From the frozen shores of ancient Siberia, through jade palaces and steppe empires, Explore genetic connections to the civilizations of ancient East Asia.

When the Paleolithic peoples of Siberia ventured south and east, they found a world of extremes: volcanic islands, boundless steppes, river valleys rich with silt and promise.

In Japan, the Jomon people created some of the world's earliest pottery, living as hunter-gatherers for over 10,000 years in a culture of extraordinary longevity. On the mainland, Neolithic farmers along the Yellow and Yangtze rivers domesticated rice and millet, laying the foundations for the great dynasties to come.

The Bronze Age brought the Shang, whose oracle bones and ritual bronzes testify to a civilization of breathtaking sophistication. The Zhou, Qin, and Han dynasties that followed unified vast territories, built the Great Wall, and opened the Silk Road. In Korea, the Three Kingdoms forged their own identity, while in Japan the Yayoi migrants brought rice cultivation and metalwork from the continent.

On the steppe, the Xiongnu, Turks, and Mongols built empires on horseback that reshaped the continent. The Tang Dynasty presided over a golden age of poetry and trade. The Song invented gunpowder and movable type. Through every era, the ancient blood endured, carried by generations into the modern peoples of East Asia.

"The rivers remember. The mountains remember. The steppe remembers. The story continues in you."