Seima-Turbino Phenomenon

Was reading about the Mongolian language and some linguists consider it part of a large language family called Altaic.

Here is a map of Y-chrmosome (male) haplogroup migrations:

There are some really trippy things which immediately stand out in this map. Look at the migration route for group C (then C3) for example. It starts directly in Africa near where “Adam” lived and then completely bypasses Europe and most of East Asia except for parts of Indonesia and the extreme Pacific Rim and then goes all the way around to the Americas.

D is another haplogroup which came straight out of Africa and sort of went directly into East Asia. Then look at how T, S, M, K, G, H, F, etc. all seem to originate in or near modern-day Turkey and northern Iran.

Then there is group N whose migration pattern is a trip. It originates in the same region as above but then goes east through the Tarim Basin, south of the Altai Mountains for which the hypothetical Altaic language family is named, up towards the arctic and now heading westward across Siberia into northern Scandinavia.

According to the Seima-Turbino Phenomenon:

The Altai Mountains in what is now southern Russia and central Mongolia have been identified as the point of origin of a cultural enigma termed the Seima-Turbino Phenomenon.[16] It is conjectured that changes in climate in this region around 2000 BC and the ensuing ecological, economic and political changes triggered a rapid and massive migration westward into northeast Europe, eastward into China and southward into Vietnam and Thailand across a frontier of some 4,000 miles.[16] This migration took place in just five to six generations and led to peoples from Finland in the west to Thailand in the east employing the same metal working technology and, in some areas, horse breeding and riding.[16] It is further conjectured that the same migrations spread the Uralic group of languages across Europe and Asia: some 39 languages of this group are still extant, including Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian and Lappish.[16] However, recent genetic testings of sites in south Siberia and Kazakhstan (Andronovo horizon) would rather support a spreading of the bronze technology via Indo-European migrations eastwards, as this technology was well known for quite a while in western regions.[17][18]

The post from the other day featured a documentary about the Tarmin Mummies who genetic testing found were of haplotype R1a which is dominant in Eastern-Europe. What was the relationship if any between these R1a Indo-Europeans and the N Uralic migrators?

One thing that is interesting about the Seima-Turbino Phenomenon:

Seima-Turbino refers to burial sites dating around 1500 BC found across northern Eurasia, from Finland to Mongolia. The buried were nomadic warriors and metal-workers, travelling on horseback or two-wheeled chariots. These nomads originated from the Altai Mountains.[1] The culture spread from these mountains to the west.[2] Although they were the precursor to the much later Mongol invasions, these groups were not yet strong enough to attack the important social sites of the Bronze Age.[3]

These cultures are noted for being nomadic forest and steppe societies with metal working, sometimes without having first developed agricultural methods.[1] The development of this metalworking ability appears to have taken place quite quickly.[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seima-Turbino_Phenomenon

Is that their description seems similar to the Indo-Europeans in the documentary who were similarly advanced with bronze metallurgy and also had used carts with wheels which was a big innovation at the time.

The Indo-Europeans at different points in time later came to dominate many regions on Earth. Horse-riding, metallurgy of bronze, and the wheel dramatically changed the ancient world.

Curious about the cluster of copper mines in the far-eastern portion of this map:

Map of the diffusion of metallurgy.

I was in Google Earth and clicked on a little icon in an area that is now East Azerbaijan, Iran and a series of images came up, from a town called Khoy, of the tomb of Shams Tabrizi who was a teacher of the poet Rumi.

One last little bit of information to glue things together: I’m sure everyone has heard about the Denisovan branch of hominids. In fact just recently it was in the news that the oldest DNA ever retreived from a human fossil – in Spain – was a major surprise to scientists because its DNA closely matched with the enigmatic Denisovan DNA.

Well, guess where the home of the Densiovan’s was considered to be? The Altai Mountains.