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Molecular archaeological study of horse remains unearthed from Jiulongshan cemetery, Ningxia, China

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Abstract

Horse was one of the important domestic animals in ancient China. Previous studies on ancient DNA have shown that Chinese domestic horses were introduced from the West, although the exact diffusion route remains ambiguous. In this study, we extracted three horse samples from the Jiulongshan Cemetery, dating back to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and successfully acquired three mitochondrial genome sequences. The results of the ancient DNA analysis revealed matrilineal genetic diversity among the ancient horses from the Jiulongshan Cemetery, as well as interaction with the nomadic cultures around the Altai region. For the sake of the geographical asset that domestic horses from the West via the route entered China, the Jiulongshan Cemetery has played a significant role in the origin and domestication research of Chinese horses. These findings genetically prove that there was close communication with the nomadic of different groups in northern China and besides between those and the Western Eurasian steppe.

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Data availability

All novel sequences were deposited in GenBank under the accession numbers OR625449–OR625451. Other Equus caballus sequences were downloaded from the GenBank database (Supplementary Tables S1–S2).

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Funding

This work was supported by the Major Project of the National Social Science Foundation of China (Grant NO.17ZDA221).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bioarchaeology Laboratory, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, China

    Chang Li & Dawei Cai

  2. School of Archaeology, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, China

    Chang Li & Dawei Cai

  3. Ningxia Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Yinchuan, 750001, China

    Cunshi Zhu & Jialong Guo

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  1. Chang Li
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  2. Dawei Cai
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  3. Cunshi Zhu
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  4. Jialong Guo
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Contributions

Chang Li and Dawei Cai conceived and designed the experiments. The specimen was provided by Cunshi Zhu and Jialong Guo. The experiments were performed by Chang Li. Chang Li and Dawei Cai conducted data analysis. The manuscript was written by Chang Li. Dawei Cai, Cunshi Zhu and Jialong Guo revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Dawei Cai.

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Li, C., Cai, D., Zhu, C. et al. Molecular archaeological study of horse remains unearthed from Jiulongshan cemetery, Ningxia, China. asian archaeol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41826-023-00079-z

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