Climate Change May Be Key To 10,000-Year-Old Mystery...Disappearance Of Ancient People

Newswire ^ | 5-16-2006

[blam]

Climate change may be key to 10,000-year-old mystery - University of Alberta leads investigation into disappearance of ancient people

OTTAWA, May 16 /CNW Telbec/ - Today, the Social Sciences and Humanities

Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) announced an investment of $2.5 million in a research project that will investigate the link between climate change, human genetics and the disappearance of an entire culture from the Boreal forest region of Siberia between 7,000 and 6,000 BC.

With the help of DNA analysis, radiocarbon dating and climate modeling, University of Alberta professor Andrzej Weber will lead an international team of scholars in examining 10,000 to 5000-year-old human remains from ancient cemeteries in the Lake Baikal region of Russia. The group will then use this evidence to reconstruct the daily lives, cultural traditions and local environment of the hunter-gatherers who once lived there.

"Thanks to previous funding from SSHRC, we know there is about a 1,200 year gap in history where the people living in this region just seemed to disappear," said Weber.
"We are now trying to figure out what caused them to leave, and whether the groups who appeared more than 1,000 years later were genetically and culturally related to the first."

One possible key, says Weber, is a long-ago shift in climate that-together with social and economic factors-caused a dramatic change in the ancient people's culture, diet and migration patterns. To put all the pieces of this giant puzzle together, Weber has assembled a team of 29 anthropology, archaeology, geography, genetics and climate experts from universities in Russia, Britain, Canada and the United States.

With the help of more than 50 graduate students, excavations of the cemetery sites will begin this summer and the unearthed samples will be sent to Canadian laboratories for analysis.

"This project will provide Canadian students with a unique training experience, and shine a bright light on the high quality of social sciences and humanities research taking place at our universities," said Stan Shapson, interim president of SSHRC.
"It will also build new understanding of Canada's own ancient Aboriginal peoples, and contribute to the contemporary debate surrounding the effects of climate change on human culture."

Weber's project was funded through SSHRC's Major Collaborative Research Initiatives (MCRI) program after a rigorous, independent peer-review process, which ensures only the best research proposals receive funding.
The MCRI program is recognized internationally as a powerful way to get universities working together on research that has important social, economic and cultural impacts on society.

Note to editors: SSHRC is an independent federal government agency that funds university-based research and graduate training through national peer-review competitions.
SSHRC also partners with public and private sector organizations to focus research and aid the development of better policies and practices in key areas of Canada's social, cultural and economic life.

For further information: and other SSHRC research projects, please contact: Susan Goodyear, Media Relations Officer, (613) 947-4629, susan.goodyear@sshrc.ca

[Blessed]

Gen 6:13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

[Coyoteman]

the disappearance of an entire culture from the Boreal forest region of Siberia between 7,000 and 6,000 BC.

Gen 6:13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

The date of the global flood:

2252 BC -- layevangelism.com

2304 BC -- Answers in Genesis (+/- 11 years).

2350 BC -- Morris, H. Biblical Creationism. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1993.

Does not compute...

[blam]

"I had a feeling that's the direction you thought this would take!"

Hmmm. Am I becoming that predictable?

[RightWhale]

Don't know about the Lake Baikal region, but it is similar to interior Alaska. Interior Alaska was pretty much the same during the Ice Age as it is now. There were wooly mammoths and sabertooth tigers then, which we don't have now, although we have some carcasses, soft tissue and all. It's a little far to walk, but the Baikalians could have walked to Alaska and got along just fine.

[blam]

"Don't know about the Lake Baikal region, but it is similar to interior Alaska."

You may have seen me mention that the oldest (undisputed) Mongoloid skeleton ever found is only 10k years old (Oppenheimer).
Well, the 21,000 year old skeleton in dispute is from the Lake Baikal region. Apparently the discussions about this skeleton (whether it's Mongoloid or not) have gotten so heated that everyone involved has just quit talking about it.

Now, it was in the Lake Baikal area where the SE Asians became the North Asians by acquiring lighter skin, flatter face, peculiar eye lid and sindondt teeth (shovel)...and, some say taller. DNA tests indicate that the North Asians are descended from the SE Asians.

I believe the Last Glacial Maximum(LGM) 18,000 - 23,000 years ago defined a lot of the human features, etc we see today. The LGM was one of the coldest periods during the entire Ice Age. It may have doomed the Neanderthals too.

[Coyoteman]

You seem to be following some of these discoveries closely.

Do you have any good references for mtDNA for any of these events? The general references are useless, as are any more than about 6 years old.

I am trying to scour the recent literature for Haplogroup A and its entry into North America, but I can't find any good dates. I do find that the Eskimos and Na Dene are A2, a subgroup of A (later in time).

But I can't find good data on A. Was the early coastal migration / Ainu A (or D)? Or both. On Your Knees Cave was D, as are some of the Chumash and on to Tierra del Fuego. But what about A?

What are your thoughts on this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[blam]

"What are your thoughts on this? Any help would be greatly appreciated."

Well, I'm as weak on DNA technology as anyone could be. I was arguing with myself today about this weakness, given the importance and prominence of DNA these days, and why I haven't educated myself more on this subject.

When you mentioned your 'A' find I did a search myself and the best I could conclude from what I found and understood was that it was 'Native American.' I didn't find much, sorry.

[blam]

I have a couple of Stephen Oppenheimer's books, Eden In The East and Out Of Eden. He goes into enormous detail about the dispersal out of Asia with the various haplotypes, etc. The detail just overwhelms me. I expect you'd find some useful information in Out Of Eden.

I thoroughly enjoy his books because he covers all angles, DNA, myths, climate, diseases, language and etc...the whole enchilada.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Blam.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

[SunkenCiv]

[metmom]

My guess is that someone thinks if they can ever *prove* that globull warming/cooling/whatever caused the extinction of people that they can use it to throw everybody into a tailspin and then maybe they'll get the public backing to sign the Kyoto treaty.