Ancient human migrations

Imagine an airline counter queue in Chicago or London. Seven people stand
looking in different directions. One is a solicitor of Afro-Caribbean origin, another a blond-headed girl whose family come from northern Europe, another a computer expert who was born in India. The fourth is a Chinese teenager listening to a Walkman. The fifth, sixth and seventh are all attending a conference on rock art and come respectively from
Australia, New Guinea and South America. They are quiet and avoid eye contact because they neither know each other nor feel related in any way. Yet it can be proved they are all related and ultimately all have an African female and male ancestor in common.
In all our cells we have genes. Genes are made up of DNA, the string-like code of life that determines what we are, from our fingernails to our innate skill at playing the piano. If we analyse the genes of any one of these seven we can trace the geographic route their ancestors took back to an ultimate birthplace in Africa, at the dawn of our species. Further, if we take any pair from our waiting queue and compare their genes, we will find that those two share a more recent ancestor living, in all probability, outside Africa. What is more, I believe that we can now prove where those ancestors lived and when they moved. This remarkable proof has only became fully possible within the last decade, as a result of pioneering work
by a number of people.

Preface
Imagine an airline counter queue in Chicago or London. Seven people stand
looking in different directions. One is a solicitor of Afro-Caribbean origin, another a blond-headed girl whose family come from northern Europe, another a computer expert who was born in India. The fourth is a Chinese teenager listening to a Walkman. The fifth, sixth and seventh are all attending a conference on rock art and come respectively from
Australia, New Guinea and South America. They are quiet and avoid eye contact because they neither know each other nor feel related in any way. Yet it can be proved they are all related and ultimately all have an African female and male ancestor in common. In all our cells we have genes. Genes are made up of DNA, the string-like code of life that determines what we are, from our fingernails to our innate skill at playing the piano. If we analyse the genes of any one of these seven we can trace the geographic
route their ancestors took back to an ultimate birthplace in Africa, at the dawn of our species. Further, if we take any pair from our waiting queue and compare their genes, we will find that those two share a more recent ancestor living, in all probability, outside Africa (See Panel diagram 1). What is more, I believe that we can now prove where those ancestors lived and when they moved. (See Panel diagram 2) This remarkable proof has only became fully possible within the last decade, as a result of pioneering work
by a number of people. Many of us have wondered, perhaps in daydreams, what we would find if we could fly in some time capsule through our generations back and back. Where would it lead? Would we find a distant relationship with some famous or notorious person? How many
generations back to the first humans? Does our line continue back to monkeys and beyond to worms and single celled creatures as Darwin said? We know from dry biology lessons at school that this ought to be so, but as with the uncertainty of what happens to us after we die, we cannot fully conceive it. We are now so used to the pace of new technical advances that the sense of wonder fades with each one. We have come to expect no ultimate barriers in the way of scientists' advance in knowledge, but the ability to use our genes to trace the detailed history of how we conquered the world was actually despaired of by genetics experts right up until
recently. The reason for their pessimism was that the majority of the genes they examined, shuffled around at each generation and were common to most populations anyway. As a result it was like trying to reconstruct a previous card game from the pack of cards after it has been shuffled. So it was nearly impossible to draw an accurate genetic family tree back even a few hundred years let alone back to the beginning of our species. Most human populations look very similar beneath the skin, so where could one start? The use of gender specific gene lines, the so-called 'Adam and Eve genes', has in the last ten years changed all that. In contrast to all other genes, mitochondrial DNA (a collection of genes outside the cell nucleus) is inherited only through our mothers, and the 'Y' chromosome is inherited only by men. These two sets of gender genes are passed on unchanged from generation to generation, with no shuffling, right back to our ancestors the first mammals and even beyond to worms and worse. This makes it possible to construct two family gene trees, one for our fathers and the other for our mothers. As a result in any population, of whatever size, we can trace any two individuals through one of these two gene trees back to a most recent shared ancestor on the tree. Such an ancestor may have lived 200, 5000 or 150,000 years ago but he, or she, has their place on the newly
constructed Adam and Eve genetic trees. These are real family trees of modern human gene lines with real branches. Each branch on the trees can be dated although the accuracy of such dating still leaves much to be desired. Many regional human gene trees have now been fitted together like a large jigsaw that is started by filling in the edges using certain clear landmarks. From this, a picture of the Adam and Eve gene lines spreading from Africa to every corner of the world has been developed over the last decade. It has got to that satisfying point, in jigsaws, when the whole structure suddenly links up and takes shape; the remaining pieces, though many, are placed on the tree and on the map with ease and increasing speed. The pace is so rapid that people working at the cutting edge on one geographic region may still be unaware of breakthroughs in another region. The whole branching tree can now be laid flat onto a world map to show where our ancestors and their gene lines travelled in their conquest of
the world. The new knowledge has answered many of the questions and paradoxes set by the contrast between the cultural and biological stories of the last 150,000 years. We can now even start to hang the regional human fossil relics of that time in their correct places on the genetic tree of life.
Many questions are answered. It turns out that far from the world being a common genetic melting pot with massive to-and-fro prehistoric movements and mixings the majority of the members of the modern human Diaspora have conservatively stayed put in the colonies their ancestors first established. They have stayed in those localities since well
before the last Ice-Age. We can also trace the dates of specific migrations over the last 80,000 years. Thus from great diversity and lack of definition we have moved to a highly specific and regional focus on the branching networks of human exploration. There are several other obvious examples of important old archaeological questions that have been resolved by the new gene trees. One is the 'Out-of-Africa' vs. 'Multiregional' controversy. The Out-of-Africa view holds that all modern humans descend from a recent movement from Africa less than 100,000 years ago. This Exodus wiped out
all earlier human types around the world. The multiregionalists, in contrast, argue that the archaic human populations, Neanderthals in Europe and Homo erectus in the Far East evolved into the local races we see now.
The Out-of-Africa view now wins the contest since the new genetic trees lead straight back to Africa within the past 100,000 years. No traces of Adam and Eve gene lines from older human species remain on our genetic tree, except of course at the root, from which we can measure our distance from Neanderthals. Neanderthals have now been genetically typed using ancient mitochondrial DNA and it seems they are our cousins not our ancestors. We share with them another common ancestor Homo helmei.
Current out-of-Africa experts have hedged their bets saying that Australians, Asians and Europeans came as separate migrations from Africa. Not so, the male and female genetic trees only show one line each coming out of Africa. This is the central argument in Where We Came From. There was only one main Exodus of modern humans from Africa and no more. That means there was only one common genetic ancestor, for
each gender line, that fathered and mothered the whole non-African world.
Other prejudices have also foundered. For long, some European archaeologists and anthropologists have thought that Europeans were the first to learn to paint, carve, develop complex culture and even to speak. Their conviction almost seemed to say that Europeans represented a major biological advance. The structure of the genetic tree denies this. Australians are related to Europeans, but they only share a common ancestor just after the Exodus from Africa in the Yemen over 70,000 years ago. Thereafter they moved straight along the coast to Australia where, in complete isolation, they evolved their own unique and complex artistic cultures. The first Australian painting is dated at least as early as in Europe. The depth of the genetic branch separating Australians and Europeans goes right back to the gate out of Africa. This must mean that humans came out of Africa already painting.
Another old archaeological controversy concerns the spread of the Neolithic culture across Europe from Turkey 8,000 years ago. Did the farmers from the Middle East wipe out and replace the European hunters or did the new ideas spread more peacefully, converting the pre-existing Palaeolithic hunter-gatherer communities? The genetic answer
is clear: 80% of modern Europeans descend from the old hunter-gatherer gene types and only 20% from Near Eastern farmers. The old ones were not such a pushover.
Finally, moving to the other side of the world, there has always been colourful speculation over the origins of the Polynesians. Thor Heyerdahl was not the first; Captain Cook was nearer the mark. For the past fifteen years archaeologists have thought Polynesians came from Taiwan. The genetic tree discounts this now. The ancestors of the sailors of the great canoes started out further along the trail in Eastern Indonesia.
Coming back to our airline queue, we should also realise that they are participants in this genetic story, since 99% of the work of reconstruction of our ancient gene trees was carried out using modern DNA given voluntarily by people living in different parts of the world today.

This study focuses on the Etruscan case and develops a recent diffusion theory based on the analysis of the time and space distributions of ancient ethnonyms and toponyms integrated with historical attestations. Estruscans are considered as a confederation of tribes belonging to two distinct lineages descending from *Thyrgwaunas, speaking a Proto-Altaic language, and *Gwaulgwaunas, speaking a Proto-Indo-European one. Such a confederation had been known in the Aegean area as “the Mixed People”, i.e. *Mykgwaunas (whence Mygdonianians and Mycenaeans). The descendants of the two lineages are recognised in Italy and distinguished as Tyrsinians and Volsinians, according to the terminology of Greek and Roman historians. The phonetic changes in the names of the tribes with respect to the original common forms are analysed. The diffusion of Tyrsinian and Volsinian tribes along the Italic peninsula is then investigated by analysing the origins of the main Etruscan and related cities.

North East India has been a narrow land bridge for human dispersals between South Asia and South East Asia since ‘Out of Africa’ event. As per 1971 census, more than 220 ethno-linguistic population groups exist in North East India. Here two most populous language families viz. Indo-European and Tibeto-Burman meet, the other two language families being Austro-Asiatic and Kra-Dai. To understand the genesis of the populations of North East India, it is imperative to understand the genesis of Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman speakers; as both of them are the oldest language groups. Majority of present ethno-linguistic groups belong to Tibeto-Burman language family whereas only ‘Khasi’ belong to Austro-Asiatic language family. Knowing about the fact that a multidisciplinary effort is needed to paint a full picture, but keeping in mind the paucity of records of significance from disciplines like Archaeology, Paleoclimatology, this paper has given more importance to the records from genomics and to, a lesser degree, historical linguistics. This study mainly deals with the data from previous studies which include Mitochondrial DNA, Y-chromosomal DNA, autosomal DNA admixture of modern populations and ancient DNA of South East Asia. The study finds that ancestry of present Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman populations are biased with South East Asians moreover each of these language family speakers are also biased with a particular paternal genetic clan or Y-DNA haplogroup giving rise to ‘Father tongue hypothesis’. Ancient DNA data signalling towards significant genomic turnover during late Neolithic age to Bronze age which might be the reason of a geographically-confined Khasi population who were probably replaced by Tibeto-Burman speakers. The study also emphasises whole genome sequencing, GIS, remote sensing technique to gather quality data to achieve more correct picture.

Key words: Tibeto-Burman, Austro-Asiatic, mitochondrial DNA, Y-DNA, autosomal DNA,Ancient  DNA etc.

Note: PDF download of the complete dissertation is available at https://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/3075/

This dissertation analyzes the material culture, paleobotanical, and faunal remains excavated at the site of Tell Qarqur, Syria, recovered from occupational levels dating from the end of the Late Bronze Age to the Iron II period (from approximately 1200 to 700 BC). Based on archaeological evidence and ancient textual sources, many ancient Near Eastern kingdoms and polities endured social and political turmoil during the late 13th and early 12th centuries BC. Most likely caused by an unknown hostile group or groups, the destruction of monumental scale architecture and the disruption to the people of Qarqur’s agricultural and animal husbandry practices demonstrate that the residents of Qarqur did not escape the effects of the instability that occurred throughout much of the wider region. However, in the subsequent Iron I period, the archaeological record shows that the inhabitants adjusted to these new realities through the adoption of alternative subsistence strategies, and eventually began the gradual recovery of architectural complexity. During the Iron II period, regional survey data and the foundation of new domestic architecture over most of the area of Tell Qarqur indicate significant population growth in the Ghab Basin in general and on-site in particular. Fortification building initiatives by the kingdom of Hamath and the resettlement practices of an expansionist Neo-Assyrian Empire may have been contributing factors in these demographic changes.

The progression, from an established societal system disrupted by sudden changes caused by exogenous forces, to the adaptation, reorganization, and recovery engendered by Qarqur’s inhabitants in reaction to those changes, and the subsequent expansion of the settlement area and population beyond their previous levels, is analogous to what ecologists alternatively call the adaptive cycle or the progression of the four ecosystem functions, concepts that are integral to resilience theory. This theoretical approach forms an interpretive framework that further illustrates the inhabitants of Qarqur’s ability to adjust to changing conditions at the settlement and to exploit various resources from the surrounding environment throughout the duration of the Iron I and Iron II periods.

1. Approaching you, we call upon you o Dawn, of red appearance, be produced in the east, in between darkness and the brightness of the Sun. This composition by the human beings of this habitation that have come together to sing to the red, moving mother. 2. Fall down over us o red one, of the Sun, cover now those sacrificing jointly to you o Dawn, singing together. Destroy the deamons, as you did when urged on earlier. Be furious, red like the Sun, we seek your protection. 3. We pray to the lady in the three sacred languages, turn by turn, as a team, sounding loudly. Promote us, o good doer, o good donor, bestow upon the tribe, delighting with gifts for the sake of the pressing out by the host. 4. Like the breast uncovered by the dancer as she discards her decorative garments, you are the nipple of the morning light. Light up this world, hear the song of the people, spread over our settlement o Dawn. 5. Shine upon the injurers, let us see them, stay and drive away the evil monsters. With this skillful, decorated ceremony, we have approached the beautiful, divine daughter of the Sun. 6. Destroy fully the darkness, master it completely o lady, light up as you move, do hear us. We worship with this pleasing speech, o beautiful Dawn, we wish to obtain your favours through this song.

Globalization has brought about a new paradigm where socio-cultural, political, and economic landscapes get exposed to unexpected dynamics of challenges and change. It thus becomes a matter of both challenge and opportunity for the home and host countries. On the one hand, the economic changes over the past hundred years that includes close integration, opening of trade, ideas and information, have resulted in benefitting the industrially developed economies. On the other hand, for the developing economies, the challenges remain though of different level and kind. However, the changed circumstances globally also bring along opportunities for these states to help them overcome the challenges. The increased movement of people has resulted in the global development of new ideas, intercultural linkages, democratisation of global space etc. In this scenario, diaspora has emerged as an important player in the transnational sphere for both the home and host countries. The following are the Themes and Sub themes for the Conference. *GRFDT is trying its best to mobilise sponsorship to cover the cost of travel and accommodation of the partici-pants/delegates as much as possible. However, the forum cannot assure anyone at this point about it.

SUMMARY: Chapter 9, in Renfrew & Bahn's textbook (Archaeology: Theories, Methods, and Practice), covers the various types of trade and exchange in past societies, and how one may assess it, including different types of interactions (e.g., gift exchange), various scientific techniques (e.g., microscopic examination of materials; trace-element analysis; isotopic analysis), studying material and/or artifact distributions, assessing production and consumption, and analyzing the various means of exchange and interaction.  In my view, this is one of the best college textbooks available, and is invaluable for students, archaeologists, and the public in general, to obtain a top notch overview of approaching and interpreting the archaeological record. UPDATED/REVISED Nov. 4, 2019, some editing and new formatting.