Polish biologist discovered traces of migrants from the East in Bronze Age Mesopotamia
PAP © 2012 /
Analysis by Prof. Henryk Witas from the Department of Molecular Biology, Medical University of Łódź, showed that people from the Indian subcontinent had lived among the inhabitants of the area of Mesopotamia.
The scientist isolated mitochondrial DNA from the human remains found by Dr. Jacek Tomczyk, anthropologist from the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, at the Syrian archaeological sites Tell Mesaikh and Terqa in the valley of the middle Euphrates. These people lived in different periods between 2500 BC and 500 AD.
"It turned out that among the analyzed individuals some represented clades (a clade is a group of organisms having a common ancestor, which includes all progeny groups - PAP) of macro-haplogroup M that is not found in today’s Syria. We also know that they originated in the Indian subcontinent (Tibet, Pakistan, India) at least 30 thousand years ago" - explained Prof. Witas.
The researcher suggested that while one of the test subjects from the beginning of our era could have come to Mesopotamia on silk route, the presence of people from the East in the third millennium BC may indicate the existence of trade routes as early as the Bronze Age.
"It is also possible that examined remains belonged to the descendants of the founders of the first civilization in the region. It should be emphasized that so far there is no other evidence to support this theory" - added Prof. Witas.
Polish scientists plan to collect a much larger number of specimens by extending the study to other periods and regions of Mesopotamia, which may help to explain the puzzling findings.
"Analysis of the fossil material has verified many previous hypotheses" - noted the biologist.
The tests were performed with grants awarded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland, Szymon Zdziebłowski
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