[La Lydia]

The Sorenson Molecular Geneaolgy Foundation published a study last year of Native American mtDNA sequences, which they traced to a single genetic tree with branches dated. Their results indicate that almost all modern Native Americans descended from six ancestral founding mothers. They used the built-in molecular clock of DNA to establish the time the first humans moved into the Western Hemisphere, finding a narrow window between 15-17,000 years ago.

And I always enjoy referring readers of these posts to David Macaulay's Motel of the Mysteries, in which future archaeologists excavate a 20th century motel and interpret what they find there. The bathroom was the inner sanctum of a religious structure and the toilet seat was a ceremonial chest-piece.

[SunkenCiv]

GIGO.

[Popman]

It is the year 4022; all of the ancient country of Usa has been buried under many feet of detritus from a catastrophe that occurred back in 1985. Imagine, then, the excitement that Howard Carson, an amateur archeologist at best, experienced when in crossing the perimeter of an abandoned excavation site he felt the ground give way beneath him and found himself at the bottom of a shaft, which, judging from the DO NOT DISTURB sign hanging from an archaic doorknob, was clearly the entrance to a still-sealed burial chamber. Carson's incredible discoveries, including the remains of two bodies, one of then on a ceremonial bed facing an altar that appeared to be a means of communicating with the Gods and the other lying in a porcelain sarcophagus in the Inner Chamber, permitted him to piece together the whole fabric of that extraordinary civilization.

Every time I see an documentary on some ancient civilization and they are making some outlandishness claim based on a piece of pottery or an inscription that probably says something to the effect of "Kilroy was Here", I always wonder just how in the heck do they really know what happened here.

[ZULU]

I don't believe those “molecular clocks” are fool proof. Linguistic evidence tends to indicate a much earlier presence here, among other factors.

[colorado tanker]

The bathroom was the inner sanctum of a religious structure and the toilet seat was a ceremonial chest-piece.

Well, that's true, isn't it? I worship there at least once daily. :-))

[Erasmus]

The bathroom was the inner sanctum of a religious structure and the toilet seat was a ceremonial chest-piece.

That last part would not be far off, after a night of heavy drinking.