Facial reconstruction of a 7,660-year-old Eastern Hunter-Gatherer (EHG) from Lebyazhinka 

This individual was discovered in the Samara region of Russia and belonged to the Eastern Hunter-Gatherer genetic cluster.

• Y-DNA: R1b-P297
• mtDNA: U5a1d
• Pigmentation analysis indicates genes for light skin, light hair, and blue eyes


• Cranial length: 181 mm (medium-large)
• Cranial width: 135 mm (medium-small)
• Cheek width: 137 mm (large)


Early Neolithic burials from Chekalino and Lebyazhinka helped anthropologists identify a very old population layer in the Volga–Ural region.

This group was later classified as part of the Ancient Uralic (Ancienturalic) type — a population with traits intermediate between West Eurasian and East Eurasian forms, yet not derived from either.

Instead, this population likely formed from a deep, local, autochthonous layer, possibly reaching back into the Paleolithic.

The Lebyazhinka IV skull, associated with the Elshan culture, shows this exact combination of features — a pattern seen repeatedly among EHG individuals.

 Eastern Hunter-Gatherers were not uniform, and they don’t fit neatly into modern racial categories.
They represent one of the deep ancestral foundations of Eurasia.






7760 Year old EHG From Lebyazhinka