Maun-gua-daus (George Henry), Chief of the Ojibwa Nation, ca. 1846-1848
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
Actually, it's a requirement. It's one of the mandatory components of what's called "white guilt", a.k.a. "cultural sensitivity", that all prospective Smithsonian's must suitably demonstrate before being hired.
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)
I have seen photos of isolated Amazon tribesmen who seemed very light skinned, fine featured, and rather more caucasian than asian.
That's because they are not called "deer stones". That is, "yet".
It's an "alphabet tree".
Thanks for the re-post. I cannot believe that big-mouth me did not have a post on that thread...so, I must've missed it somehow.
It's a(n) heretical argument".
Heresy is dissent from revealed truth. He's saying that the non-superiority of Europeans is a matter of religion (his religion), and therefore not susceptible to proof or disproof.
He's also saying that those who collect data are heretics, and (presumably) therefore subject to the sanction of the "religious" authorities, which sanctions so far (fortunately) are limited to witholding of grant money and non-publication of papers, leading to nonpromotion and exile to real jobs.
Of course, as idiots like this import more and more of their co-religionists from Mexico and elsewhere, the sanctions for real scientists may become more severe.
Today's heretic is tomorrow's prophet.
That's the first thing I noticed on the thread about myself, lol. I stumbled onto it while searching for something else.
Maun-gua-daus (George Henry), Chief of the Ojibwa Nation, ca. 1846-1848
Maybe European DNA originated in North America and its possessors migrated eastward across the Helcaraxe...the Grinding Ice...into Northern Europe and then spread out from there.
Instead of calling whites "Caucasians", perhaps we should call then Gnoldorin.
"Of course, as idiots like this import more and more of their co-religionists from Mexico and elsewhere, the sanctions for real scientists may become more severe."
Wait.
So, paleontological DNA scientists are Catholic (since that's what they'd be to be co-religionists with the folks arriving from Mexico)?
Just askin'...
What is this guy saying?
He is nervous because there is solid proof that runs counter to the "politically correct" answers and agenda that has been forced down everyone's throats for half a century or more.
It makes him nervous because just by publishing this and doing this work, he expects the harpies of Political Correctness Hell to come out hopping all over his pale, pasty little balding head and make his life miserable.
That's not a pleasant prospect.
It's sort of like being a cartoonist who decides he's going to draw Mohammed doing obscene things and publish it. He might very well go ahead and do it, but he will worry, at least a little bit, that by doing this he's going to end up on his knees blindfolded someday getting his head sawed off by a serrated knife.
Not me. I'd just like to use it to dispel the myth that anyone's ancestors were all perfect angels free from sin and that holding people responsible for the sins of their distant ancestors or the sins of people that simply shared the same race is throwing stones in a glass house.
We're not paranoid here in the Ivory Tower. Nope, not at all.
Why repost such an old article now?
Years ago I heard they came in a coracle.
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.