Molecular Archaeology On Ancient Cattle In Taosi Site And Erlitou Site

As two large sites of great significance in Central Plains, Taosi Site and ErlitouSite are two major sites for exploring the origin of Xia culture and Chinesecivilization. With the skeleton or tooth samples of15ancient cattle at Taosi Site andErlitou Site respectively as experimental materials, this study applies ancient DNAtechnology to extract DNA and analyzes the obtained mtDNA sequences, to definetheir pedigrees and haplotypes, and analyze their origin, acclimatization, routes formigration as well as the early civilization.In this study, the mtDNA hypervariable region sequences of13individuals areobtained from the15ancient cattle samples at Taosi Site. All the13cattle weretaurine cattle, with one being of T4pedigree, and the rest being of T3pedigree,classified into four haplotypes. The mtDNA hypervariable region sequences of nineindividuals are obtained from the15samples at Erlitou Site. All the nine cattle weretaurine cattle, with seven being of T3pedigree, classified into2haplotypes, and therest two being of T2and T4pedigree respectively.Combining the mtDNA data of ancient cattle at Xiaohe Cemetery, ChangningSite and Dashanqian Site, there is no zebu being discovered, and the taurine cattleplayed the main role in ancient cattle. Considering the fact that the quantity of modernChinese zebus is reduced from the South to the North, it can be speculated that theIndia-originated zebus spread into China from the south and entered into central plainarea and the North at least3500years ago, which was late than the taurine cattlespread into China.Among cattle of five sites, Erlitou cattle was the only group which had T2, T3and T4pedigree simultaneously, with the percentage of11%,78%and11% respectively. While from the study of modern cattle of Chinese indigenous breeds, thepercentages of the corresponding genealogies are8.9%,81.2%and9.9%, and onlyhaplotypes of Erlitou cattle were present and widely spread in modern cattle.Itdemonstrates that through thousands of years of time, the genes of ancient cattle inCentral Plains has been stably inherited. It reveals the important contribution andcontinuation of Erlitou culture centered on Erlitou site to the early Chinesecivilization. This has provided a new thinking perspective on the relation of Erlitousite and capital of Xia Dynasty.The11individual mtDNA of ancient cattle in Xiaohe cemetery belong to7haplotypes which displays abundant genetic diversity. Moreover, there is the existenceof individual who share the pedigree of the builders. The history of cattle groups ofXiaohe cemetery is more ancient which indicates its close relationship with west Asia.The cattle originated from west Asia are the first to reach the Northwest area of Chinaand then it further expands to the East.According to the gradual frequency decrease of cattle of Dashangqian site, Taosisite and Erlitou site T4pedigree from the North to the South, areas such as Xiaohecemetery, Changning site do not detect T4pedigree cattle. The T4pedigree in NorthAsia yakutia cattle has exceeded50%as well as the the particular distribution featureof modern T4cattle in Northeast Asia. All of these support the perspective that thispedigree is originated from Northeast Asia area.By combining physical anthropology, ancient humans and plant DNA data aswell as archaeological evidence of culture, it puts forward the basic mode of howcattle are introduced to China: the taurine cattle originated from the near East will gothrough the grassland area in the North of Eurasia. And then with the immigration ofpeople in the early stage they will migrate to Xinjiang region. Afterwards, it continuesto spread to the East until they reach Yellow River region; The T4cattle whichoriginate from Northeast Asia will spread to the South until they reach Central Plains.The Central Plains has received the cross penetrating effect of cattle from Northwestand North during the period when it is4000years to3500before now. All in all, the direction of Chinese cattle migration and spread is generally eastward and southward.The effect of zebu cattle from India to the North is in the later period.