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Nov 9, 2021 5:16:19 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Nov 9, 2021 5:16:19 GMT -5
Bronze Age Tarim mummies aren't who scientists thought they were: Part 3 & Conclusion
(Image credit: Shutterstock)
The study also compares the DNA of the Tarim mummies to that of desert mummies of about the same age discovered in the Dzungarian region in the north of Xinjiang, on the far side of the Tianshan mountain range that divides the region.
It turned out that the ancient Dzungarian people, unlike the Tarim people roughly 500 miles (800 km) to the south, descended from both the Indigenous ANE and pastoralist herders from the Altai-Sayan mountains of southern Siberia called the Afanasievo, who had strong genetic links to the early Indo-European Yamnaya people of southern Russia, the researchers wrote.
It was likely migrating Afanasievo herders had mixed with local hunter-gatherers in Dzungaria, while the Tarim people retained their original ANE ancestry, Jeong told Live Science in an email.
However, it's not known why the Tarim people remained genetically isolated while the Dzungarians did not.
"We speculate that the harsh environment of the Tarim Basin may have formed a barrier to gene flow, but we cannot be certain on this point at the moment," Jeong said.
The desert environment doesn't seem to have cut the Tarim people off from cultural exchanges with many different peoples, however. The Tarim Basin in the Bronze Age was already a crossroads of cultural exchange between the East and the West and would remain so for thousands of years.
"The Tarim people were genetically isolated from their neighbors while culturally extremely well connected," Jeong said.
"Probably such cultural elements were more productive in their local environment than hunting, gathering and fishing," Jeong said. "Our findings provide a strong case study showing that genes and cultural elements do not necessarily move together."
Warinner said the ancient Tarim communities were sustained by ancient rivers that brought water to parts of the region while leaving the rest of it desert. "It was like a river oasis," she said.
Parts of ancient fishing nets have been found at Tarim archaeological sites, and the practice of burying their dead in boat-shaped coffins with oars may have developed from their reliance on the rivers, she said.
The rivers were fed by seasonal snow melt in the surrounding mountains, and often changed course when there had been an especially heavy snowfall over winter. When that happened, the ancient villages were effectively stranded far from water, and that may have contributed to the end of the Tarim Basin culture, she said. Today, the region is mostly desert.
Wiki link:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiaohe_Cemetery
(Image credit: Shutterstock)
The study also compares the DNA of the Tarim mummies to that of desert mummies of about the same age discovered in the Dzungarian region in the north of Xinjiang, on the far side of the Tianshan mountain range that divides the region.
It turned out that the ancient Dzungarian people, unlike the Tarim people roughly 500 miles (800 km) to the south, descended from both the Indigenous ANE and pastoralist herders from the Altai-Sayan mountains of southern Siberia called the Afanasievo, who had strong genetic links to the early Indo-European Yamnaya people of southern Russia, the researchers wrote.
It was likely migrating Afanasievo herders had mixed with local hunter-gatherers in Dzungaria, while the Tarim people retained their original ANE ancestry, Jeong told Live Science in an email.
However, it's not known why the Tarim people remained genetically isolated while the Dzungarians did not.
"We speculate that the harsh environment of the Tarim Basin may have formed a barrier to gene flow, but we cannot be certain on this point at the moment," Jeong said.
The desert environment doesn't seem to have cut the Tarim people off from cultural exchanges with many different peoples, however. The Tarim Basin in the Bronze Age was already a crossroads of cultural exchange between the East and the West and would remain so for thousands of years.
"The Tarim people were genetically isolated from their neighbors while culturally extremely well connected," Jeong said.
"Probably such cultural elements were more productive in their local environment than hunting, gathering and fishing," Jeong said. "Our findings provide a strong case study showing that genes and cultural elements do not necessarily move together."
Warinner said the ancient Tarim communities were sustained by ancient rivers that brought water to parts of the region while leaving the rest of it desert. "It was like a river oasis," she said.
Parts of ancient fishing nets have been found at Tarim archaeological sites, and the practice of burying their dead in boat-shaped coffins with oars may have developed from their reliance on the rivers, she said.
The rivers were fed by seasonal snow melt in the surrounding mountains, and often changed course when there had been an especially heavy snowfall over winter. When that happened, the ancient villages were effectively stranded far from water, and that may have contributed to the end of the Tarim Basin culture, she said. Today, the region is mostly desert.
Wiki link:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiaohe_Cemetery
