5,000 Year Old Ear Bone Unfolds Mysteries of Our Ancestors

Scientists have gathered the first human DNA evidence belonging to the ancient Indus Valley Civilization (IVC), uncovering rare insights including a genetic link between the people of the IVC and modern South Asians.

The IVC, otherwise known as the Harappan civilization, is one of the earliest civilizations in history and stretches across today’s Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

Gathering DNA from the IVC sites is difficult due to the hot and rainy climate degrading the genetic material. But after a major effort to gather powder from skeletons in the Rakhigarhi cemetery in India, archaeologists finally grabbed hold of an ear bone that contained a small amount of DNA, unlocking a world of opportunities to solve the ancient civilization mysteries.

“We had to pool 100 libraries together and sort of hold our breath, but we were fortunate that that yielded enough DNA to then do high resolution population genetics analysis,” says Vagheesh Narasimhan, co-author of the new study. “I think if anything, this paper is a technical success story,” he adds, noting that the approach holds promise for sourcing DNA in other challenging locales.