Ancestry populations · Hunter Gatherer and Neolithic Farmer
Northeast Asian
Neolithic populations of the Amur, Baikal and Mongolian plateau, the northern pole of East Asian ancestry that later fed the steppe nomads. One of the 13 curated source populations in the Hunter Gatherer and Neolithic Farmer era of the Ancestrify qpAdm ancient-DNA analysis.
Who they were
- Period
- 6000 – 2000 BC
- Era in the analysis
- Hunter Gatherer and Neolithic Farmer
- Region
- Amur basin, Lake Baikal and Mongolia
- Role in the model
- Source (left) population — a reference qpAdm tests against
The Neolithic peoples of the Amur river basin, the Baikal region and the eastern Mongolian plateau form the northern pole of East Asian ancestry. Their genomes show remarkable continuity: Amur populations from the early Holocene to the present are close relatives, and the Baikal foragers carried an ancient Siberian component alongside their East Asian base (Jeong et al. 2020; Wang et al. 2021). Groups of this kind were the eastern neighbours of the Ancient North Eurasians whose descendants populated the steppe.
This ancestry underlies present-day Tungusic, Mongolic and many Turkic-speaking populations and, through the Xiongnu, Huns and later steppe empires, was carried west into Central Asia and the fringes of Europe. It is the closest source in the era to the Native American, with which it shares a deep Siberian heritage, and to the Eastern Hunter Gatherer, which carries a small Siberian-related component of its own. In the model it captures the East Asian side of any genome from northern Asia and, in small amounts, of many Central Asian and Uralic-speaking populations.
In Ancestrify's qpAdm service, Northeast Asian is a source in the "Hunter Gatherer and Neolithic Farmer" era. The report shows its weight with a standard error and a Z-score, so you can see not only how much of the model it carries but how confidently that share is separated from zero, and a model that cannot support it is rejected rather than published. For genomes with any east-of-the-Urals heritage it is usually the source that captures that component, and its Z-score shows how far the model could separate it from the Eastern Hunter Gatherer.
Y haplogroups C2 and N, and mtDNA D4, C4 and G, are typical of these samples. A haplogroup alone is never evidence of a share.
In your reportArtwork is an AI-generated artistic interpretation informed by the archaeological record — not documentary evidence.Refers to the deeply divergent East Asian-related ancestral lineage documented in Paleolithic and Mesolithic Siberian populations, carrying a mixture of paleo-Siberian and Ancient North Eurasian ancestry. Middle Holocene genomes from the Altai and Trans-Baikal reveal highly connected gene pools across North Asia, with ancient Northeast Asian ancestry linking Siberian, Central Asian, and Beringian populations. Prolonged gene flow between Northeastern Siberians and Native American-related groups highlights the role of this region as a crossroads between East Asian and Beringian demographics. This ancestry component is a key source for later Uralic-speaking and Turkic-speaking populations that expanded across northern Eurasia. In admixture modeling, Northeast Asian ancestry serves as a critical reference for reconstructing the population history of Inner and Northern Asia.
Where this population sits in the model
The Ancestrify qpAdm analysis models your genome once per era. The Hunter Gatherer and Neolithic Farmer era has 13 curated source populations, and Northeast Asian is one of them: every candidate model for that era is a combination of these sources, tested against a fixed set of outgroup populations, and only a model that passes the statistical fit check is published — with a p-value, and a standard error on every proportion.
A reference, not a verdict: every population on this page is a source the model tests your genome against — a well-sampled point in ancient genetic space that a mixture of ancestries can be expressed in terms of. A weight on it means your genome is well described as partly resembling those people; it is never a statement that they, specifically, were your ancestors, and a population that fits well is not the only one that could.
Read how the method works on the qpAdm analysis page, or the definitions in the glossary.
Model it yourself for free
The Ancestrify Lab runs in your browser, with no account. Paste a Global25 row into an admixture calculator that covers the Hunter Gatherer and Neolithic Farmer era, rank the closest ancient populations in the distance tool, or run f4, qpWave and qpAdm on the public panel in the AdmixTools 2 workbench. These are Global25 fits and exploratory statistics, not the formal qpAdm model of the paid analysis.
Questions
Who were the Northeast Asian (6000 – 2000 BC)?
Northeast Asian is one of the 13 curated source populations in the Hunter Gatherer and Neolithic Farmer era of the Ancestrify qpAdm analysis: a group of published ancient genomes from one archaeological context, pooled as a single reference the model can test your genome against.
Does Northeast Asian in my result mean they were my ancestors?
No. A source population is a reference the model tests against, never a statement about who your ancestors were. A coefficient on this source means the ancestry those burials represent helps explain your genome to within statistical noise — similar ancestry composition, not descent from those individuals. Ancestrify never claims a population is your ancestor.
What does a Northeast Asian percentage in a qpAdm model mean?
qpAdm estimates the mixture proportions that best explain your genome as a combination of the chosen sources, given a fixed set of outgroup (right) populations, and reports a p-value for whether the model is statistically acceptable together with a standard error for every proportion. The percentage is that estimated share, with its uncertainty published beside it.
How do I get a qpAdm model that uses Northeast Asian?
Order the Ancestrify qpAdm analysis (€29.99, one-time) and upload the raw file you already have from a consumer test. Your genome is merged into the AADR reference panel and modelled across both eras; each era's model is built from that era's source populations, so a model for the Hunter Gatherer and Neolithic Farmer era draws on Northeast Asian where it improves the fit.
Can I model Northeast Asian ancestry for free first?
Yes. The Ancestrify Lab runs Global25 admixture calculators, a nearest-populations distance tool and an AdmixTools 2 workbench in your browser with no account, and several calculators cover the Hunter Gatherer and Neolithic Farmer era. Those are G25 fits, not formal qpAdm models — the paid analysis is the one with a p-value.
More populations from the Hunter Gatherer and Neolithic Farmer era
Browse the full directory of source populations, or continue with another population from the same era:
Anatolian Neolithic Farmer8500 – 6000 BC
Ancestral South Indian10000 – 2000 BC
Caucasian Hunter Gatherer13000 – 7000 BC
Eastern Hunter Gatherer12000 – 5000 BC
Iberomaurusian15000 – 8000 BC
Iranian Neolithic Farmer8000 – 5000 BC
Native American15000 – 1500 BC
Natufian12000 – 8000 BC
North African Farmer5200 – 4000 BC
Sub Saharan African
Western Hunter Gatherer12000 – 6000 BC
Western Steppe Herder5000 – 2800 BC