>>515076480
>Blond hair is associated with a single nucleotide polymorphism, the mutated allele rs12821256 of the KITLG gene. The earliest known individual with this allele is a female south-central Siberian ANE individual from the Afontova Gora 3 site, which is dated to c.17,000 before present (the earlier ANE Mal'ta boy lacks the sequence coverage to make this determination). The allele then appears later in ANE-derived Eastern Hunter-Gatherer (EHG) populations at Samara, Motala and Ukraine, circa 10,000 BP, and then in populations with Steppe ancestry. Mathieson, et al. (2018) thus argued that this allele originated in the Ancient North Eurasian population, before spreading to western Eurasia
>Geneticist David Reich said that the KITLG gene for blond hair probably entered continental Europe in a population migration wave from the Eurasian steppe, by a population carrying substantial Ancient North Eurasian ancestry. Hanel and Carlberg (2020) likewise report that populations derived Ancient North Eurasian ancestry, specifically the Eastern Hunter-Gatherers and the Yamnayas, were responsible for transmitting this gene to Europeans. The gene was also found among the Tarim mummies