DNA study clarifies SE Asian migration
NEW research discoveries, including some by University of Otago academics, have helped clarify longdisputed early human migration patterns in Southeast Asia.
Prof Charles Higham, of the anthropology and archaeology department, and Prof Hallie Buckley, of the anatomy department, are among the coauthors of an international study, gaining insights from ancient DNA.
Prof Higham’s son, Otago graduate Prof Tom Higham, is professor of archaeological science at Oxford University, and has radiocarbon dated ancient human bones used in the study, recently published in the journal Science.
The groundbreaking analysis used ancient DNA extracted from 8000yearold skeletons — twice the age of samples previously sequenced in the region.
Two longcompeting theories about where Southeast Asian people came from were debunked.
One theory suggested that indigenous huntergatherers of the prehistoric Hoa Bihn culture, populating the region from 44,000 years ago, had adopted agricultural practices independently, without input from early farmers from East Asia.
Another ‘‘twolayer model’’ theory argued that migrating rice farmers from what is now China replaced the huntergatherers.
The international research team found that at least four ancient populations contributed to the region’s ancestry.
Prof Charles Higham is a visiting fellow of the Mcdonald Institute for Archaeological Research at
Cambridge University, England, and is completing Marsdenfunded research on the origins of the Angkor civilisation.
Archaeology was ‘‘being transformed’’ through ‘‘new generation ancient DNA recovery from prehistoric people’’, and the new study ‘‘dramatically confirmed a major migration by anatomically modern humans in Southeast and East Asia’’, he said.
This expansion of early humans from Africa took place at least 60,000 years ago.
Also confirmed was a second wave of expansion, of rice farmers from China’s Yangtze Valley, moving south, by river and coast, and integrating with longestablished hunter gatherers.
Further movements by sea brought Austronesian language speakers to island Southeast Asia.
The same movement, recently recorded in the Solomon Islands and Tonga, had ‘‘ultimately brought people to New Zealand’’, he said.