Ancient Northern East Asian

Not to be confused with Ancient Northeast Asian (ANA).
Location of the Ancient Northern East Asians
Location of the major sub-groups within the Ancient Northern East Asians, with the Yellow River farmers in the Yellow River valley, and Ancient Northeast Asians (or Amur ancestry) above
Contribution of Ancient East Asian lineages to the formation of the Ancient North Eurasians (ANE), Ancient Paleo-Siberians (APS), and Native Americans
Phylogenetic position of the (Ancient) Northern East Asian lineage among other East Eurasians

In archaeogenetics, the term Ancient Northern East Asian (ANEA), also known as Northern East Asian (NEA), is used to summarize the related ancestral components that represent the Ancient Northern East Asian peoples, extending from the Baikal region to the Yellow River and the Qinling-Huaihe Line in present-day central China. They are inferred to have diverged from Ancient Southern East Asians (ASEA) around 20,000 to 26,000 BCE.

The ANEA can be differentiated into broadly three sub-groups, namely the “Ancient Northeast Asians“ (ANA), “Neo-Siberians", and "Yellow River farmers". The ANEA are to be distinguished from the namely similar "Ancient Northeast Asian" (ANA) lineage, which is alternatively also known as "Amur ancestry", and which forms a sub-group of the ANEA grouping, specifically ancestral to hunter-gatherer people of the 7th-4th millennia before present, in the Amur region and later expanding to far-eastern Siberia, Mongolia and the Baikal regions, but which are most closely related to other ancient northern East Asians, such as the earlier expanding "Neo-Sibersians" evident in the Early Neolithic Baikal region.

To the north, an early branch of the Ancient Northern East Asian lineage is inferred to have contributed to the formation of the Ancient Paleo-Siberians (APS) in conjunction with the Ancient North Eurasians (ANE), and, in the south, to the formation of the "Yellow River farmers" in conjunction with the Ancient Southern East Asians (ASEA). Yellow River farmers are associated with the spread of Sino-Tibetan languages.

The "Neo-Siberians" or "inland Northeast Asians", represented by the Yumin hunter-gatherers and Transbaikal_EMN ancestry, are associated with an inland expansion route of Ancient Northern East Asians (China_NEastAsia_Inland_EN, c. 14kya), but which can be differentiated from the "Amur hunter-gatherers" (c. 7-14kya) associated with "ANA ancestry". This branch became primarily ancestral to Neolithic and Bronze Age groups in the Baikal region, such as the Neolithic Baikal hunter-gatherers from the Kitoi culture ("Baikal_EN", 5200–4200 BCE or Shamanka_EN), the Late Neolithic/Bronze Age Yakutia (Yakutia_LNBA) and Krasnoyarsk (kra001_BA) ancestry in Eastern Siberia and the Altai-Sayan region, which may be associated with the expansion of early Proto-Uralic speakers, as well as, in conjunction with Ancient Paleo-Siberians, to the Bronze Age Western Baikal hunter-gatherers associated with the Glazkovo culture ("Baikal_EBA", circa 2500 BCE or Shamanka_EBA) and Cisbaikal_LNBA ancestry, which may be associated with early Yeniseian speakers.

Ancient Northeast Asians (Amur ancestry), represented by Mesolithic Amur specimens (c. 7-14kya) and subsequent samples from Mongolia, expanded after the dispersal of "Neo-Siberian" like groups, and may be associated with the spread of Turkic, Mongolic, and Tungusic speakers.

Paleolithic and Neolithic specimens

The ANEA lineage is represented by a late Paleolithic specimen (c. 19kya) from the Amur region (Amur19k), as well as Early Neolithic samples including the Yumin, Devil's Gate (Far East Russia, ~7.7 kya), Shandong (coastal China, ~9.5-7.5 kya) and Lake Baikal (southern Siberia, ~7.1-6.3 kya) individuals.