Archaeology magazine's Mark Rose sends along a link to an interview with the University of Pennsylvania's Victor Mair, about a DNA analysis done on the remains of workers who built the tomb for China's first emperor about 2,200 years ago. "One of them at least was not Chinese!" Rose writes. Researchers say the genetic signature indicates the worker's roots went back to western Eurasia, perhaps Iran.
Mair says the presence of guest workers in ancient China wouldn't be too surprising. "After all, at this time and even earlier, we've got Iranian peoples - Wusun, Scythians, and others - running all over the Eurasian steppes from the Black Sea to what is now northern China," he's quoted as saying. Nevertheless, the findings open a new frontier for genetic genealogy.
"I don't think anybody has picked this up," Rose says. Now somebody has.