Ramanujan Auditorium
Using ancient DNA to understand Indian history
Vagheesh Narasimhan, Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School
The revolutionary ability to sequence genetic material from
skeletal material thousands of years old has allowed us to study human
history in a way never possible before. The speaker will discuss recent
results from ancient DNA extracted from the Indus Valley Site of Rakhigarhi
as well as from the Iron Age and other historical settlements at Gandhara
in the Swat Valley. By comparing their relationship to other samples from
Central Asia and modern genomes from across India, one can begin to
understand the genetic makeup of modern Indian populations came to be and
its implications of the demographic plausibilities for the spread of
language in the ancient world.
www.imsc.res.in/outreach/lectures/posterVN.pdf
<www.imsc.res.in/outreach/TEW_engg2019/>
Done