Posted on 06/15/2003 9:18:19 PM PDT by blam
'First Americans were Australian'
This is the face of the first known American, Lucia
The first Americans were descended from Australian aborigines, according to evidence in a new BBC documentary.
The skulls suggest faces like those of Australian aborigines
The programme, Ancient Voices, shows that the dimensions of prehistoric skulls found in Brazil match those of the aboriginal peoples of Australia and Melanesia. Other evidence suggests that these first Americans were later massacred by invaders from Asia.
Until now, native Americans were believed to have descended from Asian ancestors who arrived over a land bridge between Siberia and Alaska and then migrated across the whole of north and south America. The land bridge was formed 11,000 years ago during the ice age, when sea level dropped.
How rock art suggests a violent end for the "Australian" Americans However, the new evidence shows that these people did not arrive in an empty wilderness. Stone tools and charcoal from the site in Brazil show evidence of human habitation as long ago as 50,000 years.
The site is at Serra Da Capivara in remote northeast Brazil. This area is now inhabited by the descendants of European settlers and African slaves who arrived just 500 years ago.
But cave paintings found here provided the first clue to the existence of a much older people.
The costumes and rituals shown in rock art survived in Terra del Fuego
Images of giant armadillos, which died out before the last ice age, show the artists who drew them lived before even the natives who greeted the Europeans.
These Asian people have facial features described as mongoloid. However, skulls dug from a depth equivalent to 9,000 to 12,000 years ago are very different.
Walter Neves, an archaeologist from the University of Sao Paolo, has taken extensive skull measurements from dozens of skulls, including the oldest, a young woman who has been named Lucia.
"The measurements show that Lucia was anything but mongoloid," he says.
Walter Neves has measured hundreds of skulls
The next step was to reconstruct a face from Lucia's skull. First, a CAT scan of the skull was done, to allow an accurate working model to be made.
Then a forensic artist, Richard Neave from the University of Manchester, UK, created a face for Lucia. The result was surprising: "It has all the features of a negroid face," says Dr Neave.
Lucia's skull is 12,000 years old
The skull dimensions and facial features match most closely the native people of Australia and Melanesia. These people date back to about 60,000 years, and were themselves descended from the first humans, who left Africa about 100,000 years ago.
But how could the early Australians have travelled more than 13,500 kilometres (8,450 miles) at that time? The answer comes from more cave paintings, this time from the Kimberley, a region at the northern tip of Western Australia.
Here, Grahame Walsh, an expert on Australian rock art, found the oldest painting of a boat anywhere in the world. The style of the art means it is at least 17,000 years old, but it could be up to 50,000 years old.
And the crucial detail is the high prow of the boat. This would have been unnecessary for boats used in calm, inland waters. The design suggests it was used on the open ocean.
Fantastic voyage
Archaeologists speculate that such an incredible sea voyage, from Australia to Brazil, would not have been undertaken knowingly but by accident.
Just three years ago, five African fishermen were caught in a storm and a few weeks later were washed up on the shores of South America. Two of the fishermen died, but three made it alive.
Walter Neves says the negroid people disappear 7,000 years ago But if the first Americans had drifted from Australia, where are their descendants now? Again, the skulls suggest an answer.
The shape of the skulls changes between 9,000 and 7,000 years ago from being exclusively negroid to exclusively mongoloid. Combined with rock art evidence of increasing violence at this time, it appears that the mongoloid people from the north invaded and wiped out the original Americans.
Fuegean Cristina Calderon may be one of the few surviving descendants of the first Americans
The only evidence of any survivors comes from Terra del Fuego, the islands at the remotest southern tip of South America.
The pre-European Fuegeans, who lived stone age-style lives until this century, show hybrid skull features which could have resulted from intermarrying between mongoloid and negroid peoples. Their rituals and traditions also bear some resemblance to the ancient rock art in Brazil.
The identity of the first Americans is an emotive and controversial question. But the evidence from Brazil, and a handful of people who still live at the very tip of South America, suggests that the Americas have been home to a greater diversity of humans than previously thought - and for much longer.
I remember reading years ago that some anthropologists feel that Australian Aborigines more closely resemble Cro-Magnon humans than any other group alive today.
I think you probably men Homo-Erectus. The Aboriginies are nothing like Cro-Magnon. Some of the Aboriginies alive today have brow-ridges that are even more severe than was Neanderthal Man.
Thanks for replying Blam, I didn't realize that this was a three year old thread when I first posted. It may well have been Homo-Erectus although I personally think Aborigines are a more modern type than that. Their morphology is fascinating though.
All the features used to define archaic and extinct humans can be found in someone alive today. My theory is that we are all only one species and that's why these features are still with us today.
The Hobbits are some strange 'humans'. They are thought to be from the Homo-Erectus line.
The discovery raises obvious questions about the diversity of the human family, such as whether undiscovered human-like species might survive today. Are we really the sole human custodians of our planet? Could the existence of Homo floresiensis rehabilitate persistent rumours of undiscovered human-like species elsewhere, notably the orang pendek of Malay folklore? Could cryptozoology come in from the cold?
Maybe all those stories and sightings of little hairy wildmen in the area are true.
indeed.
Seems like there's Something about folks wandering the forum looking for things to be upset and rant about.
Personally, it's fascinating to ponder origins . . . social forces etc.
Have you joined the National Geographic DNA project? I have. Not cheap, though. $100. Someone helped me out on that.
I wonder if any Altanteans came over to America....
ocassionally interrupted by world affecting catastrophic events.
= = = =
Have you come across any confirming sources about the
"galactic plain crossing" super catastrophe?
Some sort of intense gravitational area or some such that our solar system crosses through every XX,000 years with super devastating results almost wiping out all life on the planet . . .
Super solar flares and solar winds scorching earth; causing pole shifts; the equatorial 10 mile buldge snapping back to spherical with super devastating results of oceans sloshing around obliterating ALL coastal life for miles inland all around the planet; volcunism going berserk; winds over 200 mph; 1/3 atmosphere being blown away; . . .
Was a group of cross disciplinary scientists on C2C about it a week or so ago. Then another scientist . . . supposedly headed our way 2008-2020.
Any DNA known from Kennewick man yet?
Probably. They probably were the pyramid builders:
Voyages Of The Pyramis Builders
There are more pyramids in Mexico than all the rest of the world combined.
No.
Don't forget about the Atlanteans after the city/island was gone.
That is an old hypothesis from the Merry Prankster days. Since the Milky Way rotates in 200 million years, the 20,000 year effect is bogus. As Ian Punnet said last night, he has often filled his C2C hours with interviews about absolutely nothing.
Good. Tell me what your DNA says and I'll tell you where you originated in the world.
Who could forget the Atlanteans? Most escaped the disaster, and they are still with us but they had to leave their code books behind so they don't actually know any more than the rest of us now.
Most of the fellas who are educated in and study in this area doubt that there ever was a King Arthur. (Baillie, Oppenheimer, Sykes, etc)
What do I know.
You could be right.
But this has a very different . . . set of . . . stuff about it somehow. About 4-5 different sources saying essentially the same thing or a piece of the same thing.
Thanks for your kind reply.
Have at it:
Haplogroup I (M170)
12 loci:
393/16
19/16
391/10
439/10
389-1/12
388/13
390/23
426/11
385a/14
385b/14
392/11
= = = = = = = = = =
Yours?
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