On the high bank of the Kuban, archaeologists have discovered an underground burial ground dating from the end of the XII – first half of the XIII century. This is the time on the eve of the Mongol invasion, when medieval Alanya flourished in the region. The funeral rite was uniform: stone boxes, bodies stretched out on their backs, with their heads facing west, and crosses were found in some burials. Everything pointed to a monolithic Christian community. However, when SFedU scientists, together with colleagues from the Southern Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the North Caucasus Federal University and the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, analyzed the DNA of the buried, the picture turned out to be much more complicated and interesting.

 Of the eight individuals studied, seven were men and one was a woman. Analysis of the Y chromosome showed that the male part of the population was genetically heterogeneous. More than half (57%) belonged to haplogroup G2a1, which is considered a marker of the indigenous Caucasian population. Another 29 percent were carriers of the R1a haplogroup — descendants of the nomads of the Great Steppe, whose lines connect the Caucasus with the expanses of Eurasia. One individual, which makes up 14% of the sample, demonstrated the R1b haplogroup with a pronounced Western European profile, which makes him genetically closer to modern residents of France and Sweden than to the local highlanders. Analysis of the woman's mitochondrial DNA revealed her haplogroup H1a3, which has a distinct European origin.

 "The most interesting thing is that with such genetic diversity, we see a single archaeological culture and a common Christian burial rite. This suggests that the medieval population of Alanya was not isolated. People from the steppe, from the west, and possibly from other regions came here, and they integrated into the local community, adopting its traditions. But at the same time, their genetic lines did not disappear without a trace — they have been preserved and have survived to this day," said Igor Kornienko, Doctor of Biological Sciences, associate professor, head of the scientific laboratory "Identification of Objects of Biological Origin at SFedU.

But the most important result of the study was the proof of genetic continuity. Scientists compared the Y-chromosomes of medieval Alans with an extensive database of modern humans. It turned out that patrilines [a kinship that has been passed down from father to son for many generations]  Those from the Krasnogorsky XII burial ground have direct genetic similarities with representatives of modern Caucasian peoples. One of the medieval individuals showed a close relationship with a modern Karachay-Balkarian with a mutational distance of only three steps. Another found coincidences with four peoples at once — Georgians, Karachays, Circassians and Chechens. The carrier of haplogroup R1a from the burial also turned out to be close to the modern Karachay-Balkarian and Circassian lines.

 The data obtained allows us to take a fresh look at the history of the region. Apparently, medieval Alanya was an open and heterogeneous society, where, along with the indigenous Caucasians, descendants of steppe dwellers and immigrants from other regions lived. At the same time, a single Christian funeral rite united everyone, regardless of their origin.

"The population of Great Alanya has not disappeared anywhere. His DNA has been preserved and lives in the gene pool of the modern peoples of the North Caucasus. We see that the history of the Caucasus is not a series of catastrophes and ruptures, but a history of continuity and deep roots dating back to the Middle Ages," said Olga Aramova, PhD, Senior lecturer at the Department of Genetics at the SFedU Academy of Biology and Medicine.

 This discovery not only sheds light on medieval history, but also shows the deep genetic roots of the region's ethnic diversity, proving that the history of the peoples of the Caucasus is a history of continuity, not discontinuity. The results of the study are presented in the Russian Journal of Genetics.