Ancient DNA from the skeletons of Roopkund Lake reveals Mediterranean migrants in India

Éadaoin Harney; Ayushi Nayak; Nick Patterson; Pramod Joglekar; Veena Mushrif-Tripathy; Swapan Mallick; Nadin Rohland; Jakob Sedig; Nicole Adamski; Rebecca Bernardos; Nasreen Broomandkhoshbacht; Brendan J. Culleton; Matthew Ferry; Thomas K. Harper; Megan Michel; Jonas Oppenheimer; Kristin Stewardson; Zhao Zhang; Harashawaradhana; Maanwendra Singh Bartwal; Sachin Kumar; Subhash Chandra Diyundi; Patrick Roberts; Nicole Boivin; Douglas J. Kennett; Kumarasamy Thangaraj; David Reich; Niraj Rai

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-11357-9

Ancient DNA from the skeletons of Roopkund Lake reveals Mediterranean migrants in India

Éadaoin Harney, Ayushi Nayak, Nick Patterson, Pramod Joglekar, Veena Mushrif-Tripathy, Swapan Mallick, Nadin Rohland, Jakob Sedig, Nicole Adamski, Rebecca Bernardos, Nasreen Broomandkhoshbacht, Brendan J. Culleton, Matthew Ferry, Thomas K. Harper, Megan Michel, Jonas Oppenheimer, Kristin Stewardson, Zhao Zhang, Harashawaradhana, Maanwendra Singh BartwalSachin Kumar, Subhash Chandra Diyundi, Patrick Roberts, Nicole Boivin, Douglas J. Kennett, Kumarasamy Thangaraj, David Reich, Niraj Rai

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Abstract

Situated at over 5,000 meters above sea level in the Himalayan Mountains, Roopkund Lake is home to the scattered skeletal remains of several hundred individuals of unknown origin. We report genome-wide ancient DNA for 38 skeletons from Roopkund Lake, and find that they cluster into three distinct groups. A group of 23 individuals have ancestry that falls within the range of variation of present-day South Asians. A further 14 have ancestry typical of the eastern Mediterranean. We also identify one individual with Southeast Asian-related ancestry. Radiocarbon dating indicates that these remains were not deposited simultaneously. Instead, all of the individuals with South Asian-related ancestry date to ~800 CE (but with evidence of being deposited in more than one event), while all other individuals date to ~1800 CE. These differences are also reflected in stable isotope measurements, which reveal a distinct dietary profile for the two main groups.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	3670
Journal	Nature communications
Volume	10
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-11357-9
State	Published - Dec 1 2019

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

Chemistry(all)
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology(all)
Physics and Astronomy(all)

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10.1038/s41467-019-11357-9

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Harney, É., Nayak, A., Patterson, N., Joglekar, P., Mushrif-Tripathy, V., Mallick, S., Rohland, N., Sedig, J., Adamski, N., Bernardos, R., Broomandkhoshbacht, N., Culleton, B. J., Ferry, M., Harper, T. K., Michel, M., Oppenheimer, J., Stewardson, K., Zhang, Z., Harashawaradhana, ... Rai, N. (2019). Ancient DNA from the skeletons of Roopkund Lake reveals Mediterranean migrants in India. Nature communications, 10(1), [3670]. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-11357-9

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title = "Ancient DNA from the skeletons of Roopkund Lake reveals Mediterranean migrants in India",

abstract = "Situated at over 5,000 meters above sea level in the Himalayan Mountains, Roopkund Lake is home to the scattered skeletal remains of several hundred individuals of unknown origin. We report genome-wide ancient DNA for 38 skeletons from Roopkund Lake, and find that they cluster into three distinct groups. A group of 23 individuals have ancestry that falls within the range of variation of present-day South Asians. A further 14 have ancestry typical of the eastern Mediterranean. We also identify one individual with Southeast Asian-related ancestry. Radiocarbon dating indicates that these remains were not deposited simultaneously. Instead, all of the individuals with South Asian-related ancestry date to ~800 CE (but with evidence of being deposited in more than one event), while all other individuals date to ~1800 CE. These differences are also reflected in stable isotope measurements, which reveal a distinct dietary profile for the two main groups.",

author = "{\'E}adaoin Harney and Ayushi Nayak and Nick Patterson and Pramod Joglekar and Veena Mushrif-Tripathy and Swapan Mallick and Nadin Rohland and Jakob Sedig and Nicole Adamski and Rebecca Bernardos and Nasreen Broomandkhoshbacht and Culleton, {Brendan J.} and Matthew Ferry and Harper, {Thomas K.} and Megan Michel and Jonas Oppenheimer and Kristin Stewardson and Zhao Zhang and Harashawaradhana and Bartwal, {Maanwendra Singh} and Sachin Kumar and Diyundi, {Subhash Chandra} and Patrick Roberts and Nicole Boivin and Kennett, {Douglas J.} and Kumarasamy Thangaraj and David Reich and Niraj Rai",

note = "Funding Information: We acknowledge the people living and dead whose samples we analyzed in this study. We thank Professor Subhash Walimbe of the Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute in Pune India (retired) who prepared the physical anthropology report on the Roopkund skeletons that was used as the basis of a National Geographic documentary; we reprint it in edited form in Supplementary Note 2, updated in light of the genetic findings. We are grateful to Dr. Lalji Singh (deceased) for his longstanding support for this project, to the Lucknow University anthropology department and the Anthroplogical Survey of India for permission to analyze their skeletal collection, and to Iosif Lazaridis, Michael McCormick, Arie Shaus, John Wakeley for critical comments. E.H. was supported by a graduate student fellowship from the Max Planck-Harvard Research Center for the Archaeoscience of the Ancient Mediterranean (MHAAM). A.N., P.R., and N.B. are funded by the Max Planck Society. D.J.K. and B.J.C. were supported by NSF BCS-1460367. K.T. was supported by grant NCP (MLP0117) from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Government of India. D.R. was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation HOMINID grant BCS-1032255, the U.S. National Institutes of Health grant GM100233, by an Allen Discovery Center grant, by grant 61220 from the John Templeton Foundation, and is an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019, The Author(s).",

year = "2019",

month = dec,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1038/s41467-019-11357-9",

language = "English (US)",

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journal = "Nature Communications",

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Harney, É, Nayak, A, Patterson, N, Joglekar, P, Mushrif-Tripathy, V, Mallick, S, Rohland, N, Sedig, J, Adamski, N, Bernardos, R, Broomandkhoshbacht, N, Culleton, BJ, Ferry, M, Harper, TK, Michel, M, Oppenheimer, J, Stewardson, K, Zhang, Z, Harashawaradhana, Bartwal, MS, Kumar, S, Diyundi, SC, Roberts, P, Boivin, N, Kennett, DJ, Thangaraj, K, Reich, D & Rai, N 2019, 'Ancient DNA from the skeletons of Roopkund Lake reveals Mediterranean migrants in India', Nature communications, vol. 10, no. 1, 3670. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-11357-9

TY - JOUR

T1 - Ancient DNA from the skeletons of Roopkund Lake reveals Mediterranean migrants in India

AU - Harney, Éadaoin

AU - Nayak, Ayushi

AU - Patterson, Nick

AU - Joglekar, Pramod

AU - Mushrif-Tripathy, Veena

AU - Mallick, Swapan

AU - Rohland, Nadin

AU - Sedig, Jakob

AU - Adamski, Nicole

AU - Bernardos, Rebecca

AU - Broomandkhoshbacht, Nasreen

AU - Culleton, Brendan J.

AU - Ferry, Matthew

AU - Harper, Thomas K.

AU - Michel, Megan

AU - Oppenheimer, Jonas

AU - Stewardson, Kristin

AU - Zhang, Zhao

AU - Harashawaradhana,

AU - Bartwal, Maanwendra Singh

AU - Kumar, Sachin

AU - Diyundi, Subhash Chandra

AU - Roberts, Patrick

AU - Boivin, Nicole

AU - Kennett, Douglas J.

AU - Thangaraj, Kumarasamy

AU - Reich, David

AU - Rai, Niraj

N1 - Funding Information: We acknowledge the people living and dead whose samples we analyzed in this study. We thank Professor Subhash Walimbe of the Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute in Pune India (retired) who prepared the physical anthropology report on the Roopkund skeletons that was used as the basis of a National Geographic documentary; we reprint it in edited form in Supplementary Note 2, updated in light of the genetic findings. We are grateful to Dr. Lalji Singh (deceased) for his longstanding support for this project, to the Lucknow University anthropology department and the Anthroplogical Survey of India for permission to analyze their skeletal collection, and to Iosif Lazaridis, Michael McCormick, Arie Shaus, John Wakeley for critical comments. E.H. was supported by a graduate student fellowship from the Max Planck-Harvard Research Center for the Archaeoscience of the Ancient Mediterranean (MHAAM). A.N., P.R., and N.B. are funded by the Max Planck Society. D.J.K. and B.J.C. were supported by NSF BCS-1460367. K.T. was supported by grant NCP (MLP0117) from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Government of India. D.R. was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation HOMINID grant BCS-1032255, the U.S. National Institutes of Health grant GM100233, by an Allen Discovery Center grant, by grant 61220 from the John Templeton Foundation, and is an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Publisher Copyright: © 2019, The Author(s).

PY - 2019/12/1

Y1 - 2019/12/1

N2 - Situated at over 5,000 meters above sea level in the Himalayan Mountains, Roopkund Lake is home to the scattered skeletal remains of several hundred individuals of unknown origin. We report genome-wide ancient DNA for 38 skeletons from Roopkund Lake, and find that they cluster into three distinct groups. A group of 23 individuals have ancestry that falls within the range of variation of present-day South Asians. A further 14 have ancestry typical of the eastern Mediterranean. We also identify one individual with Southeast Asian-related ancestry. Radiocarbon dating indicates that these remains were not deposited simultaneously. Instead, all of the individuals with South Asian-related ancestry date to ~800 CE (but with evidence of being deposited in more than one event), while all other individuals date to ~1800 CE. These differences are also reflected in stable isotope measurements, which reveal a distinct dietary profile for the two main groups.

AB - Situated at over 5,000 meters above sea level in the Himalayan Mountains, Roopkund Lake is home to the scattered skeletal remains of several hundred individuals of unknown origin. We report genome-wide ancient DNA for 38 skeletons from Roopkund Lake, and find that they cluster into three distinct groups. A group of 23 individuals have ancestry that falls within the range of variation of present-day South Asians. A further 14 have ancestry typical of the eastern Mediterranean. We also identify one individual with Southeast Asian-related ancestry. Radiocarbon dating indicates that these remains were not deposited simultaneously. Instead, all of the individuals with South Asian-related ancestry date to ~800 CE (but with evidence of being deposited in more than one event), while all other individuals date to ~1800 CE. These differences are also reflected in stable isotope measurements, which reveal a distinct dietary profile for the two main groups.

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DO - 10.1038/s41467-019-11357-9

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VL - 10

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

SN - 2041-1723

IS - 1

M1 - 3670

ER -

Ancient DNA from the skeletons of Roopkund Lake reveals Mediterranean migrants in India

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