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Modern descendants of Kyordyughen warrior (Yakutia, 4200 years before present) in populations of Far East

Journal of Human Genetics (2026) Cite this article

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Abstract

A search for the modern descendants of the Neolithic population has been conducted using two datasets of Y-chromosome polymorphisms: literature data on the ancient population of Northeast Eurasia and our own data on 256 whole genomes of 11 indigenous peoples of the Russian Far East (Aleuts, Chukchi, Evens, Evenks, Itelmens, Koryaks, Nanais, Negidals, Nivkhs, Orochi, and Ulchi). Y-SNP analysis revealed that both Kyordyughen I (4200 YBP) and Kyordyughen II (4600 YВР) samples of the Yakutian Late Neolithic belong to the haplogroup N-L708 and lie on its two branches that diverged at 6200 YBP. A quarter (67 of 256) of the analysed samples, including Chukchi, Evens, Evenks, Itelmens, Koryaks, Nanais, Nivkhs, Orochi, and Ulchi, belong to the haplogroup N-L708 and are, to various extents, genetically related to the Neolithic Yakutian individuals. The most direct descendants of the famous Kyordyughen warrior (Kyordyughen I) are the indigenous peoples of Kamchatka and Chukotka (Chukchi, Koryaks, Evens). The divergence time of their Y-lineages (4300 ± 1000 YВР) is consistent with the radiocarbon dates for Kyordyughen I. Literary data on Y-STR polymorphism suggest that descendants of the Kyordyughen warrior dispersed far across North Asia. Ancient N-L708 carriers started to expand from Transbaikalia across Northeast Eurasia at ~7000 YBP. About 4000-3000 YВР, the lineages close to the Kyordyughen samples arrived in today’s Krasnoyarsk territory, Yakutia, Mongolia and Chukotka. Our findings are in good agreement with archaeological data and the autosomal genome-based modelling of the Kyordyughen warrior’s origin.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Biobank of North Eurasia that kindly provided DNA samples of indigenous peoples of the Russian Far East. We also thank the representatives of the Aleuts, Chukchi, Evens, Evenks, Itelmens, Koryaks, Nanais, Negidals, Nivkhs, Orochi, and Ulchi who cooperated with the team during our field work. We would like to thank Sergey Koshel for his assistance in designing Fig. 1.

Funding

This research was funded under the state assignment of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation to the Bochkov Research Centre for Medical Genetics.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Bochkov Research Centre for Medical Genetics, Moscow, Russia

    Dmitry Adamov & Elena Balanovska

  2. National Center for Biotechnology, Astana, Kazakhstan

    Maxat Zhabagin

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  1. Dmitry Adamov
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  2. Maxat Zhabagin
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  3. Elena Balanovska
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Contributions

DA, MZ and EB were responsible for the conception and design of this study. DA and EB wrote the manuscript and performed literature search. MZ and EB reviewed and edited the manuscript. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Dmitry Adamov.

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The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Bochkov Research Centre for Medical Genetics (protocol № 1 of 29 June 2020).

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Written informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

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Adamov, D., Zhabagin, M. & Balanovska, E. Modern descendants of Kyordyughen warrior (Yakutia, 4200 years before present) in populations of Far East. J Hum Genet (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s10038-026-01459-w

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