orbis quintus

Aha… genetic research showing that the Scythians were a genetic blend of Asian and European. Nifty.

John Hawks’ blog is one of my favorite blogs regardless. It’s the human evolution posts that I’ve linked many times, but this time it’s this post on his visit to the Altai last summer, describing the Afanasievo and Pazyryk kurgans. It’s beautiful country and there’s a lot of fascinating work being done there, aside from the discovery of the Denisovans.