Human habitation in Caucasia in the Coldest and Driest Period of the Last Glaciation.

Abstract

1.6.1.2.11. Human habitation in Caucasia in the Coldest and Driest Period of the Last Glaciation. /A. Gavashelishvili/. West Caucasus - Archaeological Context. – 2020. – #1. – pp. 117-132. – geo.; abs.: geo., Eng., Rus.

Since the period the modern human originated anatomically, genetic diversity was accumulated in the hereditarily transferred DNA (e.g. Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA), which makes it possible to estimate the ways of human origination and evolution. The research presented in the article uses the branches of Y-chromosome (or paternal branches) which originated in the period of the Last Glaciation. According to the hypothesis to be researched, the major phenomenon in the geological past which could have caused genetic differences by means of reproductive distancing of human populations (i.e. isolation) was the succession of minimal temperatures over the period of glaciation. The author’s hypothesis was motivated by the fact that the dates of temperature minimums almost coincided with the times of origination of paternal branches presumed by other scholars. Consequently, it was the distribution of the biomes during these minimums that must have affected creation and dissemination of paternal branches. Fig. 1, Tab. 6, Ref. 1.

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