Sunday, June 7, 2020

Paths From Babel: to the Caribbean

Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.Genesis 11:9
So apparently when those on a long exodus, maybe over several generations of a trek, arrived from
Babel in North America, they multiplied for awhile then entered the Caribbean Islands. Twice.
Then another group that had trekked further south into modern Latin America headed north into the Caribbean basin at a later date.


"An international team of researchers has sequenced and analyzed the genomes of 93 ancient Caribbean islanders and found evidence
of at least three separate population dispersals into the region: two early dispersals into the Western Caribbean, one of which seems connected to earlier population dispersals in North America; and a third, more recent wave from South America.

Despite poor DNA preservation in the Caribbean in general, the team generated informative DNA profiles from samples from 16 archaeological sites in Cuba, the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, Guadeloupe, and St. Lucia — classified as 'Archaic' or 'Ceramic' based on their broader archaeological context — using targeted enrichment and sequencing.


With genome-wide SNP profiling, coupled with mitochondrial and Y chromosome haplotype data, the researchers identified genetic differences between individuals from the Archaic and Ceramic contexts. Representatives from the more recent Ceramic Age individuals were genetically more similar to present-day South American populations, for example, consistent with migration into the Caribbean roughly 2,800 years ago.

The analysis provided new genetic evidence of at least three
separate colonization events, including two early dispersals into the Western Caribbean – one of which was previously unknown and may have been connected to radiation events in North America that predate the diversification of Central and South American populations.

Afterward, a later expansion of groups from South America arrived and brought new technologies, including pottery, supporting previous archaeological interpretations.

The team’s results also revealed distinct genetic differences between the ancestors of the region’s earliest settlers and the newcomers from South America.

Despite coexisting for centuries, the scientists found almost no evidence of admixture, raising intriguing new questions about their interactions."
SciNews