Caucasus hunter-gatherer
| Alternative names | Satsurblia cluster |
|---|---|
| Geographical range | Native to Caucasus and northern parts of Iran, later in Pontic–Caspian steppe |
| Period | Upper Paleolithic, Mesolithic |
| Dates | 13,000–6,000 BC |
Caucasus hunter-gatherer (CHG), also called Satsurblia cluster, is an anatomically modern human genetic lineage, first identified in a 2015 study, based on the population genetics of several modern Western Eurasian (European, Caucasian and Near Eastern) populations.
It represents an ancestry maximised in some Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic hunter-gatherer groups in the Caucasus. These groups are also very closely related to Mesolithic hunter-gatherers and Neolithic farmers and pastoralists in the Iranian Plateau (Iranian hunter-gatherer cluster), who are sometimes included within the CHG group. Ancestry that is closely related to CHG-Iranian hunter gatherers and farmers is also known from further east, including from the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex and the Harappan/Indus Valley Civilisation. Caucasus hunter-gatherers and Eastern hunter-gatherers are ancestral in roughly equal proportions to the Western Steppe Herders (WSH), who were widely spread across Europe and Asia beginning during the Chalcolithic.
