DNA study deepens mystery of lake full of skeletons | Hacker News Reader

DNA study deepens mystery of lake full of skeletons

nationalgeographic.com

5 pointszeristor6 comments

I can’t work out when the party of Mediterranean people died, it says a thousand years after 10th century, so that means a few hundred years ago.

No mention is made of the Greek kingdom in Bactria that lasted until Two thousand years ago, but I imagine the genetics would have intermixed with neighbouring peoples within a few hundred years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-Bactrian_Kingdom

No... the 10th century was 901-1000. A thousand years after means > 2000. So it happened in the past 19 years.

The Wikipedia article is far better, even though National Geographic has done all the work:

“Genome-wide DNA study of skeletons from Roopkund by Harney et al. 2018 revealed that the skeletons belonged to two distinct groups; one group is composed of individuals with broadly South-Asian related ancestry from 9th CE, and the second group is composed of individuals from 200 years ago with genetic affinity with east mediterraneans”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roopkund

That doesn’t change anything. The 10th century is still 1019 years before this year. Just like 20th century fox means 1901-2000. I get what you are trying to say, but language is used to convey ideas. If the words you use to convey your idea doesn’t match up to what the rest of the world thinks, then it is you who is wrong not the rest of the world. To argue against it is to argue against modern conventions. Example: What year is it?

If you give any other answer than 2019 then you are wrong.

Same thing for... when was the 10th century?

Another great example is the imperial system. Just because the USA uses miles doesn’t mean they are right when writing down their units in miles. Every true scientist knows it should be kilometers and makes fun of the individual who used miles. Why? Because the majority of Earth uses kilometers not miles.

Nature paper referred to in article:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-11357-9

Now that, is odd. Any theory I come up with for it, sounds unlikely. The fact that there are more than one incidents involved makes it even odder.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com