Saturday 24 October 2020

Not so mobile riders



Yamnaya invasion never happened??? 

Summary of the new paper just released: "...findings imply that Caucasian communities were not highly mobile and did not undertake large-scale migrations...during 4th and 3rd millennium BCE..."!!!

The research team analysed the isotopic composition of carbon and nitrogen in bone collagen from the skeletal remains of 150 people, taken from eight sites. The finds date back to a period from about 5000 to about 500 BCE...

In addition, the scientists compared this data with the isotope ratios in the bone collagen of 50 animals, as well as with the local vegetation of that time. The isotope ratios in bone collagen reflect the isotope ratios in the main foodstuffs that a person eats...

As it turns out, the diets of these groups were mainly based on the foodstuffs within the landscapes where their remains were found...

"The communities apparently remained within their respective ecological areas and did not switch between the steppes, forest steppes or higher regions," explains Sandra Pichler from the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Basel, co-author of the study...

So, this means, that there was no "fast, mass migration", otherwise known as "the invasion of mounted steppe warriors" of Europe by Yamnaya (R1b) people during early Bronze Age...

Here is the paper: "Diet and subsistence in Bronze Age pastoral communities from the southern Russian steppes and the North Caucasus"

Now this directly contradicts things like "...Corded Ware people carried mostly Western Steppe Herder (WSH) ancestry and were closely related to the people of the Yamnaya culture, documenting a massive migration into the heartland of Europe from its eastern periphery, the Eurasian steppes..."

The above interpretation of the genetic links between Corded Ware and Yamnaya has already been questioned by archaeologists as being too simple, as it ignores the complex processes involved in archaeological explanations. Now the archaeologists have data to completely destroy the above interpretation. If there was an influx of Yamnaya into Corded ware culture, it was more of a slow diffusion through the steppe / forest boundary, rather than through massive fast migration...

I never really bought into this Yamnaya invasion theory. Because of some practical reasons. 

This is currently accepted map of the westward migration of R1b into Europe...From this great page about R1b on Eurpedia

 

This map seems logical. We are talking about horse riding, wagon pulling, herding warrior tribes from the steppe. It would indeed be the most logical for them to move over land, and if possible over grassland...

But moving into Europe that way on horse back and oxen pulled carts would have been very difficult if not impossible. Europe is predominantly mountainous country, so not suitable for large horse back - oxen cart migration...

If you are lagging your whole belonging on horse back - oxen cart, there are basically only two possible ways into Europe from the Yamna homeland:

But the northern route is blocked by giant forests which once covered most of what is today Poland, Northern Ukraine and East Germany.

This would have made the migration down the southern route the most likely. But if you follow that route you eventually get stuck in Hungarian, Slovakian planes, surrounded by high wooded mountains. Where you have to dismount if you want to go any further...

That I am not the first to notice this "one way street into Europe from the steppe" can be seen from this map from "The genetic and cultural barrier of the Pontic-Caspian steppe – forest-steppe ecotone":

The map description: Typical migration routes through European steppes and forest-steppes. Red line represents the persistent cultural and genetic barrier, with the latest evolution in steppe region represented by the shift from dashed line to the north. Arrows show the most common population movements. 

So again, right into the Danube catchment area of Central Europe. 

So the migration of the steppe R1b westward did happen. Just not as an invasion of the hordes of horse riding, Kurgan building warriors, which suddenly burst out of the steppe and wiped out the old Europe...The crossing of the steppe / forest barrier requires a change in lifestyle and adaptation to the new environment. Which takes time and is easiest to achieve through mixing with the local forest population, which already posses the necessary knowhow...

Anyway, this is a completely new study, just released, who knows...I am very curious to see what the archaeological community is going to say about it...

2 comments:

  1. Mislim da niti se dogodilo da odjednom R1b ljudi koji nikada nisu bili u ostatku Evrope lansiraju napad na Evropu, niti se dogodilo isključivo postepeno mešanje istih sa starosedelačkim stanovništvom... Mislim da se zapravo dogodilo malo od oboje. I da, trajalo je... Prvo, dokaza i ukazatelja da je u jednom trenutku zaista došlo do pokolja starosedelačkog stanovništva zaista ima. S druge strane, kao što si objsnio, nemoguće je da je to izvršio neko ko je živeo samo u stepama, pa odjednom odlučio da napadne i pokori Evropu. Dakle šta se desilo? Treba prvo imati na umu da postoje i dokazi upravo o prisustvu i postepenom mešanju i to još možda i od vremena Lepenskog vira (možda i pre). Lično, verujem, da je prvo sa postepenom selidbom počeo R1a narod i na prostoru Evrope se izmešao sa starosedeocima. Nakon njih sa istim ili sličnim procesom (samo možda u nešto manjoj meri) započeo je i R1b narod. To sve je trajalo par milenijuma, kada je u jednom trenutku (u periodu Vinčanske civilizacije, pojavom metalurgije i razvijene trgovine Vinčanaca) došlo do invazije. Ali ne invazije u smislu preseljenja čitavih naroda, već zaista pravog ratničkog pohoda iz pravca stepe ali od strane R1b ljudi, a koji su u tom trenutku već dugo bili u kontaktu sa makar Vinčancima (koji su verovatno u tom trenutku već uveliko simbioza starosedelaca, R1a ljudi i nešto manje R1b ljudi (i još nekih haplogrupa)). Da R1b ljudi u toj invaziji su bili uglavnom muško ratničko stanovništvo, ukazuje i to što iako je Evropa danas podeljena na područja gde preovladava R1b, područja gde preovladava R1a, područja gde preovladava I1 i područja gde preovladava I2 (i još par drugih verovatno nepovezanih sa konkretnim procesom (N, J, E)) haplogrupa, ono što je zajedničko za gotovo celu Evropu su ženski hromozomi, odnosno, po nekim istraživanjima oko 85% stanovništva cele Evrope po majci vuče poreklo od starosedelaca. Dakle, vrlo malo žena je u Evropu došlo "sa strane". Dakle, prvo su se prirodnim i mirnim putem postepeno mešali susedni narodi, a tek onda je nešto isprovociralo napad jednih (koji su već upoznati i sa terenom i sa stanovništvom i sa tehnologijom drugih) na druge. Došlo, je do pokolja (uglavnom muškog) i egzodusa starosedelačkog stanovništva, kao i preuzimanja značajnog dela ženskog stanovništva. A to sve je trajalo duži vremenski period, nakon čega se uzmaklo preživelo stanovništvo, postepeno vraća iz izolovanih oblasti, samo ovaj put nešto ratobornije i vičnije ratovanju i ponovo nastanjuje predele Helma, pa i Istočne i Centralne Evrope, a i to je trajalo duži vremenski period (treba imati na umu i to da verovatno nije ni ovih R1b bilo baš toliko da preplave celu Evropu, tako da nabrojane oblasti koje su ponovo nastanili starosedeoci, su verovatno bile oblasti u kojima se R1b ratnici verovatno nisu zadržali u nekom većem broju, već su nastavili sa pohodima na zapad Evrope, gde su na kraju i ostali i nastavili sa mešanjem sa starosedelačkim ženama, a uglavnom pobili ili proterali starosedelačke muškarce).

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  2. Anthony did such a lousy job explaing the Slavic (and Indo-Aryan)origin within the frames of Yamna migration theory. I am very happy this is moving in another direction now. Very good post, thank you!

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