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Ancient American Skeleton Has European DNA Link
ABC News.com ^ | 11-27-2000

Posted on 05/11/2006 5:09:23 PM PDT by blam

Ancient American Skeleton Has European DNA Link

[Original headline: Sinkhole Skeleton Skeleton’s DNA Could Shed Light on American Migrations]

Vanlue, Ohio [AP] — The discovery of prehistoric tools from an Ohio cave is one of several finds that has scientists questioning the identity of settlers thought to have moved in 11,000 years ago.

A just completed excavation of Sheriden Cave in Wyandot County, 100 miles southwest of Cleveland, revealed tools made from flaked stone and bone. The items are scheduled to go on display next year at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

Kent State University archaeologist Kenneth Tankersley, who led the excavation over the past four years, said definite answers won’t come until someone finds an Ice Age skeleton and the DNA is tested.

Rare Genetic Link to Europe

“Disagreement swirls around the timing of their arrival, the nature of their migration, how fast they moved across the landscape and their relationship to contemporary Native Americans,” he said.

Some scientists think that the earliest colonizers could have started out somewhere in Europe, not in Asia as previously thought. That idea is rooted in a rare genetic link called haplogroup X - DNA passed down through women that dates back more than 30,000 years.

Recent genetic samples from remains in Illinois show that the rare European DNA was around centuries before European exploration. Today, haplogroup X is found in about 20,000 American Indians.

To some researchers, its presence suggests the Mongolian ancestors of most American Indians were latecomers. Genetic tests show the DNA is completely absent from East Asian and Siberian populations.

That could dispel the more than half-century old notion that humans migrated across a land bridge from Siberia at the end of the Ice Age, made stone tools and hunted while moving south.

Archaeologists since 1996 have found genetic indications of several migrations, along with evidence that people came from Polynesia, regions near Japan and even western Europe.

Skeleton Has Scientists Jumpy

“Frankly, it makes me nervous,” Smithsonian Institution anthropologist Stephen Loring said of the idea that the first Americans during the Ice Age were of European ancestry.

“It’s a heretical argument, and some people, unfortunately, will use it to assert the cultural superiority of Europeans. But it’s a good theory that needs to be tested.”

Tankersley and Brian Redmond, head of archaeology at the Cleveland Natural History Museum, have been seeking clues about the first colonizers from the cave, which is hidden 50 feet below cornfields.

“To find human remains of that age, 11,000 years old, is really, really rare, and I don’t think there are any in that cavern. We would have found them,” Redmond said. But he added, “Who knows what may turn up in the future. We’re certain it was a camping area.”

Farmers and landowners fear they could be tied up in litigation by preservationists and Indian tribes if old bones are disturbed.

“We know of places where you could probably find human remains up here,” said Keith Hendricks, a Hancock County sheriff’s deputy whose family owns the sinkhole where the Ice Age relics have been recovered. “But the problem is you’d be opening a Pandora’s box. It’s a sensitive issue.”

• Story originally published by •
ABCNEWS.com - November 27 2000


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: Ohio
KEYWORDS: american; ancient; archaeology; brianredmond; clovis; cloviscomet; dna; european; godsgravesglyphs; haplogroupx; has; helixmakemineadouble; kennethtankersley; kentstate; link; ohio; preclovis; precolumbian; sheridencave; skeleton; stephenloring; tankersley; vanlue; wyandotcounty
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To: blam
I'm still having problems with the correct spelling of haplotype/group.

And yesterday I couldn't spell arkenologist, today I are one?

41 posted on 05/11/2006 7:09:04 PM PDT by Coyoteman (Stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death--Heinlein)
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To: blam
Could be ~ I think a careful examination of the deer stones in Brown County is in order.

They've been modified by the addition of cement collars however.

These would be the ONLY Old World pre-Columbian artifacts in the New World to which we can assign a precise date and point of origin (at least for the builders).

42 posted on 05/11/2006 7:11:12 PM PDT by muawiyah (-)
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To: djpg
"...does that mean that they are not true "native Americans" and that they stole the land from the indigenous people?"

Any of'em that were born here ARE "native Americans", just like thee and me.

43 posted on 05/11/2006 7:14:48 PM PDT by Wonder Warthog (The Hog of Steel-NRA)
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To: blam
“Frankly, it makes me nervous,” Smithsonian Institution anthropologist Stephen Loring said of the idea that the first Americans during the Ice Age were of European ancestry. “It’s a heretical argument, and some people, unfortunately, will use it to assert the cultural superiority of Europeans.

Oh, Geez, has this guy figured out how to capitalize on saying the politically correct thing. Must be looking for a promotion.

44 posted on 05/11/2006 7:19:21 PM PDT by Swanks
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To: blam

Hahahaha... YOU are the illegal alien, cholo.
45 posted on 05/11/2006 7:21:58 PM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: muawiyah
"I think a careful examination of the deer stones in Brown County is in order. "

I did a google search and found zero mention of Deer Stones in Brown County, Indiana. Do you have any links, references?

46 posted on 05/11/2006 7:24:20 PM PDT by blam
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To: All

did they find an ancient can of bondo and a camaro on blocks?


47 posted on 05/11/2006 7:49:00 PM PDT by Kewlhand`tek (Those that can't , Teach. Those that can't teach , Report)
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To: 359Henrie

ROTFLMAO...I'm looking into reparations.


48 posted on 05/11/2006 7:51:54 PM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: Joe 6-pack

Bring your reparation down to the lucky 21 table, drinks on the house.


49 posted on 05/11/2006 7:58:35 PM PDT by 359Henrie (We cannot deport 12 million can we? Si, se puede!)
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To: djpg
If the Indians were not the first people here, does that mean that they are not true "native Americans" and that they stole the land from the indigenous people?

IMHO, if you are born here and accept the Pledge of Allegiance (with or without God in it), you ARE a Native American. That's the end of the story and exactly what I taught my kids. They are not hyphenated anything. They are Native Americans and it does not matter a damn which stone age DNA got here first. That stuff is all nonsense which ever way people want to spin it.

50 posted on 05/11/2006 7:59:05 PM PDT by Ditto
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To: blam

ping


51 posted on 05/11/2006 7:59:14 PM PDT by southland (Nietzsche said God was dead- he lied!)
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To: 359Henrie

You take FEMA cards, right?


52 posted on 05/11/2006 7:59:35 PM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: blam

I had read a story several years ago that had the same facts in it - that the 'native americans' came across from european stocks (at least some of them).


53 posted on 05/11/2006 8:00:08 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man
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To: Joe 6-pack

We also have a cat house for your dogs.


54 posted on 05/11/2006 8:00:12 PM PDT by 359Henrie (We cannot deport 12 million can we? Si, se puede!)
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To: 359Henrie

Last time I took my dogs to a cat house, I ended up in the dog house.


55 posted on 05/11/2006 8:01:43 PM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: Joe 6-pack

Hey, what happens at the cat house, stays at the cat house.


56 posted on 05/11/2006 8:06:24 PM PDT by 359Henrie (We cannot deport 12 million can we? Si, se puede!)
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To: From many - one.

self ping


57 posted on 05/11/2006 8:06:40 PM PDT by From many - one.
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To: 359Henrie
"Hey, what happens at the cat house, stays at the cat house."

Damn DNA evidence....

58 posted on 05/11/2006 8:13:43 PM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: Joe 6-pack
"Last time I took my dogs to a cat house, I ended up in the dog house."

Best laugh of the day. Thanks.

59 posted on 05/11/2006 8:14:17 PM PDT by blam
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To: Ditto
They are Native Americans and it does not matter a damn which stone age DNA got here first. That stuff is all nonsense which ever way people want to spin it.

I agree on the native Americans part.

But, I have been trying to figure out what prehistoric peoples did in the western US, and when they did it, for 35 years, and I don't see that as nonsense.

mtDNA studies are rewriting the book on who did what to whom, where, and when. It is a fascinating study, and the results are just starting to come in.

Now, various folks may be putting a spin on things, but my goal is to figure out what really happened. If we can document what happened, the spin is useless.

The actual picture of the populating of North America is looking pretty complex, with the folks trudging through Beringia and Canada at the end of the last Ice Age may have come in third!

But stay tuned, the game's still afoot!

60 posted on 05/11/2006 8:30:26 PM PDT by Coyoteman (Stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death--Heinlein)
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