The Genomic Formation of Central and South Asia

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Ancient DNA in Service of Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper serves as an example of how ancient DNA (aDNA) data can provide new insight into large-scale population transformations of archaeological cultures. The details of population transformation through time in Central and South Asia have been unclear due to the lack of aDNA. To address this gap, we generated genome-wide data from 500 ancient individuals and 200 new radiocarbon dates, from present day eastern Iran, Turan, Kazakhstan, and South Asia. We document population transformations from the Mesolithic that occurred on the Steppe, as well as in Turan, that ultimately give rise to large urban settlements in the Bronze Age, as part of the Sintashta and Bactria Margiana Archeological Complexes (BMAC). Sequencing of a large number of individuals from multiple archaeological sites in these locations shows that the inhabitants of these places were often genetically heterogenous and included migrants from other locations. Of particular importance are outlier BMAC individuals that we believe to be from the Indus Valley Civilization, whose ancestry provides the single largest contribution to South Asia today. Finally, we show how Steppe ancestry linked Europe and South Asia in the Bronze Age, providing a mechanism for spreading Indo-European languages across much of Eurasia.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Ancient DNA in Service of Archaeology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24642