Ulaanzuukh culture

Ulaanzuukh culture
Geographical rangeMongolia
PeriodBronze Age, Iron Age
Dates1450–1000 BC[1]
Preceded byAncient Northeast Asians
Followed bySlab Grave culture

The Ulaanzuukh culture, also Ulaanzuukh-Tevsh culture (Ch:乌兰朱和文化, c. 1450–1000 BCE),[1] is an archaeological culture of the Late Bronze Age eastern Mongolia. It likely preceded and was the origin of the Slab-grave culture.[2]

Genetic profile

Genetic profile of the Ulaanzuukh culture in southeast Mongolia, against the Deer stone culture in western and northern Mongolia.[3]

The genetic profile of individuals belonging to this culture is virtually identical to the profile of Slab Grave culture individuals,[4] which is consistent with the hypothesis that the Slab Grave culture emerged from the Ulaanzuukh.[4] Genetically, the populations of the Ulaanzuukh culture were rather homogeneous, and part of the Ancient Northeast Asians (ANA).[5][6] In a recent study, they have been shown to have a purely Northeast Asian profile (nearly 100% ANA), with one outlier having a western Altai_MLBA profile.[3] The Ulaanzuukh culture was genetically distinct from the Deer stone culture, located in western and northern Mongolia.[3]

The Ulaanzuukh and Slab Grave culture individuals cluster closely together and are collectively referred to as the "Ulaanzuukh_SlabGrave genetic cluster".[5][6] The later Xiongnu are inferred to have formed via the merger of Eastern Saka (Chandman culture) and the local Ancient Northeast Asian, Ulaanzuukh-Slab Grave culture, which corresponds with the presence of both Iranian and Turkic languages among them.[7] The analysis of the ancient genome of Empress Ashina, a ruler of the clan of the Göktürks, was shown to display close genetic affinities with the Slab Grave and Ulaanzuukh culture remains.[8]

According to a 2023 study, Ulaanzuukh individuals are adequately modeled as having a 24.5% contribution from Khovsgol_LBA although some outlier individuals have even higher inputs from them.[9] Khovsgol_LBA has been previously described as being a tripartite mixture of Early Neolithic Baikalians, Altai hunter-gatherers and Sintashta_MLBA-related populations.[10]

Influences

Ulaanzuukh-Tevsh burials () are located in the most arid parts of Mongolia, in the south, as far as the bend of the Yellow River.
Dagger with an animal head from Bayankhongor Province (Tevsh culture) and jingle-head knife from Zavkhan Province, Mongolia. These are "chance finds": they have not been directly related to Ulaanzuukh-Tevsh burials.[11]

The Ulaanzuukh culture may have contributed to the transfer of the chariot and weapon technologies and designs to Shang dynasty China, which originated with the Deer stones culture of the Mongolian plateau.[12] Daggers found in Ulaanzuukh graves have broadly similar designs to those of the Deer stones culture, with curved blades and pommels decorated with the heads of animals or with "jingles", which are key design elements adopted by the Shang dynasty for their weaponery.[13]

References

  1. 1 2 Honeychurch, William (2015). Inner Asia and the Spatial Politics of Empire: Archaeology, Mobility, and Culture Contact (PDF). p. 112. doi:10.1007/978-1-4939-1815-7. ISBN 978-1-4939-1814-0.
  2. ↑ Lee 2023, ""SlabGrave" was representative of people in eastern and central Mongolia associated with Slab Grave (ca. 1000 to 300 BCE) mortuary sites. Likely arising out of the LBA Ulaanzuukh archaeological culture (ca. 1450 to 1150 BCE) in eastern Mongolia, Slab Grave groups expanded into central and northern Mongolia as far north as the Lake Baikal region. Overall, individuals from the Ulaanzuukh and the Slab Grave cultures present a homogeneous genetic profile that has deep roots in the region and is referred to as Ancient Northeast Asian (ANA). The recent publication of additional genome-wide data for Ulaanzuukh and Slab Grave individuals provided an opportunity to investigate the genetic profile of the Slab Grave individuals across a wider geographical distribution (Fig. 1A) and to refine our genetic modeling of the formation of the Xiongnu more generally. We updated our admixture modeling of Ulaanzuukh and Slab Grave individuals using the qpAdm program.".
  3. 1 2 3 Jeong et al. 2020, p. Figure 3C, 4A.
  4. 1 2 Jeong, Choongwon; Wang, Ke; Wilkin, Shevan; Treal Taylor, William Timothy (2020). "A Dynamic 6,000-Year Genetic History of Eurasia's Eastern Steppe". Cell. 183 (4): 890–904.e29. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2020.10.015. PMC 7664836. PMID 33157037.
  5. 1 2 Lee 2023.
  6. 1 2 Rawson 2020.
  7. ↑ Savelyev, Alexander; Jeong, Choongwon (2020). "Early nomads of the Eastern Steppe and their tentative connections in the West". Evolutionary Human Sciences. 2 e20. doi:10.1017/ehs.2020.18. ISSN 2513-843X. PMC 7612788. PMID 35663512. alternatively, the descendance of the Xiongnu from the Slab Grave culture population, who preceded them in eastern Mongolia, is debated (Lee and Linhu, 2011). Such a distribution of Xiongnu words may be an indication that both Turkic and Eastern Iranian-speaking groups were present among the Xiongnu in the earlier period of their history. Arguably, these Iranian-speaking groups were assimilated over time by the predominant Turkic-speaking part of the Xiongnu population.
  8. ↑ Yang, Xiao-Min; Meng, Hai-Liang; Zhang, Jian-Lin; Yu, Yao; Allen, Edward; Xia, Zi-Yang; Zhu, Kong-Yang; Du, Pan-Xin; Ren, Xiao-Ying; Xiong, Jian-Xue; Lu, Xiao-Yu; Ding, Yi; Han, Sheng; Liu, Wei-Peng; Jin, Li (November 2023). "Ancient genome of Empress Ashina reveals the Northeast Asian origin of Göktürk Khanate". Journal of Systematics and Evolution. 61 (6): 7, Supplementary Material Fig. S6. Bibcode:2023JSyEv..61.1056Y. doi:10.1111/jse.12938. ISSN 1674-4918. S2CID 255690237. In addition, Ashina showed close genetic affinity with population related to Bronze Age SlabGrave and Ulaanzukh culture in Mongolia Plateau who harbors dominating ANA ancestry.
  9. ↑ Lee, Juhyeon; Miller, Bryan K.; Bayarsaikhan, Jamsranjav; Johannesson, Erik; Ventresca Miller, Alicia; Warinner, Christina; Jeong, Choongwon (14 April 2023). "Genetic population structure of the Xiongnu Empire at imperial and local scales". Science Advances. 9 (15) eadf3904. Bibcode:2023SciA....9F3904L. doi:10.1126/sciadv.adf3904. ISSN 2375-2548. PMC 10104459. PMID 37058560. "In this genome-wide archaeogenetic study, we find high genetic heterogeneity among late Xiongnu-era individuals at two cemeteries located along the far western frontier of the Xiongnu empire and describe patterns of genetic diversity related to social status. Overall, we find that genetic heterogeneity is highest among lower-status individuals. In particular, the satellite graves surrounding the elite square tombs at TAK show extreme levels of genetic heterogeneity, suggesting that these individuals, who were likely low-ranking retainers, were drawn from diverse parts of the empire. In contrast, the highest-status individuals at the two sites tended to have lower genetic diversity and a high proportion of ancestry deriving from EIA Slab Grave groups, suggesting that these groups may have disproportionately contributed to the ruling elite during the formation of the Xiongnu empire." (...) "a chanyu, or ruler of the empire. Like the elite women at the western frontier, he also had very high eastern Eurasian ancestry (deriving 39.3 and 51.9% from SlabGrave1 and Han_2000BP, respectively, and the rest from Chandman_IA; data file S2C)" (...) "Chandman_IA was representative of people in far western Mongolia associated with Sagly/Uyuk (ca. 500 to 200 BCE), Saka (ca. 900 to 200 BCE), and Pazyryk (ca. 500 to 200 BCE) groups in Siberia and Kazakhstan." (...) "This further suggests the existence of an aristocracy in the Xiongnu empire, that elite status and power was concentrated within specific subsets of the broader population."... Although not conclusive, this suggests that the ANA ancestry source of the Xiongnu-period individuals may not be exclusively traced back to the Slab Grave culture but may also include nearby groups with a similar ANA genetic profile, such as the Xianbei. ... Last, our findings also confirm that the highest-status individuals in this study were females, supporting previous observations that Xiongnu women played an especially prominent role in the expansion and integration of new territories along the empire's frontier.
  10. ↑ Lee, Juhyeon; Miller, Bryan K.; Bayarsaikhan, Jamsranjav; Johannesson, Erik; Ventresca Miller, Alicia; Warinner, Christina; Jeong, Choongwon (14 April 2023). "Genetic population structure of the Xiongnu Empire at imperial and local scales". Science Advances. 9 (15) eadf3904. Bibcode:2023SciA....9F3904L. doi:10.1126/sciadv.adf3904. ISSN 2375-2548. PMC 10104459. PMID 37058560.
  11. ↑ Rawson 2020, "Large standing stelae, the deer stones, are renowned for lively images not only of stags, but also of knives, daggers, shaft-hole axes and rein holders hanging from belts which are carved around many of them (Kovalev 2007; Volkov 2002). These different monuments, petroglyphs, khirigsuurs and deer stones have illuminated the key role of the Mongolia plateau as a major region of origin for chariot and horse use in East Asia (and their associated weapons and tools), and also the likely source for the chariots and horses employed at Anyang.".
  12. ↑ Rawson 2020, "The deer stone region is to the north of and distinct from the Ulaanzuukh-Tevsh zones, but people in the two areas must have shared a taste for similar if slightly different knives and daggers and axes.".

Sources

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