A trio of new studies, two in Nature and the third in Science, analyzed genetic material from scores of ancient humans to create a new map of human movement, as well as the spread of language, the hepatitis B virus and horse domestication, across the sprawling Eurasian steppes. The ancient genomes sequenced for the papers — with more findings to follow, promise the authors — represent the largest collection of ancient human DNA ever studied.
Stretching nearly unbroken from Hungary to China, the steppes of Eurasia have been home to a number of mounted warrior cultures over the millennia, most famously Scythians, Huns and Mongols. Most researchers believe that it was here, in these sprawling grasslands, that horses were first domesticated and the Indo-European language spread.
But the hard evidence of the Eurasian steppes’ history, who innovated what and when, and who traveled where, has been in short supply, leaving scholars and armchair archaeologists alike to argue over the details.
Today, a massive project led by Danish evolutionary geneticist Eske Willerslev provides new answers — including a few surprises — to some of the questions long bedeviling the field. Let’s saddle up and take a ride on the double helix of discovery:
Building A Genomic Empire
