德国马克斯·普朗克人类历史科学研究所Nicole Boivin和Shevan Wilkin研究组合作发现乳制品使青铜时代早期的颜那亚草原扩张成为可能。相关论文发表在2021年9月15日出版的《自然》杂志上。

他们利用来自欧亚西部草原的个体牙结石的蛋白质组学分析来证明青铜时代开始时乳业的重大转变。在已知草原种群开始分散的时间点，广泛的乳制品业的迅速发展为草原流动的关键催化剂提供了重要的洞察力。马奶蛋白的鉴定也表明了青铜时代早期的马驯化，这为其在草原传播中的作用提供了支持。他们的研究结果指向了到公元前第三个千年马匹驯化的潜在中心，并为以下观点提供了强有力的支持，即次生动物产品的新开发是青铜时代早期欧亚草原牧民扩张的关键驱动因素。

据了解，在青铜时代早期，欧亚大陆西部草原的种群在欧亚大陆北部的广阔地区扩张。考古学和遗传学证据的结合支持了青铜时代早期人口从东欧大草原的广泛迁移，这导致了基因跨越很远的距离，将斯堪的纳维亚的颜那亚牧民群体与远在阿尔泰山脉和蒙古东部的牧民群体联系起来。尽管一些模型认为这种扩张是新的流动牧区经济交流的结果，其特点是马匹牵引、散装货车运输以及对肉类和牛奶的定期饮食依赖 ，但尚未找到这些经济特征的确凿证据。

附：英文原文

Title: Dairying enabled Early Bronze Age Yamnaya steppe expansions

Author: Wilkin, Shevan, Ventresca Miller, Alicia, Fernandes, Ricardo, Spengler, Robert, Taylor, William T.-T., Brown, Dorcas R., Reich, David, Kennett, Douglas J., Culleton, Brendan J., Kunz, Laura, Fortes, Claudia, Kitova, Aleksandra, Kuznetsov, Pavel, Epimakhov, Andrey, Zaibert, Victor F., Outram, Alan K., Kitov, Egor, Khokhlov, Aleksandr, Anthony, David, Boivin, Nicole

Issue&Volume: 2021-09-15

Abstract: During the Early Bronze Age, populations of the western Eurasian steppe expanded across an immense area of northern Eurasia. Combined archaeological and genetic evidence supports widespread Early Bronze Age population movements out of the Pontic–Caspian steppe that resulted in gene flow across vast distances, linking populations of Yamnaya pastoralists in Scandinavia with pastoral populations (known as the Afanasievo) far to the east in the Altai Mountains1,2 and Mongolia3. Although some models hold that this expansion was the outcome of a newly mobile pastoral economy characterized by horse traction, bulk wagon transport4,5,6 and regular dietary dependence on meat and milk5, hard evidence for these economic features has not been found. Here we draw on proteomic analysis of dental calculus from individuals from the western Eurasian steppe to demonstrate a major transition in dairying at the start of the Bronze Age. The rapid onset of ubiquitous dairying at a point in time when steppe populations are known to have begun dispersing offers critical insight into a key catalyst of steppe mobility. The identification of horse milk proteins also indicates horse domestication by the Early Bronze Age, which provides support for its role in steppe dispersals. Our results point to a potential epicentre for horse domestication in the Pontic–Caspian steppe by the third millennium BC, and offer strong support for the notion that the novel exploitation of secondary animal products was a key driver of the expansions of Eurasian steppe pastoralists by the Early Bronze Age.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03798-4

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03798-4