>>515072201
>The Scythians represent a "multitude of horse-warrior nomad" groups, which emerged from Bronze and Iron Age Central Asians (Western Steppe Herders or "Steppe_MLBA") who mixed with an East Asian-derived population represented by Khövsgöl LBA groups, giving rise to the various "Scythian cultures". Different Scythian groups arose locally, rather than through migration patterns. As a whole, Scythians can be modeled as a mixture between West Eurasian sources, primarily Western Steppe Herders and BMAC-like groups, with additional amounts of mixture from a population represented by the Khövsgöl LBA peoples of East Eurasian origin. Previous suggested mixture sources represented by other modern "East Eurasian proxies", such as Han Chinese or Nganasans, failed and were less reliable than Khövsgöl sources
>Scythians can broadly be differentiated into "Western" and "Eastern" sub-groups, with Western Scythians displaying affinity to various modern groups in the Caucasus and Central Asia, while Eastern Scythian affinity is more widespread but nearly exclusively found among modern Turkic-speaking as well as Uralic and Paleosiberian peoples. Overall, modern Tajiks and Yaghnobis were found to display the strongest genetic continuity with the Bronze and Iron Age populations of Central Asia (Indo-Iranians). Scythian Steppe populations display genetic heterogeneity along a west-to-east cline, with Eastern Scythians having higher genetic diversity
>Eastern Scythians around the Altai Mountains were of multiple origins and originated from a mixture event in the Bronze Age. The Eastern Scythians genetically formed from mixture between Western Steppe Herder sources (which could be associated with different cultures such as Sintashta, Srubnaya, and Andronovo) and a specific East Eurasian source that was already present during the LBA in the neighboring northern Mongolia region