SummaryWe report genome-wide ancient DNA from 49 individuals forming four parallel time transects in Belize, Brazil, the Central Andes, and the Southern Cone, each dating to at least ∼9,000 years ago. The common ancestral population radiated rapidly from just one of the two early branches that contributed to Native Americans today. We document two previously unappreciated streams of gene flow between North and South America. One affected the Central Andes by ∼4,200 years ago, while the other explains an affinity between the oldest North American genome associated with the Clovis culture and the oldest Central and South Americans from Chile, Brazil, and Belize. However, this was not the primary source for later South Americans, as the other ancient individuals derive from lineages without specific affinity to the Clovis-associated genome, suggesting a population replacement that began at least 9,000 years ago and was followed by substantial population continuity in multiple regions.

There is a consensus that modern humans arrived in the Americas 15,000–20,000 y ago during the Late Pleistocene, most probably from northeast Asia through Beringia. However, there is still debate about the time of entry and number of migratory waves, including apparent inconsistencies between genetic and morphological data on Paleoamericans. Here we report the identification of mitochondrial sequences belonging to haplogroups characteristic of Polynesians in DNA extracted from ancient skulls of the now extinct Botocudo Indians from Brazil. The identification of these two Polynesian haplogroups was confirmed in independent replications in Brazil and Denmark, ensuring reliability of the data. Parallel analysis of 12 other Botocudo individuals yielded only the well-known Amerindian mtDNA haplogroup C1. Potential scenarios to try to help understand these results are presented and discussed. The findings of this study may be relevant for the understanding of the pre-Columbian and/or post-Columbian peopling of the Americas.

A modificação intencional dos dentes foi muito difundida na África, vindo com escravos para a América. No Brasil foram encontradas em alguns sítios arqueológicos, sendo aqui estudadas em dois cemitérios históricos do Brasil: Pretos Novos, no Rio de Janeiro (único cemitério de um mercado de escravos na América), e cemitérios da antiga Sé de Salvador. Entre 570 dentes (30 indivíduos) dos Pretos Novos foram encontrados 13 dentes modificados. Entre 3181 dentes da Sé (62 enterros primários do séc. XVIII, e número indeterminado de re-deposições de outros períodos) foram encontrados 122 dentes modificados. Sua análise resultou em 13 tipos de modificações, a maior parte nos incisivos centrais superiores, e 10 tipos de arcos dentários modificados, evidenciando-se a técnica de percussão e lascamento dos dentes na maior parte dos casos. O achado de diferentes estilos de modificações sugere diferentes origens geográficas para os escravos do Rio e Salvador, o que é consistente com os dados históricos. No adro da Sé, a proximidade de enterros com modificações dentárias semelhantes sugere laços étnicos ou sociais, talvez de parentesco, entre os mortos.

Este artigo apresenta os primeiros resultados da retomada de estudos sobre os processos construtivos de sambaquis na Baía de Guanabara, RJ. São feitas a análise e discussão dos dados de campo de Osvaldo Heredia (década de 1980) e também aqueles obtidos pelas escavações recentes (2010, 2011). São propostas hipóteses para o sambaqui de Amourins a partir de sua associação com os sepultamentos humanos e o ritual funerário. Ainda que os resultados sejam preliminares, e que as hipóteses precisem ser melhor investigadas, já é possível afrmar que a construção deste sítio é estreitamente relacionada aos funerais. A abordagem transdisciplinar e os novos protocolos adotados contribuíram efetivamente para este resultado, ajudando a documentar mais claramente o processo construtivo do sítio.

Tuberculosis (TB) has been described in Native American populations prior to the arrival of European explorers, and in Brazilian populations dating from the Colonial Period. There are no studies demonstrating TB infection in native Brazilians, and the history and epidemiological scenario of TB in Brazil is still unknown. The aim of this study was to verify the presence of TB infection among the native Tenetehara-Guajajara population from Maranhão State, Brazil, 210 ± 40 years ago. A Tenetehara-Guajajara skeleton collection was submitted to paleopathological analysis, and rib bone samples (n = 17) were used for paleogenetic analysis based on Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC) targets. Porotic hyperostosis and cribra orbitalia were found in 10 and 13 individuals, respectively. Maternal ancestry analysis revealed Native American mtDNA haplogroups A and C1 in three individuals. Three samples showed osteological evidence suggestive of TB. katG and mtp40 sequences were detected in three individuals, indicating probable TB infection by two MTC lineages. Tuberculosis infection in the Tenetehara-Guajajara population since the 18th century points to a panorama of the disease resulting, most probably, from European contact. However, the important contribution of African slaves in the population of Maranhão State, could be also considered as a source of the disease. This study provides new data on TB during the Brazilian Colonial Period. This is the first report integrating paleopathological and paleogenetic data for the study of TB in Brazil.