Аннотация:The Yamnaya archaeological complex appeared around 3300 bc across the steppesnorth of the Black and Caspian Seas, and by 3000 bc it reached its maximal extent,ranging from Hungary in the west to Kazakhstan in the east. To localize Yamnayaorigins among the preceding Eneolithic people, we assembled ancient DNA from 435individuals, demonstrating three genetic clines. A Caucasus–lower Volga (CLV) clinesuffused with Caucasus hunter-gatherer1 ancestry extended between a CaucasusNeolithic southern end and a northern end at Berezhnovka along the lower Volga river.Bidirectional gene flow created intermediate populations, such as the north CaucasusMaikop people, and those at Remontnoye on the steppe. The Volga cline was formedas CLV people mixed with upriver populations of Eastern hunter-gatherer2 ancestry,creating hypervariable groups, including one at Khvalynsk. The Dnipro cline wasformed when CLV people moved west, mixing with people with Ukraine Neolithichunter-gatherer ancestry3 along the Dnipro and Don rivers to establish Serednii Stihgroups, from whom Yamnaya ancestors formed around 4000 bc and grew rapidlyafter 3750–3350 bc. The CLV people contributed around four-fifths of the ancestry ofthe Yamnaya and, entering Anatolia, probably from the east, at least one-tenth of theancestry of Bronze Age central Anatolians, who spoke Hittite4,5. We therefore proposethat the final unity of the speakers of ‘proto-Indo-Anatolian’, the language ancestralto both Anatolian and Indo-European people, occurred in CLV people some timebetween 4400 bc and 4000 bc.