might have established pre-Baltic populations in the upper Volga basin. The pre-Slavs probably developed among those peoples of the Middle-Dnieper culture who stayed behind. Genetics examined 24 individuals of the Fatyanovo culture. They were mostly of steppe ancestry with moderate Early European Farmer (EEF) admixture. They were most closely related to Late Neolithic and Bronze Age populations of Central Europe, Scandinavia and the eastern Baltic, and also grouped together with modern Northern and Eastern Europeans. All 14 male samples belonged to subclades of Y-haplogroup R1a-M417. Six of these could be further specified to haplogroup R1a2-Z93. Haplogroup R1a2-Z93 is today prevalent in Central Asia and South Asia rather than in Europe. The 24 samples of mtDNA extracted belonged to various subclades of maternal haplogroups U5, U4, U2e, H, T, W, J, K, I and N1a. Both the paternal and maternal lineages of the examined Fatyanovo individuals were characteristic of the Corded Ware culture. 58% of the samples had an intermediate skintone and 80% of the samples had dark hair and brown eyes, with only 4% having blonde hair and 21% having blue eyes. Lactase persistance was only 17% in the Fatyanovo samples. The genetics of the people of the Fatyanovo culture was found to be substantially different from preceding Volosovo culture, with whom they do not appear to have mixed. Their EEF admixture has not been detected in the earlier Yamnaya culture, suggesting that the Fatyanovo people did not directly descend from the Yamnaya. The authors of the study suggested that the Fatyanovo culture emerged through a rapid migration towards the north-east from the Middle Dnieper culture of modern-day Ukraine and Belarus. See also Battle Axe culture Single Grave culture Beaker culture Unetice culture Catacomb culture Nordic Bronze Age References Sources Further reading Archaeological cultures of Eastern Europe Stone Age Europe Archaeology of Russia Indo-European archaeological cultures Corded Ware culture