Bronze Age Dzungarians

Own work. Note that locations are not exact.

North of the Tarim Basin lies the Dzungarian Basin. Whereas the Bronze Age populations of the Tarim Basin were genetically isolated, with their ancestry derived primarily from Ancient North Eurasians, the populations of the Dzungarian Basin were more genetically mixed.

Bronze-Age populations of the Dzungarian Basin were related genetically to the populations south of them in the Tarim Basin. Despite shared ancestry, Bronze-Age Dzungarians were genetically quite different from the Bronze-Age Tarim mummies, harboring more Western Eurasian ancestry and less ancestry from the autochthonous Ancient North Eurasians. Afanasievo Dzungarians ("Dzungarians" proper) from Ayituohan, Songshuguo and Nileke are represented by two similar genetic clusters. The Chemurchek population, found east of "Dzungarians" proper in Yagshiin Huduu, while closely related to both Tarim and Dzungarian populations, harbored slightly different admixture.

Dzungarian Cluster 1

The first Afanasievo Dzungarian cluster was modeled as a three-way mixture between Steppe pastoralists from the Afanasievo culture, a population similar to the first Tarim cluster, and Ancient Northeast Asians (represented by Early Bronze Age [EBA] populations of the Baikal region). While Afanasievo Dzungarians were modeled using the Tarim 1 cluster, it should be noted that the samples from the Afanasievo Dzungarian population predate the samples from the Xiaohe Tarim population, meaning that this ancestry was derived from a population ancestral and genetically similar to the first Tarim cluster. Approximately three quarters of the ancestry of the first Dzungarian cluster was derived from Steppe pastoralists, with the rest being derived from the first Tarim cluster and Ancient Northeast Asians. Alternatively, the first Dzungarian cluster can be modeled as a three-way mixture between Steppe Pastoralists (72%), Ancient North Eurasians (14%), and Ancient Northeast Asians (14%). Furthermore, while assigned to the Afanasievo culture, the ancestry of this cluster was not entirely derived from the Afanasievo, and can be instead characterized as a mixture between Afanasievo migrants who entered the region and autochthonous populations who adopted the Afanasievo culture.

Dzungarian Cluster 2

The second Afanasievo Dzungarian cluster is genetically similar to the first, albeit with even more native ancestry and less Steppe ancestry. Only about half of the second Dzungarian cluster's ancestry was derived from Steppe Pastoralists, with over a third being derived from a population ancestral and similar to the Tarim EMBA population and 11% being derived from Ancient Northeast Asians. Alternatively, the second Dzungarian cluster can be modeled as a mixture between Steppe pastoralists (53%), Ancient North Eurasians (26%), and Ancient Northeast Asians (21%). As a result, the second Dzungarian cluster represents a population related to the first Dzungarian cluster with less Steppe migrant ancestry and more ancestry from native individuals who presumably adopted the Afanasievo culture.

Chemurchek

The Chemurchek were a population that lived near the eastern bounds of the Dzungarian Basin, succeeding the Afanasievo Dzungarians. Much of their ancestry was derived from the first Dzungarian cluster, with significant admixture from a population ancestral and related to the first Tarim cluster and slight admixture from Eneolithic South-Central Asia. Alternatively, the Chemurchek could be modeled as deriving almost half (48%) of their ancestry from Steppe Pastoralists, with the rest being derived from Ancient North Eurasians (28%), Ancient Northeast Asians (16%), Neolithic Iranians (5%), and Neolithic Anatolians (3%) (Anatolian and Iranian ancestry were derived from Neolithic South-Central Asia). Essentially, the Chemurchek can be characterized as a mixture of native and migrant populations, albeit with more native ancestry than Dzungarians.

Cultural Significance

Due to the genetically-evident presence of significant migration in the region, populations of the Bronze Age Dzungarian Basin region have been theorized to be a vector for societal development. Due to the notable genetic legacy of Steppe pastoralists in Bronze Age Dzungaria, scholars have hypothesized that they may have introduced practices related to dairy consumption, or even the Tocharian languages. While the cultural significance of these populations cannot be definitively ascertained as of now, it is possible that Dzungarian populations served as vehicles for cosmopolitan cultural development.

Sources

Zhang, F., Ning, C., Scott, A. et al. The genomic origins of the Bronze Age Tarim Basin mummies. Nature 599, 256-261 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04052-7

Zhang, F., Ning, C., Scott, A. et al. Supplementary Data

Zhang, F., Ning, C., Scott, A. et al. Supplementary Data 1

Zhang, F., Ning, C., Scott, A. et al. Supplementary Data 2