In valley of Tanana River in Alaska is one of oldest burial sites in America: The upward Sun River site. 11,500 years ago, two girls were buried re – along with some rounded arrowheads with decorated stems, presumably serving as burial engraves (PNAS, Potter et al., 2014). Probably children were half-sisters – perhaps also cousins, one of m was only a few weeks old, or died just before her birth. The two were already discovered in 2013. But only now does genetic analysis of its remnants prove an exciting story. The girls were among ancestors of all indigenous peoples on American continent.
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For some years now, researchers have been talking about origin population of first settlers. Now y have been able to confirm m by DNA data for first time. The indigenous peoples of America are, refore, likely to originate from a single group of people who came to Alaska over Bering from Asia about 30,000 years ago. This is evident in old Erbgutfragmenten, which a group of scientists could now read out from preserved bone remnants of girls. You have now published your analysis in journal Nature (Willerslev et al. 2018).
Of one of two girls re was still enough genetic to compare it with genome of or finds and also of today living people from several ethnic groups. For team of geneticists, anthropologists and archaeologists, results were clear: children from upward Sun River have Asian ancestors and ir genes form basis for genome of all indigenous peoples of American continent. “Ancient Beringian” – Ur-Beringianer, so y call two children in ir study.
Upwards Sun River Site
This archaeological site is location of oldest human remains in America.
Source: megalithic.co.uk Time Online window.Zeit.require([‘//interactive.zeit.de/karten-editor/v9/static/js/embed.js’]);
The ory of sole ancestors is still relatively new. Until a few years ago, archaeologists were still debating wher Native Americans could not also be descended from European immigrants. Hints were provided by tools from Cactus Hill, a site on east coast of North America. They and ir human users were part of Clovis culture (see infographic below). The processing of her fist wedges and spearheads was so similar to European tool art that it was obvious that Western European sailors had brought m into new world. Later, researchers were most likely to refute this by examining genetic material of a small Clovis boy who lived around 12,600 years ago in today’s state of Montana. His genome showed that young had Asian ancestors – not European (nature, Rasmussen et al. 2014).
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In past, history of North America’s settlement has often been a cause for controversy. For a long time, researchers assumed that Clovis tribes were first to colonize continent – a maximum of 13,000 years ago. The reason: In past, immigrants could not have come across Bering, as it was still flooded. At that time, much of North American continent was covered by a thick layer of ice, which also lowered sea level at Bering. The hikers from Asia could get so dry foot to Alaska. Little attention was paid to hints that spoke for a previous settlement.
The colonization of America could have looked like this:
Source: University of Colorado, Idaho Museum of Natural History, PlosOne © time-graphics: Anne Gerdes
This led to fact that older finds were dusted in museums or archaeological institutes for decades before y were finally analyzed in depth. For example, 36,000 animal bone pieces, which archaeologist Jacques Cinq-Mars found in year 1977 in Bluefish Caves in norrn Canada. They are 30,000 years old and show traces of human processing. It was only 30 years later that y were analyzed.
Linda Fisher Volunteer, time online to authors page
Scientists today assume that first people came to America in a single wave of immigration 30,000 years ago. A few thousand years later y lived in today’s Alaska and Canada – isolated from a huge layer of ice that covered North America. About 15,000 years ago, when ice began to melt, y eventually spread to south. With results now published, scientists now have anor important proof of this ory. Some primal Beringianer – including two girls of upward Sun River site – lived for a long time near Bering, origin of America’s colonization.
