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As you read this story, you will learn the following:
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A new study shows that remnants of Genghis Khan’s Y-chromosome lineage have been found in a group of medieval tombs in Kazakhstan.
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The tombs are believed (in local legend) to belong to Jochi, the eldest son of Genghis Khan, although this connection has never been confirmed.
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Jochi’s parentage has actually been the subject of debate for centuries – his own brother is said to have believed that Jochi’s father was a Merkite kidnapper.
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At some point in your life, you’ve likely come across the fact that “one in every 200 people is a descendant of Genghis Khan.” It has been a popular topic on the Internet, but like many “facts” on the Internet, it also leaves its own set of questions. The most extraordinary thing is: How on earth do we know this?
This statistic comes from a 2003 study that discovered Y chromosome lineages while surveying 16 different populations in Asia. “About 8% of men in the region carry the virus, so about 0.5% of the world total,” the study said. But the Genghis Khan connection didn’t come from any direct DNA analysis – it was just inferred after the researchers found “patterns of variation within the lineage that suggested it originated in Mongolia about 1,000 years ago.”
In the decades since, no one has been able to directly link this Y-chromosome lineage to Genghis Khan through archaeological evidence. That is, until now.
In a new study, a team of archaeologists and geneticists from Japan, Kazakhstan, and the United States say they may have discovered DNA from a direct descendant of Genghis Khan in two medieval tombs.
The tombs are located in the Ulitau region of Kazakhstan, which was once ruled by the Golden Horde, a branch of the Mongol Empire. This area commanded the western flank of the empire and was overseen by the descendants of the khan’s eldest son, Jochi, who lived from approximately 1182 to 1225 AD.
Local tradition has long believed that one of the tombs analyzed in the new study was actually the final resting place of Jochi himself. While analysts can’t conclusively prove who is buried there, they yes Able to identify the common ancestor of all three people buried in the mausoleum. All three carry the haplogroup C3 Y chromosome signature – the same signature found in the 2003 study mentioned above to be present in 0.5% of the population and attributed to Genghis Khan. This Y-chromosome lineage suggests that the people buried in the tombs carried the genetic makeup of Mongolians, rather than the genetic makeup of the Kipchak Turks native to the region.
There are reasons to question whether the tomb contains the remains of Jochi himself—radiocarbon dating shows that the burial occurred after Jochi is believed to have died, and it is well known that Mongol tradition favored secret tombs over grand resting places like this. However, if one of these three people was Dr. Jochi believes that the existence of this shared Y chromosome lineage can not only further confirm that haplogroup C3 originated from Genghis Khan, but also eliminate hundreds of years of controversy about Genghis Khan’s descendants.
Jochi was born to Genghis Khan’s first wife, Bolt Ugin. However, soon after the two married, she was kidnapped by members of the Melkite tribe in retaliation against the Khan. Khan eventually rescued his wife, who (as the story suggests) may have been forced to marry a member of the Melgit tribe and subsequently sexually assaulted—a story that continues in the oldest surviving works of literature in the Mongolian language. Secret History of Mongolia.
Jochi was born out of this ordeal, and although Genghis Khan had no hesitation in treating him as his eldest son, the possibility that Jochi might have been the son of a kidnapper caused tension among the other descendants, especially younger brother Chagatai. Jochi was initially considered Genghis Khan’s heir, but if he was an illegitimate son, Chagatai would likely be next in line. Internal strife between the two brothers eventually resulted in both being excluded from the line of succession, and the younger brother, Ogodei, being excluded from the line of succession.
So if one of the men in Jochi’s tomb is indeed a Mongol prince, these researchers not only confirm Genghis Khan’s Y-chromosome ancestry that has been discussed on the Internet for decades, but also resolve an ancestry dispute that has raged for centuries.
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