, researchers have now developed a detailed timeline of the area's demographic history from the first Neolithic farming civilizations through post-medieval periods, such as the Ottoman Empire. They published their findings over three publications Science. These studies were a huge undertaking and an extremely difficult research project. Coordinating the work of more than 200 coauthors from various nations is an incredible accomplishment. It required the knowledge of several fields to analyze all of this data and make sense of it. Particularly given that a large portion of this work was done during the COVID outbreak.

Researchers sampled DNA from individuals including this man, buried about 8000 years ago in Turkey. JACOB ROODENBERG

In the first investigation

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, data sets from 5000 to 1000 BCE were examined. Large genetic exchanges between the Southern Arc and the Eurasian Steppe were discovered by this investigation. Additionally, it sheds light on the pastoral Yamnaya steppe people and the potential Indo-European language's ancestors. In the Bronze Age, the expansive Yamnaya archaeological civilization emerged from the Pontic steppe (third millennium BCE). Lazaridis et al. investigate specifics of the migration of steppe populations into Southeastern Europe and Armenia, two places with ancient Indo-European languages, by connecting the Yamnaya with distinct Eastern hunter-gatherer origins and the spread of Indo-European languages. They demonstrate that some but not all people from high-status tombs in Mycenaean Greece have steppe ancestry in Southeast Europe, revealing complicated cultural (and biological) dynamics between the local Minoan population and entering steppe migrants.

The Neolithic Anatolia may have been impacted by migration from the Fertile Crescent heartland in two pulses, according to a second study

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that examined ancient DNA from the hub of the Neolithic revolution. Despite this being an era of documented history, the third study

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examined populations including the Romans, Urartians, and Myceneans that had not previously been well studied. They shed light on the complex patterns of ancient Greek colonization, show how migration from Anatolia altered the demographics of Imperial Rome, and demonstrate how ancient DNA can be used to track the spread of Slavic and Turkic speakers into Eastern Europe and Anatolia during the Middle Ages (roughly 500–1100 CE).

Previously, farming was thought to represent a revolution emerging from a single "hearth" in the Euphrates river. Lazaridis et al. analyze ancient genomes from five populations (ancient Anatolian and Levantine farmers and Eastern, Balkan, and Caucasus hunter-gatherers) and demonstrate that the origins of farming in the Neolithic actually involved complex networks of communication and reproduction that connected populations in Anatolia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, and Iran.

Although linguistics had always hinted that Anatolian and European speakers shared a common language, we may now, for the first time, have a nearly comprehensive picture of how this came to be. As people moved from the highlands of West Asia into Anatolia in the west and the steppe in the north, then from the steppe into the Balkans and back into Armenia, they also traveled around the Caucasus mountains. Through a series of migrations, every known Indo-European language can now be traced back to a common source that existed roughly 6,000 years ago.

1. Lazaridis, I., Alpaslan-Roodenberg, S., Acar, A., Açıkkol, A., Agelarakis, A., Aghikyan, L., Akyüz, U., Andreeva, D., Andrijašević, G., Antonović, D., Armit, I., Atmaca, A., Avetisyan, P., Aytek, A. İ., Bacvarov, K., Badalyan, R., Bakardzhiev, S., Balen, J., Bejko, L., … Reich, D. (2022). The genetic history of the Southern Arc: A bridge between West Asia and Europe. Science (New York, N.Y.), 377(6609). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abm4247

2. Lazaridis, I., Alpaslan-Roodenberg, S., Acar, A., Açıkkol, A., Agelarakis, A., Aghikyan, L., Akyüz, U., Andreeva, D., Andrijašević, G., Antonović, D., Armit, I., Atmaca, A., Avetisyan, P., Aytek, A. İ., Bacvarov, K., Badalyan, R., Bakardzhiev, S., Balen, J., Bejko, L., … Reich, D. (2022a). Ancient DNA from Mesopotamia suggests distinct Pre-Pottery and Pottery Neolithic migrations into Anatolia. Science (New York, N.Y.), 377(6609), 982–987. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abq0762

3. Lazaridis, I., Alpaslan-Roodenberg, S., Acar, A., Açıkkol, A., Agelarakis, A., Aghikyan, L., Akyüz, U., Andreeva, D., Andrijašević, G., Antonović, D., Armit, I., Atmaca, A., Avetisyan, P., Aytek, A. İ., Bacvarov, K., Badalyan, R., Bakardzhiev, S., Balen, J., Bejko, L., … Reich, D. (2022a). A genetic probe into the ancient and medieval history of Southern Europe and West Asia. Science (New York, N.Y.), 377(6609), 940–951. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abq0755