He Yu, Maria A. Spyrou, Marina Karapetian, Svetlana Shnaider, Rita Radzevičiūtė, Kathrin Nägele, Gunnar U. Neumann, Sandra Penske, Jana Zech, Mary Lucas, Petrus LeRoux, Patrick Roberts, Galina Pavlenok, Alexandra Buzhilova, Cosimo Posth, Choongwon Jeong, Johannes Krause. Paleolithic to Bronze Age Siberians Reveal Connections with First Americans and across Eurasia. Cell, 2020; DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2020.04.037

Highlights:

• An Upper Paleolithic Siberian shows a deep link with the First Peoples of the Americas
• A 10,000-year continuum of Ancient North Eurasian ancestry in the Lake Baikal region
• The Neolithic to Bronze Age population formation occurred through prolonged local admixture
• Long-range human and Y. pestis mobility across Eurasia during the Early Bronze Age

Summary: Modern humans have inhabited the Lake Baikal region since the Upper Paleolithic, though the precise history of its peoples over this long time span is still largely unknown. Here, we report genome-wide data from 19 Upper Paleolithic to Early Bronze Age individuals from this Siberian region. An Upper Paleolithic genome shows a direct link with the First Americans by sharing the admixed ancestry that gave rise to all non-Arctic Native Americans. We also demonstrate the formation of Early Neolithic and Bronze Age Baikal populations as the result of prolonged admixture throughout the eighth to sixth millennium BP. Moreover, we detect genetic interactions with western Eurasian steppe populations and reconstruct Ye r sinia pestis genomes from two Early Bronze Age individuals without western Eurasian ancestry. Overall, our study demonstrates the most deeply divergent connection between Upper Paleolithic Siberians and the First Americans and reveals human and pathogen mobility across Eurasia during the Bronze Age.

Keywords: ancient genomics; human history; Siberia; Native Americans; mobility; Yersinia pestis; Upper Paleolithic; Neolithic; Bronze Age