Ancient DNA Traces History of South Asians

Modern-day populations in India descend from a mixture of peoples living thousands of years ago in South and Central Asia, including the Bronze-Age Indus Valley Civilization, two studies reveal.

Written byCatherine Offord

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ABOVE: Analyses of the DNA from this member of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization help establish the origins of modern-day South Asians.
VASANT SHINDE

Modern South Asians descend from a mix of farmers, steppe pastoralists, and hunter-gatherers, and show genetic links to the Bronze-Age Indus Valley Civilization, according to two studies published yesterday (September 5) in Science and Cell. Analyzing hundreds of ancient genomes, researchers traced the history of South and Central Asians over thousands of years to estimate the timing of demographic and cultural movements such as migrations and the adoption of farming.

In the Science paper, an international team of researchers analyzed DNA from 523 ancient humans who lived over the last 8,000 years. The results indicate that after the decline of the Indus Valley Civilization, which practiced agriculture and flourished across what is now India and Pakistan from 3300 BCE until around 1300 BCE, some members of the ...

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Meet the Author

Catherine Offord
After undergraduate research with spiders at the University of Oxford and graduate research with ants at Princeton University, Catherine left arthropods and academia to become a science journalist. She has worked in various guises at The Scientist since 2016. As Senior Editor, she wrote articles for the online and print publications, and edited the magazine’s Notebook, Careers, and Bio Business sections. She reports on subjects ranging from cellular and molecular biology to research misconduct and science policy. Find more of her work at her website.
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