The study published today refuted that claim.
A genomic data study, conducted in four distinct regions of Brazil, examined 34 fossils, including larger skeletal remains as well as the well-known coastal shells and fishbones.
Luzio, the most ancient human remains discovered in Brazil's state of So Paulo, was discovered by the original people who settled in the Americas over 16,000 years ago, according to a recent study. These Indigenous groups were believed to be the first modern day descendants of the Tupi.
The research presented in the paper also explains the disappearance of the first coastal communities, which are credited with constructing the famous sambaquis monuments, graveyards, and boundary markers.
"The sambaqui builders on the Atlantic coast were the human phenomenon with the highest demographic density in pre-colonial South America after the Andean civilizations," said André Menezes Strauss, an archeologist at the University of So Paulo's Museum of Archeology and Ethnology.
Tiago Ferraz is the first author of the paper. The research was supported by FAPESP (projects 17/16451-2 and 20/06527-4) and was conducted in partnership with researchers at the University of Tübingen's Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment (Germany).
The authors examined the genomes of 34 individuals from four different areas of Brazil's coast. They were at least 10,000 years old. They came from sambaquis and other parts of eight sites (Cabeçuda, Capelinha, Cubato, Limo, Jabuticabeira II, Palmeiras Xingu, Pedra do Alexandre, and Vau Una).
The researchers discovered Luzio, So Paulo's oldest skeleton, in the Ribeira de Iguape valley's Capelinha river midden, dating from 13,000 years ago. They assumed it might have been belonging to a biologically different group than the present-day Amerindians, who settled in what is now Brazil some 14,000 years ago.
"Luzio was found to be an Amerindian, like the Tupi, Quechua, or Cherokee. They all derive from a single migratory wave that arrived in the Americas not more than 16,000 years ago," Strauss said.
The DNA of Luzio clarified another concern: river middens are different from coastal ones, therefore the discovery cannot be considered a direct descendant of the enormous classical sambaquis that appeared later. This suggests there were two distinct migrations – into the hinterland and along the coast.
Analysis of genetic material revealed heterogeneous communities with cultural similarities but significant biological differences, particularly between coastal communities in the southeast and south.
"Studies of cranial morphology conducted in the 2000s had already demonstrated a subtle difference between these communities, and our genetic analysis confirmed it," Strauss said. "One of the reasons for this was that these coastal populations weren't isolated but'swapped genes' with inland communities," says the author.
Analysis of DNA samples revealed that, in contrast to the European Neolithic substitution of whole populations, what happened in this area of the world was a shift in practices, with a decline in the construction of shell middens and the introduction of sambaqui pottery, according to the most emblematic site for the period. For example, the genetic material found at Galheta IV (Santa Catarina state), the most emblematic site for the period, has retained not shells but ceramics and is similar to the
"This information is compatible with a 2014 investigation that examined sambaquis pottery shards and found that the pots in question were used to prepare not domestic vegetables, but fish." Strauss said.
Tiago Ferraz, Ximena Suarez Villagran, Verônica Wesolowski, Marcony Lopes Alves, Helena Pinto Lima, Jéssica Mendes Cardoso, Renata Estevam, Andersen Liryo, Eliane Chim, Carlos Augusto da Silva, Ana Claudia Borella, Tiago Tomé, Lisiane Müller Plumm Gomes, Diego Barros Fonseca, Paulo DeBlasis, She
The So Paulo Research Foundation provided funding for this research.
BY ALICIA SMITH |