Mobile pastoralist communities
Yamnaya groups are associated with kurgan burials, livestock economies and wide movement across the open steppe.
Ancient DNA affinity · Early Bronze Age steppe
Yamnaya ancestry calculator from raw DNA
Compare your raw DNA with Yamnaya-related ancestry using an f4 shared-drift test against a fixed Western Eurasian and Asian modern reference panel.
Free comparisonUpload not retainedTransparent f4 method
Timelinec. 3300–2600 BCE
15,000 BCE10,000 BCE5,000 BCEPresent
Eastern European and Caucasus-related roots
Their genetic profile drew heavily on EHG- and CHG-related ancestry, while steppe groups were not completely uniform.
A major Bronze Age expansion
Steppe-related ancestry spread widely into Europe and parts of Asia during and after the third millennium BCE.
Free ancient-DNA comparison
Compare your DNA with Yamnaya.
The fixed ancient and modern references are precomputed. The request processes only the markers observed in your uploaded autosomal DNA file.
- 01UploadSelect a supported raw DNA export.
- 02CompareRun the fixed f4 reference panel.
- 03InterpretExplore each result in plain language.
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Understanding Yamnaya ancestry.
The Yamnaya were Early Bronze Age pastoralist communities associated with the Pontic–Caspian steppe north of the Black and Caspian seas, broadly dated to about 3300–2600 BCE. Ancient genomes show that steppe-related ancestry later spread widely into Europe and parts of Asia. Yamnaya was not one perfectly uniform biological group: the archaeological label covers communities with related but variable genetic profiles.
Why it matters
Yamnaya-related ancestry is one of the major signals used to study the Bronze Age reshaping of Europe. It is related to Eastern European hunter-gatherer and Caucasus hunter-gatherer ancestry, with additional farmer-related variation in later steppe contexts. This page tests relative affinity, not a literal percentage of Yamnaya DNA.
Where and when did the Yamnaya live?
Yamnaya archaeological contexts extend across a broad steppe zone north of the Black and Caspian seas. The label is most often applied to Early Bronze Age communities of the late fourth and third millennia BCE, not to every later steppe population.
How are Yamnaya, EHG and CHG related?
Yamnaya ancestry is often modelled as combining substantial Eastern Hunter-Gatherer-related and Caucasus Hunter-Gatherer-related ancestry. Those deeper sources are therefore related to the Yamnaya signal, but they are not interchangeable with it.
What this comparison can tell you
The test asks whether your shared drift with the Samara Yamnaya reference differs from each modern comparator. It can describe relative affinity inside this panel, but it cannot estimate a literal Yamnaya percentage or identify a recent Yamnaya ancestor.
Common questions
Yamnaya ancestry FAQ.
What is Yamnaya ancestry?
Yamnaya ancestry usually means genetic similarity to Early Bronze Age steppe populations associated with the Yamnaya horizon. It is a population-genetic signal, not a modern ethnicity.
Does a Yamnaya affinity result give me a Yamnaya percentage?
No. This page uses relative f4 comparisons. A mixture percentage would require a different model with explicitly chosen ancestral sources and additional assumptions.
Why compare my result with modern populations?
The modern references give the statistic a clear relative question: whether you or the comparison population shares more drift with the ancient Yamnaya reference.
Is Yamnaya ancestry the same as Indo-European ancestry?
No. Genetic ancestry, archaeological cultures and language histories overlap only imperfectly. Yamnaya-related expansions are important to Indo-European research, but the terms are not synonyms.
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