Early Indians: The Story of Our Ancestors and Where We Came From

by Tony Joseph

When this discovery of Neanderthal genes in humans was first announced in 2010, the world was shocked because until then we had considered Neanderthals quite inferior to us, and as belonging to a different species that would not have been able to reproduce with us. Now, of course, we know that we interbred not just with Neanderthals but with Denisovans as well, and that this may not be the full story either. In Africa and elsewhere too, research is throwing up the increasing likelihood that there were more interbreeding events between modern humans and our genetic cousins, some of whom we may not even have identified yet.

we do know from archaeological evidence that it took the first migrants to America (about 16,000 years ago) only a couple of thousand years to reach the tip of South America from Alaska – a distance of about 21,000 kilometres.

if you look at mtDNA lineages you will find that somewhere between 70 and 90 per cent of people are descendants of the First Indians, with M lineages being the most popular. If you look at Y-chromosome lineages, though, the picture is different: First Indian descendants account for only 10 to 40 per cent of the haplogroups, depending on which population group you are considering. (This massive difference between the male and female lines of descent encapsulates the history of later migrations,

Mehrgarh laid the foundations for the Harappan Civilization that was to follow.