CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS—Science News reports that a new genetic study supports archaeological and linguistic evidence for at least three major waves of migration into Southeast Asia over a period of 50,000 years. A team of researchers led by Mark Lipson of Harvard Medical School analyzed DNA from 18 individuals whose remains were unearthed at five different archaeological sites in Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, and Cambodia. The bones ranged from 4,100 to 1,700 years old. The first wave of migration brought hunter-gatherers to Southeast Asia some 45,000 years ago. Then rice and millet farming spread into the region with migrants from southern China who mixed with the local hunter-gatherers some 4,500 years ago. The 4,000-year-old samples taken from the farmers who lived at Vietnam’s Man Bac site suggest their ancestors were hunter-gatherers and rice farmers from southern China. A third wave of migration arrived in Myanmar some 3,000 years ago, in Vietnam about 2,000 years ago, and in Thailand within the last 1,000 years. Each of these movements are believed to be associated with different languages spoken today. For more, go to “Settling Southeast Asia.”
