Free Republic

Over 17,000 years ago this original contingent crossed the Bering Strait from Siberia to Alaska and began peopling the New World. Fossil DNA shows an affinity between this migratory current and the populations of Siberia and northern China. Contrary to the traditional theory it had no link to Africa or Australasia. The new study also reveals that once they had settled in North America the descendants of this ancestral migratory flow diversified into two lineages some 16,000 years ago. The members of one lineage crossed the Isthmus of Panama and peopled South America in three distinct consecutive waves. The first...

RIO DE JANEIRO — A fire engulfed the National Museum of Brazil on Sunday night, ravaging the stately, 200-year-old museum in Rio de Janeiro and threatening the years of history encapsulated inside.Aerial video posted by the television station Globo showed roaring flames and billowing smoke overtaking the large museum. Windows on multiple floors across the museum displayed a burning orange color, and the glow of the fire lit up the dark night sky.The destruction to the building was significant, and it is unclear whether any historical artifacts had been saved. The museum housed a collection of more than 20 million...

A massive fire has broken out at Brazil’s National Museum in Rio de Janeiro, engulfing the entire building, just months after the museum marked its 200th anniversary. The incident began on early Sunday afternoon when a fire erupted in the three-story building. Footage broadcast on Brazilian TV showed that the fire had spread throughout all floors of the building. It was not immediately known if anyone was injured, but the fire broke out when the museum was closed.

"The fire spread to all the sections of the museum and destroyed all its content and destroyed the hall of Pharaonic artefacts, which contained 700 pieces," said Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities on Thursday. He cited Egypt's foreign ministry, which is following up on the matter with Egyptian consular and embassy officials in Brazil. The Egyptian artifacts included collectibles of Brazilian Emperor Pedro I, founder and first ruler of the Empire of Brazil, which he purchased in the 19th century from antiquities merchants. It also featured five mummies, one of which was kept in a sarcophagus...

The Lagoa Santa (or "Luzia") Group (Minas Gerais, Brasil) A skull belonging to a roughly 20 year old woman was unearthed in Brazil by the French archaeologist Annette Laming-Emperaire in the 1970s. She died before being able to do much work on her dicovery. Annette Laming-Emperaire at work in her Lapa Vermelha excavation. The skull was later re-discovered by Brazilian Prof. Walter Neves and analyzed. He also excavated more remains in the same cemetery-like site where the original "Luzia" had been found. Neves named the ancient lady "Luzia" in analogy to the famous and much older African "Lucy" - the...