Amur River Mesolithic Echoes

The first millennia after the last Ice Age reshaped northern East Asia: rivers swelled, forests expanded, and the Amur corridor became a green, dynamic landscape that supported human resettlement. Archaeological data indicates Mesolithic occupation of river terraces and floodplains in the Amur River Basin of what is now northeastern China between ca. 9442 and 8475 BCE. Sites in the basin preserve scatterings of stone tools, hearths, and organic traces that suggest a lifeway tuned to seasonal floods, migrating fish, and rich riparian plants.

Genetic samples from five individuals recovered from Amur Basin contexts provide a rare molecular window. Although the sample count is small, the recovered Y-DNA lineages (notably C, F, and DE) and mtDNA (haplogroup D) fit broad expectations for early Northeast Asian populations, reflecting deep standing diversity in the region. Limited evidence suggests these communities were part of a wider network of postglacial hunter-gatherers that exploited riverine corridors from inland Siberia to the Pacific coast. Archaeology indicates technology focused on small formal bladelets and composite tools; preservation is uneven, and many interpretations remain provisional.

Because only five genomes are available, archaeological and genetic syntheses are cautious: patterns suggest continuity with later northern East Asian groups, but broader sampling is required to resolve migrations, local continuity, and interaction with neighboring Mesolithic populations.

Five ancient genomes from the Amur River Mesolithic (9442–8475 BCE) provide the genetic pillars for interpretation—but they come with strong caveats. Observed Y-DNA lineages include two samples assigned to haplogroup C, one to F, and one to DE; mitochondrial data includes at least one individual carrying mtDNA haplogroup D. These markers are consistent with deep-standing Northeast Asian paternal and maternal lineages seen in later Holocene and modern populations of northeastern Asia.

Haplogroup C is commonly associated with northern Eurasian hunter-gatherers and has broad geographic persistence; its presence here supports a northern hunter-gatherer contribution to the early Amur basin gene pool. Haplogroup F is an upstream lineage that gave rise to many later Eurasian Y-clades and may reflect early diversity retained in the region. The detection of DE—an ancient split within Y-chromosome diversity—suggests survival of deep lineages in East Asia, though its substructure and exact affinities cannot be resolved without more data.

Mitochondrial haplogroup D is a frequent maternal lineage in Northeast Asia and the Japanese archipelago; its occurrence aligns with archaeological expectations for the region. Importantly, with only five genomes (<10), patterns of diversity, population continuity, and migration remain preliminary. Broader sampling across sites, times, and genomic coverage is required to test hypotheses about admixture, demographic stability, and links to later Tungusic, Nivkh, or other regional groups.