In archaeogenetics, the term Ancient Northeast Asian (ANA),[2][3] also known as Amur ancestry,[4] is the name given to an ancestral component that represents the lineage of the hunter-gatherer people of the 7th-4th millennia before present, in far eastern Siberia, Mongolia and the Baikal regions.
[8][9][10] The first individual to be identified with the specific ANA gene pool came from the Russian Far East, near the Pacific coast, at the Devil’s Gate Cave ("DevilsCave_N", c. 5700 BCE).
[20] They also display genetic affinities with the Yumin hunter-gatherers from Northeast China, as well as the Neolithic and Bronze Age groups in Yakutia (Yakutia_LNBA) and Krasnoyarsk (kra001) in the Altai-Sayan region.
Genetic analyses revealed that while dairy pastoralism seems to have been adopted by them from the Western Steppe Herders, they were primarily of local Northern East Asian origin, implying cultural transmission.
Modern day Tuvans and Nganasans, followed by Nanais, Yukaghirs, Evens, Itelmens, Ulchis, Koryaks, Nivkhs, and Chukchis, are among the people sharing the highest genetic affinities with the Late Bronze Age herders of Khövsgöl, but are not identical with them.
[35][36] The Baikal EBA populations, also contributed to a large extent to the formation of the hybrid Eurasian Scytho-Siberian cultures, such as the Arzhan and Pazyryk (Eastern Saka) as well as the Tasmola (Central Saka) cultures of Central Asia from around 1,000 BCE, contributing about half of their genetic profile (40-55%), highlighting the increase in genetic diversity during the late Bronze Age and the following Iron Age.
[43] However, the authors also observed that the population of the "Türkic Empire" as a whole, particularly Central Steppe and Medieval Türks, had a high but variable degree of West Eurasian admixture, suggesting genetic sub-structure within the empire:[44][45] for example, the ancestry of early medieval Turks was derived from Ancient Northeast Asians for about 62,2% of their genome, while the remaining 37,8% was derived from West Eurasians (BMAC and Afanasievo), with the admixture occurring around the year 500 CE.
[46][47] The ruling clan of the Turkic peoples, the Ashina tribe, was found to display close genetic affinities with the earlier Slab Grave and Ulaanzuukh culture remains.
[49] An earlier wave of Northern East Asian ancestry into Siberia is associated with "Neo-Siberians" (represented by Uralic-speaking Nganasans), which may be associated with the expansion of Yukaghir and Uralic languages, and the partial displacement of Paleo-Siberians, starting around 11kya.