Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 53 (2) 2025   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2025.53.2.003-024

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The Peopling of Mongolia by Homo sapiens denisovan

A.P. Derevianko

Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia Altai State University, Pr. Lenina 61, Barnaul, 656049, Russia

The article continues a series of publications in this journal, addressing the peopling of Iran, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan by H. s. denisovan. Around 400 ka BP, two large populations branched off from the ancestral taxon H. heidelbergensis in the Levant. One of them migrated to Europe, where its hybridization with natives gave rise to a new taxon H. s. neanderthalensis 200-150 ka BP. The other, having passed through the Iranian Highland, settled in Central Asia, where its mixture with local Central Asiatic H. erectus, natural and sexual selection, and adaptation to various environments in the vast Central Asiatic region 200-150 ka BP resulted in the emergence of a morphologically and genetically distinct taxon, whose informal name is H. s. denisovan.

Keywords: H. heidelbergensis, H. s. denisovan, Early, Middle, Upper Paleolithic, Pleistocene, Levallois