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. 2024 Mar 25;15(1):1882.
doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-46161-7.

The Persian plateau served as hub for Homo sapiens after the main out of Africa dispersal

Leonardo Vallini  1 , Carlo Zampieri  2 , Mohamed Javad Shoaee  3 , Eugenio Bortolini  4 , Giulia Marciani  4   5 , Serena Aneli  6 , Telmo Pievani  2 , Stefano Benazzi  4 , Alberto Barausse  2   7 , Massimo Mezzavilla  2 , Michael D Petraglia  8   9   10 , Luca Pagani  11   12
Affiliations

The Persian plateau served as hub for Homo sapiens after the main out of Africa dispersal

Leonardo Vallini et al. Nat Commun. .

Abstract

A combination of evidence, based on genetic, fossil and archaeological findings, indicates that Homo sapiens spread out of Africa between ~70-60 thousand years ago (kya). However, it appears that once outside of Africa, human populations did not expand across all of Eurasia until ~45 kya. The geographic whereabouts of these early settlers in the timeframe between ~70-60 to 45 kya has been difficult to reconcile. Here we combine genetic evidence and palaeoecological models to infer the geographic location that acted as the Hub for our species during the early phases of colonisation of Eurasia. Leveraging on available genomic evidence we show that populations from the Persian Plateau carry an ancestry component that closely matches the population that settled the Hub outside Africa. With the paleoclimatic data available to date, we built ecological models showing that the Persian Plateau was suitable for human occupation and that it could sustain a larger population compared to other West Asian regions, strengthening this claim.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Relationship and legacy of the West and East Eurasian Core populations.
Summary of the major population events (A) and schematic representation of our reference space and expected position of admixed and unadmixed populations (B – note that this panel is a rotation of the blue and red portion of A); derived allele sharing of each ancient or modern individual/population with Kostenki14 and Tianyuan (C); East Asians in red, Oceanians in orange, Native Americans in pink, South Asians in yellow, Northern South Asians in green, West Eurasians in blue, Levantines in cornflowerblue, ancient samples in black (N stands for Neolithic, WHG for Western Hunter Gatherers). A graph with all populations analysed, and individual population names are in Supplementary Fig. 1, Source Data in Supplementary Data 3.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. Focal areas for the Hub and Basal Eurasian genetic components.
Focal area for the Hub (A, white to light yellow hues show the most likely Hub location from a genetic perspective) and for Basal Eurasian ancestry (B, dark hues show higher proportion of a Basal Eurasian component) based on at least 75% WEC ancestry. The grayscale in individual population points is proportional to the inferred proximity to the Hub (A) or the proportion of Basal Eurasian ancestry (B). kya stands for thousands of years ago. Source Data in Supplementary Data 11.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3. Palaeoecological inference of areas suitable for human occupation.
Number of time intervals between 70 and 30 kya (thousands of years ago, one every 2000 years, 21 in total) in which each area is predicted as suitable for human occupation by our model (A). Maximum sustainable human population in each geographic region over time (B). The geographic regions are shown in Supplementary Fig. 13. The black frame in A shows the area predicted to be the Hub location from genetic evidence. Source Data in Supplementary Data 14.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4. Combination of palaeoecological and genetic analyses.
In light yellow, within the black frame, are geographic locations that are putative Hub focal areas and predicted habitable areas. The areas are compiled on the basis of at least 90% of the time intervals inspected by our palaeoclimatic analysis or those located along major rivers. In green are the habitable areas that might have hosted the Basal Eurasian population.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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