Once upon a time, the narrative of humanity鈥檚 past belonged largely to archaeologists and anthropologists. In recent years, geneticists have muscled in, making startling discoveries by analysing DNA from ancient specimens 鈥� and leaving some archaeologists feeling sidelined. A new study has thrown the feud into stark relief.
Geneticist David Reich of Harvard Medical School and his colleagues have studied DNA from 271 individuals who lived in and around what is now Spain over the past 7000 years. Some 4500 years ago, people called the Yamnaya arrived from eastern Europe. Dramatically, the local males stopped passing on their genes: their Y chromosomes were almost entirely replaced by those of the newcomers.
鈥淭hat means males coming in had preferential access to local females, again and again and again,鈥� said Reich, describing these findings at New 杏吧原创 Live in London, last September. 鈥淭he collision of these two populations was not a friendly one.鈥�
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I wrote about these findings for New 杏吧原创, noting that the event resembled 鈥渁 violent conquest鈥� in which the new society was 鈥渇irmly under the control of the males鈥�. When this was repeated in the Spanish newspaper El Pa铆s, it elicited . They described the narrative as 鈥渦nfounded鈥� because there was no evidence of violence.
So who is right?
This is relatively recent history in a region that archaeologists have studied for decades. If there were evidence of violence, surely they would have found some. However, the DNA analysis reveals that local men didn鈥檛 pass on their genes, suggesting they were prevented from having sex.
Like the invasion of the Americas
That might not show up in the archaeological record 鈥� people do sometimes surrender without a fight. Indeed another geneticist involved in the study, Carles Lalueza-Fox at Pompeu Fabra University聽in Barcelona, Spain, now says that the event was 鈥溾��. In other words, it played out over decades or centuries. But this hardly implies it was friendly.
Genetics and archaeology ought to be complementary sources of information. Instead they have ended up in a turf war. Some of the mistrust may arise from the fact that a handful of labs dominate ancient DNA research.
There is no doubt that the field is heavily influenced by a small group of people, but . Besides, dismissing genetic findings because they don鈥檛 neatly match established stories isn鈥檛 just unwise: it is also unscientific.
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