The termAncient East Eurasian, alternatively also known asEast Eurasian orEastern Eurasian, is used inpopulation genomics to describe the genetic ancestry and phylogenetic relationship of diverse populations primarily living in theAsia-Pacific region, belonging to the "Eastern Eurasian clade" ofhuman genetic diversity,^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]} and which can be associated with theInitial Upper Paleolithic (IUP) wave, following theOut of Africa migration at least 60,000 years ago.^[4][6]

Ancient East Eurasians, modern humans of the Initial Upper Paleolithic (IUP) wave, are suggested to have diverged from Ancient West Eurasians around 48,000 years ago from a population hub likely on theIranian Plateau, and expanded across Eurasia through a star-like expansion pattern at least 45,000 years ago.^[7][6]

Ancient East Eurasians started to diversify among themselves as early as 45,000 years ago.^[6] This diversification may possibly be related to the development of two major IUP-affiliated types of material culture: "microlithic blade" (or microblade) and "core & flake" (or CAF assemblages). Specific IUP populations represented by specimens found inEurope,Central Asia, andSiberia, such as theUst'-Ishim man,Bacho Kiro,Oase 2, andKara-Bom, that are associated with the spread of microblade sites, are inferred to have used inland routes northward into Eurasia.^[8][9][10] In contrast, IUP populations represented by specimens found in South, Southeast, and East Asia, as well as Oceania, such as theTianyuan man, that are associated with the spread of core & flake sites, are inferred to have used aSouthern dispersal route along the southern coast of Asia.^[11][12][13]

The IUP populations that expanded throughSouthern dispersal route are inferred to be the ancestors of all modern East Eurasian populations (dubbed as "East Eurasian Core"; EEC). EEC populations subsequently diversified rapidly from South and Southeast Asia at least 40,000 years ago, and became ancestral to modern populations in Eastern Eurasia, Oceania, and the Americas, notablyEast Asians,Southeast Asians,Indigenous Siberians,Aboriginal Australians,Papuans,Pacific Islanders,Indigenous Americans, and partlySouth andCentral Asians.^{[7][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]} South Asia may have acted as central hub for the peopling of Eastern Asia and Australasia.^[22]

Major East Eurasian ancestry lineages which contributed to modern human populations include the following:^[14]

• Australasian lineage (AA) — refers to an ancestral population that primarily contributed to human populations in a region consisting of Australia, Papua, New Zealand, neighboring islands in the South Pacific Ocean and parts of the Philippines. Represented by present-day Australasians, e.g. Papuans and Aboriginal Australians, as well as thePhilippine Negritos.
• Ancient Ancestral South Indian lineage (AASI) — refers to an ancestral population that primarily contributed to Indigenous South Asians. Partially represented by 5,000 – 1,500 year oldIndus Periphery individuals as well as modern South Asians. Highest presence among tribal groups of southern India like thePaniya andIrula. While the lineage is occasionally represented by the distantly relatedAndamanese peoples, serving as an imperfect proxy, the Andamanese groups are genetically closer to the 'Basal East Asian'Tianyuan man,^[23][24] or represent a very early divergence on the Australasian branch.^[21]
• East and Southeast Asian lineage (ESEA) — refers to an ancestral population that primarily contributed to humans living in East and Southeast Asia, much ofRemote Oceania, as well as Siberia and the Americas. Represented by ancient Tianyuan andHoabinhian specimens and present-dayEast and Southeast Asians.

The "Australasian," "Ancient Ancestral South Indian," and "East and Southeast Asian" lineages display a closer genetic relationship to each other than to any non-Asian lineages, as well as being closer to each other than to any of the early East Eurasian IUP lineages (Bacho Kiro etc.), and together represent the main branches of "Asian-related ancestry", which diverged from each other at least 40,000 years ago.^[14] The Australasian lineage however received higher archaic admixture in theOceania region, and may also harbor some small amounts of "xOoA" admixture from an earlier human dispersal, which did not contribute to any other human population. Alternatively, Australasians can be described as nearly equally admixture between a "Basal East Asian" source (represented by Tianyuan or Onge) and a deeper East Eurasian lineage not sampled yet.^{[7][1][14]: 11}

Traces of an unsampled deeply diverged East Eurasian lineage can be observed in the genome of ancient and modern inhabitants of theTibetan Plateau. While modernTibetans mostly derive their ancestry from anorthern East Asian source (specifically Yellow River farmers), a minor, but significant contribution stems from a deeply diverged East Eurasian local "Ghost population" that was distinct from other deeply diverged lineages such as Ust'Ishim, Hoabinhian/Onge or Tianyuan, representing the local Paleolithic population of the Tibetan Plateau.^[26][27] The remains of a 7,100 year old specimen fromYunnan, known as Xingyi_EN, were found to represent a new deeply branching Basal Asian lineage, which is closely related to the inferred Ghost ancestry among Tibetans.^[28]

Deeper IUP-associated East Eurasian lineages have been associated with the remains of theOase andBacho Kiro cave specimens in southeastern Europe, and represent an inland migration northwards associated with the dispersal of IUP material culture, deeply diverged from all other East Eurasian populations (EEC). These deep East Eurasian populations did not contribute significantly to later Eurasian populations, except variable amounts of geneflow to subsequent Upper Paleolithic European groups, such as theGoyet Caves specimen (GoyetQ116-1; c. 17–23%) associated with theAurignacian culture, or theSungir specimen (c. 0–14%) associated with theGravettian culture (via Aurignacian geneflow). In contrast, the Upper Paleolithic EuropeanKostenki-14 specimen, did not display evidence for IUP-affiliated admixture.^{[7][29][21][14][30][31]}

A deep IUP-affiliated lineage may have also contributed ancestry (up to 39%) to theTianyuan man, explaining the observed affinity between Tianyuan and GoyetQ116-1, as well as GoyetQ116-1 and BachoKiro_IUP. This variegated East Eurasian substrate found among the GoyetQ116-1 specimen may hint to "yet undescribed complexities within the IUP population branch".^[31][7] This lineage may also be affiliated with IUP sites in Siberia and Northwest China, but currently no archaeogenetic data for these sites is available.^[21]

The exact relationship of theUst'-Ishim man from Siberia to other IUP/East Eurasian lineages is not well resolved yet. The Ust'-Ishim man forms a near trifurication between West Eurasian (Kostenki-14) and IUP/East Eurasian lineages, but shares a short period of evolutionary drift with Eastern Eurasians.^[7][6] The Ust'Ishim lineage is inferred to have not contributed ancestry to modern human populations.^[21]

• Archaeogenetic lineages
• Peopling of the world
• Last Glacial Maximum
• Mesolithic

• CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list
• CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from June 2025