Amur River Late Paleolithic Foragers

The Amur River Basin, a braided corridor of ice‑age channels and wetlands in what is now northeastern China, harbored human communities throughout the Last Glacial and into the Late Glacial warming. Archaeological data indicates repeated occupations of river terraces and lakeshores where stone tools, hearths and faunal remains concentrate. Radiocarbon-dated material associated with the genetic samples spans roughly 17,605–10,550 BCE, placing these individuals squarely in the Late Paleolithic period when ecosystems were shifting from glacial to more temperate regimes.

Limited evidence suggests these groups exploited a mosaic of resources: salmon and other fish in productive river reaches, seasonally migrating ungulates on nearby plains, and wild plants from wetland margins. Patterns of stone reduction and small-bodied tools point to mobile lifeways with seasonal camps rather than large, permanent villages. Environmental changes—especially the post–Last Glacial Maximum warming and the Younger Dryas cold reversal—would have reshaped resource availability and movement corridors, influencing population continuity and contact with neighboring Siberian and Northeast Asian foragers.

Because we currently have only four ancient genomes from this tradition, conclusions about population structure and origins remain preliminary. Nevertheless, the combined archaeological and genetic picture evokes resilient riverine foragers adapted to dynamic Late Paleolithic landscapes.

Genetic data from four individuals recovered in the Amur River Basin (17605–10550 BCE) provide a rare window into Late Paleolithic Northeast Asia. Among these limited samples, Y-chromosome lineages include haplogroup C (two individuals) and C2 (one individual); mitochondrial haplogroups identified include G2 (one individual) and D (one individual). One genome in the set lacks a confident haplogroup assignment in the summary data. These lineages are consistent with broader patterns in prehistoric and modern northeastern Eurasia, where haplogroup C and maternal lineages like D and G are frequent.

Haplogroup C, especially sublineages like C2, is widespread in Siberia and parts of East Asia and is often interpreted as a deep regional lineage persisting through the Late Pleistocene. Maternal lineages G2 and D similarly reflect long-term continuity in northeast Asian mitochondrial pools. Archaeogenetic affinities suggested by these markers point toward shared ancestry with other ancient Siberian and East Asian groups, and they may represent ancestral components that later contribute to Tungusic, Mongolic, and other Northeast Asian populations.

Crucially, with only four genomes the genetic picture is provisional. Small sample size (<10) means population-level inferences — such as diversity, substructure, and migration episodes — are tentative. Future ancient DNA from additional Amur sites and neighboring regions will be essential to test hypotheses about gene flow, continuity, and demographic responses to climatic shifts.