Mar 10, 2025 10:16 PM
https://www.wsj.com/science/the-ancient-..._permalink
INTRO: For about half the people alive today, the story of where they came from just became clearer.
For centuries, historians and linguists have been searching for the cradle of the Indo-Europeans, an ancient people who shaped history and created the world’s largest language family, now spoken by over 40% of humanity. Now research led by David Reich, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School who specializes in the study of ancient populations, is making it possible to give a precise answer.
The peoples of Europe and West Asia, as well as everyone descended from their migrations across the globe—some four billion human beings alive today—can trace their ancestry to the Yamnaya, a small community of cattle-herders who lived 5,000 years ago in what is now Ukraine.
DNA detectives, including at Reich’s lab, analyzed DNA samples from the remains of around 450 prehistoric individuals taken from 100 sites in Europe, as well as data from 1,000 previously known ancient samples. In two papers published in the scientific journal Nature last month, the researchers combine genetic evidence with archaeology and linguistics to argue that sometime before 3000 B.C., a previously unknown people migrated from the Volga River to the Ukrainian steppe north of the Black Sea, where they mixed with a local population and formed the Yamnaya.
The Ukrainian hamlet Mykhailivka, now under Russian occupation, was pinpointed as the genetic cradle of the Yamnaya. From there they exploded across Eurasia, spreading their genes and their way of life from Portugal to Mongolia. This expansion, archaeologists and geneticists say, defines much of the world’s genetic and cultural heritage to this day. “They changed the populations of Europe, and ultimately, the world,“ Reich said... ([url=https://www.wsj.com/science/the-ancient-horsemen-who-created-the-modern-world-ba4b314d?st=EQ6SgK&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink]MORE - details[/urlk])
ALTERNATIVE SOURCE: https://www.msn.com/en-us/society-cultur...r-AA1AumN2
INTRO: For about half the people alive today, the story of where they came from just became clearer.
For centuries, historians and linguists have been searching for the cradle of the Indo-Europeans, an ancient people who shaped history and created the world’s largest language family, now spoken by over 40% of humanity. Now research led by David Reich, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School who specializes in the study of ancient populations, is making it possible to give a precise answer.
The peoples of Europe and West Asia, as well as everyone descended from their migrations across the globe—some four billion human beings alive today—can trace their ancestry to the Yamnaya, a small community of cattle-herders who lived 5,000 years ago in what is now Ukraine.
DNA detectives, including at Reich’s lab, analyzed DNA samples from the remains of around 450 prehistoric individuals taken from 100 sites in Europe, as well as data from 1,000 previously known ancient samples. In two papers published in the scientific journal Nature last month, the researchers combine genetic evidence with archaeology and linguistics to argue that sometime before 3000 B.C., a previously unknown people migrated from the Volga River to the Ukrainian steppe north of the Black Sea, where they mixed with a local population and formed the Yamnaya.
The Ukrainian hamlet Mykhailivka, now under Russian occupation, was pinpointed as the genetic cradle of the Yamnaya. From there they exploded across Eurasia, spreading their genes and their way of life from Portugal to Mongolia. This expansion, archaeologists and geneticists say, defines much of the world’s genetic and cultural heritage to this day. “They changed the populations of Europe, and ultimately, the world,“ Reich said... ([url=https://www.wsj.com/science/the-ancient-horsemen-who-created-the-modern-world-ba4b314d?st=EQ6SgK&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink]MORE - details[/urlk])
ALTERNATIVE SOURCE: https://www.msn.com/en-us/society-cultur...r-AA1AumN2