Population history of the Southern Caucasus

To the point

• Stable genetic ancestry: Despite significant cultural changes, populations in the Southern Caucasus have maintained remarkably constant genetic ancestry for over 5,000 years.
• Genetic contributions during the Bronze Age: Although local genetic continuity was predominant, there were partial genetic contributions from the Eurasian Steppe and from Anatolia during the Bronze Age.
• Cultural influences: Practices such as cranial deformation were adopted primarily through cultural influences, rather than solely through migration.
• New insights into the Southern Caucasus region: This research highlights the Southern Caucasus as a crossroads of diverse peoples and demonstrates how the region's complex population history and cultural exchanges have shaped its identity at the intersection of Europe and Asia.

An international team of researchers from Germany, Georgia, Armenia, and Norway has analyzed ancient DNA from 230 individuals across 50 archaeological sites from Georgia and Armenia. Within the framework of the Max Planck-Harvard Research Center for the Archaeoscience of the Ancient Mediterranean, co-directed by Johannes Krause, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, and Philipp Stockhammer, Professor at Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, this study reconstructs the genetic interactions of populations in the Southern Caucasus over time and down to the level of individual mobility.

Mostly constant ancestry with traces of Bronze Age migrations

Spanning from the Early Bronze Age (circa 3500 BCE) to after the Migration Period (circa 500 CE), the research shows that people in the Southern Caucasus retained a mostly constant ancestry profile. “The persistence of a deeply rooted local gene pool through several shifts in material culture is exceptional”, says population geneticist Harald Ringbauer, whose research team at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology led this study, “This stands out compared to other regions across Western Eurasia, where many changes were linked to substantial movement of people.”

While there was overall genetic continuity, the research also found evidence of migration from neighboring regions. During the later phases of the Bronze Age, in particular, a portion of the area’s genetic makeup traces back to people from Anatolia and the Eurasian steppe pastoralists—reflecting cultural exchange, technological innovation, burial practices, and the expansion of economic systems, such as mobile pastoralism. Following this period, the population size in the area increased, and genetic signatures of mixing were often more transient or confined to singular mobile individuals.

Cranial deformation: introduced by migration, then turned into a local tradition

One of the study’s most striking findings concerns early Medieval individuals from the Iberian Kingdom, located in present-day eastern Georgia, who had intentionally deformed skulls. This cultural practice was long thought to be tied to Central Eurasian Steppe populations. "We identified numerous individuals with deformed skulls who were genetically Central Asian, and we even found direct genealogical links to the Avars and Huns " says lead author and geneticist Eirini Skourtanioti from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and Ludwig Maximilians University Munich. "However, our analyses revealed that most of these individuals were locals, not migrants. This is a compelling example of the cultural adoption of a practice that was likely disseminated in the area by nomadic groups.”

Liana Bitadze, head of the Anthropological Research Laboratory at Tbilisi State University in Georgia and a co-author of the study, corroborates the significance of this finding: "Previously, we addressed this question through comparative morphometric analyses. Now, ancient DNA analysis has created a completely new line of evidence, helping us to reach more definitive answers.”

A melting pot of diverse ancestries

The study also highlights how urban centers and early Christian sites in eastern Georgia became melting pots of people beginning in Late Antiquity. This further emphasizes the long-standing role of the Caucasus as a dynamic cultural and genetic frontier.

“Historical sources mention how the Caucasus Mountains served both as a barrier and a corridor for migration during Late Antiquity. Our study shows that increased individual mobility was a key feature of the emerging urban centers in the region”, says Xiaowen Jia, co-lead author and PhD researcher at Ludwig Maximilians University Munich.

This research sets a new standard for understanding the population histories of regions that have long been overlooked by archaeogenetics.

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This research was conducted by an international team of archaeogeneticists, archaeologists, and historians from the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig (Germany), the Ivane Javakhishvili and Medical Tbilisi State Universities in Georgia, the Museum of the History of Georgian Medicine in Georgia, and the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia.