Scientists who are studying the genetic makeup of modern Europeans reveal how there was an ancient tribe that contributed to a "fourth strand" of European ancestry.

Researchers believe that the three major ancestral populations that make up Europe are the indigenous hunters, farmers from the Middle East and a migratory population from the Bronze Age hailing from the east, will now be joined by another ancient group of people.

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This new evidence was taken from DNA discovered from the Caucasus Mountains near the border between Russia and Georgia, where this tiny yet crucial part of the European genome apparently originates from a unique population of hunter gatherers who survived the Ice Age by taking shelter for 7,000 years in these mountains.

When the Ice Age died down some 22,000 years ago, these Caucasus people started to co-exist with horse riding herders of Eastern Europe's steppe lands, where they are more known as the Yamnaya culture, according to the researchers.

This ancient culture also spread across western Europe some 5,000 years back, where they also joined with the other early ancestral populations of the indigenous hunter gatherers who were already thriving in Europe some 40,000 years ago, along with the Middle Eastern farming groups that migrated into the region some 7,000 years back.

The Yamnaya culture brought about metallurgical and herding skills of the Bronze Age where this ancient Caucasus DNA was detected in almost all populations in Europe, according to the team.

According to Andrea Manica from the University of Cambridge, the origins of the Yamnaya culture has always been a mystery up until now, including their DNA history. He adds that with this new evidence, this genetic makeup of Eastern European hunter gatherers along with the Caucasus hunter gatherers were the last human population who survived the last ice age in an isolated region.

This new study reveals that this Caucasus pocket is now the fourth major strand that composes ancient European ancestry, which was previously unknown before.

This Caucasus DNA was recovered from two burial grounds from Georgia where the specimens are both 13,000 and 10,000 years old respectively. This new study is published in the journal, Nature Communications. 

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