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Posted on 05/11/2006 5:09:23 PM PDT by blam
Ancient American Skeleton Has European DNA Link
[Original headline: Sinkhole Skeleton Skeleton’s DNA Could Shed Light on American Migrations]
Vanlue, Ohio [AP] — The discovery of prehistoric tools from an Ohio cave is one of several finds that has scientists questioning the identity of settlers thought to have moved in 11,000 years ago.
A just completed excavation of Sheriden Cave in Wyandot County, 100 miles southwest of Cleveland, revealed tools made from flaked stone and bone. The items are scheduled to go on display next year at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
Kent State University archaeologist Kenneth Tankersley, who led the excavation over the past four years, said definite answers won’t come until someone finds an Ice Age skeleton and the DNA is tested.
Rare Genetic Link to Europe
“Disagreement swirls around the timing of their arrival, the nature of their migration, how fast they moved across the landscape and their relationship to contemporary Native Americans,” he said.
Some scientists think that the earliest colonizers could have started out somewhere in Europe, not in Asia as previously thought. That idea is rooted in a rare genetic link called haplogroup X - DNA passed down through women that dates back more than 30,000 years.
Recent genetic samples from remains in Illinois show that the rare European DNA was around centuries before European exploration. Today, haplogroup X is found in about 20,000 American Indians.
To some researchers, its presence suggests the Mongolian ancestors of most American Indians were latecomers. Genetic tests show the DNA is completely absent from East Asian and Siberian populations.
That could dispel the more than half-century old notion that humans migrated across a land bridge from Siberia at the end of the Ice Age, made stone tools and hunted while moving south.
Archaeologists since 1996 have found genetic indications of several migrations, along with evidence that people came from Polynesia, regions near Japan and even western Europe.
Skeleton Has Scientists Jumpy
“Frankly, it makes me nervous,” Smithsonian Institution anthropologist Stephen Loring said of the idea that the first Americans during the Ice Age were of European ancestry.
“It’s a heretical argument, and some people, unfortunately, will use it to assert the cultural superiority of Europeans. But it’s a good theory that needs to be tested.”
Tankersley and Brian Redmond, head of archaeology at the Cleveland Natural History Museum, have been seeking clues about the first colonizers from the cave, which is hidden 50 feet below cornfields.
“To find human remains of that age, 11,000 years old, is really, really rare, and I don’t think there are any in that cavern. We would have found them,” Redmond said. But he added, “Who knows what may turn up in the future. We’re certain it was a camping area.”
Farmers and landowners fear they could be tied up in litigation by preservationists and Indian tribes if old bones are disturbed.
“We know of places where you could probably find human remains up here,” said Keith Hendricks, a Hancock County sheriff’s deputy whose family owns the sinkhole where the Ice Age relics have been recovered. “But the problem is you’d be opening a Pandora’s box. It’s a sensitive issue.”
• Story originally published by •
ABCNEWS.com - November 27 2000
Thanks for finding the link. I was thinking of him when I wrote that.
Even Indians prefer the term "Indian" to "native American."
I agree. But it's 'Native American', not 'native American'.
Doug
really?
I like native American, but you're free to write it any way you want.
They're Indians. Ain't no such thing as native Americans.
Um, I'm a 'native American', I have friends who are 'Native Americans'. Sure, they call themselves Indians.
But in the UK, I'd call them Native Americans, or else everyone would assume they were from India (or their ancestors were).
Um, what you mean is you call yourself native American.
It's a PC term that I don't use. If you want to use it, fine, but you're an American, just like everyone else. Your ancestors immigrated here at some point, and there were likely some of my relatives here when your relatives got here.
I guess that makes me the Native American, and you the descendant of invading Asians. Besides, half the people in America have some Indian lineage. It's really kind of sad when people wave that Native American term around.
Most Europeans are of the R1 DNA line (R1a & R1b) and I believe the Ainu are descended from the branch that split and became the R2 line.(68% of Europeans are R1b)
Btw, it looks like haplogroup X arrived at Meadowcroft about 25,000 years ago.
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· Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google · · The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists · |
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“It’s a sensitive issue.”
I think Galileo just rolled over in his crypt.
Very interesting as always. Thank you..
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| GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
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Just updating the GGG info, not sending a general distribution. |
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