Dairying enabled Early Bronze Age Yamnaya steppe expansions

Shevan Wilkin (), Alicia Ventresca Miller, Ricardo Fernandes, Robert Spengler, William T.-T. Taylor, Dorcas R. Brown, David Reich, Douglas J. Kennett, Brendan J. Culleton, Laura Kunz, Claudia Fortes, Aleksandra Kitova, Pavel Kuznetsov, Andrey Epimakhov, Victor F. Zaibert, Alan K. Outram, Egor Kitov, Aleksandr Khokhlov, David Anthony and Nicole Boivin ()
Additional contact information
Shevan Wilkin: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Alicia Ventresca Miller: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Ricardo Fernandes: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Robert Spengler: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
William T.-T. Taylor: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Dorcas R. Brown: Hartwick College
David Reich: Harvard Medical School
Douglas J. Kennett: University of California
Brendan J. Culleton: The Pennsylvania State University
Laura Kunz: University of Zürich/ETH
Claudia Fortes: University of Zürich/ETH
Aleksandra Kitova: Russian Academy of Sciences
Pavel Kuznetsov: Samara State University of Social Sciences and Education
Andrey Epimakhov: South Ural State University
Victor F. Zaibert: Al-Farabi Kazakh National University
Alan K. Outram: University of Exeter
Egor Kitov: Russian Academy of Sciences
Aleksandr Khokhlov: Samara State University of Social Sciences and Education
David Anthony: Hartwick College
Nicole Boivin: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History

Nature, 2021, vol. 598, issue 7882, 629-633

Abstract: Abstract During the Early Bronze Age, populations of the western Eurasian steppe expanded across an immense area of northern Eurasia. Combined archaeological and genetic evidence supports widespread Early Bronze Age population movements out of the Pontic–Caspian steppe that resulted in gene flow across vast distances, linking populations of Yamnaya pastoralists in Scandinavia with pastoral populations (known as the Afanasievo) far to the east in the Altai Mountains1,2 and Mongolia3. Although some models hold that this expansion was the outcome of a newly mobile pastoral economy characterized by horse traction, bulk wagon transport4–6 and regular dietary dependence on meat and milk5, hard evidence for these economic features has not been found. Here we draw on proteomic analysis of dental calculus from individuals from the western Eurasian steppe to demonstrate a major transition in dairying at the start of the Bronze Age. The rapid onset of ubiquitous dairying at a point in time when steppe populations are known to have begun dispersing offers critical insight into a key catalyst of steppe mobility. The identification of horse milk proteins also indicates horse domestication by the Early Bronze Age, which provides support for its role in steppe dispersals. Our results point to a potential epicentre for horse domestication in the Pontic–Caspian steppe by the third millennium bc, and offer strong support for the notion that the novel exploitation of secondary animal products was a key driver of the expansions of Eurasian steppe pastoralists by the Early Bronze Age.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03798-4

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