New Study Sheds Light , on the Early History, of the First Americans.
'The New York Times' reports that scientists have extracted DNA samples from 9,600-year-old human remains found in the jungles of Belize.
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The findings have shed light on the genetic history of people in the Maya region.
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Scientists identified a previously-unknown mass migration that occurred 5,600 years ago, which contributed over 50% of the ancestry of Mayan-speaking peoples today.
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Scientists identified a previously-unknown mass migration that occurred 5,600 years ago, which contributed over 50% of the ancestry of Mayan-speaking peoples today.
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Three distinct genetic groups were identified: , one which lived 7,300 to 9,600 years ago, .
Another living between 3,700 and 5,600 years ago, and a third group identical with modern Maya people.
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According to scientists, the oldest group is evidence of a southward migration through the Americas during the Pleistocene.
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The research also illuminates how the region transitioned from hunting and gathering to the cultivation of crops.
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In a 2020 paper, the researchers described evidence of maize consumption in the remains of humans who lived 4,000 to 4,700 years ago.
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People were actually moving into the region from the south, carrying these domesticated plants and also the systems of knowledge about how to grow them, Douglas Kennett, an archaeologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, via 'The New York Times'.
The paper was published in the journal 'Nature Communications' on March 22.
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Lisa Lucero, an anthropologist who specializes in the Maya, said the new findings , “have the potential to revise and rewrite the early history of the First Americans.”
