| Description |
The Yellow River Bend, at the northern frontier of Chinese civilization, has witnessed frequent prehistoric population interactions between agriculturalists from the Central Plains of China and populations from the northern Steppe. A multitude of ancient defensive stone cities have been constructed in this region to defend against the violence from the Steppe, among which the Neolithic stone kingdom of Shimao is the most famous, surrounded by satellite cities like Xinhua, where human sacrifice has been uncovered. However, the related prehistoric population dynamics in this region remain poorly understood. Here, we newly generated whole genome data for 19 individuals from the Late Neolithic to the Bronze-Iron Age of the Yellow River Bend region. We found that Yangshao-related ancestry from the Central Plains constituted a major component of the genetic profile of prehistoric inhabitants of the Yellow River Bend. During the Late Neolithic period, the Yellow River Bend population has received a minimal but indispensable genetic contribution from the northern Mongolian Steppe. Meanwhile, this Late Neolithic population presented an unexpectedly substantial genetic influence from southern China, which remains throughout the Bronze-Iron Age at the region. This suggests the existence of a long-distance gene exchange between northern and southern China, extending more than 800 kilometers further north than the Central Plains, which represents a significant northward population shift from previous knowledge. Overall, our study underscores the intricate and prolonged ancient population interactions between the Central Plains, the Steppe and southern China at the Yellow River Bend over the past 5000 years, revealing that long-distance prehistoric population contact occurred both culturally and genetically. |
