The Identification Of Ancient Individuals' Relationships In Hanshu ? Tombs At Houtaomuga Site In Jilin Province

Houtaomuga site,which locating on the downstream of the Nen River valley,is about 1500 meters away from the shore of Xinhuang lake in Yonghe village,Da'an city,Jilin province.Remains excavated in this site from 2011 to 2014 showed that this site experienced seven different periods from the early Neolithic Age to the Liao and the Jin Dynasty.Most of the remains belong to Hanshu II culture of the periods from Warring States Time to Western Han Dynasty.The shape and structure of the tombs could be divided into two types:earthen seaft tombs and catacombs.Joint burial tombs are common in this site,and except M20 belonged to the secondary burial tomb,most joint burial tombs were buried simultaneously.It' s known that social relations could be reflected by burial custom directly or indirectly,and the kinship is the main factor that influenced burial custom.In order to study the kinships of ancient human remains and their social relations in Hanshu ? culture at Houtaomuga site,we chose 30 ancient individual samples from 10 joint tombs(9 of earthen seaft tombs and 1 of catacomb).Mitochondrial DNA hypervariable region I and autosomal STR were used to identify the kinships among the 30 individuals.Twenty-one samples' sequences of the mitochondrial HVS-I were successfully obtained,and their autosomal STRs were analyzed subsequently.By comprehensive analysis of the molecular genetic results,we didn' t find any matrilineal relationships between the individuals buried in the same tomb.However,some individuals having close genetic relationships were found in adjacent burial regions but different tombs,which indicated the joint burials of Hanshu II tombs at Houtaomuga site were not based on the close genetic relationships.This implied that the social system might not be a matrilineal society,but a clan group based on kinships,and the persons dead in the same period might be buried together in a same tomb.Due to the unique geographical location,the ancient residents of Hanshu II culture at the Houtaomuga site might have their own burial custom and social structure,and the development of social civilization was not synchronized with the Central Plain.