Corded Ware Cultures Actually Related? (Semenov, Bulat, 2015)

Previously I hypothesized that ceramic pottery technology was part of a package brought by immigrants from the Baikal region sometime before the end of the PPNB and that these people, to the West at least, were members of the R1 paragroup (also Q).

This paper discusses a possible genetic relationship and deep ancestry of the Corded Ware cultures. 

Corded-style pottery can also be found in the Americas and South Asia, which sounds nuts that they would be somehow related but makes total sense since we are dealing with Holocene depopulation of the Trans-Baikal area at about the same time.  Semenov and Bulat make a case for the Americas, however there's several paths that I see that can get us there.

It's unlikely IMO, that R1a or Q had any significant input into Japan before the Kofun Period (as the authors suggest for the cording style around 3k B.C.  Also high quality Jomon pottery at that point was already around 7,000 years old or more.  But it's also possible there was insignificant communication or gene-flow between the continent and Japan at that early time and maybe that explains some of the stylization.  They make this latter case.

I suspect another interesting story beyond the scope of this paper will be the changes that were happening in the Euphrates and Zargos region around the same time (R1b largely IMO).  It's pretty clear to some that the ethnic composition and social structure changed, not evolved, around this time in certain communities.  I can't comment more, however I put it out there for discussion, argument, kindling, whatever.

Again, 'Desert Island Gold Watch'.

Possible North-Eastern Connections of the R1a1-populations of Corded Ware Culture According to the Archaeologic and Paleogenetic Data, Alexander S. Semeno, Vladimir V. Bulat   Russian Journal of Biological Research, 2015, Vol. (5), Is. 3 [Link]


Abstract

Our new work considers the problems of paleogenetics, archeology and antropology connected with origins of Corded Ware culture and early migration of Y-DNA R1 carriers. This work considers the Second Corded Ware Center on the Far East and Yakutia and its connection with the Eastern European one. Authors examine the hypothesis that the two Corded Ware cultures have the common source.

Keywords: R1a1, Mesolithic, Yuzni Oleni Ostrov, paleogenetics, paleolinguistics, subclades, Yakutia, Na-Dene.