The Kangju

Kangju is a name from the Han-dynasty Chinese histories: a Central Asian polity astride the Syr Darya, where the Silk Road passed between Sogdiana and the open steppe. Its own voice survives in the first Kangju inscriptions, found at Kultobe in the same oasis. The five people here were buried at Kok-Mardan and Konyrtobe on the middle Syr Darya in the third and fourth centuries CE. Their genomes are thoroughly mixed: Iranian-farmer-related ancestry combined with steppe ancestry of the Sarmatian and Saka kind, plus a substantial East Asian component, the signature of a frontier where farmers and nomads met and married. Kangju is presented here as a historically attested state, not as the ancestor of any modern nation.

The genome-wide data behind this entry was published in 137 ancient human genomes from across the Eurasian steppes.

Every Ancestry Map includes the free Notable Matches lens: your coordinates are compared to every sequenced member of every catalog entry, and the distance to the closest member is reported, a Euclidean distance in the same 25-dimensional space the Distance lens uses. Because these are a small group of real individuals, not a population average, distances naturally run larger than population distances. That is expected, not a poor result. And one thing is never claimed: a small distance means similar ancestry composition, not that the Kangju are your ancestor. See how it looks in the live demo or read about Ancestry Map, the full Global25 report.

• 01

  Who were the Kangju?

  The Kangju (c. 200-400 CE, Kok-Mardan, Turkistan Region, Kazakhstan) are one of the Iconic discoveries entries in our Notable Matches catalog, represented by 5 sequenced ancient genomes published in the study "137 ancient human genomes from across the Eurasian steppes".

• 02

  What does "matching" the Kangju mean?

  Your Global25 coordinates are compared to the entry's sequenced members and the distance to the closest one is reported, a Euclidean distance in the same 25-dimensional reference space the Distance lens uses. A notable entry is one person or one small burial group, not a population average, so distances naturally run larger than population distances.

• 03

  Are they my ancestor?

  No, and no DNA test can show that. A small distance means your genome sits near theirs in a shared reference space: similar ancestry composition, not descent. Ancestrify never claims a notable individual is your ancestor or relative.

• 04

  How do I see my own distance to the Kangju?

  Notable Matches is a free lens on every Ancestry Map, never sold separately. Order Ancestry Map, our Global25 analysis (29.99 EUR), and your report ranks your coordinates against the full catalog, with a portrait, dossier and map for every entry. The public demo shows the lens with example data.

The catalog holds every published entry across three tiers. Browse the full Notable Matches directory. Nearby entries:

• The Greeks of Histria2nd-6th century CE

• The Log-Coffin People of Pang Maphac. 150-400 CE

• The Romans of Docleac. 100-400 CE

• The Sarmatians of the Lower Danubec. 100-400 CE

• The Goths of the Vistulac. 100-400 CE

• The Sarmatians of the Great Hungarian Plain1st-4th century CE

• The Romans of Naissusc. 250-500 CE

• The Ancient Highlanders of the Bogotá Altiplanoc. 100 BCE-800 CE

• The Huns of the Tian Shanc. 150-600 CE

• The Romans of Viminacium1st-6th century CE

• The People of Imperial Romec. 100-300 CE

• The Silla Nobles of Gyeongsanc. 300-500 CE