Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 43 (4) 2015

Annotation:  The Pleistocene Peopling of the North: Paleolithic Milestones and Thresholds Horizons In Northern Eu Transitional Middle to Upper Paleolithic Industries in the Rubas Valley, Coastal Dagestan Truncated-Faceted Pieces in the Paleolithic of Northern Asia Archaeological Sites on the Angara Bank from the Chadobets River to Boguchany: Findings of a Survey A Rare Bronze Sword from Lake Baikal Shore A Stone Abrasive Tile from Cheremkhova, Western Amur Region A Ceremonial Saddle from Altynkazgan, Mangyshlak Peninsula, Kazakhstan First Steps Towards a National Geographic Information System, “Archaeological Sites of Russia” Petroglyphs of Khabarovsk Territory: The Impact of the 2013 Amur and Ussuri Flooding Shakan: Kazakh 18th–19th Century Narrow-Bladed Battle Axes Mapping the Traditional Dress Types of Southwestern Siberian Old Believers (late 1800s–early 1900s) The Impact of Urbanization on the Transmission of Culture and Language of the Sakha People: A Sociol The Morphology of Human Teeth from Afontova Gora II, Southern Siberia, and Their Status Relative to A Paleogenetic Study of Pazyryk People Buried at Ak-Alakha-1, the Altai Mountains   

A Paleogenetic Study of Pazyryk People Buried at Ak-Alakha-1, the Altai Mountains

A.S. Pilipenko, R.O. Trapezov, and N.V Polosmak.

The study outlines the results of a molecular-genetic analysis of two males from a Pazyryk burial at Ak-Alakha-1, Ukok Plateau, the Altai Mountains, relating to mitochondrial DNA, the polymorphic part of the amelogenin gene, autosomal STR-loci, and STR-loci of the Y-chromosome. Major lineages of both mtDNA and the Y-chromosome are identical, indicating kinship. However, more detailed results exclude fi rst-degree (father–son) kinship in favor of a more distant relationship. Phylogenetic and phylogeographic implications of the fi ndings are discussed. The study demonstrates the capacities of modern paleogenetic methods and the urgent necessity of including them in archaeological reconstructions.

Keywords: Paleogenetics, ancient DNA, mitochondrial DNA, sex-related genetic markers, autosomal STR-loci, Y-chromosome STR-loci, Altai Mountains, Pazyryk culture.