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. 2025 Jan 10;11(2):eadr0695.
doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adr0695. Epub 2025 Jan 8.

North Pontic crossroads: Mobility in Ukraine from the Bronze Age to the early modern period

Lehti Saag  1   2 , Olga Utevska  2   3 , Stanislav Zadnikov  4 , Iryna Shramko  5 , Kyrylo Gorbenko  6 , Mykola Bandrivskyi  7 , Dmytro Pavliv  7 , Igor Bruyako  8 , Denys Grechko  9 , Vitalii Okatenko  10 , Gennadi Toshev  11 , Svitlana Andrukh  11 , Vira Radziyevska  4 , Yurii Buynov  5 , Viktoriia Kotenko  12 , Oleksandr Smyrnov  6 , Oleg Petrauskas  13 , Borys Magomedov  13 , Serhii Didenko  14 , Anatolii Heiko  15 , Roman Reida  13 , Serhii Sapiehin  16 , Viktor Aksonov  17 , Oleksii Laptiev  17 , Svyatoslav Terskyi  18 , Viacheslav Skorokhod  19 , Vitalii Zhyhola  19 , Yurii Sytyi  20 , Mari Järve  2 , Christiana Lyn Scheib  2   21 , Kyriaki Anastasiadou  22 , Monica Kelly  22 , Mia Williams  22 , Marina Silva  22 , Christopher Barrington  23 , Alexandre Gilardet  22   24 , Ruairidh Macleod  1   21   25 , Pontus Skoglund  22 , Mark G Thomas  1
Affiliations

North Pontic crossroads: Mobility in Ukraine from the Bronze Age to the early modern period

Lehti Saag et al. Sci Adv. .

Abstract

The North Pontic region, which encompasses present-day Ukraine, was a crossroads of migration, connecting the vast Eurasian Steppe with Central Europe. We generated shotgun-sequenced genomic data for 91 individuals dating from around 7000 BCE to 1800 CE to study migration and mobility history in the region, with a particular focus on historically attested migrating groups during the Iron Age and the medieval period. We infer a high degree of temporal heterogeneity in ancestry, with fluctuating genetic affinities to different present-day Eurasian groups. We also infer high heterogeneity in ancestry within geographically, culturally, and socially defined groups. Despite this, we find that ancestry components which are widespread in Eastern and Central Europe have been present in the Ukraine region since the Bronze Age. In short, our study reveals a diverse range of ancestries in the Ukraine region through time as a result of frequent movements, assimilation, and contacts.

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Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.. Schematic of migrating groups from the west and the east in Ukraine based on archaeological material.
Negative values on the timeline denote years BCE, positive values denote years CE. The color scheme of the shapes matches the symbols on Figs. 2, 3, and 5 as well as figs. S1 and S2. Gray dashed lines denote groups that are not sampled in this study.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.. Map of the geographical locations of the individuals of this study and timeline showing the dates of individuals in archaeological groups.
Symbols on (A) the map correspond to those on (B) the timeline. The dates (years before the present) used on the timeline are midpoints of the 95% calibrated date estimates or archaeological date range estimates with jitter.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.. PCA results.
PCA results of modern West Eurasians with ancient individuals projected onto the first two components (PC1 and PC2). Ukrainian groups from (A) Late Bronze Age and pre-Scythian Iron Age (3000 to 700 BCE), (B) the Scythian period of Early Iron Age (700 to 300 BCE), (C) post-Scythian Iron Age until Early Middle Ages (400 BCE to 900 CE), and (D) Middle Ages and early modern period (MAEM; 900 to 1800 CE). Newly reported individuals are indicated with a black outline. Genetic subgroups used in subsequent analyses are indicated with black numbers. Modern Ukrainians are shown in black.
Fig. 4.
Fig. 4.. Subset of Admixture analysis results with genetic structure calculated on ancient individuals.
Population averages of (A) Eurasia-wide, (B) Ukrainian ancient groups at K = 4. Purple, Siberia; magenta, East Asia; olive, West/Central Asia; dark green, Anatolian/Levantine early farmers; salmon, Western Steppe; light blue, European HGs; light green, European early farmers; dark red, European post-steppe migration groups; dark blue, Ukrainian HGs; bright green, Ukrainian early farmers; orange, Ukrainian post-steppe migration groups.
Fig. 5.
Fig. 5.. qpAdm admixture modeling results.
(A) Distal qpAdm models of admixture between Ukraine_Trypillia, Ukraine_Yamnaya, and Mongolia_SlabGrave and (B) proximal qpAdm models, tested using the autosomal positions of the 1240K dataset. Rejected models (P < 0.05) are semitransparent. The dates used on the timeline are midpoints of the 95% calibrated date estimates or archaeological date range estimates with jitter.
Fig. 6.
Fig. 6.. Investigating genetic heterogeneity in ancestry using PCA data.
Kernel density estimations (KDE) of Euclidean distance sets for genomes of this study and corresponding comparative subsets (refdata), for (A) LBAEIA (up to 105 distances used for KDE, 100 comparative subsamples), (B) SEIA (up to 351 distances used for KDE, 63 comparative subsets), (C) IAEMA (up to 325 distances used for KDE, 100 comparative subsets), (D) Middle Ages and Early Modern period (MAEM, up to 171 distances used for KDE, 28 comparative subsets). A cutoff at density 30 is used on the y axis for better visibility of the Ukraine data. (E) Boxplot of Euclidean distances from the first 25 principal components of PCA analysis across date ranges (LBAEIA, n = 15; SEIA, n = 27; IAEMA, n = 26; MAEM, n = 19). Dashed lines indicate the mean.
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