Ancient Human Population Mystery: 6000 Years Ago, an Unidentified Group Arrived in South America, Leaving No Remains Behind
Heads up! Here's a lowdown on the mystery of South America's original settlers
Get ready to dive into the fascinating world of archaeology, as researchers have uncovered intriguing details about the first people to step foot on South American soil thousands of years ago. These ancient dwellers, initially crossing the land bridge from Central America to northern Colombia, belonged to a previously unknown group of hunter-gatherers.
These early explorers, who later vanished without a trace, are not related to any known South American communities that have existed during the last two millennia. After analyzing DNA from 21 ancient individuals dating back between 6,000 and 500 years ago, the researchers detected genetic evidence of this long-lost culture at a high-altitude site called Checua.
Popularly known as the Checua inhabitants, these early South Americans derive from a rapid expansion of the earliest population that spread across the continent. Though they are not connected to ancestral North American populations like the Clovis or California Channel Island cultures, Krettek and her team confirmed that these 6,000-year-old remains belong to a southern Native American lineage.
However, genetic traces of the Checua people were absent from all other genomes younger than 2,000 years old and are not found in any present-day Indigenous groups. This discovery signifies a complete exchange of the population in the Bogotá region, and the reasons behind their disappearance are yet to be fully understood.
It's believed that the ancient population may have perished around the same time as the emergence of the Herrera ceramic complex, a new type of pottery that appeared about 3,000 years ago. Unlike the mysterious Checua people, the Herrera-associated groups were agriculturalists who practiced maize cultivation and later gave rise to the Muisca culture.
The connection between these ancient civilizations and modern-day Indigenous South Americans is well documented. For example, the Chibchan languages introduced by these cultures are still spoken in parts of northern Colombia today.
This groundbreaking study published in the journal Science Advances suggests that the spread of maize cultivation and pottery across South America was not due to cultural diffusion but rather population turnover - a replacement of the region's earlier inhabitants by a second wave of migration.
So, stay tuned for future discoveries as we continue to unravel the secrets of our ancestors and humanity's fascinating journey across the continents!
Intriguingly, the Checua inhabitants, who inhabited South America over 6,000 years ago, were found to be a separate group from known South American communities. Additionally, the scientific research has revealed that these early settlers have genetic ties to other native South American lineages, yet they are distinct from ancestral North American populations like the Clovis or California Channel Island cultures.
