Southeast Asia is home to scores of different languages and cultures, but the story of how such diversity blossomed in the region has always been unclear. A new study out today turns to ancient DNA — a rare find in hot and humid environments — to track waves of human migration over the past 4,000 years.
Ancient DNA (aDNA) is a rare thing. It requires a narrow range of conditions — essentially, cold and dry — to be preserved more than a few centuries. To have found enough genetic material from archaeological sites in hot and humid Southeast Asia is itself an achievement, and speaks to the ever-improving methods used to retrieve and sequence the precious material.
The team behind the new research sampled 146 individuals from five different sites in the region: Man Bac and Nui Nap in Vietnam, Oakaie 1 in Myanmar, Ban Chiang — a World Heritage ...
