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Tracing Human Movements from Siberia to the Americas: Insights from Genetic Studies

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Mobility and Ancient Society in Asia and the Americas

Abstract

Based on archeological and genetic data, the Altai-Sayan region appears to be the area from which human populations began expanding eastward toward Beringia some 25,000 years ago, and then much later to the west with the expansion of Turkic- and Mongolic-speaking groups. The initial human expansion into the New World appears to have occurred around 15,000–20,000 BP, with most genetic data supporting a single early expansion into the Americas giving rise to Amerindian populations. The ancestors of Eskimo-Aleut- and Na-Dene-speaking groups entered northern North America around 8,000–10,000 years ago, having become genetically distinctive from Amerindian populations to the south. From a Eurasian perspective, mtDNA and Y-chromosome data indicate that southern Altaians and Native Americans shared a common genetic ancestor some 20,000–25,000 BP. Such data from indigenous Altaians also link them to Japanese and Koreans (possibly Tibetans), tentatively supporting connections among Altaic (Transeurasian) speakers. Within the Altai-Sayan region, northern Altaians show genetic affinities with Yeniseian, Ugric, and Samoyedic speakers to the north, whereas southern Altaians have greater affinities to other Turkic-speaking populations of southern Siberia and Central Asia, revealing complex population dynamics there. Turkic and Mongolic groups show genetic influences from both West and East Eurasia, reflecting the entry of steppe peoples into Central Asia several thousand years ago, while Mongols have strongly genetically influenced southern Altaians and Altaian Kazakhs (Y-chromosome haplogroups C3c and O3e). Overall, this research has yielded important insights into the phylogeography and ancestry of populations from across Eurasia and the Americas.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The nomenclature for the branches of haplogroup Q (its lineages) can be read from top to bottom in this diagram, with each step through the tree being marked by a lower case letter or number. Thus, the branch defined by the M346 SNP is called “Q1a3”, and that defined by the M3 SNP is called “Q1a3a1a.”

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the Permanent Delegation of Kazakhstan to the UNESCO, the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the United States of America, and the Harriman Institute and the East Central European Center at Columbia University for their sponsorship of the Great Migrations conference. Many thanks to the Altaian, Kazakh, Mongolian, and Native American individuals who participated in the studies described in this chapter; without their involvement, the insights discussed in the text could not have been obtained. I would also like to thank the individuals from my research team who contributed to the Altaian and Native American studies described in this chapter, including Matthew Dulik, Amanda Owings, Jill Gaieski, Sergey Zhadanov, Miguel Vilar, Omer Gokcumen, Ayken Askapuli, Lydia Gau, Athma Pai, Samara Rubinstein, and Lenore Pipes. In addition, I wish to express my gratitude to collaborators in the USA, Canada, and Russia for their involvement in this research, including Drs. Ludmila Osipova, Damian Labuda, Ingrid Kritsch, Tom Andrews, Jim Martin, Nancy Gibson, Judy Ramos, Mary Beth Moss, Francis Natkong, Alestine Andre, Crystal Lennie, and Mary Adele Mackenzie. The work discussed in this chapter was facilitated and supported by a number of organizations, including the Tlicho First Nation, Gwich’in First Nation, Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, Millbrook First Nation, Indian Brook First Nation in Canada, Yakutat Tlingit Tribe, Hoonah Tlingit Tribe, Hydaburg Cooperative Association, Huna Indian Association, Huna Heritage Foundation, Bear River Rancheria of Rohnerville, Wiyot Tribe, Seaconke Wampanoag Tribe in the United States, and the Institute of Cytology and Genetics in Novosibirsk, Russia. Janet Ziegle from Applied Biosystems provided technical support for our DNA analysis as part of the Genographic Project. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the financial support of a number of funding agencies for the research that is summarized in this chapter, including the National Science Foundation (USA), National Geographic Society, Waitt Family Foundation, IBM, IFOND (Russia), SSHRC (Canada), University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology.

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  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, 3260 South Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104-6398, USA

    Theodore G. Schurr

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  1. Department of Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, USA

    Michael David Frachetti

  2. Department of Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, USA

    Robert N. Spengler III

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Schurr, T.G. (2015). Tracing Human Movements from Siberia to the Americas: Insights from Genetic Studies. In: Frachetti, M., Spengler III, R. (eds) Mobility and Ancient Society in Asia and the Americas. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15138-0_4

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