Thread by @blog_supplement

👍 I'm glad to have Harappan genetic heritage -- believe it was largely good stuff for the modern urban world. However, beyond that, &some mundane typically Indian food habits, it remains mute behind a veil. What really matters to our identity is IEan in provenance

https://twitter.com/arya_amsha/status/1616516542325460992

Being an older person, I can reminisce a bit: Before molecular data 1 really could not be sure of the affinities of the greater Harappan peoples. One could infer, given the obvious phenotypic differences vis-a-vis the Europeans, that they had likely contributed to Indian ancestry

But how & how much was still unclear. Similarly, on the other side, we could not be precise about the timing & the tempo of the Aryan invasion(s) -- massive conquest vs migration vs mere linguistic influence. When the 1st molecular data on extant peoples became available they

showed that the coming of the Aryans involved massive population movement of IA speakers into India. This was clear by the early 2000s but the still the timing of this movement & the genetics of the Harappans was an open question. The almost 15 years later archaeogenetics 1st

gave us a broad temporal window between 3000-1000 BCE but archaeology made the invasion more likely between 2000-1000 BCE. But it was efforts in the past 10 years led by the researchers of the Harvard (e.g. @vagheesh)& the Danish groups that showed that 1. the invasion was not

directly from the Yamnaya populations; 2) The pre-Aryan Indians were themselves a composite of early hunter-gatherers & an ancestry shared with the Caucasian HG/Iranian HG that was dominant in Harappans. 3)The invasion window was between 2000-1500 BCE. This was the first time the

veil of the Harappans was slightly lifted. Importantly, it showed that there were different dynamics of IE invasions across Eurasia, though the overall dynamics were like the Mongol invasions. 1. Early Yamnaya-derived branches rampaging Westwards smashing much of old Europe. 2. A

great Eastward Afansievo thrust that petered out and mixed with the Northeast Asian people giving rise to remarkable but truly mysterious cultures like Okunevo and Chemurchek with memetic influence filtering into the East Asia domain that would later give rise to the Chinese civ.

3. The old heartland was retaken by an eastward movement of the descendants of the Yamnaya who had moved west, now mixed with globular Amphora type European farmers. It was this group that was the source of the 2nd great IE expansion. I believe there is much we don't understand

about the specifics of this group -- i.e., the time of its origin& diversification. Hence, unlike some researchers/enthusiasts I hold that the precise nature of the subgroup within this which led to the Indo-Aryans remains less clear. 4. 1 branch of these overran the east steppes

-- they probably swept away the successors of the Botai peoples on their eastward invasion. One branch moved towards Mongolia bringing a new wave of IE into the region & another branch southwards for the invasion of India. 5. This group IMO was already diversified into a dialect

& religious substructure. The front end of the wave was led by IA speakers with a hotraka "indra-para" religious core. At their rear were the ancestors of the Kalasha& probably Drokpa. There were also probably some minor western Corded Ware descendants in their midst given the

Bangani evidence. They already arrived with the much of the RV composed (contra mainstream BS). They had left behind on the steppe on other IA & Ir groups. On the steppe, just behind the first wave was an IA group with a distinct religious approach -- Adhvaryava & viShNu-focal

with some rudra-focal elements scattered in their midst. A more rudra-focal group lay on the steppes in the borderland with the Ir. The initial IA empire/confederation straddled the steppe & north India (like kuShANa of historic times). During this period of straddling, the 2nd

IA group with the Adhvaryava tradition entered India& became dominant in a synthesis with the old hautra tradition resulting in the Indian variant of the Vedic religion. This period also saw the entry of IA groups with affinities to Ir that brought the core AV with them. 1/more

of such Ir-affiliated groups either IA-speaking but close to Ir folks or Ir-speaking invaded in the subsequent centuries resulting in the events of the extant mahAbhArata -- the pANDu conquest.

6. A small wave of IA also invaded west Asia founding big& small states -- their effect can be felt there but their ultimate linguistic impact was minimal & genetics limited. 7. Recent genetics of the horse indicate that the Aryanizing pulses might have revitalized many of the

old Yamanaya-derived groups in memetic terms. 7. The genetics of the extant Indians suggests that the dynamics of the Aryan invasions in India were rather distinct from the Yamnaya heartland, the old Uralic region, or the old Botai zone -- Harrapans were incorporated into the

Aryan elite during or shortly after invasionary phase. When we see this together with the Harappan memetic contribution being v.minimal to the modern H tradition we realize that the most likely scenario was that a subset of the Harappans Aryanized rather quickly & most probably

of their own volition -- they were active participants in the Aryan religious/military traditions. This does raise the possibility that the Harappans who were in/the vicinity of the steppes formed an alliance with the Aryans against their cousins in the interior -- a key factor

in the Aryanization of India. This also probably shifted the center of gravity of the IA away from the steppe resulting in their old heartland being taken over by their cousins the Ir. ity alam vistAreNa