Rakhigarhi: DNA study finds no Central Asian trace, junks Aryan invasion theory

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Harappan site of Rakhigarhi: DNA study finds no Central Asian trace, junks Aryan invasion theory​



By Anubhuti Vishnoi ET Bureau|Updated: Jun 13, 2018, 12.24 PM IST


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The much-awaited DNA study of the skeletal remains found at the Harappan site of Rakhigarhi, Haryana, shows no Central Asian trace, indicating the Aryan invasion theory was flawed and Vedic evolution was through indigenous people.


The lead researchers1 of this soon-tobe published study — Vasant Shinde and Neeraj Rai — told ETthat this establishes the knowledge ecosystem in the Vedic era was guided by “fully indigenous” people with limited “external contact”.


“The Rakhigarhi human DNA clearly shows a predominant local element — the mitochondrial DNA is very strong in it. There is some minor foreign element which shows some mixing up with a foreign population, but the DNA is clearly local,” Shinde told ET. He went on to add: “This indicates quite clearly, through archeological data, that the Vedic era that followed was a fully indigenous period with some external contact.”


According to Shinde’s findings, the manner of burial is quite similar to the early Vedic period, also known as the Rigvedic Era. The pottery, the brick type used for construction and the general ‘good health’ of the people ascertained through the skeletal remains in Rakhigarhi, he said, pointed to a well-developed knowledge system that evolved further into the Vedic era. The study has, in fact, noted that some burial rituals observed in the Rakhigarhi necropolis prevail even now in some communities, showing a remarkable continuity over thousands of years.


Shinde, who is the vice-chancellor of the Deccan College, Pune, was the lead archaeologist in the study while Rai, who is the head of the ancient DNA laboratory at Lucknow’s Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, did the DNA study.


MINOR TRACES OF IRANIAN STRAINS
According to Rai, the evidence points to a predominantly indigenous culture that voluntarily spread across other areas, not displaced or overrun by an Aryan invasion. “The condition of the human skeletons, the burial...all show absence of palaeo-pathology symptoms which could indicate ailments due to lack of medical care. The persons here were healthy; denture morphology showed teeth free of any infection; bones are healthy, as is the cranium,” Rai told ET.


He also discounted the notion of any violent conflict. “There are no cuts and marks which would be associated with a population subjected to warfare. All this indicates that the people were receiving well-developed healthcare and had full-fledged knowledge systems.” The excavations in Rigvedic phase, he said, corroborate this. “This points to greater continuity rather than to a new Aryan race descending and bringing superior knowledge systems to the region,” Rai said.


The Rakhigarhi study, he said, while showing absence of any Central Asian/Steppe element in the genetic make-up of the Harappan people, does indicate minor traces of Iranian strains which may point to contact, not invasion.


The Aryan invasion theory holds forth that a set of migrants came from Central Asia armed with superior knowledge and arms and invaded the existing settlements to establish a more sophisticated civilisation in India and pushed the original inhabitants down south. Rakhigarhi is one of the biggest Harappan civilisation sites spread across 300 hectares in Hisar, Haryana. It’s estimated to be 6,000 years old and was part of the mature phase of the Harappan period.


Rai disclosed that 148 independent skeletal elements from Rakhigarhi were screened for the presence of DNA molecules at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad. Of the 148 skeletal remains, only two samples yielded any relevant DNA material.


Meanwhile, hectic last-minute efforts are on to get additional genetic details of the DNA material. One of the DNA samples recently faced contamination in a Seoul laboratory and efforts are on to segregate it. Samples were sent to laboratories in Seoul and Harvard for establishing accuracy. The contamination, Rai said, is unlikely to have any major bearing on the study’s primary findings.


https://economictimes.indiatimes.co...ryan-invasion-theory/articleshow/64565413.cms


What do you guys think? :indifferent:
 
That Indian genetists like to know even less the archaeology of their own country than Westerner genetists.
 
berun said:
That Indian genetists like to know even less the archaeology of their own country than Westerner genetists.
Click to expand...
Lol. Be gentle.
 
I'd be wary of articles in the Indian press. Wait for the actual paper from the scientists.

The thing to do now is sample the new remains found with chariots.
 
Angela said:
I'd be wary of articles in the Indian press. Wait for the actual paper from the scientists.

The thing to do now is sample the new remains found with chariots.
Click to expand...

Scientists are not happy. I read a couple of tweets by Razib Khan.

Qbl2O5G.png


Don't know what's going on.
 
noman said:
Scientists are not happy. I read a couple of tweets by Razib Khan.

Qbl2O5G.png


Don't know what's going on.
Click to expand...

The journalist either doesn't know anything about the topic or is practising deliberate disinformation.

You wouldn't expect steppe in Harappa. It would be later.

It's a non-story story.
 
Angela said:
The journalist either doesn't know anything about the topic or is practising deliberate disinformation.

You wouldn't expect steppe in Harappa. It would be later.

It's a non-story story.
Click to expand...

Agree! Something similar Razib said in one his tweets.
 
If Harappan samples have the same Y-DNA profile as BMAC with J2, G2, J1, L1a, T, E1b, R1b, the Indus Valley Civilization was already Indoeuropean, the people who spread this package from a small region in the neolithic south Caucasus all the way to Italy and India by 3000BC some 6500 kilometers.
 
Why would the expect central Asian DNA in the Harappan culture 6000 years ago? That's long before the Indo-europeans moved into central Asia.
 
Well, my friend, it is actually and exactly the opposite: if the Rakhigarhi DNA study finds NO Central Asian-derived ancestry in the samples of those IVC sites, that fact actually REINFORCES and DEMONSTRATES the high plausibility of the Aryan migration/invasion theory. You seem to have got some information completely wrong. That theory postulates that India, including the IVC, was not Indo-Aryan before 2000-1500 BC, and that Aryan languages appear there after the Early-Mid Bronze Age together with BA Central Asian ancestry, probably from Andronovo or Sintashta-related sites. Well, well, well, if the IVC lacked Central Asian ancestry, but modern Indians and particularly modern NORTH INDO-ARYAN-SPEAKING Indians have Central Asian ancestry, what do you think unbiased scientists with no nationalist or xenophobic agendas will have to conclude? Obviously, that something related to Central Asian peoples happened after Rakhigarhi and the other IVC period DNA samples, and before the modern era. The Aryan migration theory fits this evidence perfectly well, because it doesn't assume that the IVC was Aryan, unlike many Hindu nationalists do.

That burials were simialr before and after that period is an interesting point, but doesn't fundamentally change things, because we know many other examples of complete changes in burial traditions in attested ancient Indo-European populations, like the cremation practice of Hittites instead of the kurgan burials of steppe peoples, or the even more striking example of the cremation traditions of burial among the Romans (already different from earlier European populations like the Tumulus culture), which was then replaced by a predominance of inhumation practices during the Late Roman Empire, even though we all know that the language, culture and people remained the same.
 
Saetrus said:
If Harappan samples have the same Y-DNA profile as BMAC with J2, G2, J1, L1a, T, E1b, R1b, the Indus Valley Civilization was already Indoeuropean, the people who spread this package from a small region in the neolithic south Caucasus all the way to Italy and India by 3000BC some 6500 kilometers.
Click to expand...

Why? Was there a noticeable expansion of BMAC-like admixture (keep in mind they had, for example, a good chunk of native South Asian ancestry, which is lacking almost everywhere in ancient samples outside Central Asia) or of this particular package of BMAC Y-DNA haplogroups into Europe, North Asia and Anatolia? I really doubt so, at least if you consider the (sizeable number of) ancient DNA data scientists have gathered. Also, that theory wouldn't explain why there is a noticeable increase in EHG-related admixture in virtually all known or presumed ancient Indo-European cultures, except (for now) in Anatolia. That means that, at the very least, most of the expansion didn't come from the BMAC area, but via somewhere else (probably where EHG were really found, Northeast Europe/Northwest Asia)
 
As one scholar states.........R1a, R1b and R2 are all in the area so it cannot be central Asia ...................but he fails to understand that the ancestor of R came as per Karafet 2014 paper from South-East Asia.
There are too many "fake" scholars
 
Don't gloss over that this conclusion is from two samples. They throw out the 148 skeleton figure but only got DNA from two.

And by those journalistic standards, Britain domination of India never happened, Rome never conquered England, and the IE people didn't control the Hittites.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Eupedia Forum mobile app
 
I1a3_Young said:
Don't gloss over that this conclusion is from two samples. They throw out the 148 skeleton figure but only got DNA from two.

And by those journalistic standards, Britain domination of India never happened, Rome never conquered England, and the IE people didn't control the Hittites.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Eupedia Forum mobile app
Click to expand...

They have been working on that project for at least 2/3 years and the best they could do was to get aDNA from only two samples (and one also with contamination)?
 
You think you could do better? Or was it a conspiracy?

For your information, the warmer the climate the more difficult it is to get workable dna. That's why so much of what is in the papers is from the far north.
 
What do you guys think? :indifferent:
The answer is quite simple really.
1. The Vedic civilization was largely a continuation of the Harappan. Not surprising - archaeologists have been saying that for decades
2. There was possibly a minor indo-european genetic influx
3. There was NO signs of invasion or forceful upturn of culture - again something said by most mainstream archaeologists
4. Harappans were a mixture of indigenous people and a few Levant area migrants
 
"Don't gloss over that this conclusion is from two samples. They throw out the 148 skeleton figure but only got DNA from two."
I like how people cry 'conspiracy' or 'bad data' when the results don't agree with them. Nah they know the risks and significance better than anyone else. This is a large international study and a continuation of the paper published earlier this march (with 30+ international authors), of which Vasant Shinde and Niraj Rai were also co-authors. Shinde has been excavating at Rakhigarhi for several years now, and is a reputed archaeologist working with several international teams. From the ET article, we know that the conclusions are not just based on genetics, but also archaeology. Indian civilization is indigenous, it seems. We'll know more once the results are out, waiting with held breath
 
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