Ancient DNA and the human past

Reich argued that, based on currently available ancient DNA, all of the main Indo-European daughter branches may have expanded from the Yamnaya culture on the Pontic-Caspian Steppe in ancient Russia via massive migrations soon after the Neolithic period ∼4,500 years ago.



Yamnaya is the archaeological Russian culture responsible for spreading "Late-Proto-Indo-European" languages. The ‘steppe hypothesis’ by Reich et al. proposes that early Indo-European speakers spread into Europe after the invention of wheeled vehicles.

 

They keep finding new ruins in northern Russia that some think is the 'homeland' for the Aryan cultures; this info would fit into that scenario.

http://www.ndtv.com/world-news/4000-year-old-aryan-city-discovered-in-russia-434361

there are several other sites as well, this is just one, and purportedly of a city.

A bit off topic, but using DNA for dating purposes is suspect, and new evidence recently is continuing to raise doubts about it, so we'll probably be seeing some revisions of conclusions drawn from DNA evidence coming along in the next few years. I've never personally given it much credibility.

http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archi...ubts-about-accuracy-genetic-dating-techniques

Other issues also give reason to doubt it as an methodology for dating.

 

Even linguists have postulated this for quite sometime by doing forensic vocabulary studies...

 

Yes, but postulation isn't actual evidence, hence the discoveries being news.

 

Wow...I certainly wasn't implicating that it wasn't news....I was simply saying that technology has allowed natural science to find a way to corroborate what the liberal arts contribution to anthropological science had since "postulated"...

 

I have read the Yamnaya brought "whiteness" to Europe.
Or am I confusing them with someone else?

 

Don't know, but the whole 'everybody came out of Africa' fantasy is becoming less and less of a premise, in any case.

 

I don't think any of this invalidates "out of Africa." That's dated much further back, like 50,000 years, not the 5,000 or so this thread is referring to.

 

Actually it does, since the finds keep taking human civilizations further and further back, and their genetics couldn't have changed that drastically the closer and closer we get to that '50,000 years ago' theme. It was never a valid case anyway; using DNA to date anything isn't accurate and more proof of that comes out every few years or so. There is no genuine solid evidence for a common origin for all humans.

 

No, it isn't. This just introduces a slightly different time line. We are all out of Africa ... by way of Russia (if white).

 

I like this !!

Beats the notion of coming out of Africa !!

 

OK I don't know what you're arguing now. You're not one of those "ancient astronaut" types are you?

 

Nah. That premise is based solely on finds in Africa, and in no way makes it a certainty, just a convenience.

 

lol no, I just know the difference between real empirical evidence and speculative guessing based entirely on a handful of bones that would all fit on my kitchen table from extinct species of apes. There is a huge amount of this planet that hasn't even been scratched yet. And as I pointed out DNA dating isn't anywhere near valid, especially past 6,000 years or so.

 

Well you're dismissing out-of-Africa based on a thread describing a group that existed 5000 years ago, not 50,000, so I'm not sure what you're basing that on. To me, it seemed to be out of the blue. If there is a counter-hypothesis to out-of-Africa I'm game to listen but again, I can't see the connection to this thread topic.

 

Hybridization with PeopleKind in EurAsia who were likely, lighter than Black.
Sexual Selection seems to further the Whitening regardless of it being recessive.
BTW the lightening of Asians is different genetically than that of Euros.

I also suggest Sexual Selection resulted in the Asiatic flattening of cheek bones Chinese anthropologist claim their H. erectus as showing the earliest flattening. Such modification broadens the face and a broad face is likewise, sexually selected.

Don't under estimate the power of "allure".
How's that lil Mike?


Moi

r > g

​

 

"The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World" was written a decade ago without reflecting on recent genetic evidence but it's not widely off the mark. David Anthony located the PIE homeland in the Pontic-Caspian steppes by tracing linguistic and archaeological materials. Especially, the word "wheel" was the key PIE term and the invention of the wheel enabled the steppe herders to take over Old Europe.



However, the Yamnaya steppe herders had brown eyes and brown hair, which may have made them look rather more Asiatic than modern Europeans, based on recent genetic studies on ancient Yamnaya individuals. The Bashkirs (башкиры), a Turkic people indigenous to Bashkortostan, have the exact same haplotype as the Yamnaya steppe herders.

 

Although I would love to party with that Canuck, your comments didn't address my comment.

 

Please say again. The question.
Gracias

 

I didn't have a question. You highlighted a comment I made about another poster's comment about the out-of-Africa hypothesis, apparently challenging it.

 

Please. Because I am NOT an Out of Africa = Not Human advocate

How can I help.​

BTW I knew a guy who had a goat dairy and made goat cheese online.
He made me aware European goats come into fertile season like dogs & cats.
African goats are monthly. And European goats can breed with African goats and produce fertile offspring - no problem.
POINT: The last out of Africa invasion was with a population of more fertile females.
Their MtDNA prevails. But, check out Male Haplogroup A00 for a good time. A Y Chromosome haplogroup older than "us".

Anyways / if I can help you understand in any manner - please discuss.

Moi
Deep Thinker

r > g

Make Pay Its' Fair Share!​

 

So to be clear, you do NOT believe there was a migration of early humans out of Africa approximately 50,000 years ago that subsequently populated the rest of the world?

 

They hybridized with humans already there 50,000 years ago.
Thus H. erectus in China has cheek bone flattening as modern Asians.
Clear enough?

 

Hybridization seems a strong word for 1 to 4% DNA.

 

Not when you consider peoples north of the Sahara have an active immune gene from Neanderthal.
Altitude tolerance in Tibetans is tied to some archaic genome, I suspect H. erectus.
That 1 - 4% made a difference. Probably even what we term, "race".