Posted on 02/25/2005 6:08:54 PM PST by blam
Study: Native Americans Weren't the First
By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News
Sept. 6, 2004 — DNA analysis of skulls found in Baja California that belonged to an extinct tribe called the Pericues reveal that the Pericues likely were not related to Native Americans and that they probably predated Native Americans in settling the Americas, according to an announcement Monday.
The finding, released at the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA) Festival of Science in Exeter, England, adds support to the theory that a number of groups arrived in the Americas via different routes and at varying times, possibly as early as 25,000 years ago.
Kennewick Man: Not Native American?
The study also suggests that the two oldest known Americans — Peñon woman and Kennewick Man — might have belonged to the Pericues tribe.
Even before the DNA analysis, Silvia Gonzalez, lead author of the study and a geoarchaeologist from Liverpool John Moores University, noticed that the Pericues skulls were long and narrow, as opposed to the more broad and round features found in early Native American skulls.
"Because of their skull morphology, long and narrow (dolicocephalic) the Pericues could be related to the oldest Americans known, which are Peñon Woman in the Basin of Mexico at 12,755 before the present, and Kennewick Man at 9,700 years old," Gonzalez told Discovery News just before Monday's announcement.
"Hence, if this was true, they would be older than the Native Indians. The oldest dated Pericue material is only 3,000 years before the present, although there are cave paintings in Baja California dated to 7,500 BP and Clovis points that must be 11,000-11,500 years old."
The genetic study suggests that the Pericues did not originate in Northern Asia, where many experts believe Native Americans first came from. Instead, Gonzalez said the Pericues are closer to the ancient populations of southern Asia, Australia, and the South Pacific Rim.
The surprising link to early Australasian-Melanesian people could mean that the first Americans arrived in the New World in some kind of floating craft that traveled over the Pacific Ocean.
"A coastal Pacific migration route is possible," Gonzalez said.
She explained that the Pericues were a hunter-gatherer society that lived on shellfish, fish, cacti and other plants in the desert area of Baja California. Objects found in the area suggest that the Pericues used stone tools.
Gonzalez indicated that they had a complex burial system involving mortuary-like burial areas located both along the coast and in caves. She said they also used wooden spear throwers, and likely painted bones with red ochre, as early decorated shells and pearls have been found in Baja.
"The missionary descriptions indicated that the men were naked and the women wore grass skirts, and they were very tall and slim," Gonzalez added. "They became extinct during the 18th century due to the lifestyle changes imposed by the missionaries to a sedentary way of life."
Chris Stringer, head of human origins at The Natural History Museum London, told Discovery News, "This work is very important in adding further weight to the idea that the first inhabitants of the Americas did not resemble present-day Native Americans.
"These finds are physically distinct and some Mexican fossils have been dated close to the earliest known human occupation of the Americas," he said.
He added, "However, it is difficult to trace their point of origin as people 10,000 or 20,000 years ago did not look like their modern counterparts in many parts of the world, including Africa, Europe, and China.
"It is likely that southeast Asia 20,000 years ago was inhabited by people who more closely resembled present-day Polynesians or Australian aborigines so this could indeed be a source for the first Americans. They could have taken a coastal route to get there around the North Pacific Rim — it seems unlikely that they came directly across the Pacific."
Silvia Gonzalez believes several migrations took place, with people coming from North East Siberia, the Western Pacific, and even from Europe.
So far, the fossil database in the Americas, beyond the more recent Native American finds, has proven to be quite sparse, perhaps due to weather-related erosion of remains. Gonzalez hopes future DNA studies, craniometrics (skull analysis), and additional evidence will shed more light on the Pericues and other early Americans.
Funny..I thought the same thing. ;)
So...were there people in Melanesia 12KYA? What do we have to compare this to? Any 12KYA Melanesian bones in the lab?
Well yes, most Americans are in fact native-born Americans, and I prefer 'American Indian' to 'Native American' to describe that ethnic group(s).
I was just trying to be sarcastic about one of the more irrelevant and meaningless points I often hear when immigration is discussed.
Of course. Heck, there were people in Australia 50,000 years ago.
Sundaland. I'm beginning to think that the ancestors of most humans alive today, minus the stay-at-home Africans, spent the Ice Age in sunny SE Asia (Sundaland) and when Sundaland went under water at the end of the Ice Age...They migrated to points all over the globe.
A theory that I've 'picked-up' from Professor Stephen Oppenheimer.
I'm also beginning to believe that the Caucasians and Mongoloids parted ways around 18,000 years ago during the Last Glacial Maximum.
Somebody round them up so we can pay them something... for something.
I guess.
Do we owe them something?
I'm somewhat curious if there are any similarities between the Fuegans and the Pericues.
Kennewick man was the first to open this theory. There have been many, many finds similar to his, but "Indian only" policy liberals shuffled the evidence into dusty lockers. Congress needs to act on abolishing the Native American graves Repatriation Act, which automatically turns over any old bones to Indian tribes for reburial without study.
I remember reading something Humboldt wrote in his travels around the tip of South America. He describe two types of people, one was tall and slim and wore furs and made their living off the land, the other was short and stocky, wore few clothes and made their living from the sea.
Luzia the 2nd oldest skeleton ever found in the Americas
A probable answer for you here
LOL I was thinking the EXACT same thing!
"I thought the Ainu were a Caucasoid race that lived in the mountains of Japan until they were exterminated..."
You are correct, but they aren't allowed to say "caucasian" and suggest whites were here before yellows or browns. The Ainu are not extinct, they've been "assimilated." Pics of old Ainu men reveal red beards, some had blue eyes. The Japanese don't like red beards. The Chinese were predated by whites in their own country (the ancestors of ancient Tocharians). They too were "assimilated."
I agree. It should be limited to (maybe) 6,000 years ago. They're making a court run for the remains of Spirit Cave Man as we talk.
My name is Ward Churchill...and I am Pericuan.
See me roar.
Regarding the photos of Spirit Cave Man and Kennewick Man. We don't know what their skin color was, only that their features were decidedly caucasian. The photos make them look white skinned, but the color is actually grey, the color of the clay used.
No we don't owe them, but it may be time for the American Indians to turn over the keys to the casinos to the newly found original owners of the USA....
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