Ancient genome of Empress Ashina reveals the NortheastAsian origin of Göktürk Khanate
Xiao‐Min Yang1,2†
, Hai‐Liang Meng1†
, Jian‐Lin Zhang3
, Yao Yu4
, Edward Allen4
, Zi‐Yang Xia5
, Kong‐Yang Zhu6
,
Pan‐Xin Du1
, Xiao‐Ying Ren4
, Jian‐Xue Xiong4
, Xiao‐Yu Lu4
, Yi Ding4
, Sheng Han7
, Wei‐Peng Liu8
, Li Jin1
, Chuan‐Chao
Wang2,6,9,10* , and Shao‐Qing Wen4,11*
The first flourishing of the Türkic peoples took place from the
6th to 8th century with the rise of the powerful pastoral
nomadic Göktürk Khanate, which was established by the
Ashina clan in the region ranging from the Mongolia Plateau
to the Caspian Sea (Grousset, 1970). Arriving in the wake of
the Xiongnu, Xianbei and other nomadic confederations, the
impact of the Türks was felt across Eurasia and would
ultimately impact much of the West Eurasian ethnolinguistic
over the following millennium and centuries. Unfortunately,
historical records of the Göktürk Khanate are sporadic and
frequently inconsistent. While the Türks no longer existed as
a unified regime following the Göktürk Khanate's collapse in
the mid‐8th century, Turkic itself has survived as a linguistic
subfamily despite prolonged contact and admixture with
other Eurasian languages. Comprised of over 40 languages,
Turkic is the largest group in Altaic linguistic family, and 170
million people speak Turkic languages in over 10 countries.
As the ruling tribe of Göktürk Khanate, understanding the
Ashina tribe is key to unravelling the mysterious origins of
the Türks. Göktürk origins are a contested subject in the
relevant Chinese historical records—Zhoushu (Book of Zhou,
周书), Beishi (History of Northern Dynasties, 北史), Suishu
(Book of Sui, 隋书), and Tongdian (Comprehensive Manual, 通
典) —but may be summarized in three competing
hypotheses: (i) a derivation for Ashina from Xiongnu tribes
originating in the Northeast Asian region; (ii) origins in the
Pontic‐Caspian steppe (“west of the Caspian Sea [Rui, 1991],”
西海之右) or east‐central Asia (“Sogdian statelet”, 索国)
followed by eastward migration; and (iii) multiple origins
around Pingliang (平凉) or Gaochang/Turfan (高昌) in
northwest China, a process involving both eastern and
western Eurasian ethnic groups.
Since cremation was commonly practiced among the
Turkic nobility, most known Turkic cemeteries do not leave
us with any such skeletal remains. We, fortunately, identified
the skeletal remains of Empress Ashina at the Xiaoling
Mausoleum (Fig. 1A) in modern‐day Dizhang Town, Xianyang
City, Shaanxi. As documented in detail in the Zhoushu
(Volume 9), Empress Ashina (551–582 CE) was the daughter
of the Göktürk Muqan Khagan (Ashina Qijin, 阿史那俟斤) and
married into royalty through her betrothal to Northern Zhou
Dynasty Emperor Wu (Yuwen Yong, 宇文邕). When the
Empress passed away at age 32, Empress Ashina was buried
with honors alongside her husband at the Xiaoling
Mausoleum. Cultural relics unearthed at this site include
the Xiaolingzhi (Epitaph of Xiaoling, 孝陵志), Wude Huanghouzhi
(Epitaph of Empress Wude, 武德皇后志), a seal
belonging to the Empress Dowager Tianyuan (天元皇太后玺)
Fig. 1. Burial relics excavated from the Xiaoling Mausoleum and Population structure of newly sampled and published
populations in Eurasia. A, Maps of ancient regimes in 572 CE (Tan, 1989) and the cemetery of the newly sampled ancient
individual, Epitaph of Empress Wude, and Seal of the Empress dowager Tianyuan. B, Principal component analysis (PCA) of
ancient individuals projected onto present‐day Eurasians. The west–east cline along PC1 and north–south gradient along PC2
were visible (also see Fig. S3). C, Unsupervised ADMIXTURE clustering analysis (K = 5) was based on HO data set for the
ancient individual and selected subset of temporally preceding and later Eurasian ancient and modern populations. D,
Ancestral composition of post‐Iron Age Eastern/Central Steppe pastoralists and modern Altaic‐speaking populations based on
supervised ADMIXTURE. Mongolia_N_North (labeled as ANA in figure) and Ashina were chosen as ANA ancestry,
Russia_Sintashta_MLBA was used as West Eurasian‐related ancestry, YR_LN was regarded as the additional millet farmers
of Central Plain of China. The diverse ancestral compositions of post‐Iron Age Eastern/Central Steppe pastoralists showed a
high proportion of East Eurasian ancestry in Eastern Steppe nomadic populations with the exception of earlyXiongnu_west
and lateXiongnu_Sarmatian, and West Eurasian ancestry dominant in Central Steppe nomadic populations. Present‐day Turkic
populations exhibited high genetic heterogeneity with diverse proportions of ANA, and the ANA ancestry decreased almost
longitudinally