Far fewer people alive today are related to Genghis Khan than is commonly believed, according to a new study that upends the popular myth that one in 200 modern men are descendants of the Mongol conqueror.
Khan unified Mongol tribes and conquered vast swathes of northern China and Central Asia, with his territories stretching from Korea in the east to the Caspian Sea in the west. His successors then expanded the empire to Persia, Russia, and parts of the Middle East and Europe.
Khan, founder of the largest contiguous land empire in history, had many wives and concubines and fathered dozens of children with them, with some estimates putting their number at 100.
Two decades ago, researchers found that about 8 per cent of men in a large part of Asia shared a very similar Y-chromosome lineage that likely originated around 1,000 years ago in Mongolia, around the time of Genghis Khan.
When extrapolated globally, the 2003 study estimated that roughly 0.5 per cent of all men worldwide – or about 1 in 200 – could be descendants of the Mongol emperor.
But the new study reveals a more complicated possibility.
Tracing local folklore and genetic evidence in present-day Kazakhstan, archaeologists narrowed down on remains of ruling elites from the Golden Horde, the northwestern extension of the Mongol Empire.
This extension of the empire was founded and ruled by Genghis Khan's eldest son, Joshi, and his descendants.
Local folklore suggests one of the remains from the four tombs analysed in the new study may belong to Joshi himself.
“We believe this is the first ancient DNA evidence to support the genomic ancestry of ruling elites in the Golden Horde," said Ayken Askapuli, lead author of the study published in the journal PNAS.
Scientists found that the buried individuals were indeed part of the same Y-chromosome lineage, but a specific sub-branch, “not as common as the larger branch”.
This indicates that the Y-chromosome lineage seen in living men today may not be Khan’s direct line.
Researchers suspect the lineage likely appeared 1,000 years before Khan built his empire.
But until Genghis Khan's own burial place is discovered, researchers can't say for certain.
This is a challenge in itself.
The emperor was buried in secrecy in an unmarked grave that was trampled flat by hundreds of horses and seeds were sown in the area to blend it into the wild grassland.
Folklore says the slaves who built Khan’s tomb and the soldiers who escorted them to the grave site were later massacred.
“In essence, this study provides ancient DNA evidence that advances our understanding of the genetic background of the Mongolian elites and the population dynamics in Central Eurasia,” researchers said.
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