Archaeologists have unearthed 6,000-year-old skeletons whose DNA could dramatically alter our understanding of human history.
It’s not common for discoveries to emerge that have the potential to fundamentally redefine our perception of the past. Yet, such a significant finding has just been made.
Researchers have uncovered remains of hunter-gatherers in Checua, Colombia, which contain DNA that does not match any contemporary Indigenous groups in the region.
The ancient site, dating back to the preceramic era, contains the remains of individuals with a lineage that is now completely extinct, providing invaluable clues about the earliest humans who ventured into South America.
The DNA evidence, dating from roughly 6,000 to 500 years ago, belongs to the Bogotá Altiplano people. The genetic data from 21 skeletal remains offers a unique glimpse into their timeline.
By analyzing DNA from bones and teeth, researchers discovered that the oldest inhabitants of Checua possessed a unique ancestral signature that has vanished from the world today.
Kim-Louise Krettek, the lead author and a PhD student at the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution in Germany, remarked, “This area is key to understanding how the Americas were populated.”
“It was the land bridge between North and South America and the meeting point of three major cultural regions: Mesoamerica, Amazonia, and the Andes,” Krettek explained.
Genetic analysis reveals that these early humans in the region were unrelated to any other ancient South American groups and shared no genetic ties with North American populations.
Krettek noted, “Our results show that the Checua individuals derive from the earliest population that spread and differentiated across South America very rapidly.”
“We couldn’t find descendants of these early hunter-gatherers of the Colombian high plains; the genes were not passed on,” she added. “That means in the area around Bogotá, there was a complete exchange of the population.”
The study identified a significant genetic turnover about 2,000 years ago in the Bogotá highlands, suggesting the disappearance of the Checua people and their replacement by a different group.
This new group shares DNA similarities with ancient Panamanians and modern Chibchan-speaking communities in Costa Rica and Panama, but the fate of their predecessors remains a mystery.
Krettek speculated that the earlier inhabitants may have migrated and interbred, gradually losing their genetic identity, as no signs of conflict were evident.
“In addition to technological developments such as ceramics, the people of this second migration probably also brought the Chibchan languages into what is present-day Colombia. Branches of this language family are still spoken in Central America today,” said co-author Andrea Casas-Vargas of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia.
Casas-Vargas noted, “That genetic traces of the original population disappear completely is unusual, especially in South America.”
However, as genetic analysis in regions like western Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador is yet to be conducted, much remains to be discovered about historical genetic changes and migrations.
Krettek emphasized, “Ancient DNA from those areas will be crucial in understanding how humans migrated into South America.”
This groundbreaking study, published in the journal Science Advances, analyzed genetic material from five archaeological sites, marking a milestone in the field.
Senior study author Professor Cosimo Posth from the University of Tübingen stated, according to Phys Org, “These are the first ancient human genomes from Colombia ever to be published.”