DNA reveals surprise ancestry of mysterious Chinese mummies

The genomes of 13 remarkably preserved 4,000-year-old mummies from the Tarim Basin suggest they weren’t migrants who brought technology from the west, as previously supposed.

13号染色体的显著证明表明，塔里木盆地保存下来的4000年的干尸并不是之前报道的那样是带来技术的西方的移民者。

Cemeteries in the Taklaman Desert, China, hold human remains up to 4,000 years old.

中国的塔克拉玛干沙漠的墓地，保存着4000年前的人类尸骨。

Since their discovery a century ago, hundreds of naturally preserved mummies found in China’s Tarim Basin have been a mystery to archaeologists.

自从一个世纪前被发现以来，在中国的塔里木盆地发现数百具自然保存的木乃伊对考古学家来说是个谜。

Some thought the Bronze Age remains were from migrants from thousands of kilometres to the west, who had brought farming practices to the area.

有一些认为在青铜器时代保存下来的来自几千公里之外的西方移民，给这片地区带来了农业技术。

But now, a genomic analysis suggests they were indigenous people who may have adopted agricultural methods from neighbouring groups.

但是现在，染色体分析表明，这些土著居民可能从邻近群体那里学会了农耕技术。

As they report today in Nature1, researchers have traced the ancestry of these early Chinese farmers to Stone Age hunter-gatherers who lived in Asia some 9,000 years ago.

正如今天发表在nature上的文章，研究人员追踪这些早期中国农民的祖先到生活在亚洲9000年前的石器时代的狩猎采集者。

They seem to have been genetically isolated, but despite this