Arctic genetics comes in from the cold
Despite a well-characterized archaeological record, the genetics of the people who inhabit the Arctic have been unexplored. Raghavan
et al.
sequenced ancient and modern genomes of individuals from the North American Arctic (see the Perspective by Park). Analyses of these genomes indicate that the Arctic was colonized 6000 years ago by a migration separate from the one that gave rise to other Native American populations. Furthermore, the original paleo-inhabitants of the Arctic appear to have been completely replaced approximately 700 years ago.
Science
, this issue
10.1126/science.1255832
; see also p.
1004
Paleo-Eskimos were the first people to settle vast regions of the American Arctic around 5,000 years ago, and were subsequently joined and largely displaced around 1,000 years ago by ancestors of present-day Inuit and Yup’ik1–3. The genetic relationship between Paleo-Eskimos and Native American, Inuit, Yup’ik and Aleut populations remains uncertain4–7. Here we present new genomic data for 48 ancient individuals from Chukotka, East Siberia, the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, and the Canadian Arctic. We co-analyze these data with new data from present-day Alaskan Iñupiat and West Siberian populations and published genomes. Employing new methods based on rare allele and haplotype sharing as well as established methods4,8–10, we show that Paleo-Eskimo-related ancestry is ubiquitous among populations speaking Na-Dene and Eskimo-Aleut languages. We develop a comprehensive model for the Holocene peopling events of Chukotka and North America, and show that several key migrations connected to the origin of the Na-Dene peoples, the peopling of the Aleutian Islands, and the spread of Yup’ik and Inuit across the Arctic region are genetically linked to a single Siberian source related to Paleo-Eskimos.
The Thule migration from Alaska to the eastern North American Arctic is central to the understanding of Inuit history. However, despite decades of study, its timing remains controversial, with recent reappraisals suggesting that it may have occurred much later than the date of A.D. 1000 most often assumed for it. In this paper, we present newly obtained radiocarbon dates from two early Thule sites, Nelson River (OhRh-1) and Washout (NjVi-2), located on the Beaufort Sea and Amundsen Gulf coasts. This region is crucial to any understanding of the migration, because Thule Inuit would have had to pass through it in order to reach the eastern Arctic. Nelson River in particular has long been considered a good candidate for the earliest Thule site east of Alaska, based on a number of lines of evidence including the presence of both Natchuk and Sicco harpoon heads. In this paper, we present new dates for Nelson River and Washout that demonstrate that neither site was occupied before the thirteenth century A.D. The new dates have profound implications for Arctic archaeology, because they strengthen the case for a thirteenth-century migration, and by doing so demonstrate that it was more rapid and widespread than has generally been believed. The dates also suggest that the "Classic" Thule period is a relatively brief phenomenon, lasting perhaps only 200 years or less, before being rapidly reorganized into the diversity of Inuit societies encountered in later Arctic history.
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