Overview

• A female skeleton discovered at the Xingyi site was buried without goods and carbon-dated to 7,100 years ago, showing a hunter-gatherer diet.
• Genomic analysis of more than 125 ancient remains confirms a distinct lineage that mixed into later populations across Yunnan.
• Researchers estimate this lineage diverged from other early Asian groups over 40,000 years ago and survived in southern refuges during the Ice Age.
• Tibetans carry about 80% of their ancestry from northern East Asian groups dating between 9,500 and 4,000 years ago, with the remaining 20% linked to the newly identified lineage.
• A separate ‘central Yunnan’ ancestry emerged around 5,500 years ago, shaping the genes of Austroasiatic-language speakers before agriculture spread.