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'First Americans Were Australian'
BBC ^ | 6-15-2003

Posted on 06/15/2003 9:18:19 PM PDT by blam

'First Americans were Australian'

This is the face of the first known American, Lucia

The first Americans were descended from Australian aborigines, according to evidence in a new BBC documentary.

The skulls suggest faces like those of Australian aborigines

The programme, Ancient Voices, shows that the dimensions of prehistoric skulls found in Brazil match those of the aboriginal peoples of Australia and Melanesia. Other evidence suggests that these first Americans were later massacred by invaders from Asia.

Until now, native Americans were believed to have descended from Asian ancestors who arrived over a land bridge between Siberia and Alaska and then migrated across the whole of north and south America. The land bridge was formed 11,000 years ago during the ice age, when sea level dropped.

How rock art suggests a violent end for the "Australian" Americans However, the new evidence shows that these people did not arrive in an empty wilderness. Stone tools and charcoal from the site in Brazil show evidence of human habitation as long ago as 50,000 years.

The site is at Serra Da Capivara in remote northeast Brazil. This area is now inhabited by the descendants of European settlers and African slaves who arrived just 500 years ago.

But cave paintings found here provided the first clue to the existence of a much older people.

The costumes and rituals shown in rock art survived in Terra del Fuego

Images of giant armadillos, which died out before the last ice age, show the artists who drew them lived before even the natives who greeted the Europeans.

These Asian people have facial features described as mongoloid. However, skulls dug from a depth equivalent to 9,000 to 12,000 years ago are very different.

Walter Neves, an archaeologist from the University of Sao Paolo, has taken extensive skull measurements from dozens of skulls, including the oldest, a young woman who has been named Lucia.

"The measurements show that Lucia was anything but mongoloid," he says.

Walter Neves has measured hundreds of skulls

The next step was to reconstruct a face from Lucia's skull. First, a CAT scan of the skull was done, to allow an accurate working model to be made.

Then a forensic artist, Richard Neave from the University of Manchester, UK, created a face for Lucia. The result was surprising: "It has all the features of a negroid face," says Dr Neave.

Lucia's skull is 12,000 years old

The skull dimensions and facial features match most closely the native people of Australia and Melanesia. These people date back to about 60,000 years, and were themselves descended from the first humans, who left Africa about 100,000 years ago.

But how could the early Australians have travelled more than 13,500 kilometres (8,450 miles) at that time? The answer comes from more cave paintings, this time from the Kimberley, a region at the northern tip of Western Australia.

Here, Grahame Walsh, an expert on Australian rock art, found the oldest painting of a boat anywhere in the world. The style of the art means it is at least 17,000 years old, but it could be up to 50,000 years old.

And the crucial detail is the high prow of the boat. This would have been unnecessary for boats used in calm, inland waters. The design suggests it was used on the open ocean.

Fantastic voyage

Archaeologists speculate that such an incredible sea voyage, from Australia to Brazil, would not have been undertaken knowingly but by accident.

Just three years ago, five African fishermen were caught in a storm and a few weeks later were washed up on the shores of South America. Two of the fishermen died, but three made it alive.

Walter Neves says the negroid people disappear 7,000 years ago But if the first Americans had drifted from Australia, where are their descendants now? Again, the skulls suggest an answer.

The shape of the skulls changes between 9,000 and 7,000 years ago from being exclusively negroid to exclusively mongoloid. Combined with rock art evidence of increasing violence at this time, it appears that the mongoloid people from the north invaded and wiped out the original Americans.

Fuegean Cristina Calderon may be one of the few surviving descendants of the first Americans

The only evidence of any survivors comes from Terra del Fuego, the islands at the remotest southern tip of South America.

The pre-European Fuegeans, who lived stone age-style lives until this century, show hybrid skull features which could have resulted from intermarrying between mongoloid and negroid peoples. Their rituals and traditions also bear some resemblance to the ancient rock art in Brazil.

The identity of the first Americans is an emotive and controversial question. But the evidence from Brazil, and a handful of people who still live at the very tip of South America, suggests that the Americas have been home to a greater diversity of humans than previously thought - and for much longer.


TOPICS: Australia/New Zealand; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: aborigines; amazon; amazonia; americans; americas; annaroosevelt; archaeology; australia; australian; catastrophism; clovis; first; ggg; godsgravesglyphs; helixmakemineadouble; history; landdownunder; meadowcroft; menatwork; multiregionalism; neandertal; origins; preclovis; precolumbian; precolumbianamazon; replacement; slashandburn; terrapreta; vegemite
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To: lizma
You are so right. The tendency is to cling to the old conventions ignoring anything that's radical or might upset the status quo. I've read that the Chinese have records stating the their ships sailed to South America and California. The Olmec statues have african faces. The 10,000 year old skulls that they found in the Pacific Northwest and the tribe there tried to keep from being analysed was caucasian. Who knows?
61 posted on 06/16/2003 1:21:19 PM PDT by dljordan
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To: dljordan
Explorer From China Who 'Beat Columbus To America'
62 posted on 06/16/2003 4:04:26 PM PDT by blam
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To: blam; Porterville
It's just another piece of the complicated puzzle of the settling of the Americas. Which I believe was done by people from all continents over many thousands of years ocassionally interrupted by world affecting catastrophic events.

Considering that Australia was settled upwards of 50K years ago by the aborigines, it's not too much of a stretch to consider that they also managed to make it here. The Americas were also likely visited by people from Asia and Europe across the northern ice flows.

Why did the Asians come to dominate? I was reading at one point that the Asians had a crucial innovation: the domestication of the dog. This gave them a big advantage versus some of the big nocturnal predators that inhabited the Americas at the time (an early warning at 3am that a sabertooth is around would make a big difference in your survival prospects)

63 posted on 08/04/2003 5:48:44 PM PDT by SauronOfMordor (Java/C++/Unix/Web Developer === needs a job at the moment)
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The Peopling of the American Continents
64 posted on 08/04/2003 6:00:15 PM PDT by SauronOfMordor (Java/C++/Unix/Web Developer === needs a job at the moment)
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To: blam
The first Americans were American.
65 posted on 08/04/2003 6:03:21 PM PDT by DoctorMichael (>>>>>Liberals Suk. Liberalism Sukz.<<<<<)
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To: blam
I think they found Asian remains that were older from news reports I read months ago.
I think this is a battle of scientists running around claiming they were first and they DON'T acknowledge other findings.
66 posted on 08/04/2003 6:08:45 PM PDT by A CA Guy (God Bless America, God bless and keep safe our fighting men and women.)
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To: SauronOfMordor
Why did the Asians come to dominate? I was reading at one point that the Asians had a crucial innovation: the domestication of the dog. This gave them a big advantage versus some of the big nocturnal predators that inhabited the Americas at the time (an early warning at 3am that a sabertooth is around would make a big difference in your survival prospects)"

"Before 135,000 years ago Neanderthals had domesticated dogs. 100,000 years ago they also had sheep, goat, cattle, pig and possibly reindeer. It's very possible that these special relations with animals evolved through the use of signals and simple instruments used for communication during their hunting activities . These animals weren't domestic in our sense of the word, rather they roamed around freely, and could be called upon. This same method was used in many parts of Scandinavia. Dogs probably played a key role in both hunting, driving animals and for defense and protection. They also knew the properties of various plants. Stimulants were used to tamper with activity level."

From this excellent article: The Neanderthal Theory

67 posted on 08/04/2003 6:14:15 PM PDT by blam
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To: A CA Guy
"I think they found Asian remains that were older from news reports I read months ago. "

I don't think so. There aren't any Native Americans/American Indian ever found that are older than 6,000 years old. All skeletons found that are older than 6,000 years are of totally different people, most are similar to Kennewick Man but, some are different than anyone alive today. One of the most unusual is simply named 'Stickman,' 9,000+ years old.

68 posted on 08/04/2003 6:22:41 PM PDT by blam
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To: SauronOfMordor
The Dixie Dingo
69 posted on 08/04/2003 6:25:17 PM PDT by blam
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To: RichInOC
Nope the cave writing said in big bold letters:



DRINK FOSTERS!!
70 posted on 08/04/2003 6:26:39 PM PDT by Michael121
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To: Porterville
>...does it ever end????

No, it never ends. They came from everywhere, including outer space. Eveything but widely accepted science.

71 posted on 08/04/2003 6:31:03 PM PDT by Celantro
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To: Porterville
"""This crap never ends...There from West Africa/East Asia/Northern Russia/Greenland/Atlantis and now Australia...does it ever end????"""

Not as long as the grant money continues to pour in!


72 posted on 08/04/2003 6:37:10 PM PDT by RepublicanHippy
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To: blam
The Asian remains were far older than 6000 years old. I think they could have been older than 30,000, but that is a distant memory of a read article trying to recall here.

I do know the Asian remains were super old and by far the oldest.

I wish I had that on hand.
73 posted on 08/04/2003 6:45:22 PM PDT by A CA Guy (God Bless America, God bless and keep safe our fighting men and women.)
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To: A CA Guy
"I think they could have been older than 30,000, but that is a distant memory of a read article trying to recall here.

I do know the Asian remains were super old and by far the oldest.

Found in the Americas? I don't think so. The oldest skeleton ever found in the Americas is 'Spirit Cave Woman,' see post #2 on this thread. The 2nd oldest is Luzia whos' picture is at the top of this thread.

74 posted on 08/04/2003 6:55:27 PM PDT by blam
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To: blam
All I remember was it was Asian, ancient and recently in the news. I have to go see if I can help you and I by trying to look it up later.
It is not uncommon for scientific snobs to ignore the findings of others.
75 posted on 08/04/2003 6:57:44 PM PDT by A CA Guy (God Bless America, God bless and keep safe our fighting men and women.)
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To: blam
The Australian aborigines are Caucasoid are they not?
76 posted on 08/04/2003 7:00:05 PM PDT by RightWhale (Destroy the dark; restore the light)
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To: RightWhale
"The Australian aborigines are Caucasoid are they not?"

I don't know.

James Chatters in his book, Ancient Encounters, says that he thinks that an ancient group of people traveled across the Asian steppes from Europe (evolving as they went over thousands of years) into Asia and it was this group (Kennewick Man like people) who evolved into the Asians, Jomons, Polinesians(sp) and then streamed back and also became the Caucasians of Europe.

77 posted on 08/04/2003 7:09:40 PM PDT by blam
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To: blam
Another small thing is the origin of the word aborigines. Rather than meaning original, it could mean 'from the mountains' or 'beyond the mountains.' If so the term would have the same origin as oriental, which means from the mountains or in the mountains. The mountains of Turkey, by the way, which was once considered the Orient. From Greek, oros, mountain. The word origin is derived from the Latin origo, rise, which would have a similar meaning as mountain, which is related to montere, to climb. The famous formula y = mx + b also contains the m which is short for French monter, to climb, thanks to Descartes.
78 posted on 08/04/2003 7:18:52 PM PDT by RightWhale (Destroy the dark; restore the light)
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Comment #79 Removed by Moderator

To: SauronOfMordor
"Considering that Australia was settled upwards of 50K years ago by the aborigines, it's not too much of a stretch to consider that they also managed to make it here"

Makes sense. I suppose they wouldn't have had to come from Australia to America, perhaps they came from elsewhere? Or does the timing preclude it?

80 posted on 08/04/2003 7:34:35 PM PDT by Sam Cree (Democrats are herd animals)
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