Matrilineal and Patrilineal Genetic Continuity of Two Iron Age Individuals from a Pazyryk Culture Burial

Abstract

In this study, geographic and linguistic distributions of contemporary and ancient matches with the paternal and maternal lineages of two individuals exhumed from the exemplary Pazyryk culture burial site of Ak-Alakha-1 mound 1 were investigated. Using the shared paternal and maternal haplotypes observed in both ancient individuals, extensive database and literature searches were conducted revealing numerous full matches among contemporary Eurasians, majority of whom speak Altaic Languages. Despite the current focus on the two Pazyryk individuals, a rare glimpse into the ancient migrations was gained through the discovery of paternal and maternal haplotype matches across an immense geography that spans from Yakutia to Turkey. In addition to a vast array of archaeological findings in such Scythian “frozen graves” across Central Asia, accumulating archaeogenetic data are expected to shed light on the anthropology of these otherwise mysterious people.