Ancient Populations of Mongolia = Ancient Populations of Mongolia

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Archaeological studies of Neolithic, Bronze and Iron ages show that the Western Mongolian Bronze and Early Iron age culture belonged to Altai-Sayan variants of South Siberian culture, the so-called Slab grave culture took place in Central and Eastern Mongolia, Baikal region and Manchuria. The paleoanthropological studies of human remains from Neolithic, Bronze and Early Iron Ages of Mongolia reveal great heterogeneity of morphological traits among populations of the historic periods. In the Neolithic period the Western Mongolia was inhabited by people with Caucasoid morphological features while populations with developed Mongoloid traits occupied the Central and Eastern Mongolia. The Early Bronze Age was characterized by human migrations from Eastern Mongolia to Western Mongolia, Southwestern Siberia, and West-Central Asia. The Western Mongolian populations of the Bronze and Early Iron Age exhibited more pronounced Mongoloid features than seen at earlier times. Comparative morphological analysis shows that the Neolithic, Bronze and Early Iron Age populations from Asia are divided into two major clusters. The first cluster includes all populations from Southern Siberia and Western Mongolia, and Jomon people from Japan. The second cluster includes populations from Manchuria, Inner Mongolia, northwest and Central China, Korea, Transbaikalia area, and Eastern Mongolia. Hunnu population which is not anthropologically quite homogeneous. It may be explained by extensive migration of nomads from Eurasian steppe (Caucasoid or mixed populations from west to east and Mongoloids from East to West) which lasted during the Bronze and Early Iron Age and Hunnu period in Inner Asia. Hunnu, Medieval and contemporary Mongolians have been shown to be more closely related to the populations of the Neolithic, Bronze, and Early Iron Age of Eastern Mongolia.