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The Oldest Known Human Remains In the Americas Have Been Found In a Mexican Cave (seeker.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the lost-and-found dept.

schwit1 shares a report from Seeker: An ice-free corridor between the Americas and Asia opened up about 12,500 years ago, allowing humans to cross over the Bering land bridge to settle what is now the United States and places beyond to the south. History books have conveyed that information for years to explain how the Americas were supposedly first settled by people, such as those from the Clovis culture. At least one part of the Americas was already occupied by humans before that time, however, says new research on the skeleton of a male youth found in Chan Hol cave near Tulum, Mexico. Dubbed the Young Man of Chan Hol, the remains date to 13,000 years ago, according to a paper published in the journal PLOS ONE. How he arrived at the location remains a great mystery given the timing and the fact that Mexico is well over 4,000 miles away from the Bering land crossing. For the new study, Gonzalez, Stinnesbeck, and their colleagues dated the Young Man of Chan Hol's remains by analyzing the bones' uranium, carbon, and oxygen isotopes, which were also found in stalagmite that had grown through the pelvic bone. The scientists believe that the resulting age of 13,000 years could apply to at least two other skeletons found in caves around Tulum: a teenage female named Naia and a 25-30-year-old female named Eve of Naharon. Gonzalez said that the shape of the skulls suggests that Eve and the others "have more of an affinity with people from Southeast Asia." He and his team further speculated that the individuals could have originated in Indonesia.

10 of 138 comments (clear)

  1. Fake News by aevan · · Score: 3, Funny

    Everyone knows the natives are native. That's why they call them Native! This is just trying to paint them as immigrants like everyone else in North America.

    1. Re:Fake News by Vitus+Wagner · · Score: 3, Insightful

      There is no such thing as native population. There are just descendants of previous conquerors.

    2. Re:Fake News by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Everyone in the Americas is technically an immigrant or a descendant of immigrants. The only natives are in Africa.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    3. Re:Fake News by jellomizer · · Score: 3, Informative

      It is Conquerors all the way down.
      They may not had conquered people. but they had conquered the elements, infections, wild animals, and unknown terrain.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  2. So within the error bars from the last one by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The skeleton of the Clovis childâ"which experts determined belonged to a young boy about one to one-and-a-half years oldâ"was discovered in 1968 in the Anzick burial site in western Montana. Dozens of ochre-covered stone tools found at the site were consistent with Clovis technology, and radiocarbon dating revealed that the skeleton was approximately 12,600 years old.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    1. Re:So within the error bars from the last one by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The sentence from the article which set off my "put this in the maybe column" reaction was this one "Only 1 to 2 percent of the collected DNA was human," When combined with my knowledge from other sources that, in general, DNA older than 10,000 years is unrecoverable makes me wonder how reliable these DNA tests were. The final thing which keeps this in the "maybe" column is the fact that the central argument for the Clovis people being from Europe is that there are tools with similar design features to the distinctive "Clovis" tools in Europe, but not in Asia.

      --
      The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
  3. Alternative explanation by Hognoxious · · Score: 3, Funny

    stalagmite that had grown through the pelvic bone.

    I reckon they found the world's first buttplug.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  4. Re:Names by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    There was a young man of Chan Hol
    Who went to the debutante ball
    He met Naia and Eve
    And said: By your leave
    My stalagmite will be doing it all

  5. Canada? by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...to settle what is now the United States and places beyond to the south.

    I'm now curious to know whether Canada's aboriginal peoples came from somewhere else or whether knowledge of geography in the US has declined to the point that you no longer know where even Canada is.

  6. Oldest? by Humbubba · · Score: 5, Interesting
    These are the oldest known human remains in the Americas? How about the "Arlington Woman", who's 13,000 year old bones were found in the 1960s on a Channel Island of Ventura County, Southern California. http://articles.latimes.com/1999/apr/11/news/mn-26401

    Evidence of humans in the Americas go back further. A 14,000 year old village was found on Triquet Island, northwest of Victoria Canada. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/one-oldest-north-american-settlements-found-180962750/

    Controversially, James M. Adovasio, Dennis Stanford and Joseph and Lynn McAvoy; and on the wilder side, Albert Goodyear and Tom Demere say there is evidence for humans in the Americas that goes back much further. Their evidence and theories are not generally accepted. Good reads though.