Early Chinese texts described Indo-Europeans - Scytho-Siberians and Proto-Tocharians - in the following way:
"People who look like monkeys"
Sounds a bit racist, doesn't it ??? For the record - this is how Chinese monkeys look like:
The reference to monkeys was about light pigmentation of hair and skin among Scytho-Siberians and Tocharians.
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The spread of blond hair is associated today with R1a (or associated with it maternal lineages), while the spread of red hair with R1b.
Data for three steppe cultures which were mostly (9 out of 10 samples) of R1a haplogroup -
Andronovo + Tachtyk + Tagar:
1. Hair pigmentation of ancient individuals from those three cultures (when known):
blond or light brown - 6 (60%)
brown - 3
dark brown - 1
2. Y-DNA haplogroups of ancient individuals from those three cultures (when known):
R1a1a - 9 (90%)
C (not C3) - 1 -------------------> individual with C had dark brown hair
3. mtDNA haplogroups of ancient individuals from those three cultures (for everyone):
T3 - 3
H or U - 3
T1 - 2
C - 2
U4 - 2
U5a1 - 1
U2e - 1
H5 - 1
H6 - 1
T2a1b1 - 1
K2b - 1
I4 - 1
G2a - 1
Z1 - 1
HV - 1
F1b - 1
N9a - 1
4. mtDNA of 6 individuals with confirmed blond or light brown hair:
T1 - 2
C - 2
N9a - 1
U5a1 - 1
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The original homeland of Proto-Indo-European speakers was in Eastern Europe between the Ural, Caucasus, the Baltic Sea and the Pontic-Caspian steppe. In accordance with the Kurgan Hypothesis of Marija Gimbutas. As this map shows (plus eastward IE migration towards Chinese borderlands):
http://steppeasia.pagesperso-orange.fr/images/andronovo3.jpg