It looks like more than 60% of the Kurgan (including Scytho-Siberian) samples successfully tested here for pigmentation markers were blue or green eyed and fair haired:
In the present study, a multiplexed genotyping assay for ten single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) located within six pigmentation candidate genes was developed on modern biological samples and applied to DNA retrieved from 25 archeological human remains from southern central Siberia dating from the Bronze and Iron Ages. SNP genotyping was successful for the majority of ancient samples and revealed that most probably had typical European pigment features, i.e., blue or green eye color, light hair color and skin type, and were likely of European individual ancestry.
Y-DNA and mtDNA were also extracted from the samples, and most of these results have already appeared in two previous studies (see Bouakaze et al. 2007 and Keyser et al. 2008). The majority of the males who carried Y-DNA haplogroup R1a1 turned out to be very similar to the European reference population (Utah Americans from the HapMap project). On the other hand, the individual with Y-DNA C clustered close to the East Asians (HapMap Han Chinese and Japanese), along with another sample for which a Y-DNA result wasn't available. Here's the admixture plot based on STRUCTURE analysis, which you can compare to this similar effort using over 1,000 Poles.
My interpretation of the results here is that these ancient Siberians were largely of East-Central European origin, or from the same source as modern East-Central Europeans. They also most likely spoke Indo-Iranian (ie. Indo-European) languages. After migrating east they obviously came into contact with populations from East Eurasia and mixed with them. So there's nothing really surprising there, because it fits with what we know from archeology, as well as other aDNA studies. For example, a recent analysis of Corded Ware skeletons from Germany also found R1a (likely R1a1), as well as a rare mtDNA lineage present in modern Indo-Iranian Shugnans from Tajikistan.
So it's pretty clear there were Bronze Age expansions deep into Asia from somewhere in the west, probably Europe. They carried with them West Eurasian genes and physical characteristics, and perhaps Indo-European speech. But many of the details are still a mystery.
Caroline Bouakaze et al., Pigment phenotype and biogeographical ancestry from ancient skeletal remains: inferences from multiplexed autosomal SNP analysis, International Journal of Legal Medicine doi:10.1007/s00414-009-0348-5
See also...
Ancient Siberians carrying R1a1 had light eyes - take 2
http://eurogenes.blogspot.ru/search/label/ancestry
In the present study, a multiplexed genotyping assay for ten single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) located within six pigmentation candidate genes was developed on modern biological samples and applied to DNA retrieved from 25 archeological human remains from southern central Siberia dating from the Bronze and Iron Ages. SNP genotyping was successful for the majority of ancient samples and revealed that most probably had typical European pigment features, i.e., blue or green eye color, light hair color and skin type, and were likely of European individual ancestry.
Y-DNA and mtDNA were also extracted from the samples, and most of these results have already appeared in two previous studies (see Bouakaze et al. 2007 and Keyser et al. 2008). The majority of the males who carried Y-DNA haplogroup R1a1 turned out to be very similar to the European reference population (Utah Americans from the HapMap project). On the other hand, the individual with Y-DNA C clustered close to the East Asians (HapMap Han Chinese and Japanese), along with another sample for which a Y-DNA result wasn't available. Here's the admixture plot based on STRUCTURE analysis, which you can compare to this similar effort using over 1,000 Poles.
My interpretation of the results here is that these ancient Siberians were largely of East-Central European origin, or from the same source as modern East-Central Europeans. They also most likely spoke Indo-Iranian (ie. Indo-European) languages. After migrating east they obviously came into contact with populations from East Eurasia and mixed with them. So there's nothing really surprising there, because it fits with what we know from archeology, as well as other aDNA studies. For example, a recent analysis of Corded Ware skeletons from Germany also found R1a (likely R1a1), as well as a rare mtDNA lineage present in modern Indo-Iranian Shugnans from Tajikistan.
So it's pretty clear there were Bronze Age expansions deep into Asia from somewhere in the west, probably Europe. They carried with them West Eurasian genes and physical characteristics, and perhaps Indo-European speech. But many of the details are still a mystery.
Caroline Bouakaze et al., Pigment phenotype and biogeographical ancestry from ancient skeletal remains: inferences from multiplexed autosomal SNP analysis, International Journal of Legal Medicine doi:10.1007/s00414-009-0348-5
See also...
Ancient Siberians carrying R1a1 had light eyes - take 2
http://eurogenes.blogspot.ru/search/label/ancestry
