Ancestry and demography and descendants of Iron Age nomads of the Eurasian Steppe.

During the 1st millennium before the Common Era (BCE), nomadic tribes associated with the Iron Age Scythian culture spread over the Eurasian Steppe, covering a territory of more than 3,500 km in breadth. To understand the demographic processes behind the spread of the Scythian culture, we analysed genomic data from eight individuals and a mitochondrial dataset of 96 individuals originating in eastern and western parts of the Eurasian Steppe. Genomic inference reveals that Scythians in the east and the west of the steppe zone can best be described as a mixture of Yamnaya-related ancestry and an East Asian component. Demographic modelling suggests independent origins for eastern and western groups with ongoing gene-flow between them, plausibly explaining the striking uniformity of their material culture. We also find evidence that significant gene-flow from east to west Eurasia must have occurred early during the Iron Age.

Oldest known case of metastasizing prostate carcinoma diagnosed in the skeleton of a 2,700-year-old Scythian king from Arzhan (Siberia, Russia).

To determine whether a 2,700-year-old tumor can be reliably diagnosed using microscopic and proteomic techniques and whether such prostate carcinomas show the same morphological pattern at the micro-level as modern-day carcinomas, this case was investigated. A 40-50-year-old Scythian king who lived during the Iron Age in the steppe of Southern Siberia (Russia) suffered from macroscopically visible osteoblastic and osteoclastic lesions throughout his entire skeleton. Macro-morphological (macroscopy, endoscopy, radiology) and micro-morphological techniques (histology, scanning-electron microscopy) as well as proteomic techniques (1-D- and 2-D-electrophoresis, Western blot) were applied. The results of the morphological and biochemical investigation proved that this mature male suffered for many years from and probably died of a carcinoma of the prostate. The diagnosis mainly rests on the results of the microscopic examination of the lesions and the positive evidence of PSA, which is an important marker for the diagnosis of prostate cancer. It is remarkable that, in this ancient case, the morphological pattern at the microlevel is the same as in recent cases. The loss of the spongy bone substance (red bone marrow) provoked chronic anemia during the final months of the life of this king. The proteomic techniques applied are new for the investigation of recent and ancient macerated bones. Sensitive and reliable biochemical markers (PSA) are an important precondition to detect such tumors in recent and ancient materials. Currently, this is the oldest known case of prostate cancer diagnosed reliably by morphological and biochemical techniques.

Detection and analysis of cancer genes amplified from bone material of a Scythian royal burial in Arzhan near Tuva, Siberia.

Molecular paleopathology has become an emerging field that helps to characterize molecular markers of past disease. Especially highly sensitive genetic techniques such as PCR are an important means of unraveling changes in ancient DNA extracted from bone tissue, teeth and mummified soft tissue. In the present study, excavated bone material from the skeleton of a Scythian sovereign, morphologically and immunohistochemically suspicious of a metastatic prostate carcinoma, was analyzed by PCR for amplifiable human gene sequences. Short sequences of the human GADD153 DNA repair gene and p53 tumor suppressor gene were detectable which revealed the absence of mutations according to the data of automatic sequencing. Using bisulfite-treated DNA from the bone, methylation-specific PCR detected hypermethylated promoter sequences of the p14ARF tumor suppressor gene. In summary, these data show that it is possible: a) to amply short human DNA stretches from 2,500-year-old bone material, b) to detect tumorigenetically important genes within this DNA, c) to detect epigenetically modified DNA in ancient bone material. The finding of hypermethylated p14ARF sequences merits attention because this may indicate an intraosseal neoplastic process and may corroborate the hypothesis of prostate cancer.