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.
then explain why java man looks chinese.
See the comment in post #21 by Freeper Coyoteman who is a published archaeologist. If there's any betting, I'll put my money with his.
My thoughts are that the Ainu/Jomon may be a proto-Caucasian/ proto-Mongoloid group...both racial lines splitting from that common source.
The Tocharians are an entirely different group of Caucasians who are most closely related to the ancient Celtics. I do believe the original homeland of the Caucasians was in what is present day China. The oldest paper ever found was in China and it had Tocharian-A (an Indo-European language) written on it. The Curse Of The Red-Headed Mummy
This is so important because our history tells our kids that evil whites took over the Indians land, giving them a complex. In fact, the Indians did what we did, seized it from people that came before them. Or did we re-take Aztlan? Was Quetxycoatyl a white man?
This is also important because scientists have told us there were no other migrations but the Bering Land Bridge. I always wondered how Vikings sailed all over the globe before others were using the wheel, but are said to have not been capable of making it to North America in ancient times. No, not the people who invented modern agriculture! Society tells us blond people are stupid. Nah, they couldn't have sailed here and settled! Thank God scientists are now (somewhat) free to investigate other theories of settlement, such as the Atlantic Ice Bridge theory.
We've all enslaved, been enslaved, stole land, had land stolen from us, etc....So lets stop the racial bickering already. Now can I have my reservation land back?
Doesn't look Chinese to me.
Java Man skull cap
The "artists rendition" of java man are essentially a chinesified neandertal...or at least that's what they used to look like last time I read about java man.
I realize there's this strong desire to have the original settlers of the Americas to turn out to be these blonde obviously European types (for the irony factor) but I think you're going to be disappointed. The article beginning this thread is talking about Austronesians/Melanesians, who are very obviously different from "Native Americans" but they're certainly not blonde Europeans. Same goes for Luza from Brazil.
Once you start going back well beyond 10,000 years you're really getting to a point where the races as we think of them didn't exist. There was an incredible amount of migration going in many directions; almost no one in the world today lives where their original ancestors lived.
The curious feature of Tocharian A & B is that they are centum languages, otherwise found in Europe (like Latin, Greek, Celtic, and Germanic) whereas other eastern Indo-European languages are usually satem languages (such as Slavic, Iranian, Sanskrit). The difference between the two groups is that the centum languages consistently have a "k" sound (which becomes "h" in Germanic) where the satem languages have an "s" sound. (Centum is Latin for 100, satem is Avestan for 100.)
So it looks like the speakers of Tocharian A and B had migrated from much further west. They were a separate branch of the Indo-European family, not directly connected to the Celts.
You got that right...
The first ones to get here were not "Native Americans." But their children were.
Professor Victor Mair, in his book, The Tarim Mummies, states that the Tocharian language, of all the Indo-European languages, is closest related to ancient Celtic.
Professor Elizabeth Barber, in her book, The Mummies Of Urumchi, makes another connection to the Celtics with the textiles found on/with the Tarim Mummies to the Celtic fabrics found at Hallstadt.
Both those are excellent books, BTW.
My first thought too....
Yes. I think there was no evidence that directly connected the Tocharian languages to the earliest of the Caucasian mummies. BTW, the Mongoloid skeletons/mummies only began appearing in that region around 100-200BC.
"Narain (an Indian Archaeologist) argues that once one accepts the equation Tocharian = Yuezhi, then one is forced to follow both the Chinese historical record sources and the geographical reference of their (the Caucasian mummies) first cited historical location (Gansu) to the conclusion that they have been there 'from times immemorial'. Narain infers that they had been there at least since the Qijia culture c. 2000BC and probably even earlier in the Yangshao culture of the Neolithic. This would render the Tocharians as virtually native to Gansu (and earlier than the putative spread of the Neolithic to Xinjiang) and Narain goes so far as to argue that the Indo-Europeans themselves originally dispersed from this area westwards."
Lol, he does.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)
That is correct, not "technically" correct but correct.
"Why don't we just call them the 'first immigrants'."
WOW, look at the size of his schnoz! Certainly not a mongoloid nose for a beak.
Well, since I'm related to this dude no matter where he came from, let's just call these guys "people".
I believe that they became extinct shortly after legalizing homosexual marrige.
Awesome map at http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey/
Thanks for the link.
However, one thing the map makes clear is that the spread from Sundaland occurred well before the submersion of Sundaland as the climate moderated during several periods prior to the last glacial maximum.
My guess would be that the Caucasians came largely from the Middle East and maybe the Indus Valley and that the Mongoloids came from Southeast and East Asia.
However, both Northern Europeans of the German, Slavic and Fenno-Ugric linguistic groups, as well as the Han Chinese, Koreans, and Japanese are very cold-adapted. Their ancestors may have been trapped in refugia farther north in Eastern Europe/Central Asia or in the northern parts of East Asia.
Having been severely selected by climate, they then expanded out of these areas and became relatively successful emmigrants.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.