Genomic origins of earliest Xinjiang inhabitants date back 9,000 years

CHANGCHUN - A joint team of Chinese and foreign researchers led by Jilin University has found that the earliest inhabitants of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region have genomic origins dating back approximately 9,000 years.

In the study, the researchers identified a genetically isolated local population that existed in a vast area of the central and eastern parts of the Eurasian steppe about 9,000 years ago.

The discovery was based on genomic data collected from five mummies found in Xinjiang's Junggar Basin and 13 others in the Tarim Basin belonging to the Xiaohe culture. The two groups of mummies are the earliest known human remains from the northern and southern parts of Xinjiang, respectively, according to the team.

The Tarim mummies from the Xiaohe site exhibit strong evidence of milk proteins in their dental calculus, indicating a reliance on dairy pastoralism at the site since its first inhabitants arrived.

Xiaohe culture is known globally for a naturally preserved female mummy found in the Taklimakan Desert in the Tarim Basin, which has been called the "Princess of Xiaohe." Some of her facial features resemble those of Westerners, including her high cheekbones, and have led many to wonder whether the ancestors of Xinjiang's earliest residents were migrants.

The study was recently published online in the journal Nature.