Ukrainian Origins | A Genetic and Cultural History

[Music] the history region north of the black sea and sea of azov has long been a crossroads of history conquest and migration the step nations that have formed on the doorstep to central asia have built their identities and cultures over millennia this vast territory has been ruled by a multitude of peoples over the ages it has always been a challenge to define ukraine and its surrounding countries but a new study published in oxford academics giga science press genome diversity in ukraine offers insights into their unique past let's start with the earliest of days one hundred thousand years ago massive ice sheets covered the north of the asian continent this last glacial period ice shelf known as ziryanka in western siberia valdai in european russia and veixel in western europe drained into the south forming a land of moraine lakes and ice damned rivers that spanned the continent this is the eurasian steppe which stretches across asia from ukraine in the west to mongolia in the east dry and treeless the grasslands of the steppe have birthed many essential elements of modern humanity including domesticated livestock and horses as well as many of the grains and cereals we still eat today modern ukraine is the largest country located fully in europe its current population is the result of millennia of different populations arriving from every corner of the world and yet in the world of genetic research ukraine remains woefully understudied 97 ukrainian individuals currently living in ukraine comprise the genome studies data set the specific genetic groups or haplotypes that these people possess can be traced back through history across the step and back into africa from which all our ancestors emerged 60 000 years ago these first modern humans perhaps displaced or replaced the denisovan populations of pre-modern humans who lived in caves denisovan remains have been found in central asia specifically in a siberian cave called denisova that are over 110 000 years old the earliest haplotypes such as n that emerged from east africa around this time or the r haplotypes that emerged in south asia among the very first humans there can be traced phylogenetically throughout history into modern populations for example according to the study gene pool similarities and differences between ukrainians and russians of slovojncina based on y chromosome data published in cytology and genetics august 2015 the modern haplotype r1am198 occurs in approximately 60 percent of ethnic russians but less than 40 percent in ethnic ukrainians the russians possess twice the frequency of haplogroup n1cm178 which is a characteristic of the finno-ugric baltic and north russian populations than the ukrainians yet the ukrainians have higher frequency of haplogroups 1 2 a p-37 and e-1b m35 which are more closely associated with the balkans to the southwest archaeological evidence of modern humans in siberia has been dated to 45 000 years ago and since ukraine is a generally flat and accessible stretch of land between africa and siberia it is reasonable to assume that modern humans lived on the shores of the black sea and along the area's many rivers for thousands of years although specific archaeological finds have yet to be made at around the same time neanderthals at the moldova one site in ukraine built a large ring-shaped dwelling from mammoth bones in the burankaya cave site of the crimean mountains evidence of the earliest anatomically modern humans in europe have been discovered placing them at the outset of gravity and culture 32 000 years ago the gravesite bones bear knife marks that may indicate they were part of a postmortem defleshing ritual the haplotypes of fourteen gravettians were determined in a 2016 nature study the genetic history of ice age europe eight samples of y dna yielded three specimens of haplogroup ct which predates the human emigration of africa and one sample of haplotype i and one of ijk which arose in paleolithic europe the gravetians are associated with a genetic cluster that is normally called the vestonic cluster from a find in chechya to the west haplogroups of specific populations from 22 000 years ago show the peopling of the area from the southwest through the epa gravettion with the formation of the grebaniki culture on the shores of the black sea with aurochs red deer and wild boar from the north the donuts culture synthesized with the grebaniki to form the cook wreck these peoples grew into the lower dawn and swiderian cultures thousands of years later at the end of the pleistocene as the glaciers finally vanished and hunter-gatherers settled these cultures likely began to shape the earliest forms of the region's modern identity an eastern branch of the tardinessian culture from modern romania contributed to the rise of the kunda culture stretching from modern estonia deep into ukraine settled at the edges of forests along riverbanks and at the seashore they hunted elk perhaps with trained dogs and fashion tools and weapons using plain geometric designs that were not nearly as complex as the contemporaneous maglimosian culture to the southwest between eleven thousand to nine thousand years ago the black sea's unstable shores may have finally been overtopped by melting glacier water to form the sea of assaf the azov nipper culture of 6000-5200 bce left many sites in the nipper steppe area including cemeteries in which the graves contained bodies facing east west and flat bottom pottery inscribed with comb designs this culture and the following sorskaya culture preserved a large number of skeletons including skulls that researchers have reconstructed and decorated headdresses clothing and moccasins the diminutive peoples of the early hvalinsk culture from the middle volga region mixed their r1b paternal haplogroup in the area north of the black sea with elements of the early combed wear culture here on the pontic step where the peaceful farming cucuteni tripolia the sturdy shredney stock and reppin settler cultures gradually gave way to the yamna the remains of a male found in alexandria cupriansk ukraine circa 4000 bce was initially ascribed to the shredney stock culture he carried the paternal haplogroup r1a1a1 which is found across europe but is represented most strongly in poland and the maternal haplogroup h2a1a which might have originated in central asia this means he was about 80 percent western step herder ancestry and about 20 early european farmer ancestry he may be the earliest step individual found with early european farmer ancestry and as a carrier of the 13910 allele he might be the earliest specimen found with a genetic adaptation to lactase persistence or the ability to digest lactase and dairy products into adulthood however a new study redated these remains to circa 1700 bce which would probably make him a member of the srubhnaya culture instead with y dna r1af2597 corresponding to r1a y3 genetically a mix between eastern european hunter-gatherers and caucasus hunter-gatherers otherwise known as step ancestry with an additional 18 percent from eastern european farming populations the nomadic yamnia drove wheeled carts and wagons across the open plains managing large herds and leaving significant numbers of corgan tumuli in whose pits they buried their dead from 3 300 to 2600 bce they were the dominant culture of the region and are now considered the forebears of not only the descendants of the pontic caspian steppe but also many later cultures that migrated westward into europe and south into anatolia linguistic and genetic evidence suggests that the yamnia were the first speakers of proto-indo-european languages to arrive on the step along with hittite elements from anatolia and makop from the caucasus these cultures forged the backbone of most modern languages spoken from india to ireland from hindi to persian to gaelic to latin for a thousand years the speakers of proto-indo-european dwelled on the step before charging outward usually to the west and south in a series of waves known as the indo-european expansion from circa 2000 to 1000 bce while cavalry had been invented by the mesopotamians around 3000 bce the first chariots were drawn by oxen for a thousand years this was the only way chariots were drawn not until the advent of horse-drawn chariots did the step tribes find their path to conquest this coincides with the catacomb culture and its regional contemporaries who were among the first to discover horse-drawn chariots their maternal u5 and u4 haplogroups were preserved in the sripna or shrubnaya culture also known as the timber grave culture whose skeletons indicate they were a massive people who existed in the north of the region until the late bronze age circa 1450 bce their proto-indo-european languages evolved into proto-iranian at this time a similarity between the genetics of the catacomb culture and the pitted wear cultures of southern scandinavia has been suggested emerging from the belozerskaya culture around 1000 bce the sumerians possessed a q haplogroup among others which most likely emerged from siberia these peoples were evidently among the first to ride on the backs of horses in this far more mobile way they preserved the nomadic traditions of their ancestors first mentioned by homer in the odyssey as a people who lived beyond oceanus in a land of permanent darkness herodotus described them as divided into two classes the sumerians proper who were the commoners and the royal race implying that the nation was originally two separate ethnicities drawing from archaeological and genetic evidence it is possible that iranian-speaking migrants from the south had imposed their rule on the remnants of the shrubnaya the sumerians were evicted from the pontic caspian steppe by the 8th century bce with the arrival of other nomad groups perhaps the masajitai as herodotus believed or perhaps the scythians one of the great empires in the region's history the scythians left no cities for us to investigate they left no writing of their own so the only records we have are of contemporaries from other nations like the sumerians their culture was also centered around the horse around nomadic conquest over the vast step their animist beliefs have not survived intact trade with ancient mycenae and greece enriched them and funded their development the scythians offered slaves mostly prisoners of war and took goods and treasure in return for at least in their early days they had no use of slaves themselves at its height in bce their greatest king atheists well into his 90s fell in battle to alexander the great's father philip of macedon then the scythians were battered by waves of invading celts and thracians from the west and sarmatians from the east until the scythian empire finally gave up its nomadic ways and was reduced to city-states in crimea and the lower nipper studies of mitochondrial lineages have suggested that scythians were a mixture of yamnya and east asian or siberian ancestry others indicate that the scythians were descended directly from the shripnaya the sarmatians who superseded the scythians in the region were studied in a 2019 paper published in current biology shifts in the genetic landscape of the western eurasian steppe associated with the beginning and end of the scythian dominance several aspects regarding the scythians are evident from the various analyses employed here first the scythian sarmatian world consisted of a confederation of local groups whose genetic differences can largely be explained by geography second although distance from altai is the main contributor to the proportion of all tien ancestry in scythians and sarmatians ancient populations preceding the scythians such as yamna exhibit less altayan ancestry than would be predicted by this geographic correlation indicating that scythians have a higher eastern affinity than preceding step populations this lends support to at least some degree of endemic diffusion being involved in the spread of the scythian cultural and military dominance third after the end of the scythian period in the western eurasian steppe the chanyaki culture samples have higher near eastern affinity compared to the scythians preceding them agreeing with the gothic component in the multi-ethnic mix of the chernakev culture although no such post-scythian genetic shift is detected further east in late sarmatians from the southern urals possania said of them they throw a lasso around any enemy they meet and then turning round their horses upset the enemy caught in the lasso they're breastplates they make in the following fashion each man keeps many mares they're hoofs they collect clean split and make from them as it were python scales these pieces they bore and stitch together with the sinews of horses and oxen and then use them as breastplates that are as handsome and strong as those of the greeks for they can withstand blows of missiles and those struck in close combat all these peoples who had collected here over the ages from the earliest hunter-gatherers to the sarmatian horse warriors from the north south east and west eventually fused into the first proto-slav ethnicities today while ethnic ukrainians comprise over 75 of the population of modern ukraine the genomes of many other ethnicities are present the russian genetic minority is approximately 20 percent with a concentration in the southeast of the country along with other smaller minority groups historically present in different parts of the country belarusians bulgarians crimean tatters greeks gagas hungarians jews moldovans poles romanians roma and others the romans called the slavic tribes of the first century ce the veneti and after the greeks the sporai in the third and fourth centuries the slavic tribes were known as the antes and sclaveni in anthropological terms we now refer to these people as the zarobinsi culture based on the remains of nearly 500 sites along the nipper river using population genetics to discover the roots of these early slav tribes recent studies have identified why dna haplogroups r1a along with i2 subclades spreading out from a central location that is most probably from the territory of present-day ukraine within the area of the middle neighbor basin and southeastern poland on the step invasions from over the horizon were a regular occurrence but none were as fierce as the turkic huns pushed westward by the allens the huns appeared on the volga river in 370 ce by 430 ce they were raiding the eastern roman empire and terrorizing large swathes of the near east their great king atala rose to power and in 450 ce invaded gaul and just two years later italy itself but with his death the empire dispersed as quickly as it had grown and hun related names disappear from the historical record after the 8th century from 500 to 1200 ce a series of other large turkic states ruled most of the step at the eastern edge of modern ukraine the bulgars sabirs and khazars who may have been the first to ride horses were all familiar to the peoples who lived in the nipper river valleys and along the black sea north coast their genetics according to a 2019 study the results confirm the turkic roots of the khazars but also highlight their ethnic diversity and some integration of conquered populations the study also seemed to disprove a supposed connection between ashkenazi jews and the ancient khazars the first mention of the term slav in the historical record is from the 6th century ce when the slavic tribes ruled over most of central and eastern europe using population genetics of the modern slavic population migration patterns can be charted that show slavic languages spreading outward mostly from the territory of present-day ukraine specifically the middle nipper basin and southeastern poland a region known historically as policia during the middle ages according to linguist horace lundt the spread of slavic came from the success and mobility of the slavic special border guards of the avar khanate who used slavic as a lingua franca in their service lund argued that this lingua franca could supplant other languages and dialects whilst remaining relatively uniform these early slavic settlements were small villages of no more than a couple acres in size and 50 to 70 inhabitants with a few temporary buildings that may have reflected their seasonal and distributed agriculture they built in a type of sunken floor building style and focused their lives around a ceramic or clay hearth or oven but as the waves of migration and invasion from central asia and the slow and steady creep of empires from the south and west consolidated surrounding chieftains and baronies into kingdoms and empires the slavic nations emerged by the 9th century ce when their wendish strongholds along the borders of the carolingian empire gave even charlemagne cause for concern then a new non-slavic migrant group known as the varangians arose in modern sweden they followed their leader rurik across the baltic sea in the 8th century to settle along all the rivers that connected it to the black sea studies on descendants of rurik show the consistent presence of an n1 haplotype that first emerged in mongolia or east asia their new empire known in the north sagas as gardariki built some of the first cities in modern russia and ukraine originally a multi-ethnic confederation comprising the original rus along with finnic slavic and baltic tribes it became known as kievan rus as the city of keep on the nipper became its center ruling this new empire as a norse foreign elite rurik's close relative perhaps brother-in-law prince oleg of novgorod killed his rivals and consolidated his power in 882 ce to the south the khazar khanate occupied much of the attention of the princes of kiev svyatoslav the first led a host against their capital atiel between 965 and 969 and ended their empire the khazars became a vassal state the byzantines and abbasid caliphs were across the wide black sea the north shore of the region seemed to be theirs and theirs alone but the rus empire's golden age was already drawing to a close the 9th century varangians brought their own religion with them the local slavic populations had their own faiths but by the next century the exact year is disputed the christianization of kievan rus began considered fully concluded by 988 ce after sveataslav the first was killed by the pecheneg tribes to the east his son vlodimir the first was the first to turn his back on the native religions and idol worship of his ancestors and study the religions of his neighbors according to the rus primary chronicle the tale of bygone years volodomir sent an envoy to study the islam of the volga bulgarians to the east but the envoy reported there is no gladness among them only sorrow and a great stench he also reported that islam was undesirable due to its prohibition of alcoholic beverages and pork volodymir questioned the jews about their religion but concluded that god had abandoned them after they lost jerusalem then he sent envoys to the cathedrals of the germans but they found their religion and buildings lacked beauty finally in constantinople did his envoys report seeing fantastic monuments to god and visions of wonder that settled it volodomir converted to eastern christianity designations began to distinguish various corners of the rus empire there are black russ and white red and a central region called little rus around kiev by the 11th century its unity was permanently shattered regional powers were more important than the center and disputes led to rivalries and assassinations that fractured the empire but more step invaders were on their way in 1223 at the battle of calca river the peoples of russ first met in battle with the mongols as their chronicler of the time put it for our sins unknown nations arrived no one knew their origin or whence they came or what religion they practiced that is only known to god and perhaps to wise men learned in books in 1238 moscow and colomna burned their prince vladimir was killed in battle after batu khan and subatai divided the mongol golden horde into 14 subdivisions and conquered the countryside in 1240 kiev itself was burned the mongols occupied rus and the wider region for the next two centuries they broke the wider empire into fiefdoms that eventually grew into russia moldova and ukraine the modern world is shaped by more than just a collection of ancestral peoples and events yet we can never escape our past as genetics are used more and more to individualize medicine and discover the roots of our past migrations it is imperative that we identify actual distinct populations whose genetics may respond differently to treatment than others in the study genome diversity in ukraine the authors conclude that there are very specific genetic signatures that define the ukrainian genome as the authors state to our knowledge this study provides the largest to date survey of genetic variation in ukraine creating a public reference resource aiming to provide data for medical research in a large understudied population this is the ancient history of the land of modern ukraine it is a tale of endless migration and conquest of mixing cultures and ethnicities from every corner of the globe into a unique identity these layers of history are the rich legacy of the peoples of the mighty rivers endless step and black sea you

Channel: Study of Antiquity and the Middle Ages

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Keywords: Proto indo european, Y-DNA Haplogroups, slavic history, First Europeans, European hunter-gatherers, First farmers, Yamnaya culture, Indo European, Ancient history, Ancient, denisovans, Ukraine history, Ukrainian Origins, ukrainian culture, ukrainian history, Ukraine, ukrainian dna, Finno-Ugric, Hittite, medieval, medieval history, russian history, russian dna, vikings, celtic, Mesopotamians, Proto-Iranian, cimmerian culture, scythians, Varangians, roman empire, ancient greece, history

Id: byVQueBxRMI

Length: 30min 53sec (1853 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 03 2022