Since the 2019 Narasimhan et al paper on Swat Valley, Pakistan samples was published, one of the key questions which remained was — When did the steppe ancestry seen in modern Indians and Pakistanis enter mainland India?
 |
| Burzahom Site: Location and few pictures of the site. |
Sure, the Swat valley samples from 1200–800 BCE show steppe ancestry, but when did it enter what is now modern Pakistan? The papers claims that this happened between 1800–1500 BCE, however ancient human samples till 1500 BCE in neighbouring Bactria Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC) show very little evidence of steppe people having traversed there. Crossing BMAC is a must to get from Steppe to Pakistan, so the question remained.
We may have the answer through preliminary results obtained by one of the top Indian researchers in the field of population genetics, Dr. Niraj Rai. In a conference 3 weeks ago posted on Youtube, he let slip one of his unpublished findings — That there is no steppe autosomal ancestry to be found in north India till 1300 BCE, although he refrained from stating the site explicitly. Upon going through his talk, I think the only plausible sample he is talking about is from the site of Burzahom, near Srinagar, Kashmir. We shall see if my educated guess was correct.
When did the steppe ancestry reach mainland India? Or was it localized to other regions than Kashmir? Question remains open.