biostudies-literatureUnknown635(8040)Ghalichi AThe Caucasus and surrounding areas, with their rich metal resources, became a crucible of the Bronze Age¹ and the birthplace of the earliest steppe pastoralist societies². Yet, despite this region having a large influence on the subsequent development of Europe and Asia, questions remain regarding its hunter-gatherer past and its formation of expansionist mobile steppe societies^3-5. Here we present new genome-wide data for 131 individuals from 38 archaeological sites spanning 6,000 years. We find a strong genetic differentiation between populations north and south of the Caucasus mountains during the Mesolithic, with Eastern hunter-gatherer ancestry^4,6 in the north, and a distinct Caucasus hunter-gatherer ancestry⁷ with increasing EastNature917-925https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC11602729biostudies-literatureThe rise and transformation of Bronze Age pastoralists in the Caucasus.PMC11602729Vardanyan BGhalichi ABuzhilova APErlikh VRSaribekyan MYu HSemerau LRohrlach ABMkrtchyan LBastert-Lamprichs KHaak WPiotrovskiy YYKrause JMariaschk DKalmykov AAGambashidze ISheremetev AGStollner TMalek-Custodis KMagomedov RGMaslov VEBerezina NYLordkipanidze DPosth COchir MFazeli Nashli HHansen SBroomandkhoshbacht NKantorovich ARKolesnichenko KBAron FBerezin YBThomalsky JNagler AWarinner CBelinskiy ABFehren-Schmitz LReinhold SChildebayeva AfalseThe rise and transformation of Bronze Age pastoralists in the Caucasus.The Caucasus and surrounding areas, with their rich metal resources, became a crucible of the Bronze Age¹ and the birthplace of the earliest steppe pastoralist societies². Yet, despite this region having a large influence on the subsequent development of Europe and Asia, questions remain regarding its hunter-gatherer past and its formation of expansionist mobile steppe societies^3-5. Here we present new genome-wide data for 131 individuals from 38 archaeological sites spanning 6,000 years. We find a strong genetic differentiation between populations north and south of the Caucasus mountains during the Mesolithic, with Eastern hunter-gatherer ancestry^4,6 in the north, and a distinct Caucasus hunter-gatherer ancestry⁷ with increasing East2024-01-01T00:00:00Z2024 Nov2025-04-04T02:39:07.666Z2025-04-04T02:39:07.666ZS-EPMC116027293947822110.1038/s41586-024-08113-5