Wibbitz Top Stories via Dailymotion via MSN; Xochitl, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
The New York Times reports that scientists
have allegedly extracted DNA samples from 9,600-year-old
human remains found in the jungles of Belize.
The findings have shed light
on the genetic history of
people in the Maya region. Scientists identified a previously-unknown mass migration
that occurred 5,600 years ago, which contributed over
50% of the ancestry of Mayan-speaking peoples today.
Three distinct genetic groups were identified: one that lived 7,300 to 9,600 years ago, another living between 3,700 and
5,600 years ago, and a third group
identical with modern Maya (Mayan) people.
According to scientists, the oldest group
is evidence of a southward migration through
the Americas during the Pleistocene.
The research also illuminates how
the region transitioned from hunting and
gathering to the cultivation of crops.
In a 2020 paper, the researchers described evidence
of maize consumption in the remains of humans
who lived 4,000 to 4,700 years ago.
People were actually moving into the region
from the south, carrying these domesticated
plants and also the systems of knowledge
about how to grow them, Prof. Douglas Kennett, an archeologist at the University
of California, Santa Barbara, via The New York Times.
The paper was published in the journal Nature Communications on March 22. Lisa Lucero, an anthropologist who
specializes in the Maya, said the new findings, “have the potential to revise and rewrite
the early history of the First Americans.”.
New study sheds light on the early history of the First Americans
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