Mysteries of a Destroyed Settlement: the First Human Genome from the Dyakovo Settlement of Shcherbinka

<jats:p>In the 1960s, a full-scale expedition of the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IA RAS) excavated the entire inhabited area of the Shcherbinka hillfort in the Moscow region, the typical site of the Dyakovo archaeological culture. In 2022, the site was partially damaged by unauthorised construction activity, prompting emergency rescue excavations by IA RAS. Work on the slopes and natural terraces of the hillfort, areas rarely subjected to systematic excavation, yielded significant new archaeological data, including the remains of three individuals (two males and one female) that had been displaced from their original context and were found in association with traces of a major fire at the settlement. Combined radiocarbon dates on bone collagen from all three individuals fall within the interval of 262 to 380 cal AD (UGAMS-80345: 255-378, UGAMS-80346: 364-419, UGAMS-80347: 251-363 cal AD, 1σ), placing their deaths from the mid-third to the 4th century. Ancient DNA was successfully extracted from one of the individuals, marking the first genomic data obtained from the Dyakovo culture, whose characteristic cremation rite has until now precluded this type of analysis. Whole-genome sequencing reveals that this male individual shows genetic affinity with the Late Bronze Age Baltic world, most closely resembling the population represented at the Toomani cemetery in northern Estonia (ca. 1200 to 800 BC). A steppe-derived ancestry component associated with Scythian-related populations is also detected. His patrilineal lineage belongs to a haplogroup prevalent across northern Europe, while his mitochondrial lineage is among the most widely distributed across the European continent. The genetic identity of the recovered individuals remains open to interpretation: they may represent inhabitants of the hillfort itself or members of an incoming population group. Under the first scenario, the genomic data provide the earliest direct evidence for the genetic composition of the late Dyakovo culture, challenging its traditional Finno-Ugric attribution; under the second, they offer a genetic profile of a group in conflict with the late Dyakovo population. In either case, these findings constitute the first genomic evidence for any population of the Volga-Oka interfluve during the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. The destruction of Shcherbinka hillfort around the mid-3rd century may be connected to a broader zone of sociopolitical upheaval associated with the decline of forest-steppe tradition sites of the late Sarmatian period across the Oka-Don watershed.</jats:p>