I have been hearing rumors of Cactus Hill for about a year now but have been
unable to find much on it. This is a site in Virginia which has yielded
evidence of habitation as early as 15,000 years ago. Reports are to be
found at:
http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/04/07/earlyamericans.ap/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/04/07/earlyamericans.ap/index.html
If true, then it does raise the possibility that Solutreans from Europe were
the first inhabitants of the New World. The tools found in some early sites
in North America are similar to tools found in Spain about 20,000 years ago.
And an mtDNA type, X, is found only in Spain and Turkey, but not in Asia!
http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/0799toc/7special14-genes.shtml
and,
"Now a new genetic study may link Native Americans and people of Europe and
the Middle East, offering tantalizing support to a controversial theory that
a band of people who originally lived in Europe or Asia Minor were among the
continent's first settlers.
"The new data, from a genetic marker appropriately called Lineage X,
suggest a 'definite-if ancient-link between Eurasians and the Native
Americans,' says Theodore Schurr, a molecular anthropologist from Emory
University in Atlanta, who presented the findings earlier this month at the
annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists in
Salt Lake City." Virginia Morell, "Genes May Link Ancient Eurasians, Native
Americans," Science 280(1998):520
**
"The team, led by Emory researchers Michael Brown and Douglas Wallace, and
including Antonio Torroni from the University of Rome and Hans-Jurgen
Bandelt from the University of Hamburg in Germany, was searching for the
source population of a puzzling marker known as X. This marker is found at
low frequencies throughout modern Native Americans and has also turned up
the remains of ancient Americans. Identified as a unique suite of genetic
variations, X is found on the DNA in the cellular organelle called the
mitochondrion, which is inherited only from the mother.
"Researchers had already identified four common genetic variants, called
haplogroups A, B, C, and D, in the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of living
Native Americans (Science 4 October 1996, p. 31). These haplogroups turned
up in various Asian populations, lending genetic support for the leading
theory that Native Americans descended primarily from these peoples. But
researchers also found a handful of other less common variants, one of which
was later identified as X.
"Haplogroup X was different: it was spotted by Torroni in a small number of
European populations. So the Emory group set out to explore the marker's
source. They analyzed blood samples from Native American, European, and
Asian populations and reviewed published studies. 'We fully expected to find
it in Asia,' like the other four Native American markers, says Brown.
"To their surprise, however, haplogroup X was only confirmed in the genes
of a smattering of living people in Europe and Asia Mino, including
Italians, Finns, and certain Israelis. The team's review of published mtDNA
sequences suggests that it may also be in Turks, Bulgarians, and Spaniards.
But Brown's search has yet to find haplogroup X in any Asian population. 'It
's not in Tibet, Mongolia, Southeast Asia, or Northeast Asia,' Schurr told
the meeting. 'The only time you pick it up is when you move west into
Eurasia." Virginia Morell, "Genes May Link Ancient Eurasians, Native
Americans," Science 280(1998):520
American anthropology/archaeology is gettng very interesting.
glenn
Foundation, Fall and Flood
Adam, Apes and Anthropology
http://www.flash.net/~mortongr/dmd.htm
Lots of information on creation/evolution
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