July 14, 2008

Ancient mtDNA from Southeast Asia

American Journal of Physical Anthropology

Genetic history of Southeast Asian populations as revealed by ancient and modern human mitochondrial DNA analysis

Patcharee Lertrit et al.

Abstract

The 360 base-pair fragment in HVS-1 of the mitochondrial genome were determined from ancient human remains excavated at Noen U-loke and Ban Lum-Khao, two Bronze and Iron Age archaeological sites in Northeastern Thailand, radio-carbon dated to circa 3,500-1,500 years BP and 3,200-2,400 years BP, respectively. These two neighboring populations were parts of early agricultural communities prevailing in northeastern Thailand from the fourth millennium BP onwards. The nucleotide sequences of these ancient samples were compared with the sequences of modern samples from various ethnic populations of East and Southeast Asia, encompassing four major linguistic affiliations (Altaic, Sino-Tibetan, Tai-Kadai, and Austroasiatic), to investigate the genetic relationships and history among them. The two ancient samples were most closely related to each other, and next most closely related to the Chao-Bon, an Austroasiatic-speaking group living near the archaeological sites, suggesting that the genetic continuum may have persisted since prehistoric times in situ among the native, perhaps Austroasiatic-speaking population. Tai-Kadai groups formed close affinities among themselves, with a tendency to be more closely related to other Southeast Asian populations than to populations from further north. The Tai-Kadai groups were relatively distant from all groups that have presumably been in Southeast Asia for longer-that is, the two ancient groups and the Austroasiatic-speaking groups, with the exception of the Khmer group. This finding is compatible with the known history of the Thais: their late arrival in Southeast Asia from southern China after the 10th-11th century AD, followed by a period of subjugation under the Khmers.

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1 comment:

Ebizur said...

In case anyone does not recognize the name "Chao-Bon," please take a look at the following entry in Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyah_Kur_language

The Chao-Bon, also known as the Nyah Kur people, speak a language closely related to that of the Mon people, and they are sometimes considered to be an isolated subgroup or "remnant" of the Mon people who were left behind in central-to-northeastern Thailand when the rest of the proto-Mons fled to what is now southern Myanmar.