The genome is a palimpsest that retains strong traces of the past, so current populations can reveal something of previous population movements. What has changed everything has been the ability, beginning as recently as 2010, to sequence DNA directly from ancient human remains, sometimes as old as 40,000 years. Although studies in ancient DNA have now leapfrogged archaeology and linguistics to become the best source of knowledge on prehistoric human populations and migrations, they dovetail with those disciplines in a three-way corroborative process. As Reich puts it: “Ideologies that seek a return to a mythical purity are flying in the face of hard science.”His findings have important medical implications, too. • Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past is published by Oxford University Press.

Source: The Guardian March 29, 2018 09:00 UTC