Contradictory conclusions
A recent study of
ancient DNA from 612 ancient individuals, which has still to be peer-reviewed, arrived at the same conclusion, saying an Aryan invasion, or migration, theory did indeed seem likely.
But that study did not have access to ancient DNA from Indus Valley sites, only individuals from nearby locations. If the
Economic Times report is accurate, the Rakhigarhi study, the first one to properly examine the ancestry of individuals found at Indus Valley sites, now seems to affirm those findings.
Yet the report draws a few different conclusions altogether.
- First, the newspaper report seems to make the argument that because the Indus Valley Civilisation population had no Steppe ancestry, that disproves the Aryan invasion theory. In fact, it does the opposite.
- Second, the report speaks of Iranian strains in the DNA, which the newspaper says “may point to contact, not invasion.” Again, this affirms the extant Aryan invasion/migration theory, which believes the Indus Valley population was primarily South Asians mixed with Iranian agriculturalists, who at the end of the Indus Valley civilisation saw an influx of Steppe ancestry.
- Shinde says the findings show a manner of burial that is similar to the early Vedic period, and that some burial rituals prevail even now in some communities, showing remarkable continuity. This point is a reminder of the difficulty of using DNA to determine how culture or language travelled, but on the face of it, this finding suggests that cultural behaviour that was prevalent before the Steppe influx did not necessarily change much afterwards.
- Neeraj Rai, head of the DNA lab at Lucknow’s Birbal Sahni Institute of Paleosciences and a co-author of the study, says that the condition of the skeletons at Rakhigarhi points to a “predominantly indigenous culture that voluntarily spread across other areas, not displaced or overrun by an Aryan invasion.” Here he is suggesting that the Aryan invasion may not have been violent, since the skeletons do not seem to indicate warfare. But it is still unclear why that would discount the Steppe ancestry that shows up only at the end of the Indus Valley civilisation.
- Finally, there is Shinde’s statement: “This indicates quite clearly, through archeological data, that the Vedic era that followed was a fully indigenous period with some external contact.” It is unclear what this means at all, and how the DNA results play into this, and only a full reading of the paper is likely to clear up the questions around this.
LMFAO. Owned by your own Indian source. Damn.
I don't know how you know the exact plac eof origin lol
you stay happy with Quran lol
