[Explainer] Beijing 11,000 Years Ago: The “Forgotten Ancient Northerners” in the Donghulin Genome

Around 11,000 years ago, a woman lived in the Donghulin valley near present-day Mentougou, west of Beijing. Her bones survived, and the DNA recovered from them is forcing archaeologists to rewrite the human story of northern East Asia.

Until now, the textbook story was straightforward: after the last Ice Age, northern foragers gradually learned to cultivate millet, and populations slowly turned to farming. But this Donghulin woman — labeled M1 — belongs to a previously unknown, deeply divergent northern East Asian lineage. Its split time sits close to Heilongjiang AR19K, an ancient sample dating to about 19,000 years ago.

What does that mean? When the Ice Age ended, northern East Asia was not populated by one single lineage marching forward. Old, deeply split groups and newcomers lived side by side. By the time of the upper-layer individual M2, some 9,000 years ago, the genetic makeup had shifted — yet both individuals share mitochondrial haplogroup D4h, albeit on different branches.

This looks quite different from Europe, where expanding farming populations largely replaced local foragers. Northern East Asia, by contrast, shows local fluctuations within an enduring northern East Asian genetic envelope — supporting the archaeological view that the foraging-to-millet transition was long and layered, not a single abrupt switch.

In other words, among Beijing’s neighbors 11,000 years ago was a group of ancient northerners we have only just discovered.

Source: China News Service / IVPP. Donghulin Paleolithic–Neolithic transition ancient-DNA report, 2026-03-09.