Indigenous Mexicans migrated to California 5,200 years ago, likely bringing their languages with them, ancient DNA reveals

Live Science ^ | November 22, 2023 | Tom Metcalfe

[SunkenCiv]

Hunter-gatherers from Mexico migrated into California more than 5,000 years ago, potentially spreading distinctive languages from the south into the region nearly 1,000 years earlier than previously thought, a new genetic study details.

The finding challenges the idea that what are known as the Uto-Aztecan languages — which include the Aztec and Toltec language Nahuatl, as well as Hopi and Shoshoni — were spread northward by prehistoric migrants from Mexico along with maize farming technologies...

Nakatsuka and his colleagues studied ancient DNA extracted from the teeth and bones of 79 ancient people found at archaeological sites in central and southern California. These remains were dated to between 7,400 and 200 years ago.

They also extracted ancient DNA from the remains of 40 people from sites in the northwest and central north of Mexico, which were dated to between 2,900 and 500 years ago.

By comparing the ancient genomes, the researchers found evidence for increased migration from northern Mexico into southern and central California about 5,200 years ago.

The timing of this migration refutes an existing idea that the spread of maize farming from about 4,300 years ago led to the spread of Uto-Aztecan languages, as migrant farmers prospered more than the hunter-gatherers who lived there before them. But the new study indicates that such languages may have been spread instead by a migration of hunter-gatherers that occurred nearly 1,000 years earlier...

He noted that the remains of many of the individuals analyzed in the study have been curated in museums in the United States and Mexico for many decades. "Now with advances in ancient DNA technology, these individuals are being given a voice through this research to help write their history," Hard said.

[SunkenCiv]

[KrisKrinkle]

Mexico existed 5000 years ago?

[Desron13]

Those damned Mexican colonizers again. ;-)

[SunkenCiv]

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• Jews Under Mid-19th Century Palestinian Sharia, Versus American Freedom-Why restoring Sharia governance remains an unacceptable "option" [11/30/2023]
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• Remains of a WWII heavy bomber gunner identified nearly 80 years after his death [11/27/2023]
• US identifies remains of WW2 tank commander killed in 1944 [11/27/2023]
• Woman whose body was found 35 years ago in a suitcase in a Georgia dumpster is identified [11/28/2023]

[rbg81]

I guess the upshot is that White Californians will have to leave now. It’s Science!!

[SunkenCiv]

Whoa, no, Guadalajara won’t do now.

[ansel12]

“In September 1821, when independence was finally declared from Spain, Agustín de Iturbide was officially declared the first emperor of Mexico and from that moment forward the country was officially known as Mexico, or the Mexican Empire.”

Texas declared its independence in 1836.

[blitz128]

My immediate thought as well, bet they spoke Spanish as well/s

I have a concept I call recentism, a condition where aome only goes far enough back in history to support their position

Black hills tribe, give us our land back. Black hills tribes that had the land taken from them by current tribe, no mention

Mexico as a nation was created by destroying existing tribes by Spanish then declaring independence from Spain. Before that like the American Indians they were warring, invading, and enslaving long before Europeans camels, crickets to that

[butlerweave]

With things called “Countries” Migration is over , finished ,done

[Steven Tyler]

Why did folks flee to the North?
To get away from the Aztecs.
The prominent Culture was based on Human sacrifice.

The Spaniards came over, looked around, and put an end to the “prominent culture”

[buwaya]

Mexico the geographic region certainly existed. And it was populated by many of the ancestors of its current inhabitants.

[bert]

Or, having no actual border to worry about , the civilizations in Mexico extended northward into California and Arizona

[Highest Authority]

I missed the part that explained where the “Protos” came from. Did they magically appear?

[fso301]

How did indigenous Mexicans get from the Siberian land bridge to Mexico without passing through California?

[silent majority rising]

And, I didn’t realize that languages had DNA markers. Who knew.

[buwaya]

There have been migrations of people north and south of what is now the US-Mexican border for thousands of years. Long, long before there was an “Aztec” political entity at Tenochtitlan, which was quite recent, only 150-200 years prior to the Spanish conquest.

And there was a Nahuatl (the language of the Aztecs)-speaking cultural continuum all over central Mexico for maybe a thousand years (probably more) before Tenochtitlan. The Toltecs spoke Nahuatl.

And there was human sacrifice and cannibalism as well, likely for thousands of years, both north and south of the current border. Ref. “Man Corn”, C.Turner - scary stuff.

[buwaya]

The great plains. The Gulf coast.

There is quite a lot of inhospitable country between the nice parts of CA and the nice parts of Mexico.

And CA seems never to have amounted to much as a site for civilization, nothing at all like these guys - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippian_culture

[wny]

…wait for it…in 3 months we’ll be hearing about “occupied California”

[buwaya]

“And, I didn’t realize that languages had DNA markers. Who knew.”

They can. Its not perfect, but it often does overlap. The Yamnaya genetic lineage from the Eurasian steppe for instance is closely associated with Indo-European languages.

[KrisKrinkle]

“Mexico the geographic region certainly existed”

What was included in that geographic region? As late as 1847 California was part of Mexico, along with the rest of the southwestern US.