Study Reveals DNA Links Between Ancient Peruvians, Japanese

I first read about this while living in Okinawa,Japan.

'The Yonaguni Monument - Diving Deeper Into Our Past'

by Team Leader Michael Arbuthnot

I plunged into the watery depths with an underwater camera in my hands. It was late July and the waters were balmy, but the currents strong. As I released the air from my dive vest, I slowly descended into the darkness - and into the past.

The ominous terraces and winding stairwells loomed before me. When I neared the structure, my camera’s flash brought its green-blue coral crust to life in a flare of crimson red. In my silent world, words served no purpose. Even if heard, no words could describe the scene that lay before me. Just the sensation of awe.

I was swimming over what could be the most important archaeological discovery of the century - the “Yonaguni Monument”. The tiny island of Yonaguni is located roughly 300 miles southwest of Okinawa, Japan, and only 40 miles east of Taiwan. The monument itself lies 500 feet off Yonaguni’s southern shoreline at a depth of about 90 feet.

I recall the first time I saw photographs of the Yonaguni Monument on the internet. I was immediately intrigued. The rectilinear features and apparent design were clearly the work of human hands. I would have no idea that less than a year later I would be diving the site, and serving as Project Director for a documentary film.

Underwater archaeology is a passion of mine. Last summer I dove on a 3-masted schooner wrecked off the northern coast of Grand Cayman Island. Although it was the experience of a lifetime, I found myself more interested in a less traditional approach to underwater archaeology - the study of “submerged terrestrial sites”.

Submerged terrestrial site archaeology looks at human settlements that were once on land and have been inundated by rising sea levels or land subsidence. This is an entirely new branch of underwater archaeology, as opposed to maritime archaeology which traditionally examines sunken ships.

Blending my interests of film making and anthropology, I drafted a synopsis for a documentary about the Yonaguni Monument and began researching. As I delved further into the topic of Japan’s ancient past and its underwater archaeological sites, an amazing chapter of history began to reveal itself.

The inhabitants of ancient Japan were quite unlike the people living there today. Until about 2,000 years ago, Japan was home to the “Jomon” culture. The Jomon were a maritime people that are credited for developing the world’s first pottery. These ancient navigators had been in the Japanese Ryukyu Islands since at least 10,000 BC.

The Earth was at the height of its last ice age 12,000 years ago. During this time, much of our planet’s water was frozen in the polar ice caps and glaciers. As a result, worldwide sea levels were considerable lower, as much as 300 feet in some places. These lower sea levels changed the complexion of our coastlines. Just imagine, only 12,000 years ago the San Francisco Bay had no water and Florida state was twice its current landmass. At that time in Japan, the Yonaguni Monument was exposed to the sun’s golden rays and was likely utilized by the Jomon people.

In the 1970’s, a Smithsonian research team found Jomon pottery in Ecuador. They concluded that an ancient Japanese Junk or fishing boat must have drifted off course and made its way to South America. However, could its arrival have been more than accidental?

In recent years, several enigmatic skeletons have been unearthed in the Americas, including in Brazil, Argentina, and even in the U.S. One of these skeletons, known as “Kennewick Man,” was found in Washington State. These ancient Americans are all at least 9,000 years old. Oddly enough, the early remains most resemble ancient populations found in the South Pacific Islands and Japan - the Jomon!

Is it possible that America’s first visitors drifted or sailed across the South Pacific from Indonesia or southern Japan? Most traditional historians would say “no”. They would argue that the Pacific Ocean was too far to cross for early seafarers.

However, what would the Pacific Ocean have looked like 12,000 years ago? When the sea levels were lower, the South Pacific had larger land masses and was dotted with islands that are now submerged. The greatest distance between any two islands was only 120 miles. These additional landing points would have made a voyage across the South Pacific considerably more plausible for an adept maritime civilization like the Jomon.

I sat on the deck of our diving vessel as we headed back to shore and sipped Japanese green tea. I thought about paradigms. The Earth was flat. Columbus discovered America. America’s first immigrants came across the Bering Land Bridge.

Scientific paradigms come and go as hypotheses are developed and discoveries are made. However, the process is sometimes painstakingly slow. Theories often need to gather momentum before being accepted as canon by the scientific community.

Public interest is essential in generating the momentum necessary to mount serious scientific inquiries. This is a positive repercussion of documentaries. They serve as educational tools that merge entertainment and science to wide viewing audiences. I hope our film will do the same.

Security is shorted lived in the world of anthropology, but change is the key to survival and paradigms were built to be broken.

http://www.teamatlantis.com/yucatan_test/yonaguni_backstory.html

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