Alexander Nathanovich Bernshtam - "The History of the Kyrgyz and Kyrgyzstan from Ancient Times to the Mongol Conquest." Chapter III: The Formation of the Kyrgyz People.
“The first records of the ancient Gégūn-Kyrgyz, as we have shown above, date back to approximately 209-201 BCE, when, according to Chinese chronicles, the Hunnic chieftain Modu Shanyu subdued several tribes, among them the Dinlins and the Gégūn.
In contrast to the later reports in the ‘Tangshu’ about the Khakas, which state that the Khakas (the ancient Gégūn) intermingled with the Dinlins, earlier mentions of the Gégūn and Dinlins do not indicate such a phenomenon.
It is also noteworthy that the Dinlins are always portrayed as relatively autonomous tribes with little connection to the Huns, while the Khakas (Gégūn) domain, according to the same Chinese sources, "constituted the western borders of the Huns."
It is known that Li Ling, a Chinese general captured by the Hunnic chieftain Ju Di Heu, was granted the land of the Khakas (1st century BCE). There are also references to the Gégūn in the first half of the 1st century BCE when the northern horde's Shanyu, Zhizhi, again defeated the Gégūn and the Dinlins, and according to the ‘Tangshu’ report on the Khakas, Zhizhi established his camp among the Dinlins.
According to these reports, it follows that the Gégūn were closely connected with the Huns, representing their northwestern outpost and directly interacting with the Dinlins. Information about the latter is always linked with the Gégūn.
However, separate and fragmented reports indicate that they often acted independently of the Gégūn, instead forming alliances with the Wusun and Xianbei against the Huns. During these actions, such as in the 70s BCE, they attacked the Huns, led by Huandzhe and the Shanyu (72 BCE), and captured a large number of livestock and people.
Similar campaigns by the Dinlins are noted for 63 BCE, when they took several tens of thousands of people captive. Based on these and similar reports, a historian might conclude that the Dinlins had a certain degree of autonomy, developed pastoralism, and, in connection with their conflicts with the Huns, acquired a large number of slaves from the Hunnic population.
The clear territorial distinction between the Dinlins in the north and the Gégūn in the west (neighboring the Dinlins) prevents their identification as the same group. However, as evidenced by historical facts from written sources and archaeological material, the economic development of Dinlin society followed a path of establishing a pastoral economy, similar to that of the Huns.
Even further to the west (southwest in relation to the Gégūn) were the Wusun. Information about the latter is again associated with the name of Modu, who, in 176 BCE, in a letter to the Chinese emperor, stated that after their defeat by the Huns, the Wusun joined the Hunnic forces and "became one household."
The Wusun and their history will be examined separately below (Chapter VI), but it is important to note that of all the tribes—the Gégūn, Dinlin, and Wusun—the latter were the most closely connected with the Huns. The Wusun, like the aforementioned tribes, were pastoral nomads and understood the language of the Huns. According to the research of K. Shiratori, the Wusun were most likely Turkic-speaking.
The Gégūn (Khakas) were also Turkic-speaking. However, the Wusun themselves emphasized that they did not understand the language of the Dinlins. The fair-haired Wusun were part of the Dinlin tribal group. The study of the racial type of the Wusun showed that they cannot be classified as belonging to the "Nordic" northern race but are instead part of the so-called Pamir-Fergana racial type.
From this, it follows that the term "Dinlin" cannot be accepted as a term denoting a certain ethnic or racial unity. Undoubtedly, the Dinlin tribal group is a Chinese concept of tribes that shared some common developmental characteristics in their way of life, economy, and culture.
The southern Siberian Dinlins and Wusun had common points in their political history due to the historical connections of the Dinlins and Wusun with the Huns and Xianbei.
Subsequently, the Wusun participated in the ethnogenesis of the Kyrgyz.
Therefore, the Yenisei Kyrgyz and the Tianshan Kyrgyz, known from descriptions in sources from the 16th to the 19th centuries, retained characteristics of the Dinlin-Wusun stage, which were also noted by Arabs and Persians in the 10th century, such as fair hair, light eyes, and other Caucasoid features. The Boma tribes, who were also representatives of the Dinlin layer and lived in the Yenisei basin, belong to this same category of tribes.
The Hunnic language, the language of the ruling tribal elite, was not yet fully differentiated. It included a number of elements from different dialects and diverse languages of the tribes that made up the Hunnic confederation. The social conditions of the Hunnic tribal confederation required the creation of a common vocabulary that could and had to serve the general tasks and demands of their social structure and economy.
This vocabulary, according to the small, fragmentary evidence that has come down to us and is recorded in Chinese chronicles, led several researchers—Hirt, Panov, Shiratori, and others—to assert that the Hunnic language's vocabulary was primarily Old Turkic.
This vocabulary, which resulted from the linguistic "leveling" of individual dialects and languages, was known to the Wusun and Gégūn. However, the language of the Dinlins was incomprehensible to them, further emphasizing the sharp distinction between the Dinlins and other tribes. In a 3rd-century CE source, ‘Wei Lue’, it is reported that the elderly among the Wusun recounted that the language of the eastern Dinlins resembled the cry of birds or ducks.
What follows is a somewhat fantastical description of their appearance. This comparison of their language to the cry of birds, or even ducks, seems to align with the first impression one might get when hearing a language from the Japhetic spirant group. The spirant group, one of the most archaic among the Japhetic languages, might have been represented by the language of the Dinlins.
Ancient Dinlins are typically associated, according to historical, ethnographic, and partly anthropological data, with the modern Yeniseian-Ostyak tribes, particularly the Kets. The Kets, a Yeniseian-Ostyak tribe, are the remnants of the ancient Dinlin tribes.
Ramstedt and Kai Donner, who devoted considerable effort to establishing the connections between the Yeniseian-Ostyak language and the Indo-Tibetan languages, particularly the language of the Xixia, demonstrated a genetic link between the Yeniseian-Ostyaks and the Dinlins.
In light of these empirically derived conclusions, the statement by Academician N.Ya. Marr becomes particularly interesting. He asserts that the Yeniseian-Ostyak tribes are evolutionarily linked with the Hittites and Sumerians, representing an isolated group of Japhetic languages.
Marr's conclusion about the Japhetic nature of the Yeniseian-Ostyaks is highly productive, as it suggests that the Yeniseian-Ostyaks, retrospectively the Dinlins, evolutionarily preceded Turkic formations, particularly the Kyrgyz, just as the Hittites evolutionarily preceded the Anatolian Turks.
A comparative analysis of Yeniseian-Ostyak and Kyrgyz vocabulary supports N.Ya. Marr's prediction, which he made in a brief article titled "From Sumerians and Hittites to Paleo-Asiatics." Let us provide some examples.
According to the laws of sound changes established by N.Ya. Marr and summarized in the Baku course and in specialized Turkological works, languages that are evolutionarily more advanced than the spirant group of the Japhetic stage typically exhibit the regular disappearance of the initial spirant, with the replacement of the labialized subsequent vowels by open vowels.
The ancient layer of the Turkic language, as the language of nomadic pastoralists, was known to all the aforementioned tribal formations due to three main factors: first, the political connections between these formations; second, the presence of slaves from neighboring tribes among these peoples; and third, the unity of the glottogenetic process, driven by a shared economy and social structure.
In light of this, it can be assumed that the formation of the Turkic-speaking Kyrgyz tribe began as early as the Hunnic era and progressed along two lines: first, through the autochthonous development of the language ("Turkicization") due to the unity of economic and social development, and second, through general linguistic development based on the common political and economic ties between the Hunnic tribal confederation, the Xianbei, and the Dinlins ("Turkicization").
This process reached its culmination during the so-called Turkic period of the 6th-9th centuries CE, when the Turkic-speaking group of tribes and the Turkic people—the Kyrgyz—took shape. The political connections of the ancient Turkic Khaganate of the 6th-8th centuries with the Kyrgyz led to the creation of a common literary language, recorded in numerous inscriptions on the tombstones of Kyrgyz beys.
The language of the ancient Kyrgyz tribes should be sought in the diverse dialects of the modern Turkic tribes of the Sayan-Altai region and the Minusinsk Basin. Historical and ethnographic data also show connections between the Kyrgyz, on the one hand, with the tribes of the Minusinsk Basin, and on the other, with the tribes of the Tian Shan.
Regardless of the resolution of the question regarding the date of the first migration of the Kyrgyz to the Tien Shan, it must be acknowledged that in the early stages of Kyrgyz ethnogenesis, the tribes inhabiting the modern territory of Kyrgyzstan were incorporated into Kyrgyz ethnogenesis—for example, the Wusun and, to some extent, the Kanguy tribes associated with the Wusun. The aforementioned discussion of the Dinlins, Wusun, and Gégūn leads to the following conclusions:
1. The Dinlin language was distinct from the Turkic vocabulary of the Huns.
2. As the economy and social structure of the Dinlins developed, resembling the social structure of the Huns, a vocabulary similar to Turkic began to form from the Dinlin language.
3. Since the Gégūn were their closest neighbors, directly connected with the Hunnic tribal confederation, they were the element that contributed to the Turkicization of the Dinlin language. This "Turkic-like" formation of the language would not have been successful without a corresponding social and economic foundation.
In connection with the problem raised, it is also necessary to consider the question of the racial genesis of the Kyrgyz. Contrary to the opinions of contemporary fascist scholars such as Eickstedt and Günther (and objectively aligned with their views, Grumm-Grzhimaylo), who trace their theories back to Abel Remusat and J. Klaproth regarding the blond or "Indo-Germanic" type of the Dinlins or later Kyrgyz, and contrary to the views of other researchers who considered the Kyrgyz to be related to the Slavs, allegedly due to ancient connections (I. Marquart), the question of the racial genesis of the Kyrgyz should be addressed from a historical perspective.
The fair-haired race (Noto Nordius) of the Dinlins and Wusun, partially preserved in the Kyrgyz and gradually being replaced by the so-called East Siberian race, represents a natural process of racial type change based on altered historical conditions. Soviet researchers who studied the fair-haired race (Debets) based their conclusions solely on craniological material and did not take into account the variability of racial types in connection with the historical fates of the tribes.
Changes in economic forms—the development of nomadic animal husbandry, which created a different nature of labor (associated with nomadism), likely caused, according to the laws of correlational linkage of traits, changes in the structure of the human body (height, brachycephaly, pigmentation).
Changes in diet undoubtedly affected the physiological, and perhaps even morphological, characteristics of people. Changes in the social structure, particularly the disruption of endogamy and intermarriage with other racial types, are an inseparable set of conditions that must be considered when addressing the questions of the replacement of the blond race in East Siberia.
The blond type of Asia is associated with a specific type of economy—pastoral animal husbandry, hunting, and agriculture—and is sharply altered with the development of nomadism, being replaced by the so-called East Siberian race.
In connection with the question about the link between the ancient Dili people and the Kyrgyz, and their partial Turkification, attention should be paid to certain references in ancient Turkic texts that allow us to trace the relationships between the ancient Turks and the tribes of the Dinlin type.
In the Selenga monument, written on behalf of the first Uyghur Khagan Moyun-Chur (1st Uyghur dynasty), the following is mentioned:
“In the year of the Tiger (750 AD), I went on a campaign against the Chiks on the 24th day of the second month by the Kem River (Yenisei)... I defeated them there”; or “I sent a thousand-strong detachment against the Chiks, and I sent an Az men to the land of their allies, saying, ‘Look, the Kyrgyz Khan is in the Kogmen land.’”
In the Mogilyan Khan monument, the text is as follows: “When it had been 36 years, the Chik people and the Kyrgyz became enemies. Crossing the Kem, I advanced (with war) against the Chiks and fought them at Ornen and slaughtered their army.”
A similar mention is found in the text of Kül Tegin: “The Az people became enemies. We fought at Karakol. Kül Tegin was 41 years old. He mounted his white horse Alp Shalgy and did not take the Az Elteber, but the Az people were exterminated there.”
I would like to point out the mention of a guide from the “Az” tribe in the text of Tonyukuk, and so on. From the above messages in ancient Turkic monuments, it follows that the Chik and Az tribes were located near the Kyrgyz—Chiks to the east of the Yenisei, Azes to the west. It is still difficult to identify the Chiks with any specific Turkic or Yenisei-Ostyak tribes, as we do not yet have sufficient material on the ethnonymy of these tribes.
The Azes should be compared with the Yenisei-Ostyak tribe Arins, where the change of the final "g" in the term "ag" to "z" in "az" is quite regular. It is worth noting that the tribal name "Chik" might be reflected in the personal names of some members of the Kyrgyz nobility. Names of this type, such as ‘Cigsi’ or ‘Ciksi’, are recorded in the texts of ‘Chakul’ and ‘Kamchik-Kaya-Bashi’.
In further developing this issue, it is, of course, necessary to draw on ethnographic material not only from the Kyrgyz but also, first and foremost, from the Turkic-speaking tribes of the Minusinsk Basin and the Sayan-Altai region.
Ancient Turkic texts also suggest that the Chik and Az tribes, which Kai Donner identified as descendants of the Dinlins, were under Turkic influence (referring to the influence of the Eastern Turkic Khaganate, mediated through the Kyrgyz).
If the hypothesis of the kinship of the Chiks and Azes with the Dinlins, and therefore with the Yenisei-Ostyaks and Kets, is correct, then among the borrowed words in the Yenisei-Ostyak and Ket lexicon, there should be traces of Turkic influence from this period. We refer to those words that are largely identical to Turkic but have undergone some changes according to the phonetics of the Yenisei-Ostyak and Ket languages.
Examples include words like the Ket ‘balbas’ (meaning an image of an old woman) corresponding to Kyrgyz-Turkic ‘balbal’, mentioned earlier, and the Ket ‘boru’ (meaning "wolf"), which corresponds to Kyrgyz and other Turkic languages. It is also possible that the term ‘altun’ should be included here, since in the later Turkic languages of this region, we do not seem to observe such a form (rather, the form is ‘altun’).
Alongside these tribes, the Kyrgyz participated as an independent group of tribes in the ethnogenesis of the Turks. The Chinese chronicles ‘Beishu’ and ‘Zhou’s hu’ contain a legend about the origin of the Turks. This legend was brilliantly analyzed by N. Aristov, who showed that among the related Turkic tribes that formed the Eastern Turkic Khaganate were the Kyrgyz, transcribed as ‘Cigu’, who lived between the Abakan and Yenisei rivers.
However, in this legend, the ‘Cigu’ tribes already appear as related tribes of the Turks along the Yenisei and Altai. It is evident that by the 6th century, i.e., by the time to which the legend refers, the ethnic connections between the tribes of the Sayan-Altai, Tian Shan, and Central Asia were not only an established fact but had acquired the character of legendary storytelling, in which all these tribes supposedly originated from the Orkhon Turks and Uyghurs.
This does not exclude the already existing merging of the ruling part of Kyrgyz society with the Turkic Khaganate (for example, the marriage of Bars-Beg to the sister of Mogilyan Khan) and the formation of the Kyrgyz ‘el’—a state.
As the process of creating the ‘el’ took place, and there were contradictions between the rich on one side, and the poor and slaves on the other, conditions were created for the completion of ethnogenesis, for the emergence of a people, and also, in particular, for the formation of a common literary language for several tribes as seen in the Kyrgyz tombstone inscriptions.
An analysis of Kyrgyz texts shows a lower level of development compared to Turkic texts. The most striking remnant of archaic relations is totemism. The totem of the Kyrgyz was the snow leopard (bars).
The political history of the Kyrgyz in the 7th–8th centuries shows an intensification of class-forming processes, and by the 9th century CE, there was a sharp leap in the transformation of the Kyrgyz social structure. Evidence of this is the defeat of the Uyghurs by the Kyrgyz and the conquest of Mongolia in 840 CE.
The Kyrgyz expansion into Mongolia was driven, similarly to other nomadic societies, by a rapid increase in class conflicts. The historical process of Kyrgyz society described above indicates that the formation of the Kyrgyz people should be dated to the period no earlier than the 6th–9th centuries CE when class relations were finally established.
During the Hun era, the formation of Turkic-speaking tribes took place, which later became part of the Kyrgyz people. This process was based economically on the transition from pastoral livestock farming to nomadism, and socially on the formation of a feudal-type state.
Thus, the Kyrgyz people were formed under the conditions of the genesis of feudalism, evolving from a barbaric and primitive slave-owning state to a feudal state in nomadic societies.” - Alexander Nathanovich Bernshtam
🧬 DNA Science Data:
“Haplogroup R1a1, more specifically, its subclade R1a1a1b2 (defined by mutation Z93), is the genetic marker of the Indo-European pastoralists, who migrated from modern-day Ukraine to modern-day Iran, India, the Kazakh steppes, the Tarim Basin, the Altai Mountains region, the Yenisei River region, and western Mongolia during the Bronze Age.
Naturally, R1a1, more specifically, its subclade R1a1a1b2 (R1a-Z93), occurs at high frequency among the Turkic peoples now residing in the Yenisei River and the Altai Mountains regions in Russia.
Compared to the Tuvinians, the Khakass (whose name was created by the Soviets from Xiajiasi (黠戛斯), a Chinese name for Kyrgyz, since they were regarded as descending from the Kyrgyz have noticeably higher percentages of R1a1 (35.2%) and much lower percentages of haplogroups C (1.1%) and Q (4%). However, N is also the most prevalent haplogroup (50%) of the Khakass (Gubina et al. 2013: 339; Shi et al. 2013)
As for the Altaians, the Altai-Kizhi (southern Altaians) are characterised by a high percentage of R1a1 (50%) and low to moderate percentages of C2 (20%), Q (16.7%) and N (4.2%) (Dulik et al. 2012: 234).
The major differences between the Khakass and the southern Altaians are the lower frequency of haplogroup N (in another study, haplogroup N is found at high frequency (32%) among the Altaians in general: see Gubina et al. 2013: 329, 339) and the higher frequencies of haplogroups C2 and Q among the latter.
The descent of the Kyrgyz (Kyrgyz) of the Tien Shan Mountains region (Kyrgyzstan) from the Yenisei Kyrgyz is debated among historians.
However, among the modern Turkic peoples, the former have the highest percentage of R1a1 (over 60%). Since the West Eurasian physiognomy of the Yenisei Kyrgyz recorded in the Xin Tangshu was in all likelihood a reflection of their Eurasian Indo-European marker R1a1a1b2 (R1a-Z93), one may conjecture that the Tien Shan Kyrgyz received their R1a1 marker from the Yenisei Kyrgyz. That is, the former are descended from the latter.
The other Y-chromosome haplogroups found among the Kyrgyz (Kyrgyz) are C2 (12~20%), O (0~15%) and N (0~4.5%).50 The lack of haplogroup Q among the Qirghiz (Kyrgyz) mostly distinguishes them from the Altaians.
During the Bronze Age and early Iron Age, the Yenisei River region was inhabited by Indo-Europeans. The dna study of 26 ancient human specimens from the Krasnoyarsk area dated from the middle of the second millennium bc to the fourth century ad shows that the Yenisei pastoralists mostly belonged to haplogroup R1a1 (Keyser et al. 2009: 401)
The high frequency of R1a1 among the modern-day Kyrgyz and Altaians may thus prove that they are descended from the Yenisei Kyrgyz. In addition, this may explain the reason why medieval Chinese histories depict the Kyrgyz as possessing West Eurasian physiognomy.
The Y-chromosomes of the Kök Türks have not been studied. After the collapse of the Second Türk Khaganate in 745 ce, the Kök Türks became dispersed and it is difficult to identify their modern descendants.
If they were indeed descended from the Eastern Scythians aka Saka (Suo) or related to the Kyrgyz, as the Zhoushu states (Zhoushu 50.908), the Ashina (royal Türkic dynasty, possibly related to the Turko-Jewish Khazar Khaganate, according to Peter B. Golden of Rutgers University) may have belonged to the R1a1 lineage.” - Joo-Yup Lee and Shuntu Kuang, University of Toronto, Canada
Source: “A Comparative Analysis of Chinese Historical Sources and Y-DNA Studies with Regard to the Early and Medieval Turkic Peoples’
Authors: Joo-Yup Lee and Shuntu Kuang from, the University of Toronto of Canada
“Kyrgyz are an admixed population between the East and the West. Different patterns have been observed in the patrilineal gene pool of the Kyrgyz. Historically, ancient Kyrgyz were considered to be the Yenisei Kyrgyz that may perhaps be concerned with the Tashtyk culture.
Extremely low Y-diversity and the presence of a high-frequency 68.9% Y-chromosome haplogroup R1a1-M17 (a diagnostic Indo-Iranian marker are striking features of Kyrgyz populations in central Asia. It is believed that this lineage is associated with Indo-Europeans who migrated to the Altai region during the Bronze Age and mixed with various Turkic groups.
Among the Asian R1a1a1b2-Z93 lineages, R1a1a1b2a2-Z2125 is quite common in Kyrgyzstan (68%) and Afghan Pashtuns (40%), and less frequent in other Afghan ethnic groups and some Caucasus and Iran populations (10%). Notably, the basal lineage R1a1a1b2-Z93* is commonly distributed in the South Siberian Altai region of Russia.
According to the published ancient DNA data, we found that, in Middle Bronze Age, Haplogroup R1a1a1b2a2a- Z2125 was mainly found in Sintashta culture population from Kamennyi Ambar 5 cemetery, western Siberia, in Fedorovo type of the Andronovo culture or Karasuk culture population from Minusinsk Basin, southern Siberia, and in Andronovo culture populations from Maitan, Ak-Moustafa, Aktogai, Kazakh Mys, Satan, Oy-Dzhaylau III, Karagash 2, Dali, and Zevakinskiy stone fence, Kazakhstan.” (Wen, Shao-qing; Du, Pan-xin; Sun, Chang; Cui, Wei; Xu, Yi-ran; Meng, Hai-liang; Shi, Mei-sen; Zhu, Bo-feng; Li, Hui (March 2022)
Source: "Dual origins of the Northwest Chinese Kyrgyz: the admixture of Bronze age Siberian and Medieval Niru'un Mongolian Y chromosomes", Nature
Authors: Wen, Shao-qing; Du, Pan-xin; Sun, Chang; Cui, Wei; Xu, Yi-ran; Meng, Hai-liang; Shi, Mei-sen; Zhu, Bo-feng; Li, Hui (March 2022)
“The modern-day descendants of the Yenisei Kyrgyz, the Kyrgyz people, have one of the highest frequencies of haplogroup R1a-Z93. This lineage believed to be associated with Indo-Iranians who migrated to the Altai region in the Bronze Age, and is carried by various Türkic groups. The Zhoushu [the book of the Zhou Dynasty] (Linghu Defen 2003, Chapter 50, p. 908) informs us that the Ashina, the royal clan of the Kök Türks, were related to the Kyrgyz.
If so, the Ashina may have belonged to the R1a1 lineage like the modern-day Tienshan Kyrgyz, who are characterised by the high frequency of R1a1 (over 65%). Haplogroup R1a1, more specifically, its sub- clade R1a1a1b2 defined by mutation Z93, was carried by the Indo-European pastoralists, who reached the Kazakh steppes, the Tarim Basin, the Altai Mountains region, the Yenisei River region, and western Mongolia from the Black Sea steppes during the Bronze Age (Semino et al. 2000, p. 1156, Lee, Joo-Yup (2018)
Source: Lee, Joo-Yup (2018). "Some remarks on the Turkicisation of the Mongols in post-Mongol Central Asia and the Kipchak Steppe ''. Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. 71 (2): 121–124. doi:10.1556/062.2018.71.2.1. ISSN 0001-6446. S2CID 133847698.
Kazakh DNA researcher Zhaxylyk Sabitov states: “Until the 9th century, the Kyrgyz lived along the Yenisei River in the Minusinsk Basin. In the 9th century, the Yenisei Kyrgyz migrated to the Altai and Irtysh regions.
“From 1326 to 1329, some Altai Kyrgyz moved to Semirechye and the territory of modern Kyrgyzstan.” He also published DNA sample data from the Sintashta culture, which he claims “is related to the Altai and modern Kyrgyz, while the Arban-1 samples from the Karasuk culture are ancestral to modern Kyrgyz. Genetic data from Arzhan complex (8th century BCE) also show parental genes of the Kyrgyz.”
It is known that the structure of Arzhan has similarities with the Sintashta-Andronovo kurgans (M.P. Gryaznov). It is known that Saka tribes lived in the territory of Kyrgyzstan, and later the Wusun tribe arrived from the east. The high percentage of R1a1 among the Kyrgyz appeared through three routes: from the Saka tribes, from the Wusun Sakas, and from the Dingling tribes. There is also a theory about the migration of part of the Yenisei Kyrgyz to the territory of modern Kyrgyzstan.” (Zhaxylyk Sabitov)
Source: “Historical-Genetic Approach in the Study of the Ethnogenesis and Material Culture of the Ancient Kyrgyz” - International Journal of Experimental Education
“The land of Modern Kyrgyzstan, populated at the turn of the eras by the Saka and Wusun tribes, was overrun by the Yenisei Kyrgyzes (Khakasses) in the 8th c. AD.
Since Kyrgyzstan is a natural mountain fortress of the Tian Shan mountains, it is an island similar to the Lithuanian Tatars, with high genetic inertia and limited influences. Essentially, all four are Scythians, the Saka Scythians, Wusun Scythians, Yenisei Kyrgyz Scythians, and the Lithuanian Tatar Scythians.”
Source: “The Lithuanian Tatars: DNA Ancestry Traced To The Eurasian Steppes”, Academy of DNA-Genealogy, Tsukuba, Japan, Igor Rozhanski
"Samples from the burials of the Andronovo, Tagar, and Tashtyk cultures were identified using Y-STR analysis, which allows for the comparison of these samples with each other and with samples from representatives of different populations, both ancient and modern.
The Andronovo haplotypes S10 and S16 have the following structure:
ANDRON S10, S16:
13-25-16-11-11-14-10-14-11-18-15-14-11-16-20-12-23
The greatest number of matches is observed with the Tian Shan Kyrgyz and the Southern Altaians. Complete matches of haplotypes in populations that are geographically close and share a common history are possible only in cases of genetic relationship; random matches are unlikely.
Thus, the Southern Altaians and the Tien Shan Kyrgyz are likely descendants of close relatives of the Yenisei Andronovites, most likely the descendants of the Altai Andronovites. It is well established by linguists and ethnographers that there is close linguistic and ethnic kinship between the Kyrgyz and the Southern Altaians (Baskakov, 1966: 15-16).
These peoples share the same names for their clan divisions (Mundus, Telos-Doolos, Kipchak, Naiman, Merkit, etc.). Kyrgyz legends refer to Altai as the ancestral home of their people. Several historians believe that the Kyrgyz and Southern Altaians once formed a single community and that the migration of the Kyrgyz from Altai to Tien Shan occurred relatively recently (Abramzon, 1959: 34; Abdumanapov, 2007: 95, 114).
Source: Volkov V.G., Kharkov V.N., Stepanov V.A. Andronovo and Tagar cultures in light of genetic data."
In pictures:
- Facial reconstruction of an Iron Age man from Khakassia, belonging to the Scythian Tagar culture.
- Facial reconstruction of a Wusun individual from the Tian Shan region, Kyrgyzstan, dated to 100 BC–100 AD.
- Facial reconstructions of Siberian Scythians.
- Facial reconstruction of a Scythian with acromegaly from Edrey, Kazakhstan.
- Facial reconstruction of a man from the Afanasievo culture.
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