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you would love my family tree. My dad has 150000 names in it now. Traced back to Han dynasty, Ethiopian Princesses, Mohammed's grandparents, Cleopatra, Ptolemy, Shakespeare's sister, list goes on lol. Somehow related to Attenborough and Darwin too. :D
Given the continent blocking the way between Atlantic South America and the Austronesians, and the very wide ocean and tall mountain range blocking them in the other direction, has any genetic investigation into African populations been made to connect them up? There are Austronesians as close to Africa as Madagascar, after all, and West Africa to the Amazon is a relatively short hop that was even shorter 20K years ago.
Stefan Milo I am a Native American from the Emberá Tribe in Colombia (which is known to have Polynesian descent too! Rapa Nui video reference)who lives in England and studies paleoanthropology, prehistory, archaeology, archaeogenetics and etc. I had this pondering on my mind for so long as I thought that the Aboriginal Oceanians moved into South America through the Nazca Ridge which at the time of the ice age would have had islands that the Aboriginal Oceanians could have gone over and interbred with many Andean and Amazonian Indigenous populations so this really cleared it all up for me Stefan so thank you very much, lots of love ❤✊🏽🪶
I wouldn't completely rule that one out though even if it is rather unlikely. There is many possibilities how those genes ended up in South America and not really any evidence so far. The people who became the aboriginals must have been competent seafarers to reach Australia and the Kon--tiki expedition did prove that a primitive vessel could have made the journey at least between South America and Rapa Nui. I don't think it is very likely but if we continue to find evidence for Population Y in South America and don't find anything at all further north that would start to make a southern Pacific route far more likely. I don't think we really can rule anything out at this point since even very unlikely things do happen at times (Australia's very early settling is such a thing, we know it happened and we know it was over 55 000 years ago but it seems incredible unlikely since even with island hopping and lower shore lines it still was a long journey over the sea). If we however find some bones with the Population Y genetics either in South America or Asia, that would change things. It would help us with dating and maybe with the route they took as well. We really don't know if Population Y ever was in the Americas at all. or if people with a few percent of them migrated there and we don't know if they were Homo Sapiens or a previous unknown group either. There is just to many questions to even make an educated guess. We also still have the question when humans first reached the Americas. White sands have gotten a lot more dating recently but it still points towards around 21 500 years ago so I think the evidence there is pretty good but there are still a couple of sites (like that cave dated to 30 000 years ago in Mexico) that is dated older but still needs more work to be confirmed or written off. At this moment, close to anything is still possible.
Why do we have isolate the crossing of the bering straight just to the clovis/yakutian(siberian) peoples? Why cant we establish that older human populations crossed this part of the world earlier? Populations so old that its closest living relatives must be aboriginal pacific islanders having been separated for tens of thousands of years earlier than the supposed bering strait crossing? As we know many of the oldest and denisovan populations dna happen to survive in parts of South Asia. Why cant we observe the possibility that this earlier migration to the americas were all wiped out by a more modern migration? (Colombian here too and only looking propose the simplest explanation). The Rapa Nui migration to Easter Island only occured near the end of the medieval era, the trip to cross the pacific is that long and ardous!
@@reeyees50 There were Austronesians in Tierra Del Fuego and the southern New Zealand islands when the Polynesians arrived. The population in the northern New Zealand islands (North and South Island) had been wiped out by the eruption of the Taupo caldera in 233 to 260AD (VEI 8).
@@reeyees50 That is certainly a possibility and it is the likeliest explanation for where the people who made those footprints in White sands came from. However, the actual technology of the people who reached Rapa Nui around 1300 CE was certainly in use at least centuries earlier and we don't know when it was invented. And we do have that journey to Australia which is far less but still would have required more then some people on a couple of logs tied together. So while it is very unlikely, I don't think it is impossible. Stefan did have a program earlier of some Polynesian genes in a couple of towns in South America which is likely when the Polynesians got access to sweet potatoes in the 1300s. That is far later of course but it isn't like they had metal at the time or any other higher technology. So while I don't think that is the case, I think it is premature to write it off as impossible as well. So far, what evidence we have makes this theory the likeliest: around 22 000 years ago, people crossed Berings strait and sailed down the American west coast. They spent some time around White sands and then continued further south to South America. They already had 2% genes from some archaic unknown human with them. But that is just the likeliest explanation with the confirmed evidence we have today, until we actually finds more clues we can't say anything for certain or write anything off either besides the Solutrean hypothesis that doesn't have a single evidence for it and a lot speaking against it. We do also have proof that people came in at least 2 waves, likely more since even the one Clovis DNA we have and any other old DNA from North America lacks Population Y genes. Writing off anything that is unlikely but not impossible before we have the evidence is too early to do but neither should we believe that is the case, just leave the possibility open when more evidence shows itself.
Many years ago I watched an interview in a Brazilian show (Programa do Jo) with an expert in parasites that had been analyzing human coprolites found in the Serra da Capivara (where Luzia was found). She was saying that the samples had a parasite that was originally from Australasia, and that, if that population had had to go through Beringia, that parasite life cycle would have been interrupted due to the temperatures, so that she was convinced that such population had to have arrived in the Americas through the Pacific.
crossing the pacific is the obvious solution, but that would require recognition of those people's skills that Europeans don't want to recognise. Would be interesting to know though if that paracite's life cycle would have been interrupted if they headed a little south during the trip, cause there was an experiment done decades ago, called "contiki" that successfully travelled from South A. to the Pacific islands on a log raft & basic sail, due to the trade winds flowing that way, so most likely option if they travelled west to east would be to travel from further away from the equator, where the winds travel west to east
@@mehere8038of course Europeans dont want to acknowledge that! They spent years trying to sell us the same narrative that it was impossible for people of the east and west to have had contact before them! The more the truth comes out the more they deny it! But the evidence is there! Take for instance is monkeys of South America, they are all related to the monkeys of Africa. So how did they make it to South America, its believed by log rafting! You also have the case of Egyptians having cociane from Colombia in their blood samples and also rumors that they also traveled to Australia. The more we know the more the truth will be revealed.
Ya'et'eh im 1 💯% native american apache chiricahua male from southern arizona i came back with this 1 dna result thru ancestry as well including my apache relatives they came back 1 💯% native american of the southern arizona region and new mexico texas regions like myself i have y dna Q haplogroup and my maternal haplogroup is X haplogroup which is found in many of us native americans today in america I came back 0%aboriginal aka 0%australian 0%african 0% asian 0%european 0%middle eastern 0%mixed 0%polynesian From what i have seen and researched. We our own people us native americans we been here in the americas first and its the 100% truth. Unfortunately many people get butthurt about it We never came from Asia you white folks always push this narrative of berengia when we been here first in america we 0% asians Also You gotta understand the indigenous people of brazil are scoring 1 💯% native americans of brazil south america today So they are 0% aboriginal australians in indigenous amazonians and luzia is related with 1 💯% native american of krenak people of bahia so yeah so earliest people of south america are 0% aboriginal australians 0% melanesians This video is just another way of trying to lie about native americans because they cant deal with the fact that we are still 1 💯% native american from alaska thru chile today i typed what i typed a 100% truth that MANY MANY CANT HANDLE YEAH good bye - Apache jesus aka Vo1ze
Its amazing the variety on YT, from the biggest grifter junk to impeccable videos like this, seeing this stuff is so refreshing and uplifting in crazy times.
@@M4-Z3-R0 honestly don't know many with prehistory like this one but for Ancient history I recommend Fall of Civilizations and World of Antiquity. Fall of Civilizations has great documentaries.
@@M4-Z3-R0 Gutsick Gibbon is also very high quality. Your Dinosaurs Are Wrong reviews toys but in a very nerdy and educative way. idk if you have meant prehistory channels specifically, but if not then i can also reccomend Medlife Crisis. all of those channels are made by people who have a real passion for their field and it just makes me so happy to see their enthusiasm. they also have high standards when it comes to quality of information. you can see that reading academic papers comes naturally to them and they dont just do it for the videos. they dont half ass the research like so many other science-related channels that base their content purely on other pop science sources and just link some study or two to make you think otherwise. or some will talk about each and every scientific field which is just... please, leave it to experts. a programme that talks about every kind of science will never be as meritoric as one where the author only talks about topics they are most knowledgable about. thats also something i like about the channels i listed - the authors can recognize what their field of expertise is and when something is beyond it, and i really respect them for this.
Stefan is the sports commentator of new archeology and paleogentics research and I love it. This info is so interesting and is delivered with that style that makes me chuckle.
I really enjoy this channel. I’m so incredibly fascinated by human evolution and the fact that we exist is incredible. I almost have a hard time coming to terms with the fact that we evolved to become what we are and the extraordinary circumstances that created that possibility. This channel shines a light on things in a way even I can understand. Never stop uploading.
@@gerrythorington7332 Interesting indeed, how we are not flying around all day, since gravity is only a theory, too. But way more interesting: What are YOUR facts? God created humans, because it's written in the bible? Human embryos in early stages look like those of fishes and other mammals by accident and pharyngeal arches are homologous by accident, too? What about mitochondrial DNA? Fossils? What about Lucy and all the other skeletal remains we have found and what about the stuff they wrote on cave walls? What about the flawed evolution of the eye and the laryngeal nerve of the giraffe? Pretty dumb creation for a perfect creator, don't you think? This is your chance to explain it to everybody.
@@gerrythorington7332I think he meant the channel in general...not this video. And he(creator) could theorize on every video! It's first I've ever seen.
Hi Stefan, I love your discussions. I'm an Australian Indigenous Heritage from 3-4 different tribes, WakkaWakka and GurangGurang Queensland, bloodline from my father's side, and they say we have Indian blood from my Great Grandparents on dad's side. My mother's side they say is Irish, Scottish, European somewhere? There are +- 500 different identified Aboriginal tribal nations in Australia, each with their own language and territory and usually made up of a large number of separate clans. Archaeologists say that the Aboriginal people first came to the Australian continent around 45,000 - 60, 000 years ago. But, we have locations showing much older, possibly over 100,000 years. The old people would say that our ancestors have always been here across these ancient lands. Stefan, I would be curious, and happy to do a Heritage DNA test.
My Mum loved and absorbed history and anthropology. Back in the 80s when everyone else said it was 40,000 years she was telling me she thought it might be 100-120,000 years (evidence of controlled fires in SW Victoria dating back over 100,000 years for example). We just haven't found them yet. Afterall, it's a long time and it gets harder, but it is so exciting. They may have been the first to master fire.
Could it be that the old people are telling the truth? This is out there but I recently watched a video on the expanding Earth. It postulates that the earth was much smaller in size and the land masses were connected. Pangea never seemed quite right to me.🤔 If all the land was connected in one area of the earth and the other 75%+ being water, wouldn't that have caused a highly unusual wobble?
@@tammybrown1104but the overwhelming majority of the earth is molten metal. only a really really small part is surface land or water. i think if you look at it as a ball from the side, there would be an extremely small difference as it spun and it wouldnt be significantly different than now
Thank you so much Stefan for filming in 4K. Not only is it amazing content, but also looks fabulous on my telly. You really deserve your own TV series.
I'm about 2/3rds of the way though - I studied Linguistics at university. If you look at where certain languages are spoken you initially see a big confusing mess. Then, as you consider how this mess came about you come to realise that what you are looking at is the result of waves and waves of population migration, with each new incoming wave pushing the members of the previous population further towards the habitable fringes of the territories that they used to own or replacing them. In Europe and India you see this sort of thing in the isolation of the Basques in the Pyrenees, the pushing of the Celtic languages out to the fringes of the British Isles, the compressing of the Dravidian languages into Southern India, the historic replacement of a much richer language landscape by descendents of Proto-IndoEuropean etc. Just as language distribution betrays past population migrations so would I expect genetics to tell the same ancient story, preserving remnants of the earliest migrations at the edges of lands furthest away from the epicentre of each migratory wave. So I expect that what this Y signal in South America shows us is a trace of a very early wave of migration out of Africa, some of whom came past India and then turned right and went down into the Andaman islands and Australasia whilst other of their companions continued on up through China, across Beringia, into North America and on down into South America. In most of these places this signal has been supplanted by subsequent waves of immigration e.g. the Han Chinese, the indigenous North American, but out at the edges the original signal lives on because these areas preserve their original inhabitants and/or subsequent edge-peoples who have been pushed even further out than their original migration took them...
Yes, you can even see certain geographic areas that formed "circuits" where nomadic peoples would roam around before occasionally exiting the circuit into the more settled areas, creating this domino effect that would happen again and again with each migration wave. T.E. Lawrence talks about one of these geographic circuits being the Arabian-Syrian desert, which resulted in waves of nomads that would naturally end up heading either into the settled villages and towns of the Levant or Mesopotamia and shaking up the status quo there. Another of these is the Eurasian Steppe, which either ejected nomads into the more settled areas of Europe, Northern China, or India/Middle East in repeated waves over the centuries. The North America Great Plains probably produced a similar effect. The nomads hardly ever wrote their history down, so you have to look at the records of the settled peoples they came into contact with (and archaeology, genetics and linguistics) to pick up clues about their history. From this you can glean information like some of the dynasties of China were not only Mongolian nomadic conquerors, but also probably connected to the Turks, Huns, and Indoaryan (Tocharian/Scythian?) nomads before that, they were just recorded under different names than when they would later show up in the histories of Europe. The Chinese would note in their records that the dynasty were a foreign people, but they would give them a Chinese name and record them in their records like any other Han dynasty, so you might miss that one group is the same that the Romans or Medieval Europeans would mention centuries later unless you can piece a few things together.
That makes sense but it still leaves the big question, where did that admixture occur? And what accounts for the apparent lack of this signal in native North Americans? Each possible answer to that question has its own difficulties, which Stefan exposits in this video.
A significant problem with this early peopling of the americas, is that there are no direct sites predating about 20,000ish years ago. For a population to have ended up reaching south america, you would think that even one single skeleton would have turned up by this point. The most ancient peopling of the americas (16000+ years ago) clearly involved a very small population, and even still there's evidence they left.
Thank you for bringing up the Havasupai scandal in AZ regarding the diabetes research.. I think that was ASU that did that transgression. wow Stefan I am in awe of the research you have done with respect to Indigenous people. In academia we spend years enlightening people to these issues and to hear you mention them with respect is music to my ears.
@@Bitchslapper316 I’m not the benevolent educator however. You spit some BS you’re going to get it back x10 little man. I only play the benevolent act for kids, adults who the education system has failed before my time i consider fair game for my decade or so of research in this field.
@@Bitchslapper316 I wish I had the privilege of ignoring marginalized people and being dismissive of them because my fragile YT boy ego doesn’t like being called out on BS.
Thanks for adding to my confusion. The human story is so much more complex (and interesting) than we thought just a few short years ago. A special thanks for including the links to the actual authors of the academic work. I'm enough of a geek that I actually read them. It is especially interesting to hear them speak to us directly. Great channel, and thanks for all your hard work. Keep confusing us!
The problem is pop culture, and social stigma and assumption. People don't understand science doesn't always work like common sense. The Americas happened in waves. The first wave of eurasian look more similar to Australasian and were dark skin. The reason being is that east asians didn't exist yet. The early inhabitants haven't split into different racial group. What ruins science is thoughts like "we have tattoos, we worship nature, we have tribal chief, so we must be native Americans and sailed to the Americas before anyone. " if this was the case then vikings would be related to native Americans too. Many people did tattoo, chiefdom, worshipped nature.
The Ute Mountain Ute tribe of Southwest Colorado has an oral tradition that they came from the south "up the spine" and not from northern migration. Also, Dr. Nathaniel Jeanson has done DNA research which also shows gene origination of some South American native peoples originating from Southeast Asia and Oceania
not surprising to me. I'm a white Aussie but I find it quite shocking the way my culture suppresses Indigenous achievements & history. I think the land route's ridiculous though, much more likely such competent seafaring people intentionally travelled there by boat. The higher dna levels on the pacific coast & lack of it in the north would support this
@@mehere8038 Huh? What are the evidence for the aborigines being a seafaring civilization? Arent they said to have been quite isolated for tens of thousands of years? Maybe the polynesians took some with them
@@frilansspion sorry, I'm combining both things into one. Yes I agree with you re Aboriginal peoples not being seafaring, just history suppressed. Polynesians are the seafaring ones, but included in the Y group (and history/technology also suppressed). Only real problem with what I'm saying is that the trade winds blow east to west around the equator & west to east needs to start the journey from much further south if wanting to do a straight trip with really basic tech (raft & basic sail that pushes one direction for example), which is what we're likely talking about when we look at how far back in history the genetics likely got there. Certainly possible there could have been trade & travel by seafaring people along the coast of Australia though, we know from Indigenous stories that the Chinese visited the north of Australia for example, but that's suppressed, no reason to think there's not more suppressed interaction, especially when going back as far in history as we are here. Still haven't explained the pollen & ash samples from Australia that were found in 2 studies to be "consistent with large scale firestick farming starting 120,000 years ago". We just don't know what was happening here when we go back even beyond 10,000-15,000 years ago (or even beyond 250 years ago really)
@@frilansspionthe peoples that would become indigenous Australians must have been seafaring as the landmass of Sahul (contemporary New Guinea and Australia combined) was separated by sea from Asia even at the time of lower sea levels. more recent instances of indigenous Australian sea faring can be seen in the trade/kinship of northern Australian indigenous groups with the Makassans of Sulawesi. well worth looking at research by historian Lynette Russell on this last point
Stefan, I am 23% Hopi and around 6% other "American Indian" from the New Mexico area. My mother's father was a Hopi, born on a reservation in NE NM. -- I have enjoyed your presentations for what seems like 5 years, but more probably 3 years. -- Lazoma Chavez, 1952
Fun fact! The skull and hands at 10:45 has some debates around if it could be considered the first case of decapitation in the Americas. From what I remember from grad school lectures, the pieces in this particular cave seem to have been assembled that way long after the person had passed away. There's this theory that after passing, the individual would be buried and, months or years later, their bones would be dug up and assembled in these sorts of manners. Folks there also had a surprisingly high sugar intake due to the local fruits available, and these very same fruits still exist and are part of the locals diet.
Thank you for the creation of this channel. I can say there isn’t another person doing what you are doing online and it’s greatly appreciated. I can’t thank you enough and keep it up. One of the more original RUclips channels in this whole sites catalog and I will forever be grateful for all the work you put into each video Stefan.
@@lakrids-pibe I'm an older Millenial - just old to enough the golden years following the collapse of the Soviet Union, before 9/11. And the internet, the goddamn internet
I love your videos dude. Some of the most straight forward, honest information available on the internet. Keep it up, we need people like you to help filter out all the bullshit.
Man your work is just amazing. Thank you for that. Brazillian historian here, proud to see researches from USP speaking to the channel. Shout out to you all!
Hi Stefan! Brazilian fan here. Among native tribes during the process of colonization of Brazil, the native tupi-guarani tribes of the coastal regions would distinguish themselves from the Tapuia (meaning "barbarians" or "the others". Few of these tribes survive to this day, dislodged from their original regions. Also, there are the Sambaquis, huge artificial mounds of accumulated shells and boned constructed by unknown, ancient people, much older than the natives we know today. We might have extinguished those tribed that carried those ancient Y haplogroups. Still a lot to discover. Btw, if you ever come visit Lagoa Santa you can hit me up as a translator! Cheers!
Bravo! As one of those armchair archaeologists you mentioned, I do share your facination with the question of the origins of the first peoples of the new world. I relish your podcasts on ancient DNA and appreciate the progress you have made over the last several years as more and more data has come forward. This is a very exciting time.
I would like to point you to looking into the chicken genetics that link the Quetcha chicken (of the Quetcha Indian tribe of coastal S. Am) to the Basket Bantams and the blue egg gene which appeared first in islands between Asia and Australia. This link I am providing will take you to a forum where a person whose call name of Resolutions has told the story. Unfortunately he was just telling the story to other chicken lovers and so has not cited the documentation like you would in a formal paper. But the info is extremely detailed and you should be able to Google who has been doing research on the blue egg gene and the Quetcha chicken. He makes a pretty good case for the chickens being brought to the Pacific coast of S. Am. by sailors. The fact that chickens were domesticated in SE Asia (Viet Nam) and then spread to the islands. It is figured that a virus in the Polynesian area caused the gene to change to blue for the egg color. The sailors used roosters on each boat to keep them calling to the other boats roosters so that they could keep the group together as they sailed the ocean. I think that this is your source of gene Y in S. Am. in humans. This is a brief summary of the article. Not included in that info is the fact that University of Georgia for many years had a special flock of Black Sumatras chickens that laid blue eggs. They were collected by one of their Agriculture professors in the 50's. The regular Sumatras lay white. There aren't any blue egg laying Sumatra left on the island now that I know of. Here is the link: www.backyardchickens.com/threads/quechua-tojuda-ameraucana-easter-eggers-in-vino-veritas.402512/page-2#post-4884673
The main problem I can see with the Pop Y entering the Americas alongside chickens is that Pop Y entered what would become the NA genome 2-3x farther back in history than the earliest evidence of chicken domestication. This isn't to say that the evidence for the chicken part of the story is incorrect. Just that I don't think the two are connected.
@@brittoncooper1251 Perhaps the Pop Y gene isn't connected. Perhaps that human gene migrated separately. But other human genes would have come along and it is worth doing an in depth study. Besides if you are wanting a noisy fog horn for your boat you just have to catch some wild ones from the jungle and put them in a cage and take some grain to feed them. They would have shown no sign of being domesticated if they were caught wild. The earliest you can call the domesticated is when they started crossing the Green Jungle Fowl with the Red Jungle Fowl to create hybrids called Beckisars. But their is a pathway on this blue egg gene that seems to follow the same path taken by Pop Y. First SE Asia then the islands between there and Australia then showing up in South Am. More research in needed. The people could have been first and later immigrants brought the chickens.
my family unearthed Aboriginal heritage in 2004, through my research into my heritage, I stumbled on this topic back in the early days of research and have followed it closely ever since, this was 1 of the best vids I've watched talking about it, even better than film mobs have done in documentaries, nice job
Stefan you’re blowing up! Just wanted to say loved the vid, you’ve been putting out loads of well good content lately 👍🏼 I’m particularly enjoying the topic of the ancient peopling of the Americas, but whatever you create is always quality. Education, wonder, and some laughs. Cheers for all the fun content. Oh P.S. Your iMac rules. I have one just like it. I can’t understand why they ditched the superior brushed aluminium and black/glass build and professional look for the new bland design with the fruity colours. Going to hang onto mine as long as I can. 🗿
Been looking foward to this video since you mentioned it months ago. I think you have the best videos on first Americans and the most up to date evidence.
In November 2018, scientists of the University of São Paulo and Harvard University released a study that contradicts the alleged Australo-Melanesian origin of Luzia. Using DNA sequencing, the results showed that Luzia was genetically entirely Amerindian. It was published in the journal Cell article (November 8, 2018), a paper in the journal Science from an affiliated team also reported new findings on fossil DNA from the first migrants to the Americas. Not too sure if this is the reviving of an old controversy or not or what they mean by "entirely amerindian".
That study was funded by the NIH. Harvard and the Max Plank Institute are both known for "interpreting" results to match their grantors desired outcome
You are looking at the australo Melanesia connection in the wrong order. Persian people's left Arabia/Persia and migrated to South America before migrating again to New Zealand and Polynesia/Easter island etc.
Stefan, I cannot help but wonder if a vast amount of evidential remains are now under water, archaeology needs to start exploring off shore underwater caves, that is where in my humble opinion is where the majority of our early remains will be found. Follow the coast, it is the easiest source of food.
@@scottemery4737 imagine what is under the sand/silt in oceans and under them deserts. north africa, gobi, even in north america. let alone the silt on the seas. if only we had a technique to find oddity amongst the grains.
Very excited to look at the video, and channel, when I am able! As a genealogist, I am stoked at your research methods and interest in family history, and genetics!
Stefan , your contributions to other enthusiasts are absolutely invaluable. You keep the interest and dialogue alive for , what , the common person ? And your synthesis of facts and opinions of working paleoanthropologists is always interesting , careful in its suppositions and hypotheses . And just a whole lot of fun. I am sure you will be responsible for inspiring many young people to follow scientific careers and that will only be good for the fight against those who claim some non-scientific superiority of race or culture or religion over those they wish to control. in short , your work is important . Long may you run.
you have no ideaaa how much I appreciate you laying out the cutting edge of anthro in the most gorgeous ways. Biological anthropology was my first love and I got into you from that but holy cow the way you just dig at what humanity is. Breath taking! And I don’t do this professionally currently, I just think about it all day and night. And the AMOUNT that these videos give me to chew on. The color these videos, these stories -give the past.. it’s special. Like from when im in my woods in my backyard and I’m just imagining who I’d be and what I’d be and what I’d think if it were 5000 years ago (or 50000, if I was a Neanderthal looking out into similar woods..) To when I am trying to make sense of the grandness of it all in my head, how do I think it went down. And I got what I think, I have always had theories, just how it all pieces together, patterns I notice and I’m not getting paid I’m just having fun. Holy cow do these videos keep it fun!! The constant new evidence, it’s a roller coaster of a story right now. Especially in the Americas and you seem to have psychic senses for the topics I’m bittttting myyyy naiiils to hear more about. Also awesome kids book!! Amazing story telling and illustrations and when I worked at the school oh my goodness those curious darlings ate it up! Truly thank you for that! Always gotta shout that out! If you made it to the bottom of my ramble : I love you so much ! have a good night
This was such a fascinating presentation-thank you for making this truly excellent video. As a scientist, I love the giddy excitement of making a completely unexpected discovery and the joy of gathering the incremental clues to unravel the mystery, generating two questions for every one potentially answered. Truly magical. Again, thank you for all the time and energy you invested in the making of this video-and all the others as well! A+ 10/10, chefs’ kiss, etc ❤
Great respect for your presentations. Enjoyable, fascinating, and knowledgeable, fine production quality, not to mention the breadth of human understanding.
Stefan did you ever research the site in Colorado, PBS did a special on it called, NOVA Ice Age Death Trap. In it there was some speculation of a mastodon that was butchered with stone tools and the bones have knife marks, but the kicker is the mastodon was dated 40,000yrs. ago. This is back in 2012 and I've not heard a word since.
2:45 In the book for Star Trek IV the Voyage home Sulu is in San Francisco in 1984 when a little boy runs up to him yelling "Grandpa, Grandpa." and jumps into his arms. The boy's mother is right behind apologizing to Sulu and explaining that he father had recently passee away, but admitting that he did look remarkably like her father. Sulu recognized the woman from family photographs as his great-great-great-great grandmother. The boy had mistaken his own great-great-great grandson for his grandfather. Sadly the young actor would not perform as desired and so the scene was never filmed.
As someone who just stumbled upon this channel a few months ago, i feel really grateful i did! This channel has such an interesting blend of research, expert takes, and derived insight. Thanks for the great content bro!
There is a video from TreyTheExplainer where he talks about the Ainu people of Japan and their origins, and how they share similar genetic affinities with the Andamanese peoples. Given they're northerly location, this seems like a prime example of the 'Proto-Pop Y people' (for lack of a better term) moving first into Eastern Asia and then going south into SEA/Australasia and north into Siberia/Beringia ahead of later migrations from whom Asian and Native Americans predominantly descend.
Only issue is that Pop Y is almost exclusively South American, meaning that either Pop Y was completely displaced from North America or the ancestors of Pop Y made it to South America by sea like the later Polynesians did.
@@bustavonnutz As it was mentioned in this video it looks like the interactions occurred prior to arriving in the America's, so either Pop-Y ancestry was carried by a distinct sub-population of the ancestral Americans who migrated more-or-less straight down into SA, or quite possibly the sampling work necessary hasn't been done with regards for northern populations yet, but it is there (or at least was there historically to some extent). Given the apparent speed of inhabitation (assuming the 18kya hypothesis holds true), discrete groups moving away across long-distances without putting down roots so to speak remains a possibility.
I'm 10% Amazonian/Andian Native American. It's amazing to think how part of me came from this people who must have gone through so much and now I'm here on my phone thanks to them. It's just mind-blowing.
12% taino very sad to consider loses in my family line Great grandma was and at least from what it seems it’s a legitimate union as opposed to the other options My mom knew her My ancestors watching me use a device that allows me to talk to anyone at any time To watch cartoons at 30
@@cfgpropertiesllc7292 nah not my bet She can feel free to correct me of course But She looks Hispanic Which means she see race differently then you do Im the same and I see white people as their own groups especially American White people You have your own culture and bad and good tendencies In America you guys put your “race” first In Puerto Rico Pale Dark Tan All Puerto Rican Culture come first We have some racist yes who use your people racism (not you but the racial ideas you culture uses don’t get all emotional on me not trying to offend ) But they even view American whites as different lol
@@aspiringscientificjournali1505 If she's brazilian she isn't hispanic, hispanic refers to a person with ancestry from a country whose primary language is Spanish, she's lusophone, neither of these words have nothing to do with race btw, I'm brazilian and my dna is 98% european, 2% north african.
@@CleytonStülpen Spain is European But yes I guess the country that made of is the Portuguese lol I love Brazil you guys almost did the only “good” eugenics It still would have been messed up Which was where they were actually gonna use better breeding methods They were like Not racial lines you guys just smash whoever and we can pick out the bed o combination by merit (Which is a better idea typically and how you should breed cattle to get better cattle from a large gene pool….. but we aren’t cattle so kinda mehhhhhhhh) The. Some racist people got mad and ruined It But I think you should take pride in the worlds first attempt in actual merit based eugenics instead of racist eugenics lol
Such a fascinating subject. I live in New Mexico and think about this often. Where did they come from? Where did they go? Thank you for talking about this.
Well, somehow I missed Stefan's brilliant video regarding all of this about 6 months ago! As soon as this video ended, my YT main page popped up and voila! There was a link to that posting. While feeling like a goof for missing that last summer, I am very grateful that he covered the topic so well. Now, just to nitpick, I am going to revisit what might have been discovered since I last looked into it but, if Stefan might have some knowlesge of the scholarship of the perhaps still considered mythical Menehune people in Hawaii. One memory of a link I read some unknown time ago (old brain syndrome) opined that the Menehune, were in fact a completely different group of people who settled the Hawaiian group of islands an unknown time before the recognized Hawaiians. They are referred to as being somewhat like leprechauns being described as little people who lived in remote places and vaguely harrassed the Hawaiians who were literally taking over their previous homesites/farms, etc. Greedy, aren't I? 😏
There's a similar story (memory? legend?) about a pre-Maori people in New Zealand. But the nature of Polynesian voyaging makes it hard to be certain if this is a different story or the same one. It's an intriguing idea.
Many years ago I saw a TV show discussing the "hugging the coast theory". They then talked about the possibility that the first waves of people lived on mainly hunting marine wildlife from canoo-like vessels (as sails had most likely not been invented yet) and as such went along the coast quite quickly; up the east asian coast, along the beringian coast, and down south the american coast. Kind of in a similar fashion to Inuits way of living and hunting marine animals. This way of living would have been possible even if it was only pack-ice up north as long as the prey was there on the ice. Similar pattern of lifestyle is theoretiziesed form som Ice Age populations in Europe that hugged the ice edge and hunted from boats. According to this hypothesis some of these groups might not even have stayed in the Beringian inland at all, and not nessecerly lingered particularly long along the Beringian coastline either. If this happen in several waves of different groups they would also have an incitament to push further each time along the coast, speeding up the migration. It kind of make sense to me, but the significance of the boats is rarely mentioned and rhe life style of "hugging the ice" are rarely mention in videos on YT though. What do not make sense to me though is this assumption that proto-native americans must have stayed isolated in the Beringian inland for so long. Why could not a significant portion of them have followed the earlier costal migration and gone by boats along the coast as well but then travled inland in North America before the corridor opened up (hence have their isolation in North America instead)? I know too little of this interesting subject to do a case either way though, but it would sure be interesting to see more of the reasoning behind it.
The genetics seems to show there was a period of isolation with mutations accumulating in a closely interbreeding population before dispersing again, locking in that set of mutations in the populations where we find them today. That it happened in Beringia is a hypothesis that is hard to test. I.e., genetics says it happened, but doesn't say where, so we are left to guess. Beringia just seems to many like the best guess we have.
@@sciptick Beringia is not a bad guess. However an isolated population on the American mainland could perhaps maybe explain earlier finds was my thinking.
I don't actually think there has to be a limit on basic sails inventions. Steerable ones, maybe, but a basic sail that supplements oars, really no reason they couldn't build that as soon as they could build canoes. They made clothing & elaborate fishing nets, so really no reason not to use the same materials used in those to make sails. Not sure if sails changes anything in this theory, but I just think it's worth pointing out that things like sails are often dismissed by researchers who want to claim them for Europe in a later era
Great study, Stefan. What you do and (just as importantly), how you do it, with your enthusiasm to look for facts and explore answers to riddles of our early development as a species is always engaging, smart, and thoughtful.
We in N.A. haven’t treated the indigenous people with respect. I can understand their reluctance to cooperate with studies that they see no benefit from.
A lot of Indigenous people want control over their histories and data sovereignty because of so many negative and exploitative experiences. I'm Lakota and every Indigenous Native person I know is tired of non-Native people asking for information so they can be the person with knowledge when no one can speak on our histories better than we can. It always ends up with this person or that person claiming to be an "expert" when they do not know any Indigenous Native people in real life and they cite outdated sources (ex.Ancient America channel) and often sensationalize info so that they start a RUclips channel that's monetized regardless of the harm it causes.
Hi Stephan ! I've been to Vanuatu, where anthropophagism still takes place on some Islands, and I'd like you to please differentiate between cannibalism, eating your own kind period, and anthropophagism, the ritual eating of humans with spiritual means (keeping their power, not letting their flesh go to waste...) Explorers of the 19th century who ate themselves as their ships got stuck in the Arctic ice were not commiting anthropophagism, they were cannibals out of despair. But eating grandma 20k years ago so she "stays with us" was anthropophagism. I love your videos !! Lots of love from France.
Native Americans are a mix of Ancient North East Asians (similar to Jomon or Proto-Austranesians) and Ancient North Eurasians, the NEA contributed most of the DNA of the Native Americans, the ANE had the greatest influence in South America, and They contributed Haplogroup Q, brother of R, the ANE themselves were 3/4 Gravettian (ancient populations of the Middle East/Europe) and 1/4 Basal Eastern Eurasian (these Basal were more similar to the Mena peoples such as the Onge)
How did australians make new dna in australia aproporos of nothing? Werent they the same group before they split, so wouldnt they maybe have that dna from before the split?
@@user-yt3xd2jl6dhey you sound like you know stuff. How did australians get new dna on their own. Wouldn't they have had shard dna from before they split off in directions which some dna survived some didn't? Like aren't we all related to áitiúla the hun?
I’ve visited Cueva de Milodon and ever since I’m pretty much convinced that the earliest group of modern humans to leave Africa did that by ‘boat’, from Eritrea to Yemen. Part of early humans must have been coastal dwelling, fish hunting, sea faring people. And if they left Africa by canoes, kayak, catamaran, tree trunk… nothing could stop them traveling all the way to Tierra del Fuego. If Homo Sapiens reached Australia by island hopping 60.000 years ago, they also must have been able to reach alaska the Aleutian highway, and travel the pacific American coast all the way south, pretty fast. The oldest ‘boat’ ever found (the ‘canoe of Pesse’, only 8000 years old) was discovered in my little country in Western Europe, where Homo Sapiens arrived several thousands of years after Australia. It must have been the peaty soil, preserving that old tree trunk, but it just can’t be the oldest ship ever existed. Evidence that Australia, the Andaman Islands and America were populated long before, means there must have been ‘boats’ 8 to 10 times older than that oldest ‘boat’. The Beringia landbridge isn’t needed to explain early American occupation. And if Beringia is lost to the sea… why wouldn’t every coastal Pacific settlement of the first inhabitants of the Americas?
What a giant leap in logic. Listen to yourself. If they could go from Eritrea to Yemen, they'd have no trouble going to Terra del Fuego?!? Stop. That's s difference between 500NM and over 5000!!
@@FightXScience-wh6kx it’s the difference between a difficult 30 km once, about a 100.000 years ago. And a multiple times 50 km along an ice-shelf chasing seals and salmon 1500 generations later. Once they reached Alaska, the pacific shore was free to roam. Between Eritrea and Alaska they’ve been practicing on their way to Andaman, Taiwan, Japan and the Moluccan Islands. The crossing of the Gulf of Aden is highly hypothetical, but if humans did it, it must have been by boat. The crossing of Banda Sea and Andaman Sea 40.000 years later are proven and there isn’t any other way than by some kind of vessel. I just don’t see why historians need the Beringia landbridge to explain the occupation of america, while there never was a landbridge to Australia. But hey, what do I know? My ancestors took the easy way through Sinai and then turned left. The oldest known boat is just a tree trunk, preserved in a swamp. The people who occupied the shores and islands of the Indian Ocean must have had similar vessels, but those are lost at sea.
Honestly, it seems like Population Y were the first navigators. Very, very little of South America has been excavated to the extent of Asia or Europe or the Middle East. It would be shocking to me if we did NOT find evidence for a pre-Clovis population in South America. It is just a matter of time before we find it. The Polynesians were great navigators using almost none of what we consider "modern navigation." And yet, they populated a massive swath of the Pacific using nearly "Stone Age" technology. They clearly came to the Americas. A civilization before them could have done the same things to get to Australia and South America. Considering the human brain has been the same for roughly 70,000 years, this seems not only possible, but probable. The evidence is out there, and I'm certain we will find it, soon.
They very obviously did not do the same things as the Polynesians to reach South America. They did not, for example, work their way across the Pacific, island by island over centuries. We know this, because we can tell when the islands were first settled by man.
@@jeffmacdonald9863 This comment isn't going to age well. The proof will come sooner or later. We "knew" when the first people came to the Americas, too, and now we seem to be challenging that assumption a few times/year. Why are you confident you "know" when people came to the islands? As a resident of such an island, they are extraordinarily dynamic environments. Evidence of things over 10,000, 20,000, or more years would be hidden off the coast and underwater. Or changed by birds. Or vulcanism. Or dozens of other factors. If we cannot be confident about the date when people came to the Americas, (or Australia) it seems absurd to assert that you are 100% sure in the comments to a video presenting evidence that challenges these very assumptions ...
As an Israelite and an historian who has had the privilege to study history from primary sources available to serious academics I can assure you that we are on a planet with a group of Black people called Israelites who are literally responsible for everything associated with civilization and culture throughout history. We are on a Black planet due to the fact that nonblack people are not naturally occurring people according to science. Why can't socalled nonblack people tell us where they came from and how they came into being? I don't need someone who just got here to tell me I have always been here. Shalawam 👊🏿🕎⚔️🏹🪶🌽💜🙏🏿
FYI: Brazilian scientists make this discover 30 years ago, but just right know the American scientific community is accepting that, I learn about that in high school
This was first hypothesized over 100 yrs ago, one scientist or researcher is not enough to make it factually. Whether American, Brazilian, Japanese etc, it's a process and it takes years.
We are all taught things 30 years ago in school, even today, that are factually incorrect. I personally lean towards the fact that it's complicated, but that's not a thing is humans ever like to hear, that humans got to South America by many routes. I do think this suggests that there was some migration from Australasia/Micronesia/Melanesia/Polynesia but there needs to be some scientific proof and even with genetics, which is a fairly new area of study I'm not sure you can conclusively prove this, not yet anyway. We can't just go on what seems to be likely, not in the academic community, and that goes for academics in non white, non European parts of the world. Everyone is free to believe what they want and if this to you means it's likely unless proven otherwise that's up to you, I'd probably go along with you on this matter, but that doesn't make it fact beyond all doubt. I don't think pointing this out makes it racist either. There's are plenty of racist views going around these days but I don't think today most of academia in this area is racist (although I'll totally agree that it was in the past, and some of it was just accepted until not to long ago as well).
Most of the brazilian research on that topic is still bad science at best, and lunatic nationalism at worst. Your comment is like saying that the brits who thought sapiens originated in Europe was actually right, because we found that europeans tend to have Neanderthal admixture.
I'm greek and similar things have happened here where western scientists are just now discovering what we have known for decades by following artifacts, language
Thank you Stefan, I loved this video! (They are all great, but I liked this one particularly.) So much has been learned over my life time (60 years) that all my good work in history and science in school is a loss. Good thing you and others are making these documentaries and that I love to read! Thanks for your work!
The worlds oldest pyramid found in Indonesia is said to be 25000 year's old.. A reconstruction of it show's huge resemblance to the Pyramids in Central and South America's great pyramids..
So why couldn't population Y not have come across the Pacific? Why is it thought they went through Beringia? That would be a better explanation for them being found in S. America. All traces of prehistoric Britain's are gone, and that's only 3,000.00 years.
Totally agree I think modern science dismisses alot of truth about migration of certain tribes …. Its was and is common place for tribes to sail the seas in their boats whether it’s the Eskimo’s or Native American tribes of north or South America …. Alot of science is about possibility is about theory…. But I know that the Americas is part of Asia and the tribes are linked especially with the eastern Asians melanesians and austranesians…. The cultures and tribes are very similar in lifestyles etc
Maybe the reason theres more of this gene in south america is because its similar climate to the conditions they orignally came from, so they roamed around until they got to a place similar to where they were from because it felt like home, or a religious belief desribed this type of climate to search for as a holy land
No mystery here, the ancestors of the Papuan, population Y used to by wide spread throughout Asia. In fact the Ainu of Japan are the remnants of the northern branch of that population. If you look at the historical range of the Ainu it overlaps with the territory of the ancient Siberian and Beringians. My guess would be the admixture happened somewhere in that area.
As an INDIGENOUS MALAYO POLYNESIAN speaker from the ANCESTRAL LANDS OF POLYNESIANS - In short, I am MELANESIAN from East Indonesia / Papua. Our people have known for milennia that we did not only colonize Africa's Madagascar, but we ALSO went on East and became the ancestors of Polynesians and South American tribes. we didn't use landbridges but SEA VESSELS, OUTRIGGER TECHNOLOGY. DEEP INTO THE LAST ICE AGES. We reached deep into the Amazon There was also a GREAT landmass some ice ages ago in the pacific ocean that is no more. UNDERSTAND THAT THE FIRST POLYNESIANS LOOKED ALOT LIKE THE AVERAGE MELANESIAN FROM EAST INDONESIA, NU-CALEDONIA OR MORENOS FROM THE PHILIPPINES FOR EXAMPLE. SO WHEN YOU SAY POLYNESIAN, DON'T THINK JUST LIGHTSKIN WAVY HAIR, THINK DARKSKIN FRO AS WELL.
Not true. Population y were most likely in Asia. They were ancestral to Australasian Melanesians AND to some early migrants (via beringia) to South America. Australasian Melanesians did not go to the Americas. The first people of the Polynesian islands were the austronesian lapita, not Melanesians. Melanesians contributed later to Polynesian ancestry, and only within the last 1000 years did Polynesians then sail to Hawaii, Easter island, New Zealand and probably the Americas.
Oldest pyramid found in the world is in Indonesia.. A reconstruction of it looks like a early version of the great pyramids you find in the America's..
This is truth and black Americans also have some south Asian dna in small percentages. The Berengia was definitely not the only land bridge in the ancient world when there was less water on the earth. The South American Indians probably made it to North America and there was no Ice bridge between Texas and Mexico to stop them. There are mounds in the the North American Midwest and South East that no one can explain and the Mongolian natives told early European explorers and anthropologists that they didn’t construct them.
I think you should reevaluate what you just said to me and then research where the Lapita people came from.. They are literally the people from the Arafura region which are Alifuru people. Then research their genetic markers. @@eeeaten
we know quite a bit about it, but not precisely what happened. we do know there was contact between polynesians and native americans around 1200AD, and that polynesians probably got kumara then. we also know polynesians were the only people navigating the open ocean at that time, and were doing so in the pacific ocean. this is not related to the dna evidence in the video though, which arrived in the americas many thousands of years before polynesians even existed.
Is not there anything in Mexico that could add evidence to this topic? I’m Mexican and the variety of indigenous peoples and languages alive is underrated.
I heard of a cave in Mexico where some remains were dated 30000 years before present, but I don't know how accurate that datation is. Anyway, the great variability of Mesoamerican culture and languages was formed after the arrival of "modern" native Americans (descendants of the "Beringians"), about 10-11 kya, at a time when Europeans were still chasing wild cows and digging barely edible tubers from the ground.
@@eeeaten No, I don't think it was _more_ advanced than Europe, I was just pointing out that European culture had nothing to be smug about, in that time period. You see, I started believing that many people who get attracted by weird alt-history claims, do it out of a misplaced need for national pride.
Great video. Regarding your point that if Population Y was a distinct very early population dispersed across the Americas it would be very unlikely that we wouldn't have any human remains or other more concrete archaeological evidence for them (as we do for early Afro-Eurasian populations)... I agree. However, isn't this exactly the puzzling question that we have for all of the questionably dated very early archaeological sites in the Americas? For example, if the White Sands footprints really do date to approximately 23,000 years ago, then why do we have no uncontroversial human remains in the Americas older than about 13,000-15,000 years ago? If there have been human populations inhabiting the Americas from 23,000 years ago, does it really seem likely that all we'd have from the first eight to ten thousand years would be some footprints and the odd highly debatable stone "tool" or suggestively cracked animal bone? Where is the kind of concrete evidence that we have in prehistoric Eurasia and Africa, where we have comparatively abundant remains from much older human populations? I find the claims of a human presence at sites like the Cerutti Mastodon site extremely weak, whereas the White Sands footprints are definitely interesting... but, if the dating of the latter is accurate, then where are all the human remains and unambiguous tools for the first 8,000-10,000 years of human settlement in the Americas? People argue that we just haven't found them because population densities were so low, but Neanderthal and Homo erectus population densities were also extremely low (and much older) and archaeologists have been finding and identifying their remains for over 150 years. The total absence of very early human remains in the Americas is either a very puzzling archaeological mystery or the White Sands dating is off. I want to believe, but I think more evidence is needed.
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Stefan, your great great grandfather's occupation was recorded as "cork merchant", not "cork maker"!
you would love my family tree. My dad has 150000 names in it now. Traced back to Han dynasty, Ethiopian Princesses, Mohammed's grandparents, Cleopatra, Ptolemy, Shakespeare's sister, list goes on lol. Somehow related to Attenborough and Darwin too. :D
i remember the spoon mic days
Any source links for this video? Just curious 🧐
Given the continent blocking the way between Atlantic South America and the Austronesians, and the very wide ocean and tall mountain range blocking them in the other direction, has any genetic investigation into African populations been made to connect them up? There are Austronesians as close to Africa as Madagascar, after all, and West Africa to the Amazon is a relatively short hop that was even shorter 20K years ago.
Stefan Milo I am a Native American from the Emberá Tribe in Colombia (which is known to have Polynesian descent too! Rapa Nui video reference)who lives in England and studies paleoanthropology, prehistory, archaeology, archaeogenetics and etc. I had this pondering on my mind for so long as I thought that the Aboriginal Oceanians moved into South America through the Nazca Ridge which at the time of the ice age would have had islands that the Aboriginal Oceanians could have gone over and interbred with many Andean and Amazonian Indigenous populations so this really cleared it all up for me Stefan so thank you very much, lots of love ❤✊🏽🪶
Australian Aboriginals were ocean farers. It’s the only way (ever) to get to Australia.
I wouldn't completely rule that one out though even if it is rather unlikely. There is many possibilities how those genes ended up in South America and not really any evidence so far.
The people who became the aboriginals must have been competent seafarers to reach Australia and the Kon--tiki expedition did prove that a primitive vessel could have made the journey at least between South America and Rapa Nui.
I don't think it is very likely but if we continue to find evidence for Population Y in South America and don't find anything at all further north that would start to make a southern Pacific route far more likely.
I don't think we really can rule anything out at this point since even very unlikely things do happen at times (Australia's very early settling is such a thing, we know it happened and we know it was over 55 000 years ago but it seems incredible unlikely since even with island hopping and lower shore lines it still was a long journey over the sea).
If we however find some bones with the Population Y genetics either in South America or Asia, that would change things. It would help us with dating and maybe with the route they took as well. We really don't know if Population Y ever was in the Americas at all. or if people with a few percent of them migrated there and we don't know if they were Homo Sapiens or a previous unknown group either.
There is just to many questions to even make an educated guess. We also still have the question when humans first reached the Americas. White sands have gotten a lot more dating recently but it still points towards around 21 500 years ago so I think the evidence there is pretty good but there are still a couple of sites (like that cave dated to 30 000 years ago in Mexico) that is dated older but still needs more work to be confirmed or written off.
At this moment, close to anything is still possible.
Why do we have isolate the crossing of the bering straight just to the clovis/yakutian(siberian) peoples? Why cant we establish that older human populations crossed this part of the world earlier? Populations so old that its closest living relatives must be aboriginal pacific islanders having been separated for tens of thousands of years earlier than the supposed bering strait crossing? As we know many of the oldest and denisovan populations dna happen to survive in parts of South Asia. Why cant we observe the possibility that this earlier migration to the americas were all wiped out by a more modern migration? (Colombian here too and only looking propose the simplest explanation). The Rapa Nui migration to Easter Island only occured near the end of the medieval era, the trip to cross the pacific is that long and ardous!
@@reeyees50 There were Austronesians in Tierra Del Fuego and the southern New Zealand islands when the Polynesians arrived.
The population in the northern New Zealand islands (North and South Island) had been wiped out by the eruption of the Taupo caldera in 233 to 260AD (VEI 8).
@@reeyees50 That is certainly a possibility and it is the likeliest explanation for where the people who made those footprints in White sands came from.
However, the actual technology of the people who reached Rapa Nui around 1300 CE was certainly in use at least centuries earlier and we don't know when it was invented.
And we do have that journey to Australia which is far less but still would have required more then some people on a couple of logs tied together.
So while it is very unlikely, I don't think it is impossible.
Stefan did have a program earlier of some Polynesian genes in a couple of towns in South America which is likely when the Polynesians got access to sweet potatoes in the 1300s. That is far later of course but it isn't like they had metal at the time or any other higher technology.
So while I don't think that is the case, I think it is premature to write it off as impossible as well.
So far, what evidence we have makes this theory the likeliest: around 22 000 years ago, people crossed Berings strait and sailed down the American west coast. They spent some time around White sands and then continued further south to South America. They already had 2% genes from some archaic unknown human with them.
But that is just the likeliest explanation with the confirmed evidence we have today, until we actually finds more clues we can't say anything for certain or write anything off either besides the Solutrean hypothesis that doesn't have a single evidence for it and a lot speaking against it.
We do also have proof that people came in at least 2 waves, likely more since even the one Clovis DNA we have and any other old DNA from North America lacks Population Y genes.
Writing off anything that is unlikely but not impossible before we have the evidence is too early to do but neither should we believe that is the case, just leave the possibility open when more evidence shows itself.
As a Papuan Melanesian big thumbs up 👍 Great reporting.
Many years ago I watched an interview in a Brazilian show (Programa do Jo) with an expert in parasites that had been analyzing human coprolites found in the Serra da Capivara (where Luzia was found). She was saying that the samples had a parasite that was originally from Australasia, and that, if that population had had to go through Beringia, that parasite life cycle would have been interrupted due to the temperatures, so that she was convinced that such population had to have arrived in the Americas through the Pacific.
Please see my comment relating to the Pacific Ocean area.
crossing the pacific is the obvious solution, but that would require recognition of those people's skills that Europeans don't want to recognise.
Would be interesting to know though if that paracite's life cycle would have been interrupted if they headed a little south during the trip, cause there was an experiment done decades ago, called "contiki" that successfully travelled from South A. to the Pacific islands on a log raft & basic sail, due to the trade winds flowing that way, so most likely option if they travelled west to east would be to travel from further away from the equator, where the winds travel west to east
@@mehere8038of course Europeans dont want to acknowledge that! They spent years trying to sell us the same narrative that it was impossible for people of the east and west to have had contact before them! The more the truth comes out the more they deny it! But the evidence is there! Take for instance is monkeys of South America, they are all related to the monkeys of Africa. So how did they make it to South America, its believed by log rafting! You also have the case of Egyptians having cociane from Colombia in their blood samples and also rumors that they also traveled to Australia. The more we know the more the truth will be revealed.
Ya'et'eh im 1 💯% native american apache chiricahua male from southern arizona i came back with this 1 dna result thru ancestry as well including my apache relatives they came back 1 💯% native american of the southern arizona region and new mexico texas regions like myself i have y dna Q haplogroup and my maternal haplogroup is X haplogroup which is found in many of us native americans today in america
I came back
0%aboriginal aka 0%australian
0%african
0% asian
0%european
0%middle eastern
0%mixed
0%polynesian
From what i have seen and researched. We our own people us native americans we been here in the americas first and its the 100% truth. Unfortunately many people get butthurt about it
We never came from Asia you white folks always push this narrative of berengia when we been here first in america we 0% asians
Also You gotta understand the indigenous people of brazil are scoring 1 💯% native americans of brazil south america today
So they are 0% aboriginal australians in indigenous amazonians and luzia is related with 1 💯% native american of krenak people of bahia so yeah so earliest people of south america are 0% aboriginal australians 0% melanesians
This video is just another way of trying to lie about native americans because they cant deal with the fact that we are still 1 💯% native american from alaska thru chile today i typed what i typed a 100% truth that MANY MANY CANT HANDLE YEAH good bye - Apache jesus aka Vo1ze
That's quite a lot of rowing.
I just love your channel. I'm 63 and a Lifelong learner. Thankyou
Me too!
Its amazing the variety on YT, from the biggest grifter junk to impeccable videos like this, seeing this stuff is so refreshing and uplifting in crazy times.
Right? All the ads are very scammy too along w comments
I agree. YT is my main media goto.
Are there any more youtube channels like Stefan Milo?
@@M4-Z3-R0 honestly don't know many with prehistory like this one but for Ancient history I recommend Fall of Civilizations and World of Antiquity. Fall of Civilizations has great documentaries.
@@M4-Z3-R0 Gutsick Gibbon is also very high quality. Your Dinosaurs Are Wrong reviews toys but in a very nerdy and educative way. idk if you have meant prehistory channels specifically, but if not then i can also reccomend Medlife Crisis. all of those channels are made by people who have a real passion for their field and it just makes me so happy to see their enthusiasm. they also have high standards when it comes to quality of information. you can see that reading academic papers comes naturally to them and they dont just do it for the videos. they dont half ass the research like so many other science-related channels that base their content purely on other pop science sources and just link some study or two to make you think otherwise. or some will talk about each and every scientific field which is just... please, leave it to experts. a programme that talks about every kind of science will never be as meritoric as one where the author only talks about topics they are most knowledgable about. thats also something i like about the channels i listed - the authors can recognize what their field of expertise is and when something is beyond it, and i really respect them for this.
Stefan is the sports commentator of new archeology and paleogentics research and I love it. This info is so interesting and is delivered with that style that makes me chuckle.
I really enjoy this channel. I’m so incredibly fascinated by human evolution and the fact that we exist is incredible. I almost have a hard time coming to terms with the fact that we evolved to become what we are and the extraordinary circumstances that created that possibility. This channel shines a light on things in a way even I can understand. Never stop uploading.
Fo shizzle. I get a blown mind thinking about how we had the right body plan to survive all the mass extinctions.
Interesting how you take theories as fact!
@@gerrythorington7332 Interesting indeed, how we are not flying around all day, since gravity is only a theory, too.
But way more interesting: What are YOUR facts? God created humans, because it's written in the bible? Human embryos in early stages look like those of fishes and other mammals by accident and pharyngeal arches are homologous by accident, too? What about mitochondrial DNA? Fossils? What about Lucy and all the other skeletal remains we have found and what about the stuff they wrote on cave walls? What about the flawed evolution of the eye and the laryngeal nerve of the giraffe? Pretty dumb creation for a perfect creator, don't you think?
This is your chance to explain it to everybody.
@@gerrythorington7332interesting how you confuse hypothesis and theory 🤔🙄
@@gerrythorington7332I think he meant the channel in general...not this video.
And he(creator) could theorize on every video! It's first I've ever seen.
Hi Stefan, I love your discussions.
I'm an Australian Indigenous Heritage from 3-4 different tribes, WakkaWakka and GurangGurang Queensland, bloodline from my father's side, and they say we have Indian blood from my Great Grandparents on dad's side. My mother's side they say is Irish, Scottish, European somewhere?
There are +- 500 different identified Aboriginal tribal nations in Australia, each with their own language and territory and usually made up of a large number of separate clans. Archaeologists say that the Aboriginal people first came to the Australian continent around 45,000 - 60, 000 years ago. But, we have locations showing much older, possibly over 100,000 years. The old people would say that our ancestors have always been here across these ancient lands.
Stefan, I would be curious, and happy to do a Heritage DNA test.
My Mum loved and absorbed history and anthropology. Back in the 80s when everyone else said it was 40,000 years she was telling me she thought it might be 100-120,000 years (evidence of controlled fires in SW Victoria dating back over 100,000 years for example). We just haven't found them yet. Afterall, it's a long time and it gets harder, but it is so exciting. They may have been the first to master fire.
Could it be that the old people are telling the truth?
This is out there but I recently watched a video on the expanding Earth. It postulates that the earth was much smaller in size and the land masses were connected.
Pangea never seemed quite right to me.🤔 If all the land was connected in one area of the earth and the other 75%+ being water, wouldn't that have caused a highly unusual wobble?
@@George-o5v6h Was I not supposed to notice when he knuckled in and sat down? lol
@@tammybrown1104i really enjoyed the miniminuteman video about that topic
@@tammybrown1104but the overwhelming majority of the earth is molten metal. only a really really small part is surface land or water. i think if you look at it as a ball from the side, there would be an extremely small difference as it spun and it wouldnt be significantly different than now
as a brazilian i get super thrilled whenever you mention my country in your videos stefan! Happy new year from Rio! Super fan!
Lol
There are many sources of people to go to live in Brazil.
Why who cares, disregard such arbitary things as borders which only serve to divide and insituate slavery to the masters.
@@chadmarx7718 Lol
TMI I dont care what you do with your pubic hair.
Thank you so much Stefan for filming in 4K. Not only is it amazing content, but also looks fabulous on my telly. You really deserve your own TV series.
Brilliant, just got in from a very long day's work and can now relax to this before bed. Thanks Milo, always love your videos; my favourite RUclipsr
idk how you dont have at least 1M subs by now with such insanely high quality content
8 months later and Stefan's not even at 500k yet, severely underrated channel.
I'm about 2/3rds of the way though - I studied Linguistics at university. If you look at where certain languages are spoken you initially see a big confusing mess. Then, as you consider how this mess came about you come to realise that what you are looking at is the result of waves and waves of population migration, with each new incoming wave pushing the members of the previous population further towards the habitable fringes of the territories that they used to own or replacing them. In Europe and India you see this sort of thing in the isolation of the Basques in the Pyrenees, the pushing of the Celtic languages out to the fringes of the British Isles, the compressing of the Dravidian languages into Southern India, the historic replacement of a much richer language landscape by descendents of Proto-IndoEuropean etc. Just as language distribution betrays past population migrations so would I expect genetics to tell the same ancient story, preserving remnants of the earliest migrations at the edges of lands furthest away from the epicentre of each migratory wave. So I expect that what this Y signal in South America shows us is a trace of a very early wave of migration out of Africa, some of whom came past India and then turned right and went down into the Andaman islands and Australasia whilst other of their companions continued on up through China, across Beringia, into North America and on down into South America. In most of these places this signal has been supplanted by subsequent waves of immigration e.g. the Han Chinese, the indigenous North American, but out at the edges the original signal lives on because these areas preserve their original inhabitants and/or subsequent edge-peoples who have been pushed even further out than their original migration took them...
Yes, you can even see certain geographic areas that formed "circuits" where nomadic peoples would roam around before occasionally exiting the circuit into the more settled areas, creating this domino effect that would happen again and again with each migration wave. T.E. Lawrence talks about one of these geographic circuits being the Arabian-Syrian desert, which resulted in waves of nomads that would naturally end up heading either into the settled villages and towns of the Levant or Mesopotamia and shaking up the status quo there. Another of these is the Eurasian Steppe, which either ejected nomads into the more settled areas of Europe, Northern China, or India/Middle East in repeated waves over the centuries. The North America Great Plains probably produced a similar effect. The nomads hardly ever wrote their history down, so you have to look at the records of the settled peoples they came into contact with (and archaeology, genetics and linguistics) to pick up clues about their history. From this you can glean information like some of the dynasties of China were not only Mongolian nomadic conquerors, but also probably connected to the Turks, Huns, and Indoaryan (Tocharian/Scythian?) nomads before that, they were just recorded under different names than when they would later show up in the histories of Europe. The Chinese would note in their records that the dynasty were a foreign people, but they would give them a Chinese name and record them in their records like any other Han dynasty, so you might miss that one group is the same that the Romans or Medieval Europeans would mention centuries later unless you can piece a few things together.
That makes sense but it still leaves the big question, where did that admixture occur? And what accounts for the apparent lack of this signal in native North Americans? Each possible answer to that question has its own difficulties, which Stefan exposits in this video.
yea too bad the native American languages are more shrouded in mystery and most have gone extinct
A significant problem with this early peopling of the americas, is that there are no direct sites predating about 20,000ish years ago. For a population to have ended up reaching south america, you would think that even one single skeleton would have turned up by this point. The most ancient peopling of the americas (16000+ years ago) clearly involved a very small population, and even still there's evidence they left.
@@aperson1 If it is true that they lived a coastal life and extended their range down the coast then all of these sites are probably underwater...
Thank you for bringing up the Havasupai scandal in AZ regarding the diabetes research.. I think that was ASU that did that transgression. wow Stefan I am in awe of the research you have done with respect to Indigenous people. In academia we spend years enlightening people to these issues and to hear you mention them with respect is music to my ears.
"Enlightening" lol
@@Bitchslapper316 yay my first skinheads not even 24 hours. You want a lesson?
@@Bitchslapper316 I’m not the benevolent educator however. You spit some BS you’re going to get it back x10 little man. I only play the benevolent act for kids, adults who the education system has failed before my time i consider fair game for my decade or so of research in this field.
@@pinchevulpes I don't know or care the content of your classes. I'm just making fun of how self righteous and sanctimonious that comment came across.
@@Bitchslapper316 I wish I had the privilege of ignoring marginalized people and being dismissive of them because my fragile YT boy ego doesn’t like being called out on BS.
Thanks for adding to my confusion. The human story is so much more complex (and interesting) than we thought just a few short years ago. A special thanks for including the links to the actual authors of the academic work. I'm enough of a geek that I actually read them. It is especially interesting to hear them speak to us directly. Great channel, and thanks for all your hard work. Keep confusing us!
The problem is pop culture, and social stigma and assumption. People don't understand science doesn't always work like common sense. The Americas happened in waves. The first wave of eurasian look more similar to Australasian and were dark skin. The reason being is that east asians didn't exist yet. The early inhabitants haven't split into different racial group. What ruins science is thoughts like "we have tattoos, we worship nature, we have tribal chief, so we must be native Americans and sailed to the Americas before anyone. " if this was the case then vikings would be related to native Americans too. Many people did tattoo, chiefdom, worshipped nature.
The Ute Mountain Ute tribe of Southwest Colorado has an oral tradition that they came from the south "up the spine" and not from northern migration.
Also, Dr. Nathaniel Jeanson has done DNA research which also shows gene origination of some South American native peoples originating from Southeast Asia and Oceania
I've heard this from other tribes, too!
Bro how would "up" in this context definitively refer to North? Up refers to North in a western context.
I was born in Papua New Guinea, with Melanesian blood and grew up in Australia. These findings are very surprising to me.
PNG may be the birthplace of many tribes that spread far and wide.
not surprising to me. I'm a white Aussie but I find it quite shocking the way my culture suppresses Indigenous achievements & history. I think the land route's ridiculous though, much more likely such competent seafaring people intentionally travelled there by boat. The higher dna levels on the pacific coast & lack of it in the north would support this
@@mehere8038 Huh? What are the evidence for the aborigines being a seafaring civilization? Arent they said to have been quite isolated for tens of thousands of years? Maybe the polynesians took some with them
@@frilansspion sorry, I'm combining both things into one. Yes I agree with you re Aboriginal peoples not being seafaring, just history suppressed. Polynesians are the seafaring ones, but included in the Y group (and history/technology also suppressed).
Only real problem with what I'm saying is that the trade winds blow east to west around the equator & west to east needs to start the journey from much further south if wanting to do a straight trip with really basic tech (raft & basic sail that pushes one direction for example), which is what we're likely talking about when we look at how far back in history the genetics likely got there. Certainly possible there could have been trade & travel by seafaring people along the coast of Australia though, we know from Indigenous stories that the Chinese visited the north of Australia for example, but that's suppressed, no reason to think there's not more suppressed interaction, especially when going back as far in history as we are here. Still haven't explained the pollen & ash samples from Australia that were found in 2 studies to be "consistent with large scale firestick farming starting 120,000 years ago". We just don't know what was happening here when we go back even beyond 10,000-15,000 years ago (or even beyond 250 years ago really)
@@frilansspionthe peoples that would become indigenous Australians must have been seafaring as the landmass of Sahul (contemporary New Guinea and Australia combined) was separated by sea from Asia even at the time of lower sea levels. more recent instances of indigenous Australian sea faring can be seen in the trade/kinship of northern Australian indigenous groups with the Makassans of Sulawesi. well worth looking at research by historian Lynette Russell on this last point
Stefan, I am 23% Hopi and around 6% other "American Indian" from the New Mexico area. My mother's father was a Hopi, born on a reservation in NE NM. -- I have enjoyed your presentations for what seems like 5 years, but more probably 3 years. -- Lazoma Chavez, 1952
Yes he knows his name....you've just watched it!
Who cares,well done, let me guess, you're Irish too
Welsh and Scot.@@dougyohooglefrogtownrovers9017
@@dougyohooglefrogtownrovers9017bro, I care. Also what site did you get your dna done? (Hoping commenter)
You’re not actually indigenous American I hope you know that
Your channel might be the most unambiguously positive and uplifting content I regularly consume, thank you for that
Fun fact! The skull and hands at 10:45 has some debates around if it could be considered the first case of decapitation in the Americas. From what I remember from grad school lectures, the pieces in this particular cave seem to have been assembled that way long after the person had passed away. There's this theory that after passing, the individual would be buried and, months or years later, their bones would be dug up and assembled in these sorts of manners.
Folks there also had a surprisingly high sugar intake due to the local fruits available, and these very same fruits still exist and are part of the locals diet.
Your videos this year have been extraordinary! Thanks for continuing to share this content.
Thank you for the creation of this channel. I can say there isn’t another person doing what you are doing online and it’s greatly appreciated. I can’t thank you enough and keep it up. One of the more original RUclips channels in this whole sites catalog and I will forever be grateful for all the work you put into each video Stefan.
As a population Y, I cant thank you enough for this Stefan! Hero as always
tell us your story so we can figure this out! lmao
I'm gen X myself
@@lakrids-pibe I'm an older Millenial - just old to enough the golden years following the collapse of the Soviet Union, before 9/11. And the internet, the goddamn internet
I love your videos dude. Some of the most straight forward, honest information available on the internet. Keep it up, we need people like you to help filter out all the bullshit.
Man your work is just amazing. Thank you for that.
Brazillian historian here, proud to see researches from USP speaking to the channel.
Shout out to you all!
Hi Stefan! Brazilian fan here. Among native tribes during the process of colonization of Brazil, the native tupi-guarani tribes of the coastal regions would distinguish themselves from the Tapuia (meaning "barbarians" or "the others". Few of these tribes survive to this day, dislodged from their original regions. Also, there are the Sambaquis, huge artificial mounds of accumulated shells and boned constructed by unknown, ancient people, much older than the natives we know today. We might have extinguished those tribed that carried those ancient Y haplogroups. Still a lot to discover. Btw, if you ever come visit Lagoa Santa you can hit me up as a translator! Cheers!
Thank you for continuing to disseminate truth, Stefan. Your personality makes it fun to learn with your videos.
Bravo! As one of those armchair archaeologists you mentioned, I do share your facination with the question of the origins of the first peoples of the new world. I relish your podcasts on ancient DNA and appreciate the progress you have made over the last several years as more and more data has come forward. This is a very exciting time.
This is by far the best watch on you tube Stefan Milo!
I would like to point you to looking into the chicken genetics that link the Quetcha chicken (of the Quetcha Indian tribe of coastal S. Am) to the Basket Bantams and the blue egg gene which appeared first in islands between Asia and Australia. This link I am providing will take you to a forum where a person whose call name of Resolutions has told the story. Unfortunately he was just telling the story to other chicken lovers and so has not cited the documentation like you would in a formal paper. But the info is extremely detailed and you should be able to Google who has been doing research on the blue egg gene and the Quetcha chicken. He makes a pretty good case for the chickens being brought to the Pacific coast of S. Am. by sailors. The fact that chickens were domesticated in SE Asia (Viet Nam) and then spread to the islands. It is figured that a virus in the Polynesian area caused the gene to change to blue for the egg color. The sailors used roosters on each boat to keep them calling to the other boats roosters so that they could keep the group together as they sailed the ocean. I think that this is your source of gene Y in S. Am. in humans. This is a brief summary of the article. Not included in that info is the fact that University of Georgia for many years had a special flock of Black Sumatras chickens that laid blue eggs. They were collected by one of their Agriculture professors in the 50's. The regular
Sumatras lay white. There aren't any blue egg laying Sumatra left on the island now that I know of. Here is the link: www.backyardchickens.com/threads/quechua-tojuda-ameraucana-easter-eggers-in-vino-veritas.402512/page-2#post-4884673
the blue egg gene in chickens is actually a dominant gene, so my chickens and I find you post fascinating.
The main problem I can see with the Pop Y entering the Americas alongside chickens is that Pop Y entered what would become the NA genome 2-3x farther back in history than the earliest evidence of chicken domestication.
This isn't to say that the evidence for the chicken part of the story is incorrect. Just that I don't think the two are connected.
@@brittoncooper1251 Perhaps the Pop Y gene isn't connected. Perhaps that human gene migrated separately. But other human genes would have come along and it is worth doing an in depth study. Besides if you are wanting a noisy fog horn for your boat you just have to catch some wild ones from the jungle and put them in a cage and take some grain to feed them. They would have shown no sign of being domesticated if they were caught wild. The earliest you can call the domesticated is when they started crossing the Green Jungle Fowl with the Red Jungle Fowl to create hybrids called Beckisars. But their is a pathway on this blue egg gene that seems to follow the same path taken by Pop Y. First SE Asia then the islands between there and
Australia then showing up in South Am. More research in needed. The people could have been first and later immigrants brought the chickens.
He made a whole video on this a few months back. Group Y is something different.
I'm with you, leaknester. The more we learn the better it gets. And, oddly, the more we learn, the less we seem to know!
Bloody brilliant mate. I love that you just stick to the evidence and facts. No bias, no bowing to agendas. Just the facts. Keep it going
my family unearthed Aboriginal heritage in 2004, through my research into my heritage, I stumbled on this topic back in the early days of research and have followed it closely ever since, this was 1 of the best vids I've watched talking about it, even better than film mobs have done in documentaries, nice job
Stefan you’re blowing up! Just wanted to say loved the vid, you’ve been putting out loads of well good content lately 👍🏼 I’m particularly enjoying the topic of the ancient peopling of the Americas, but whatever you create is always quality. Education, wonder, and some laughs. Cheers for all the fun content.
Oh P.S. Your iMac rules. I have one just like it. I can’t understand why they ditched the superior brushed aluminium and black/glass build and professional look for the new bland design with the fruity colours. Going to hang onto mine as long as I can. 🗿
Been looking foward to this video since you mentioned it months ago. I think you have the best videos on first Americans and the most up to date evidence.
Your video showed up on my timeline/page & I decided to watch. Loved the presentation & the information you all explained was fascinating.
Terrific video. This Population Y ancestry in Brazil has been in my thoughts since I first learned about it.
Every single piece you drop is solid gold. Anthother banger! Thanks for your hard work and scholarship.
Absolutely fascinating! Stefen, you out-do yourself every time. Thanks for bringing these complex studies to the untutored masses.
Stefan, your videos continue to get better and better!
In November 2018, scientists of the University of São Paulo and Harvard University released a study that contradicts the alleged Australo-Melanesian origin of Luzia. Using DNA sequencing, the results showed that Luzia was genetically entirely Amerindian. It was published in the journal Cell article (November 8, 2018), a paper in the journal Science from an affiliated team also reported new findings on fossil DNA from the first migrants to the Americas.
Not too sure if this is the reviving of an old controversy or not or what they mean by "entirely amerindian".
That study was funded by the NIH. Harvard and the Max Plank Institute are both known for "interpreting" results to match their grantors desired outcome
You are looking at the australo Melanesia connection in the wrong order. Persian people's left Arabia/Persia and migrated to South America before migrating again to New Zealand and Polynesia/Easter island etc.
Really fascinating subject, and I love that your excitement for it carries us through your videos.
Stefan, I cannot help but wonder if a vast amount of evidential remains are now under water, archaeology needs to start exploring off shore underwater caves, that is where in my humble opinion is where the majority of our early remains will be found.
Follow the coast, it is the easiest source of food.
But those underwater caves are now under 100 feet of silt. How do we find them?
@@scottemery4737 imagine what is under the sand/silt in oceans and under them deserts. north africa, gobi, even in north america. let alone the silt on the seas. if only we had a technique to find oddity amongst the grains.
It makes total sense, actually. Because during the ice age these caves were not underwater. Nice tip!
You've been on a roll recently! awesome work
Very excited to look at the video, and channel, when I am able! As a genealogist, I am stoked at your research methods and interest in family history, and genetics!
So no skjeletons in the cupboard there then. What a fascinating study. Thanks for trying to clarify it for us Milo.
Stefan , your contributions to other enthusiasts are absolutely invaluable. You keep the interest and dialogue alive for , what , the common person ? And your synthesis of facts and opinions of working paleoanthropologists is always interesting , careful in its suppositions and hypotheses . And just a whole lot of fun. I am sure you will be responsible for inspiring many young people to follow scientific careers and that will only be good for the fight against those who claim some non-scientific superiority of race or culture or religion over those they wish to control. in short , your work is important . Long may you run.
Another interesting video. Thanks Stefan, Tabita, & Marcos.
Love your closing... this is making me think and cry. Gonna get high, rewatch and think about my ancestors.
you have no ideaaa how much I appreciate you laying out the cutting edge of anthro in the most gorgeous ways. Biological anthropology was my first love and I got into you from that but holy cow the way you just dig at what humanity is. Breath taking! And I don’t do this professionally currently, I just think about it all day and night. And the AMOUNT that these videos give me to chew on. The color these videos, these stories -give the past.. it’s special. Like from when im in my woods in my backyard and I’m just imagining who I’d be and what I’d be and what I’d think if it were 5000 years ago (or 50000, if I was a Neanderthal looking out into similar woods..)
To when I am trying to make sense of the grandness of it all in my head, how do I think it went down. And I got what I think, I have always had theories, just how it all pieces together, patterns I notice and I’m not getting paid I’m just having fun. Holy cow do these videos keep it fun!! The constant new evidence, it’s a roller coaster of a story right now. Especially in the Americas and you seem to have psychic senses for the topics I’m bittttting myyyy naiiils to hear more about.
Also awesome kids book!! Amazing story telling and illustrations and when I worked at the school oh my goodness those curious darlings ate it up! Truly thank you for that! Always gotta shout that out!
If you made it to the bottom of my ramble : I love you so much ! have a good night
This was such a fascinating presentation-thank you for making this truly excellent video. As a scientist, I love the giddy excitement of making a completely unexpected discovery and the joy of gathering the incremental clues to unravel the mystery, generating two questions for every one potentially answered. Truly magical.
Again, thank you for all the time and energy you invested in the making of this video-and all the others as well! A+ 10/10, chefs’ kiss, etc ❤
Great respect for your presentations. Enjoyable, fascinating, and knowledgeable, fine production quality, not to mention the breadth of human understanding.
I just happened upon your video today...I had lots of fun watching it..I look forward to seeing more of those you share on youtube.
Stefan did you ever research the site in Colorado, PBS did a special on it called, NOVA Ice Age Death Trap. In it there was some speculation of a mastodon that was butchered with stone tools and the bones have knife marks, but the kicker is the mastodon was dated 40,000yrs. ago. This is back in 2012 and I've not heard a word since.
You consistently bring me joy, Steve-O. For thank I say "thankya".
Love seeing your videos pop up, always the highest quality content
2:45 In the book for Star Trek IV the Voyage home Sulu is in San Francisco in 1984 when a little boy runs up to him yelling "Grandpa, Grandpa." and jumps into his arms. The boy's mother is right behind apologizing to Sulu and explaining that he father had recently passee away, but admitting that he did look remarkably like her father. Sulu recognized the woman from family photographs as his great-great-great-great grandmother.
The boy had mistaken his own great-great-great grandson for his grandfather.
Sadly the young actor would not perform as desired and so the scene was never filmed.
I can't get enough star trek facts. I mean pre genes death. Dont want to know about it after that.
As someone who just stumbled upon this channel a few months ago, i feel really grateful i did!
This channel has such an interesting blend of research, expert takes, and derived insight. Thanks for the great content bro!
Im glad to see your channel grow, and the quality of your content is impressive.... but i miss Spoon 😢
There is a video from TreyTheExplainer where he talks about the Ainu people of Japan and their origins, and how they share similar genetic affinities with the Andamanese peoples. Given they're northerly location, this seems like a prime example of the 'Proto-Pop Y people' (for lack of a better term) moving first into Eastern Asia and then going south into SEA/Australasia and north into Siberia/Beringia ahead of later migrations from whom Asian and Native Americans predominantly descend.
I’ve suspected that after studying the Ainu. They seem to share phenotypic traits with Andamanese people like facial structure, darker skin, etc.
Only issue is that Pop Y is almost exclusively South American, meaning that either Pop Y was completely displaced from North America or the ancestors of Pop Y made it to South America by sea like the later Polynesians did.
@@bustavonnutz yea I think they most likely got replaced. Similar to how Haplogroup D diminished in Asia, now only sparse populations
@@bustavonnutz As it was mentioned in this video it looks like the interactions occurred prior to arriving in the America's, so either Pop-Y ancestry was carried by a distinct sub-population of the ancestral Americans who migrated more-or-less straight down into SA, or quite possibly the sampling work necessary hasn't been done with regards for northern populations yet, but it is there (or at least was there historically to some extent). Given the apparent speed of inhabitation (assuming the 18kya hypothesis holds true), discrete groups moving away across long-distances without putting down roots so to speak remains a possibility.
I've seen this video, I think they're all linked
Excellent video - fascinating discussing the dynamics and possibilities. Thanks again and keep up the great work!
I'm 10% Amazonian/Andian Native American. It's amazing to think how part of me came from this people who must have gone through so much and now I'm here on my phone thanks to them. It's just mind-blowing.
12% taino very sad to consider loses in my family line
Great grandma was and at least from what it seems it’s a legitimate union as opposed to the other options
My mom knew her
My ancestors watching me use a device that allows me to talk to anyone at any time
To watch cartoons at 30
Naw babe your white like me
@@cfgpropertiesllc7292 nah not my bet
She can feel free to correct me of course
But
She looks Hispanic
Which means she see race differently then you do
Im the same and I see white people as their own groups especially American
White people
You have your own culture and bad and good tendencies
In America you guys put your “race” first
In Puerto Rico
Pale
Dark
Tan
All
Puerto Rican
Culture come first
We have some racist yes who use your people racism (not you but the racial ideas you culture uses don’t get all emotional on me not trying to offend )
But they even view American whites as different lol
@@aspiringscientificjournali1505 If she's brazilian she isn't hispanic, hispanic refers to a person with ancestry from a country whose primary language is Spanish, she's lusophone, neither of these words have nothing to do with race btw, I'm brazilian and my dna is 98% european, 2% north african.
@@CleytonStülpen Spain is European
But yes I guess the country that made of is the Portuguese lol
I love Brazil you guys almost did the only “good” eugenics
It still would have been messed up
Which was where they were actually gonna use better breeding methods
They were like
Not racial lines you guys just smash whoever and we can pick out the bed o combination by merit
(Which is a better idea typically and how you should breed cattle to get better cattle from a large gene pool….. but we aren’t cattle so kinda mehhhhhhhh)
The. Some racist people got mad and ruined
It
But I think you should take pride in the worlds first attempt in actual merit based eugenics instead of racist eugenics lol
Gringo Historian living in Brasil, thank you for this!
Such a fascinating subject. I live in New Mexico and think about this often. Where did they come from? Where did they go? Thank you for talking about this.
In Brasil, the Australasians were hunted by the Asian native tribes, it s documented with designs on the walls of Sand cliffs in that region
Well, somehow I missed Stefan's brilliant video regarding all of this about 6 months ago! As soon as this video ended, my YT main page popped up and voila! There was a link to that posting. While feeling like a goof for missing that last summer, I am very grateful that he covered the topic so well. Now, just to nitpick, I am going to revisit what might have been discovered since I last looked into it but, if Stefan might have some knowlesge of the scholarship of the perhaps still considered mythical Menehune people in Hawaii. One memory of a link I read some unknown time ago (old brain syndrome) opined that the Menehune, were in fact a completely different group of people who settled the Hawaiian group of islands an unknown time before the recognized Hawaiians. They are referred to as being somewhat like leprechauns being described as little people who lived in remote places and vaguely harrassed the Hawaiians who were literally taking over their previous homesites/farms, etc. Greedy, aren't I? 😏
There's a similar story (memory? legend?) about a pre-Maori people in New Zealand. But the nature of Polynesian voyaging makes it hard to be certain if this is a different story or the same one. It's an intriguing idea.
Many years ago I saw a TV show discussing the "hugging the coast theory". They then talked about the possibility that the first waves of people lived on mainly hunting marine wildlife from canoo-like vessels (as sails had most likely not been invented yet) and as such went along the coast quite quickly; up the east asian coast, along the beringian coast, and down south the american coast. Kind of in a similar fashion to Inuits way of living and hunting marine animals. This way of living would have been possible even if it was only pack-ice up north as long as the prey was there on the ice. Similar pattern of lifestyle is theoretiziesed form som Ice Age populations in Europe that hugged the ice edge and hunted from boats. According to this hypothesis some of these groups might not even have stayed in the Beringian inland at all, and not nessecerly lingered particularly long along the Beringian coastline either. If this happen in several waves of different groups they would also have an incitament to push further each time along the coast, speeding up the migration. It kind of make sense to me, but the significance of the boats is rarely mentioned and rhe life style of "hugging the ice" are rarely mention in videos on YT though.
What do not make sense to me though is this assumption that proto-native americans must have stayed isolated in the Beringian inland for so long. Why could not a significant portion of them have followed the earlier costal migration and gone by boats along the coast as well but then travled inland in North America before the corridor opened up (hence have their isolation in North America instead)?
I know too little of this interesting subject to do a case either way though, but it would sure be interesting to see more of the reasoning behind it.
The genetics seems to show there was a period of isolation with mutations accumulating in a closely interbreeding population before dispersing again, locking in that set of mutations in the populations where we find them today. That it happened in Beringia is a hypothesis that is hard to test. I.e., genetics says it happened, but doesn't say where, so we are left to guess. Beringia just seems to many like the best guess we have.
@@sciptick Beringia is not a bad guess. However an isolated population on the American mainland could perhaps maybe explain earlier finds was my thinking.
I don't actually think there has to be a limit on basic sails inventions. Steerable ones, maybe, but a basic sail that supplements oars, really no reason they couldn't build that as soon as they could build canoes. They made clothing & elaborate fishing nets, so really no reason not to use the same materials used in those to make sails. Not sure if sails changes anything in this theory, but I just think it's worth pointing out that things like sails are often dismissed by researchers who want to claim them for Europe in a later era
I say this for every video, but a new Stefan Milo video day is a good day!!
Great study, Stefan. What you do and (just as importantly), how you do it, with your enthusiasm to look for facts and explore answers to riddles of our early development as a species is always engaging, smart, and thoughtful.
Great video, you're pumping out such quality content lately.
I've been waiting for this one.
I've only read a little on the subject and have been looking forward to your opinions on it.
You're a good guy, Stefan.
that's so cool! imagine how many migrations, sites, and unknown groups that we haven't touched with our knowlegde yet!
We in N.A. haven’t treated the indigenous people with respect. I can understand their reluctance to cooperate with studies that they see no benefit from.
A lot of Indigenous people want control over their histories and data sovereignty because of so many negative and exploitative experiences. I'm Lakota and every Indigenous Native person I know is tired of non-Native people asking for information so they can be the person with knowledge when no one can speak on our histories better than we can. It always ends up with this person or that person claiming to be an "expert" when they do not know any Indigenous Native people in real life and they cite outdated sources (ex.Ancient America channel) and often sensationalize info so that they start a RUclips channel that's monetized regardless of the harm it causes.
Extremely Interesting Episode 👍
Hi Stephan ! I've been to Vanuatu, where anthropophagism still takes place on some Islands, and I'd like you to please differentiate between cannibalism, eating your own kind period, and anthropophagism, the ritual eating of humans with spiritual means (keeping their power, not letting their flesh go to waste...)
Explorers of the 19th century who ate themselves as their ships got stuck in the Arctic ice were not commiting anthropophagism, they were cannibals out of despair. But eating grandma 20k years ago so she "stays with us" was anthropophagism.
I love your videos !! Lots of love from France.
Makes so much sense. Things go back far further than anyone has been allowed for.
Perhaps multiple waves of migration from Asia to the Americas? Super interesting to think about. Thanks Stefan, stellar as always.
Native Americans are a mix of Ancient North East Asians (similar to Jomon or Proto-Austranesians) and Ancient North Eurasians, the NEA contributed most of the DNA of the Native Americans, the ANE had the greatest influence in South America, and They contributed Haplogroup Q, brother of R, the ANE themselves were 3/4 Gravettian (ancient populations of the Middle East/Europe) and 1/4 Basal Eastern Eurasian (these Basal were more similar to the Mena peoples such as the Onge)
@@user-yt3xd2jl6d Who are the Mena people? Sorry, I haven't heard of them.
How did australians make new dna in australia aproporos of nothing? Werent they the same group before they split, so wouldnt they maybe have that dna from before the split?
@@user-yt3xd2jl6dhey you sound like you know stuff. How did australians get new dna on their own. Wouldn't they have had shard dna from before they split off in directions which some dna survived some didn't? Like aren't we all related to áitiúla the hun?
I’ve visited Cueva de Milodon and ever since I’m pretty much convinced that the earliest group of modern humans to leave Africa did that by ‘boat’, from Eritrea to Yemen. Part of early humans must have been coastal dwelling, fish hunting, sea faring people.
And if they left Africa by canoes, kayak, catamaran, tree trunk… nothing could stop them traveling all the way to Tierra del Fuego.
If Homo Sapiens reached Australia by island hopping 60.000 years ago, they also must have been able to reach alaska the Aleutian highway, and travel the pacific American coast all the way south, pretty fast.
The oldest ‘boat’ ever found (the ‘canoe of Pesse’, only 8000 years old) was discovered in my little country in Western Europe, where Homo Sapiens arrived several thousands of years after Australia.
It must have been the peaty soil, preserving that old tree trunk, but it just can’t be the oldest ship ever existed. Evidence that Australia, the Andaman Islands and America were populated long before, means there must have been ‘boats’ 8 to 10 times older than that oldest ‘boat’.
The Beringia landbridge isn’t needed to explain early American occupation.
And if Beringia is lost to the sea… why wouldn’t every coastal Pacific settlement of the first inhabitants of the Americas?
What a giant leap in logic. Listen to yourself. If they could go from Eritrea to Yemen, they'd have no trouble going to Terra del Fuego?!? Stop. That's s difference between 500NM and over 5000!!
@@FightXScience-wh6kx it’s the difference between a difficult 30 km once, about a 100.000 years ago. And a multiple times 50 km along an ice-shelf chasing seals and salmon 1500 generations later. Once they reached Alaska, the pacific shore was free to roam.
Between Eritrea and Alaska they’ve been practicing on their way to Andaman, Taiwan, Japan and the Moluccan Islands.
The crossing of the Gulf of Aden is highly hypothetical, but if humans did it, it must have been by boat. The crossing of Banda Sea and Andaman Sea 40.000 years later are proven and there isn’t any other way than by some kind of vessel.
I just don’t see why historians need the Beringia landbridge to explain the occupation of america, while there never was a landbridge to Australia.
But hey, what do I know? My ancestors took the easy way through Sinai and then turned left.
The oldest known boat is just a tree trunk, preserved in a swamp. The people who occupied the shores and islands of the Indian Ocean must have had similar vessels, but those are lost at sea.
I fully agree.
Honestly, it seems like Population Y were the first navigators. Very, very little of South America has been excavated to the extent of Asia or Europe or the Middle East. It would be shocking to me if we did NOT find evidence for a pre-Clovis population in South America. It is just a matter of time before we find it. The Polynesians were great navigators using almost none of what we consider "modern navigation." And yet, they populated a massive swath of the Pacific using nearly "Stone Age" technology. They clearly came to the Americas. A civilization before them could have done the same things to get to Australia and South America. Considering the human brain has been the same for roughly 70,000 years, this seems not only possible, but probable. The evidence is out there, and I'm certain we will find it, soon.
They very obviously did not do the same things as the Polynesians to reach South America. They did not, for example, work their way across the Pacific, island by island over centuries. We know this, because we can tell when the islands were first settled by man.
@@jeffmacdonald9863 This comment isn't going to age well. The proof will come sooner or later. We "knew" when the first people came to the Americas, too, and now we seem to be challenging that assumption a few times/year. Why are you confident you "know" when people came to the islands? As a resident of such an island, they are extraordinarily dynamic environments. Evidence of things over 10,000, 20,000, or more years would be hidden off the coast and underwater. Or changed by birds. Or vulcanism. Or dozens of other factors. If we cannot be confident about the date when people came to the Americas, (or Australia) it seems absurd to assert that you are 100% sure in the comments to a video presenting evidence that challenges these very assumptions ...
As an Israelite and an historian who has had the privilege to study history from primary sources available to serious academics I can assure you that we are on a planet with a group of Black people called Israelites who are literally responsible for everything associated with civilization and culture throughout history. We are on a Black planet due to the fact that nonblack people are not naturally occurring people according to science. Why can't socalled nonblack people tell us where they came from and how they came into being? I don't need someone who just got here to tell me I have always been here. Shalawam 👊🏿🕎⚔️🏹🪶🌽💜🙏🏿
I am sure some humans came across the Pacific.
This is fascinating thank you
FYI: Brazilian scientists make this discover 30 years ago, but just right know the American scientific community is accepting that, I learn about that in high school
This was first hypothesized over 100 yrs ago, one scientist or researcher is not enough to make it factually. Whether American, Brazilian, Japanese etc, it's a process and it takes years.
We are all taught things 30 years ago in school, even today, that are factually incorrect. I personally lean towards the fact that it's complicated, but that's not a thing is humans ever like to hear, that humans got to South America by many routes. I do think this suggests that there was some migration from Australasia/Micronesia/Melanesia/Polynesia but there needs to be some scientific proof and even with genetics, which is a fairly new area of study I'm not sure you can conclusively prove this, not yet anyway.
We can't just go on what seems to be likely, not in the academic community, and that goes for academics in non white, non European parts of the world. Everyone is free to believe what they want and if this to you means it's likely unless proven otherwise that's up to you, I'd probably go along with you on this matter, but that doesn't make it fact beyond all doubt. I don't think pointing this out makes it racist either. There's are plenty of racist views going around these days but I don't think today most of academia in this area is racist (although I'll totally agree that it was in the past, and some of it was just accepted until not to long ago as well).
Most of the brazilian research on that topic is still bad science at best, and lunatic nationalism at worst.
Your comment is like saying that the brits who thought sapiens originated in Europe was actually right, because we found that europeans tend to have Neanderthal admixture.
I'm greek and similar things have happened here where western scientists are just now discovering what we have known for decades by following artifacts, language
@@pablogats4627 Greece is western. What are you talking about?
Love the gentle kind and compassionate way you handle this❤
It would be interesting to hear your thoughts on the Cerutti Mastodon.
Thank you Stefan, I loved this video! (They are all great, but I liked this one particularly.) So much has been learned over my life time (60 years) that all my good work in history and science in school is a loss. Good thing you and others are making these documentaries and that I love to read! Thanks for your work!
My grandfather was Chahta, and this might explain the trace Australian DNA that Gedmatch found in me.
Chahta and other tribes have stories of the short people who were here when we got here.
Please see my comment on the Australian-Pacific-South America connection.
If they were here very early and a very tiny population?
@@barnowl. i can't find your comments.
@@rahannneon Look for a b in a colored (green or blue) circle. It is there somewhere in the many comments.
A nomadic tribe could go from Sundaland to Chile in a generation. Wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility
The worlds oldest pyramid found in Indonesia is said to be 25000 year's old.. A reconstruction of it show's huge resemblance to the Pyramids in Central and South America's great pyramids..
Ancient Austronesians were great sailers and navigator's so anything is possible..
"Indonesians" disoveres Madagascar long before Africans arrived
Maybe they went the other way
Very interesting. Thing is all the knowledge is relevant to the time. what we know could be changed withing next decades. Keep up the good work
So why couldn't population Y not have come across the Pacific? Why is it thought they went through Beringia?
That would be a better explanation for them being found in S. America.
All traces of prehistoric Britain's are gone, and that's only 3,000.00 years.
Please see my comment regarding the Australian-Pacific Ocean-South American connection.
Britons have 15% of their ancestry from over 15kya
An artic fox was recently documented as walking on the ice from Norway to Canada. To think that humans could not do such a feat discredits us greatly.
Totally agree I think modern science dismisses alot of truth about migration of certain tribes …. Its was and is common place for tribes to sail the seas in their boats whether it’s the Eskimo’s or Native American tribes of north or South America …. Alot of science is about possibility is about theory…. But I know that the Americas is part of Asia and the tribes are linked especially with the eastern Asians melanesians and austranesians…. The cultures and tribes are very similar in lifestyles etc
They just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich
Near ironclad proof.
That was fascinating. Thank you.
Maybe the reason theres more of this gene in south america is because its similar climate to the conditions they orignally came from, so they roamed around until they got to a place similar to where they were from because it felt like home, or a religious belief desribed this type of climate to search for as a holy land
No mystery here, the ancestors of the Papuan, population Y used to by wide spread throughout Asia. In fact the Ainu of Japan are the remnants of the northern branch of that population. If you look at the historical range of the Ainu it overlaps with the territory of the ancient Siberian and Beringians. My guess would be the admixture happened somewhere in that area.
Indonesia mate 🤠 Still a massive melting pot today..
Please see my comment on the Australia-South Pacific Ocean-South America connection.
As an INDIGENOUS MALAYO POLYNESIAN speaker from the ANCESTRAL LANDS OF POLYNESIANS - In short, I am MELANESIAN from East Indonesia / Papua.
Our people have known for milennia that we did not only colonize Africa's Madagascar, but we ALSO went on East and became the ancestors of Polynesians and South American tribes. we didn't use landbridges but SEA VESSELS, OUTRIGGER TECHNOLOGY. DEEP INTO THE LAST ICE AGES. We reached deep into the Amazon
There was also a GREAT landmass some ice ages ago in the pacific ocean that is no more.
UNDERSTAND THAT THE FIRST POLYNESIANS LOOKED ALOT LIKE THE AVERAGE MELANESIAN FROM EAST INDONESIA, NU-CALEDONIA OR MORENOS FROM THE PHILIPPINES FOR EXAMPLE. SO WHEN YOU SAY POLYNESIAN, DON'T THINK JUST LIGHTSKIN WAVY HAIR, THINK DARKSKIN FRO AS WELL.
Not true. Population y were most likely in Asia. They were ancestral to Australasian Melanesians AND to some early migrants (via beringia) to South America. Australasian Melanesians did not go to the Americas. The first people of the Polynesian islands were the austronesian lapita, not Melanesians. Melanesians contributed later to Polynesian ancestry, and only within the last 1000 years did Polynesians then sail to Hawaii, Easter island, New Zealand and probably the Americas.
Oldest pyramid found in the world is in Indonesia.. A reconstruction of it looks like a early version of the great pyramids you find in the America's..
This is truth and black Americans also have some south Asian dna in small percentages. The Berengia was definitely not the only land bridge in the ancient world when there was less water on the earth. The South American Indians probably made it to North America and there was no Ice bridge between Texas and Mexico to stop them. There are mounds in the the North American Midwest and South East that no one can explain and the Mongolian natives told early European explorers and anthropologists that they didn’t construct them.
@@Lindel60 what
I think you should reevaluate what you just said to me and then research where the Lapita people came from.. They are literally the people from the Arafura region which are Alifuru people. Then research their genetic markers. @@eeeaten
"tapestry of humanity" great way to describe it.
Polynesians got the Pacific yam or "kumara" off south american natives sometime in the early AD. How they managed to do this nobody knows.
we know quite a bit about it, but not precisely what happened. we do know there was contact between polynesians and native americans around 1200AD, and that polynesians probably got kumara then. we also know polynesians were the only people navigating the open ocean at that time, and were doing so in the pacific ocean. this is not related to the dna evidence in the video though, which arrived in the americas many thousands of years before polynesians even existed.
Is not there anything in Mexico that could add evidence to this topic? I’m Mexican and the variety of indigenous peoples and languages alive is underrated.
I heard of a cave in Mexico where some remains were dated 30000 years before present, but I don't know how accurate that datation is. Anyway, the great variability of Mesoamerican culture and languages was formed after the arrival of "modern" native Americans (descendants of the "Beringians"), about 10-11 kya, at a time when Europeans were still chasing wild cows and digging barely edible tubers from the ground.
@@federicogiana are you suggesting native american culture 10,000ya was 'more advanced' than in europe at that time? how so?
@@eeeaten No, I don't think it was _more_ advanced than Europe, I was just pointing out that European culture had nothing to be smug about, in that time period.
You see, I started believing that many people who get attracted by weird alt-history claims, do it out of a misplaced need for national pride.
@@federicogiana ok, sounds reasonable :)
Great video.
Regarding your point that if Population Y was a distinct very early population dispersed across the Americas it would be very unlikely that we wouldn't have any human remains or other more concrete archaeological evidence for them (as we do for early Afro-Eurasian populations)... I agree. However, isn't this exactly the puzzling question that we have for all of the questionably dated very early archaeological sites in the Americas? For example, if the White Sands footprints really do date to approximately 23,000 years ago, then why do we have no uncontroversial human remains in the Americas older than about 13,000-15,000 years ago? If there have been human populations inhabiting the Americas from 23,000 years ago, does it really seem likely that all we'd have from the first eight to ten thousand years would be some footprints and the odd highly debatable stone "tool" or suggestively cracked animal bone? Where is the kind of concrete evidence that we have in prehistoric Eurasia and Africa, where we have comparatively abundant remains from much older human populations? I find the claims of a human presence at sites like the Cerutti Mastodon site extremely weak, whereas the White Sands footprints are definitely interesting... but, if the dating of the latter is accurate, then where are all the human remains and unambiguous tools for the first 8,000-10,000 years of human settlement in the Americas? People argue that we just haven't found them because population densities were so low, but Neanderthal and Homo erectus population densities were also extremely low (and much older) and archaeologists have been finding and identifying their remains for over 150 years. The total absence of very early human remains in the Americas is either a very puzzling archaeological mystery or the White Sands dating is off. I want to believe, but I think more evidence is needed.