DNA Studies Update Prehistoric Peoples Who Migrated Via Beringia

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Wooden dolls were used by prehistoric Bering Sea Eskimos in religious ceremonies but were also made into children’s toys. This collection of wooden dolls from the Nunalleq site, excavated by the University of Aberdeen and the Yup’ik village of Quinhagak, date back to 1500-1600 CE. The range of expressions and abstract and realistic representations of human faces likely attest to both the variety of carvers and functions of these objects. (University of Aberdeen/Qanirtuuq, Inc.)

Ancient DNA Reveals Complex Story of Human Migration Between Siberia and North America

By Brian Handwerk Smithsonian.com

There is plenty of evidence to suggest that humans migrated to the North American continent via Beringia, a land mass that once bridged the sea between what is now Siberia and Alaska. But exactly who crossed, or re-crossed, and who survived as ancestors of today’s Native Americans has been a matter of long debate.

Two new DNA studies sourced from rare fossils on both sides of the Bering Strait help write new chapters in the stories of these prehistoric peoples.



The first study delves into the genetics of North American peoples, the Paleo-Eskimos (some of the earliest people to populate the Arctic) and their descendants. “[The research] focuses on the populations living in the past and today in northern North America, and it shows interesting links between Na-Dene speakers with both the first peoples to migrate into the Americas and Paleo-Eskimo peoples,” Anne Stone, an anthropological geneticist at Arizona State University who assessed both studies for Nature, says via email.

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