The rise and transformation of Bronze Age pastoralists in the Caucasus.

The Caucasus and surrounding areas, with their rich metal resources, became a crucible of the Bronze Age and the birthplace of the earliest steppe pastoralist societies. Yet, despite this region having a large influence on the subsequent development of Europe and Asia, questions remain regarding its hunter-gatherer past and its formation of expansionist mobile steppe societies. Here we present new genome-wide data for 131 individuals from 38 archaeological sites spanning 6,000 years.

The Genetic Origin of the Indo-Europeans.

The Yamnaya archaeological complex appeared around 3300BCE across the steppes north of the Black and Caspian Seas, and by 3000BCE reached its maximal extent from Hungary in the west to Kazakhstan in the east. To localize the ancestral and geographical origins of the Yamnaya among the diverse Eneolithic people that preceded them, we studied ancient DNA data from 428 individuals of which 299 are reported for the first time, demonstrating three previously unknown Eneolithic genetic clines. First, a "Caucasus-Lower Volga" (CLV) Cline suffused with Caucasus hunter-gatherer (CHG) ancestry extended between a Caucasus Neolithic southern end in Neolithic Armenia, and a steppe northern end in Berezhnovka in the Lower Volga.

Probable cases of tuberculosis in Early Medieval pastoralists of Eastern Europe.

Two anthropological collections of the 8-9th century AD from the forest-steppe area of the southern Eastern Europe has been the subject of analysis of the osteo-articular alterations concerning tuberculosis related lesions. According to archaeological data, the Mayaki and Dmitrievka groups are from the territory of Khazar Khaganate, which is well-known by historical data. It was a traditional population with settled pastoral farming.