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Link to original content: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34759322
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. 2021 Nov;599(7886):616-621.
doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04108-8. Epub 2021 Nov 10.

Triangulation supports agricultural spread of the Transeurasian languages

Martine Robbeets  1 , Remco Bouckaert  2   3 , Matthew Conte  4 , Alexander Savelyev  2   5 , Tao Li  2   6   7 , Deog-Im An  8 , Ken-Ichi Shinoda  9 , Yinqiu Cui  10   11 , Takamune Kawashima  12 , Geonyoung Kim  4 , Junzo Uchiyama  13   14 , Joanna Dolińska  2 , Sofia Oskolskaya  2   15 , Ken-Yōjiro Yamano  16 , Noriko Seguchi  17   18 , Hirotaka Tomita  19   20 , Hiroto Takamiya  21 , Hideaki Kanzawa-Kiriyama  9 , Hiroki Oota  22 , Hajime Ishida  23 , Ryosuke Kimura  23 , Takehiro Sato  24 , Jae-Hyun Kim  25 , Bingcong Deng  2 , Rasmus Bjørn  2 , Seongha Rhee  26 , Kyou-Dong Ahn  26 , Ilya Gruntov  5   27 , Olga Mazo  5   27 , John R Bentley  28 , Ricardo Fernandes  2   29   30 , Patrick Roberts  2 , Ilona R Bausch  13   31   32 , Linda Gilaizeau  2 , Minoru Yoneda  33 , Mitsugu Kugai  34 , Raffaela A Bianco  2 , Fan Zhang  10 , Marie Himmel  2 , Mark J Hudson  35   36 , Chao Ning  37   38
Affiliations

Triangulation supports agricultural spread of the Transeurasian languages

Martine Robbeets et al. Nature. 2021 Nov.

Abstract

The origin and early dispersal of speakers of Transeurasian languages-that is, Japanese, Korean, Tungusic, Mongolic and Turkic-is among the most disputed issues of Eurasian population history1-3. A key problem is the relationship between linguistic dispersals, agricultural expansions and population movements4,5. Here we address this question by 'triangulating' genetics, archaeology and linguistics in a unified perspective. We report wide-ranging datasets from these disciplines, including a comprehensive Transeurasian agropastoral and basic vocabulary; an archaeological database of 255 Neolithic-Bronze Age sites from Northeast Asia; and a collection of ancient genomes from Korea, the Ryukyu islands and early cereal farmers in Japan, complementing previously published genomes from East Asia. Challenging the traditional 'pastoralist hypothesis'6-8, we show that the common ancestry and primary dispersals of Transeurasian languages can be traced back to the first farmers moving across Northeast Asia from the Early Neolithic onwards, but that this shared heritage has been masked by extensive cultural interaction since the Bronze Age. As well as marking considerable progress in the three individual disciplines, by combining their converging evidence we show that the early spread of Transeurasian speakers was driven by agriculture.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Distribution of Transeurasian languages in the past and in the present.
a, Geographical distribution of the 98 Transeurasian language varieties included in this study. Contemporary languages are represented by coloured surfaces, historical varieties by red dots. For legend, see Extended Data Fig. 1. b, Reconstructed locations of Transeurasian ancestral languages spoken during the Neolithic (red) and the Bronze Age and later (green). For detailed homeland detection, see Supplementary Data 4. The estimated time-depth is based on Bayesian inference presented in Supplementary Data 24.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. Spatiotemporal distribution and clustering of sites included in the archaeological database.
a, Geographical distribution of 255 sites from the Neolithic (red) and the Bronze Age (green). b, Coloured dots cluster the investigated sites according to cultural similarity in line with Bayesian analysis in Supplementary Data 25, with indication of the spread of millet and rice in time and space. The distribution of archaeological sites in Fig. 2 is smaller than that of contemporary languages in Fig. 1 because we focus on the early dispersal of the linguistic subgroups in the Neolithic and the Bronze Age and on the links between the eastward spread of farming and language dispersal.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3. Spatiotemporal distribution and admixture of ancient genomes.
a, Ancient genomes located in time and space. For detailed legend, see Extended Data Fig. 4. b, QpAdm proximal admixture modelling of 20 key ancient populations from this study. The x axis shows ancestry proportion estimates for the target populations in the y axis; the error bars represent ± 1 s.e.m. range, estimated by 5-cM block jackknifing.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4. Integration of linguistic, agricultural and genetic expansions in Northeast Asia.
Amur ancestry is marked in red, Yellow River ancestry in green and Jomon ancestry in blue. The red arrows show the eastward migrations of millet farmers in the Neolithic, bringing Koreanic and Tungusic languages to the indicated regions. The green arrows mark the integration of rice agriculture in the Late Neolithic and the Bronze Age, bringing the Japonic language over Korea to Japan.
Extended Data Fig. 1
Extended Data Fig. 1. Legend for Fig. 1.
Detailed legend to accompany main Fig. 1.
Extended Data Fig. 2
Extended Data Fig. 2. Legend for Fig. 2.
Detailed legend to accompany main Fig. 2.
Extended Data Fig. 3
Extended Data Fig. 3. Demographic changes with agriculture in Neolithic and Bronze Age. Northeast Asia.
A1 shows changes following the adoption of millet farming ca. 8000–4000 BP, using quantity of pottery for the West Liao and B2 shows these changes using radiocarbon proxy dates for Korea. Figures A to E show long-term dynamics ca. 8000–2000 BP following the integration of millet with rice, barley and wheat in the Bronze Age and based on site numbers for NE China, radiocarbon dates for Korea and site numbers for Japan. For references and methods used to derive demographic information from the proxies, see Supplementary Data 7.
Extended Data Fig. 4
Extended Data Fig. 4. Ancient genomes located in time and space.
Includes detailed legend to accompany main Fig. 3 and Extended Data Figs. 7–10.
Extended Data Fig. 5
Extended Data Fig. 5. PCA displaying the genetic structure of present-day Eurasians.
PC1 separates Western and Eastern Eurasian populations, PC2 Southern and Northern Eurasian populations. Transeurasian populations are coloured according to subfamily (Turkic in grey, Mongolic in orange, Tungusic in yellow, Koreanic in pink, Japonic in light grey). Non-Transeurasian populations are coloured according to families. Populations are labelled with three letters, for a list of abbreviations, see Supplementary Data 10.
Extended Data Fig. 6
Extended Data Fig. 6. PCA displaying the genetic structure of present-day East Asians.
Populations are labelled with three letters, for a list of abbreviations, see Supplementary Data 10.
Extended Data Fig. 7
Extended Data Fig. 7. Ancient genomes plotted on PCA displaying the genetic structure of present-day East Asians.
For a detailed legend, see Extended Data Fig. 4.
Extended Data Fig. 8
Extended Data Fig. 8. Ancient genomes plotted on PCA displaying the genetic structure of present-day Eurasians.
For a detailed legend, see Extended Data Fig. 4.
Extended Data Fig. 9
Extended Data Fig. 9. Ancient genomes from Bronze Age, Iron Age, West Liao and Amur plotted on PCA displaying the genetic structure of present-day Eurasians.
For a detailed legend. see Extended Data Fig. 4.
Extended Data Fig. 10
Extended Data Fig. 10. Ancient genomes from Primorye, eastern steppe and Yellow River plotted on PCA displaying the genetic structure of present-day Eurasians.
For a detailed legend, see Extended Data Fig. 4.
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