The protohistoric Swat Valley “Indo-Aryans” might not be exactly what we...

I need some help interpreting these linear models of ancient and present-day South Asian populations. Overall, the Iron Age groups from the Swat Valley, or SPGT, look like rather obvious outliers. The relevant datasheet is available here.

I’m thinking this is because of significant bidirectional gene flow and/or continuity between Central Asia and the northern parts of South Asia before Sintashta-related steppe herders showed up in the region, and even before the Bactria Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC) got going. Note that Dzharkutan1_BA is an BMAC sub-population from near South Asia, but it doesn’t quite have the same effect on those Swat Valley samples as the pre-BMAC Shahr_I_Sokhta_BA1 from the present-day Iranian/Afghan border.
If true, it probably means that most of the Iron Age peoples of the Swat Valley shouldn’t be modeled as simply a mixture of Indus_Periphery and Steppe_MLBA. That’s because they appear to be in part of the same or similar type of ancestry as Shahr_I_Sokhta_BA1. And indeed, qpAdm also suggests that they are.

SPGT
Indus_Periphery 0.692±0.042
Shahr_I_Sokhta_BA1 0.104±0.045
Sintashta_MLBA 0.204±0.015
Tail: 0.659609
Full output

I’m trying to incorporate this new information into my Admixture graph models of the SPGT groups (see here). If I manage to come up with something useful I’ll update this post with the results.

Source

https://xissufotoday.space/2018/05/the-protohistoric-swat-valley-indo-aryans-might-not-be-exactly-what-we-think-they-are/