Genetic formation of Neolithic Hongshan people and demic expansion of Hongshan culture inferred from ancient human genomes

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Abstract: The Hongshan culture, situated at the crossroads of northern and northeast China, represented one of the earliest complex societies in Neolithic East Asia. The remains of Hongshan culture have been found in an area stretching from today’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to Liaoning Province, covering an area of over 200,000 square kilometers. However, the question of how Hongshan culture occupied such a vast geographical location, following either the demic diffusion (i.e., genetic interaction accompanied by cultural expansion) or cultural diffusion model (i.e., local groups adopting new culture without receiving genetic influence), remains unanswered due to a lack of ancient genomes. Here, we report genome-wide data from 19 individuals associated with the Hongshan culture, from the Zhengjiagou site in Hebei Province, the westernmost and southernmost Hongshan culture-related site discovered to date. We co-analyzed our newly generated Hebei Hongshan genomes with previously published 3 Hongshan culture-related genomes from the Banlashan site in Liaoning Province, located in the core region of Hongshan culture and about 473 km away from the Zhengjiagou site. Our genetic results revealed strong genetic links between the Hebei Hongshan and Liaoning Hongshan people, supporting the demic diffusion of the Hongshan culture. Both Liaoning and Hebei Hongshan people harboured Ancient Northeast Asian-related (possibly related to the local earlier Zhaobaogou culture) and Neolithic Yangshao culture-related millet farmer ancestries. Interestingly, our ancestral modelling suggested that Yangshao culture-related ancestry in the Hongshan people was more likely introduced by middle Neolithic Dawenkou culture-related farmers from Shandong, who carried about 40% of an early Neolithic Shandong hunter-gatherer-related lineage and 60% of a Yangshao culture-related lineage. Our findings highlight a complex interconnected gene pool among the West Liao River, the Central Plain, and Shandong during the middle Neolithic period.