Valley. The authors conclude that a third of the genetic ancestry of the individual was derived from the local Neolithic Dnipro Valley ancestry, while the rest was of the Yamna-related steppe ancestry. Another Eneolithic individual (4049-3945 calBC) carrying steppe ancestry, potentially from a Serednii Stig population, was identified at the Trypillian settlement of Kolomyitsiv Yar Tract (KYT) near Obykhiv in central Ukraine. At the whole genome level, the KYT individual was close to the Yamna from Ukraine and Russia, without forming a clade with Yamna. The authors suggested that genetic ancestry of the KYT individual was plausibly derived from a proto-Yamna population, with admixture from Iron Gates Mesolithic. The steppe ancestry, otherwise known as Western Steppe Herder WSH ancestry, found in the Seredny Stih culture is similar to that of the Khvalynsk culture, among whom there was no EEF admixture. Males of the Khvalynsk culture carried primarily the paternal haplogroup R1b, although a few samples of R1a, I2a2, Q1a and J have been detected. Succeeding Yamnaya males however, have been found to have carried only R1b and I2. This is similar to the males of the Dnipro-Donets culture, who carried R and I only and were almost exclusively EHGs with Western Hunter-Gatherer (WHG) admixture. The results suggest, as a possible yet highly simplified scenario, that the Yamnaya emerged through mixing between EHG and WHG males, and EEF and CHG females. This implies that the leading clans of the Yamnaya were of EHG paternal origin. On this basis, David W. Anthony argues that the Indo-European languages were originally spoken by EHGs. Another hypothesis about the origin of the Indo-European (IE) languages links them with the Eneolithic circum-Pontic trade network and suggests the emergence of the ancestral IE tongue in the North Pontic steppe. Recent genetic research found the Yamnaya to be a result of admixture between EHGs, CHGs, Anatolian Neolithic farmers and Levantine Neolithic farmers, with the mixture happening between an EHG + CHG population (Serednii Stih-like) and a CHG-like (CHG + Anatolia Neolithic + Levant Neolithic) population with the admixture occurring around 4000BCE. Successors The culture ended at around 3500 BC, when the Yamnaya culture expanded westward replacing Serednii Stih, and coming into direct contact with the Cucuteni–Trypillia culture culture in western Ukraine. Notes References Sources J. P. Mallory, "Sredny Stog Culture", Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997. Archaeological cultures of Eastern Europe Chalcolithic cultures of Europe Archaeological cultures