The sun and the moon, Srubnaya people, and R1a-Z93

The recently revised Mathieson et al. preprint has some interesting comments about genetic ties between Bronze Age Eastern Europe and South Asia:

After the Poltavka period, population change occurred in Samara: the Late Bronze Age Srubnaya have ~17% Anatolian Neolithic or EEF ancestry (Extended Data Fig. 2). Previous work documented that such ancestry appeared east of the Urals beginning at least by the time of the Sintashta culture, and suggested that it reflected an eastward migration from the Corded Ware peoples of central Europe5. However, the fact that the Srubnaya also harbored such ancestry indicates that the Anatolian Neolithic or EEF ancestry could have come into the steppe from a more eastern source. Further evidence that migrations originating as far west as central Europe may not have had an important impact on the Late Bronze Age steppe comes from the fact that the Srubnaya possess exclusively (n=6) R1a Y chromosomes (Extended Data Table 1), and four of them (and one Poltavka male) belonged to haplogroup R1a-Z93 which is common in central/south Asians12, very rare in present-day Europeans, and absent in all ancient central Europeans studied to date….

This represents a direct link between the European steppe and central/south Asia, an intriguing observation that may be related to the spread of Indo-European languages in that direction.

Actually, several Corded Ware samples from previous studies carried the M417 and Z645 mutations, which are ancestral to Z93. So who’s to say that the main patriarch of the Sintashta and Srubnaya cultures, both of which appear to have been rich in R1a-Z93, didn’t live somewhere within the Corded Ware horizon, even as far west as Germany or Poland?

In any case, it’s nice to see academia finally mention R1a-Z93 in the context of the Indo-European expansion into South Asia. I’ve been saying for years that this looks like the marker of the Proto-Indo-Iranians and Proto-Indo-Aryans (see here and here).

I also recently wrote how the early Indo-Europeans, all the way from Scandinavia to South Asia, were obsessed with the sun and the moon, otherwise known as the Divine Twins (see here). After seeing the results in Mathieson et al., I did some Googling about the Srubnaya Culture, and found these news features:

Illuminating! Ancient Slab May Be Sundial-Moondial

Photos: Ancient Sundial-Moondial Discovered

Fascinating stuff. Anyone know if similar Sundial-Moondials dating to the Bronze or Iron Age have been found in South Asia?

See also…

The Srubnaya outlier

The Poltavka outlier

Lactase persistence and ancient DNA

Source Polish and European population genetics and modern physical anthropology.