Genomic history of the Golden Horde

Genomic history of the Golden Horde

Author: PNAS April 20, 2026 Duration: 10:21

Genomics of the Golden Horde

Science Sessions are brief conversations with cutting-edge researchers, National Academy members, and policymakers as they discuss topics relevant to today's scientific community. Learn the behind-the-scenes story of work published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), plus a broad range of scientific news about discoveries that affect the world around us.

In this episode, Ayken Askapuli explains genomic insights into the ancestors and descendants of the Golden Horde.

In this episode, we cover:
•[00:00] Introduction.
•[00:56] Population geneticist Ayken Askapuli introduces the Golden Horde.
•[02:01] He describes the individuals in the mausoleums whose DNA the team sampled. 
•[04:11] Askapuli explains findings about the modern populations the Golden Horde individuals were related to.
•[05:08] He then explains findings about the Y chromosome characteristics of the Golden Horde individuals.
•[06:14] Askapuli talks about what the results say about the ancestry of the Golden Horde.
•[06:48] He describes how the results aid understanding of population genetics in central Eurasia.
•[08:10] He lists the caveats and limitations of the study.
•[09:53] Conclusion.

About Our Guest:

Ayken Askapuli
PhD candidate
University of Wisconsin-Madison

View related content here: https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2531003123

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