DNA Analysis Reveals Ancient Mediterranean Bones Among Hundreds of Skeletons at India's Roopkund Lake
By
Elizabeth Rayne
Summary
Roopkund Lake, also known as "Skeleton Lake," is a high-altitude Himalayan lake in India that reveals hundreds of human skeletons when its ice melts each spring. For decades, the origin of these remains was a mystery. Recent scientific analysis of the bones has revealed that the skeletons belong to multiple distinct groups of people who died at different times spanning over 1,000 years. Surprisingly, DNA analysis shows that one group of individuals has genetic ties to the island of Crete in the Mediterranean, while others are of South Asian descent. This discovery challenges earlier theories of a single catastrophic event and raises new questions about how ancient Mediterranean people ended up in this remote Himalayan location.
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Key quotes
· 3 pulledThe last vestige of a melted glacier, Roopkund Lake glitters like a sapphire set among the Himalayas.
Hari Kishan Madhwal had no idea what this breathtaking landscape was hiding.
So why did researchers find bones from the island of Crete there?
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