Yakutian LNBA, the urheimat of Uralic languages?

 While reading the study "Ancient DNA reveals the prehistory of the Uralic and Yeniseian peoples"  I noticed that according to the presented f4 analysis, the distance of Yakutia LNBA (LNBA - Late Neolithic and Bronze Age) from the Tatars is smaller than the distance of Cis-Baikal LNBA from Tatars. I found it strange, because the Tatars are significantly closer to the Baikal region. My second observation was related to the connection between languages and genetics. The study proves that the genetic distance between the Yakutia LNBA and the speakers of the Uralic languages proves that the Yakutia LNBA is the original population of the Uralic languages. However, the study does not make a comparison between all language groups in relation to the Yakutia LNBA samples, but uses as evidence the occurrence of a single Yakutia LNBA-type sample in the assumed area of occurrence of the Uralic language group. The emphasis is placed on the Seima Turbino phenomenon. 

Seima Turbino was a Bronze Age multi-ethnic trade channel extending from northwestern China to the regions of Finland and Estonia, and Seima Turbino has been thought to be connected to the westward spread of the Uralic languages. However, linguistic theory does not define the eastern home of the Uralic languages on the basis of Seima Turbino. The evidence for the presence of Seima Turbino is purely archaeological. Whether this unity of the Uralic languages is true or not, Seima Turbino was a multi-ethnic commercial and cultural phenomenon in which the Uralic languages may have been involved, but the evidence of a few ancient genomes cannot be significant.

I decided to perform a similar F4 test to see the distances of the Yakutia and Cisbaikal LNBA samples to the present-day samples of the different language groups. All the samples used in that test are available on the Reichlab website. The only exception compared to the Yakutia LNBA samples from the study is that I did not include one sample classified as Yakutia LNBA in the study, supposed to have a Seima Turbino origin and in this respect I only kept to the local Yakutia LNBA samples. This sample is presumably not relevant to the F4 results.

The study has been presented in Nature magazine in its final form, but is unfortunately behind a paywall there. The preprint from 2023 can be found at https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.10.01.560332v2.full#ref-89.

All Yakutia LNBA and Cisbaikal LNBA samples are ready-made genotype files from public samples shared by Reichlab. There may be more samples from these two LNBA-era populations in the study. I have downloaded the bam-format samples used in the study, but I will leave them for later use for now.

Southern Uralic Mordovian and Mishar Tatars seem to be more like Cisbaikal LNBA than like Yakutia LNBA.  I don't know why my results using Reichlab genotypes and Reichlab program qpDstat gives different results. Maybe my readers can run tests to confirm which one is correct.

My results:

Study results:

Yakutia LNBA samples:
N4a1
N4b2
YAK021
YAK022

YAK024

Cisbaikal LNBA samples:
irk022
irk025
irk036
irk057
irk033
irk034
irk040
DA358
DA360
irk071
irk075
irk008
irk061
irk068
irk017
mak026
DA334
DA336
DA337
DA339
KAG002 
KPT001
KPT002
KPT003
KPT004
KPT006
STB001
ZPL001
ZPL002
I1526
I7335
I7759
I7779
I7780
I7782
I8296
DA343
DA353
DA356
DA361

Update 17.8.25 09.30. Used samples are listed in the study, in  "supplementary data 3" 

Late Iron Age and historic Finnish samples

I then processed those Finnish less than 1000 years old samples to see how close they are to the average of modern Finns. The processing took about 11 days on an antique Intel i7-4770k processor (old, but still powerful in sequential processing) core load 4x95%, core temperature 50° C  (outdoor temp was around 30° C).  The processor is overclocked to 4 Ghz and equipped with heatpipe cooling.

The fst table is attached here, according to which these ancient samples are Finnish, excluding poor quality samples and one outlier.  The first number represents Fst, the second margin of error.  Estonian and Finnish samples for comparison.  For some reason Swedish Human Origin samples are of low quality and excluded in this test. 

AncFinns Albanian.HO 0.011 0.0007 22.774
AncFinns Basque.HO 0.016 0.0006 33.853
AncFinns Belarusian.HO 0.005 0.0007 16.687
AncFinns Bulgarian.HO 0.009 0.0007 21.411
AncFinns CEU.SG 0.008 0.0004 34.300
AncFinns Croatian.HO 0.008 0.0007 20.183
AncFinns Estonian.HO 0.004 0.0007 14.664
AncFinns FIN 0.0 0.0004 15.356
AncFinns GBR.SG 0.007 0.0004 32.802
AncFinns Hungarian.HO 0.006 0.0006 19.687
AncFinns Italian_North.HO 0.011 0.0006 27.213
AncFinns Karelian.HO 0.002 0.0006 13.159
AncFinns Lithuanian.HO 0.007 0.0007 19.564
AncFinns Mordovian.HO 0.007 0.0006 20.099
AncFinns Norwegian.HO 0.007 0.0007 19.322
AncFinns Orcadian.HO 0.009 0.0007 23.084
AncFinns Romanian.HO 0.01 0.0007 23.574
AncFinns Rusnorth.HO 0.004 0.0006 17.414

Estonian.HO Albanian.HO 0.008 0.0005 17.099
Estonian.HO Basque.HO 0.013 0.0003 42.936
Estonian.HO Belarusian.HO 0.002 0.0003 4.656
Estonian.HO Bulgarian.HO 0.006 0.0004 16.452
Estonian.HO CEU.SG 0.005 0.0003 17.522
Estonian.HO Croatian.HO 0.005 0.0003 14.002
Estonian.HO FIN 0.004 0.0003 14.716
Estonian.HO GBR.SG 0.005 0.0003 18.039
Estonian.HO Hungarian.HO 0.003 0.0003 11.087
Estonian.HO Italian_North.HO 0.009 0.0003 28.091
Estonian.HO Karelian.HO 0.005 0.0003 15.439
Estonian.HO Lithuanian.HO 0.002 0.0004 5.323
Estonian.HO Mordovian.HO 0.003 0.0002 12.244
Estonian.HO Norwegian.HO 0.005 0.0004 15.060
Estonian.HO Orcadian.HO 0.007 0.0003 21.023
Estonian.HO Romanian.HO 0.006 0.0004 17.358
Estonian.HO Rusnorth.HO 0.001 0.0002 4.661

FIN Albanian.HO 0.011 0.0004 26.164
FIN Basque.HO 0.016 0.0002 64.162
FIN Belarusian.HO 0.006 0.0003 20.520
FIN Bulgarian.HO 0.009 0.0003 29.894
FIN CEU.SG 0.008 0.0002 47.108
FIN Croatian.HO 0.008 0.0003 29.320
FIN Estonian.HO 0.004 0.0003 14.716
FIN GBR.SG 0.008 0.0002 47.075
FIN Hungarian.HO 0.006 0.0002 33.404
FIN Italian_North.HO 0.011 0.0002 49.400
FIN Karelian.HO 0.002 0.0002 9.903
FIN Lithuanian.HO 0.007 0.0003 26.003
FIN Mordovian.HO 0.006 0.0002 37.043
FIN Norwegian.HO 0.007 0.0003 24.096
FIN Orcadian.HO 0.009 0.0003 36.037
FIN Romanian.HO 0.01 0.0003 33.117
FIN Rusnorth.HO 0.004 0.0002 27.333

A little explanation of why I consider the use of such samples to be completely pointless for the study of Finnish prehistory.  I am so enthusiastic about studying Finnish migrations and this age of the samples are of course disappointing.  It may be that these can provide additional information about local development in Finland. 

Archaeologists and linguists estimate that the Baltic Finns came to the Baltic Sea region 3000 years ago and the Finnish language arrived in Finland about 1700 years ago. With this timing, these samples cannot possibly give a development trajectory different from that of modern Finns in relation to ancient migrations. Determining the origin described as important would require the use of much older samples. If we take the 1700 year arrival in Finland as the starting point, then the samples from the Merovingian Age would represent 8-20 generations in Finland and a corresponding time of mixing with the populations already living here. This  corresponds to the time that the settlers have now lived in Kuusamo, Finland after Finnish settlers came there. 

Edit 1.8.2025 20.45 Polish, IBS, TSI, German and Saami results removed due to low quality (IBS, TSI and Saami due to DG-sample set  problems). 

Gunpowder is reinvented?

 Reading this study (-> link ) it comes to mind that gunpowder has been reinvented. When the reprocessed Yakut LNBA samples now show a similarity of 100% with Nganasans, 10% with Finns, 2% with Estonians and 0% with Hungarians, one can only say that these proportions match perfectly with, for example, the results of Haak et al. 2015. The only new thing here is the assumption that the Nganasan-type North Siberian genetic type originated in Yakutia in the Late Neolithic period.

The study connects this genetic type to the Seima-Turbino phenomenon. Seima-Turbino was a Bronze Age cultural phenomenon that spread from east to west across present-day Russia. Seima-Turbino has been assumed to be associated with the westward spread of Uralic languages, but is this phenomenon also related to the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age settlement of Yakutia in the  Eastnorth Asia and is it possible to tie straightforwardly 4000 years old minor genetic remains to the present?  I would appreciate to see YDNA results of those ancient Yakutians. Did they belong to N-P43 or to N-TAT.  Did Seima-Turbino burials belong to N-P43 or N-TAT? I prefer YDNA in  searching back thousands years.  Nowadays Yakutian N belongs mostly to the TAT and 3.8% to the P43, but present Yakutians are Turkic speaking "newcomers" in Yakutia.  I would guess that those Late Neolithic Yakuts belonged to the P43, while all present-day Finnish N, as well all Baltic N, belong to the TAT.  Ngansasans belong to the P43. 

If it is now stated that the new samples fully correspond to the Nganasan genetics in terms of the interesting genetics, then it has been proven that the North Siberian genetic type has migrated westward in the northern tundra zone and the same genetic type has been observed as part of almost all the peoples of the northern coniferous forest zone of Europe from present-day Russia to Scandinavia, but it has not been found in the most southerly Hungarians. In my opinion, it would be worth studying the genetics of the more southern Finno-Ugric peoples, such as the Mordvins and Erzyas.

The original study is unfortunately behind the paywall, so the link is to a press article.  It would have been nice to see also detailed results, but the price was too much this time. 

New Finnish samples from the late Iron Age and Finnish historic times

I found 49 ancient Finnish samples in ENA (European Nucleotide Archive) and downloaded them to my computer. The samples are from Häme, Pirkanmaa, and are almost 1000 years old or younger. My intention is not to analyze them because, with the exception of a couple, they look like modern Finns and based on this I would only conclude that they are Finns and that Finns lived in Finland already 1000 years ago.  It is known history.   Too much work compared to benefits. 

New study: Mothers on the move – thousands of complete mitochondrial sequences reveal the layered formation of the common maternal genepool of Finland and Estonia.

Here my summary of the study (-> link ).

Shared mtDna:

• The study found that a substantial portion of mtDNA sequences (around 40% in Finland and 15% in Estonia) belong to monophyletic clusters shared between the two countries, indicating a long-standing genetic connection.
•  Temporal and Concurrent Structure:

  These shared lineages are not randomly distributed but show a temporal structure, with different layers corresponding to different periods, from the Late Neolithic to the Middle Ages.
• Migration Patterns:

  The research associates some of these mtDNA lineages with the movement of people, as evidenced by archaeological findings and studies on Y-chromosome and ancient DNA.
• Languages:

  The study also notes an increase in the maternal effective population size during the Iron Age, coinciding with the diversification time of Finnic languages, suggesting a link between language and genetic history.
• Homogeneity Notion:

  Unlike the general perception of a relatively homogenous European mitochondrial genepool, this study reveals a geographic pattern in mtDNA distribution, particularly when considering related populations like Finland and Estonia.
• Limited Shared Lineages with Sweden:

  Despite geographic proximity and historical Swedish settlements, only a small percentage of mtDNA sequences in both Finland and Estonia form common clusters with Sweden (8% in Finland and only 2% in Estonia), indicating a more significant genetic contribution from other sources.

Old Novgorod

 According to Russian historical books, Novgorod was a multinational trading place, whose administration represented an early form of democracy. The city's nationalities also include Finns and Karelians, who are originally from Finnish tribes.

The graphic I have made now indeed shows that Finnish roots can still be found 554 years after the city lost its independence. Moscow conquered the city in 1471. Finnish heritage today is of course not even close to what it was at the time of Novgorod's greatness.

It must be considered that the current PCA only covers the relationships between the peoples represented in it. For example, Siberian heritage is therefore ignored, as are Caucasian and southern influences. Scandinavia and the Baltic have been taken into account. Of course, a two-dimensional presentation with the two most significant PCA dimensions does not cover all similarities, but based on the image it is clear that in Novgorod, Finnishness is clearly stronger than Scandinavianness.

This result raises questions among both Finns and Russians. Politics aside, I fully understand the problems with genetics-based demography because of its possible new interpretations. However, we must ask what is a new interpretation of things and whether a new interpretation of history is always progressive. These things need to be examined openly, both in terms of the data and the results obtained.

Mordovians lean towards eastern Finno-Ugric people, which are not included in this picture.

The Kursk sample is an outlier, drifting another one a bit to the same direction.

New article sheds light on the Scandinavian Iron Age

 Here is an interesting article (-> link )  that definitely requires more in-depth study. The migration history of the Scandinavian Iron Age has been divided into three phases using a new (?) arithmetic. In the first phase, in the Middle Roman Iron Age, we see migrations from northern Germany and Scandinavia to Central Europe. In the second phase, covering the later Roman Iron Age, the Migration Period and the Merovingian period, we see migrations from the south (it will say from Central Europe) into Scandinavia. This migration would explain two key observations: 1) Anglo-Saxon finds deep in the Swedish Great Lakes region, suggesting even more southern cultural influences, and 2) the shift of the genetic makeup of modern Scandinavians to a more southern location compared to earlier Scandinavian genome samples. In the third phase, during the Viking Age, the expansion of Scandinavian trade and military expeditions to all directions.

My task is to search the Middle Roman Age samples used in the study and place them in a Fennoscandinavian context.