Today, the population of South Asia is divided into dozens of ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups that live side by side—but not always in harmony. A contentious border separates India and Pakistan; political movements draw stark lines between India9s Muslim and Hindu populations. Groups don9t mix much, as people tend to marry those who share their ethnicity and tongue. Now, a study of the first ancient DNA recovered from South Asia shows that populations there mingled repeatedly thousands of years ago. Nearly all of the Indian subcontinent9s ethnic and linguistic groups are the product of three ancient Eurasian populations who met and mixed: local hunter-gatherers, Middle Eastern farmers, and Central Asian herders. Three similar groups also mingled in ancient Europe, giving the two subcontinents surprisingly parallel histories. The study also strengthens the claim that Proto-Indo-European—the ancestral language that gave rise to languages from English to Russian to Hindi—originated on the steppes of Asia.

中文翻译：

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古代DNA解开南亚根源

今天，南亚的人口分为几十个种族、语言和宗教群体，他们并肩生活——但并不总是和谐相处。有争议的边界将印度和巴基斯坦分开；政治运动在印度的穆斯林和印度教人口之间划清了界限。群体不会混在一起，因为人们往往会嫁给那些有着相同种族和语言的人。现在，对从南亚回收的第一个古代 DNA 的研究表明，那里的人口在数千年前反复混杂。几乎所有印度次大陆的种族和语言群体都是三个古老的欧亚人相遇和混合的产物：当地的狩猎采集者、中东农民和中亚牧民。三个相似的群体也混杂在古代欧洲，使这两个次大陆有着惊人的平行历史。