Genetic analysis shows isolated population inhabited Prehistoric W. China

December 25, 2021

Even before it became an integrated part of the Silk Road trading network, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region was a place where ancient peoples crossed paths and exchanged cultural practices. The Tarim Basin mummies from Xinjiang represent some of the most puzzling archaeological finds in that region.

This study, conducted by researchers from Jilin University in Changchun, analyzed the genomes of 13 of them.

The results from this study contradict everything we thought we knew about the Tarim mummies, suggesting — to quote the article — “a very different and more complex population history than previously proposed.”

The study, the first genomic-scale analysis of prehistoric populations from Xinjiang, revealed that the mummies of the Tarim Basin actually belong to an “isolated gene pool whose Asian origins can be traced to the early Holocene epoch.”

The Tarim mummies had descended from a population known as the Ancient North Eurasians (ANE). This population was once widespread during the Pleistocene, but largely disappeared following the end of the last Ice Age. Today, they survive only by way of their DNA, 40 percent of which can be found in indigenous populations from Siberia and America.

Source - https://bigthink.com/the-past/tarim-basin-mummies-dna/?