Here's a reminder about one of the most important results of the past thirteen years of ancient #DNA research.
Northern Europe was overrun by plague-spreading steppe nomads less than 5000 years ago, causing an almost complete population replacement. It's a 1492 event.
Everybody knows that us Northern Europeans aren't the original inhabitants of North America. *But we aren't even the original inhabitants of Northern Europe.*
@mrundkvist I thought it was already proven - that human civilization (?) started in current Africa and Middle East, no matter how much white people disagree
@farah
Nobody's talking about civilization here. They're Neolithic farmers and pastoralists.
@farah @mrundkvist
Yup. This is mostly about one not-terribly-civilized group replacing another not-terribly-civilized group at the north Western edge of eurasia, at a time when the distant (from northwest Europe) middle east and China and maybe some indus valley areas, were starting to develop various features of advanced civilisation.
It's still interesting tho, for example to consider that some structures like Stonehenge may have been built by a people who were replaced soon after...
5000 years ago may sound like a lot. But in evolutionary biology, and even more so in geology, this kind of age is referred to as "now".
