Genome of nearly 5000-year-old woman links modern Indians to ancient

Not GE

Work at WUSTL:

2 Likes

As you know, totally consistent with GAE. Really interesting work too!

1 Like

And GAE is total consistent with Santa Claus. :sunglasses: Kidding aside, the above results of ancient DNA are astonishing. Human history of the past 12,000 years is being revealed and the results are amazing.

1 Like

Truly amazing. Hopefully we can release more and more of the public to come and see the beauty here.

1 Like

I feel like this is almost like a Classical -> Quantum Mechanics moment in time. Our fundamental sense of who we are and where we come from is entering a new paradigm, based on DNA and genomics rather than digging through ancient trash and ruins. There are some incredible opportunities ahead, and some potential dangers for sure.

2 Likes

As ancient DNA gets combined with fossils and artifacts, human history comes alive. Each of us is a mix of a mix of a mix.

3 Likes

We are all mutts.

1 Like

Exactly. And yet … we may be able to trace many of the threads in that tapestry.

Yes, I should have been more careful with my earlier statement. I don’t think DNA will replace fossils and artifacts, but it will add a powerful new dimension. Archeology gives a fair amount of cultural information (what did these people do?), but I think it has a hard time with the “where did these people come from?” questions and of course now with DNA we stretch back in time before there were written records or civilization per se.

aDNA is also giving a large amount of cultural information. Through aDNA we are learning what people ate and how they lived. In this paper I was amazed to see that the migration from the Yamnaya people to both the east and the west came before agricultural nearly 12,000 years ago. We all have Yamanaya in our genealogy.

1 Like