A genetic history of the pre-contact Caribbean.

ABSTRACT: Humans settled the Caribbean about 6,000 years ago, and ceramic use and intensified agriculture mark a shift from the Archaic to the Ceramic Age at around 2,500 years ago^1-3. Here we report genome-wide data from 174 ancient individuals from The Bahamas, Haiti and the Dominican Republic (collectively, Hispaniola), Puerto Rico, Curaçao and Venezuela, which we co-analysed with 89 previously published ancient individuals. Stone-tool-using Caribbean people, who first entered the Caribbean during the Archaic Age, derive from a deeply divergent population that is closest to Central and northern South American individuals; contrary to previous work⁴, we find no support for ancestry contributed by a population related to North American individuals. Archaic-related lineages wer

SUBMITTER: Fernandes DM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7864882 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature