Vintage Skulls

Archaeology Magazine ^ | March/April 2003 | Colleen P. Popson

[blam]

VINTAGE SKULLS

Researcher Silvia Gonzalez examines a 13,000-year-old skull. (Liverpool John Moores University)

The oldest human remains found in the Americas were recently "discovered" in the storeroom of Mexico's National Museum of Anthropology. Found in central Mexico in 1959, the five skulls were radiocarbon dated by a team of researchers from the United Kingdom and Mexico and found to be 13,000 years old. They pre-date the Clovis culture by a couple thousand years, adding to the growing evidence against the Clovis-first model for the first peopling of the Americas.

Of additional significance is the shape of the skulls, which are described as long and narrow, very unlike those of modern Native Americans.

Joseph Powell, a physical anthropologist at the University of New Mexico, cautions that other explanations for the skull shape differences must be considered before jumping to conclusions about origins. "Natural selection or some other microevolutionary forces may play a role. People change when their diets change. This happened in China, for example. Ancient Chinese don't really look much like modern Chinese from the same area. It's a worldwide phenomena and it may be related to the changes at the end of the Ice Age."

Paleoindian specialist Kenneth Tankersley believes archaeology is only beginning to scratch the surface of the debate. "Variation in the languages and DNA of American Indians not only suggests there were multiple migrations from a number of different homelands, but they imply that the first wave of people arrived in the Americas more than 30,000 years ago. This suggests archaeologists should be looking in older geological strata."

DNA evidence might be the best way to know where the first Americans came from and how or why they changed over time. The researchers have planned DNA tests, though successful extraction from remains this old is challenging.--COLLEEN P. POPSON

[happygrl]

There is one skeleton found named, 'Stick Man,' that does not 'fit' anywhere with known living humans...

Is it by morphology or by DNA ?

There was a skeleton found in Australia, whose DNA had been preserved because of the climate, which also had DNA unrelated to any living humans. I wonder if these two are related, and represent a line that died out.

Again, this might indicate the New World/Australian connection in population type.

[rightofrush]

Thanks for the Calico link. Using it is well worth the time for anyone who has an interest in farmfriend's ping list.

[blam]

"Is it by morphology or by DNA ? "

Morphology.

"There was a skeleton found in Australia, whose DNA had been preserved because of the climate, which also had DNA unrelated to any living humans. I wonder if these two are related, and represent a line that died out. "

That would be Mungo Man.

[blam]

The 'Stick Man' Cometh (James Chatters of Kennewick Man fame)

[Oberon]

I think it was Ussher's calculations that place the world being only 6,000 years old.

Hey... Aristotle was wrong about a lot of stuff... nevertheless, he was neither stupid nor badly educated, just ignorant.

[Cacique]

BTTFL

[Varda]

Interesting post, I read a craniometric article (wish I could find it again) that claimed that Kennewick did't fall into any modern category perhaps that was by Powell & Neves. There are a lot of claims being made by people who don't have the proper credentials. It's difficult for most people to recognize this. It would help if people who have some education in the field would post more.

[carpio]

BTTT

[Chris Talk]

To be exact, he dated the Creation of Adam at 4004 BC. That is by no means the same thing as the age either of the Planet, nor of the various animals or plants or whatevers, including evolved humanoids not descended from Adam, even if some might be homo sapiens.

OTOH, Ussher was slightly off. We now know the true date for Adam's creation to be 3971 BC, the main dispute is between August 11, and mid-September, of that year.

[Joe 6-pack]

Kerrywick Man

[VadeRetro]

Anu, head of the ancient pantheon, was the grandfather of Nin.Gish.Zida, who also was known by different names by different cultures as 'Thoth,' and more recently as 'Quetzlcoatl' in Meso-America -- the Pyramid Builder.

Can you perhaps tell me how Thoth (now thought to have been pronounced "Tehuti") is a man with the head of an Ibis but Quetzalcoatl is a feathered serpent? Just in general, your post seems to commit too much fusion.

[Eastbound]

No I can't, without re-reading Z. Sitchin's entire 'Earth Chronicles.' The Anu-Ainu connection may not be a connection, only a speculation. The fusion process, if you are referring to the different identities of the ancient pantheon members, lies in the mind of Sitchin who states that all of the pantheons of antiquity were comprised of the same family members, the Nefilim, whose mortality stretched from millinia to millinia -- those who compared one of their years to 3,600 of our years due to the long orbit of their planet around our sun.

[VadeRetro]

The fusion process, if you are referring to the different identities of the ancient pantheon members, lies in the mind of Sitchin who states that all of the pantheons of antiquity were comprised of the same family members, the Nefilim, whose mortality stretched from millinia to millinia -- those who compared one of their years to 3,600 of our years due to the long orbit of their planet around our sun.

I'm glad to hear that was his mind, not yours!

[Eastbound]

Yes, the concept is difficult to grasp, let alone accept. But interesting nonetheless.

[Virginia-American]

"ainu" is the Ainu word for "man".

[SunkenCiv]

Not a ping, just a GGG update.

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)

[SunkenCiv]

Just updating the GGG information, not sending a general distribution.

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)

[S0122017]

Ainu? Wonder if this is a contraction or form of 'Anu?'

DUDE PLZ english language allows only THAT much sounds and words to be made up, so we have to make names that sound a bit alike a lot. Dont go weird and claim there has to be a connection cause two names sound a little bit alike.

[S0122017]

woops
the above "english language" should ofcourse be understood as "languages" in general

[Smokin' Joe]

I'm beginning to think there was a time when there were more proto-Europeans in Asian than there were Asians.(as we know them today.)

That makes sense, when you consider the immediate effects of geocatastrophes (The Toba eruption comes to mind, although not the best example) would tend to be limited by mountain ranges and other geographic features, as would disease outbreaks.

We also have to escape from the limiting vice of attempting to approximate prehistoric climates based on today's climates.

While most understand this at higher latitudes, where the effects of glaciation/warming were more imminently obvious (there was a kilometer thick ice sheet where I am sitting now, just a 10-12,000 years ago--only an inch of snow now), the effects also shifted more temperate and tropical regions as well. They were not the same then, and have varied since, both in short (catastrophic) spurts, and in long termed trends.

It is entirely possible that what we regard as Asian populations today had either not migrated into the region yet or had been severely thinned out by any of a number of natural killers.