The mummies that reveal the devastating impact of European conquest of the American people – BBC World

Image copyright Johan Reinhard

Image caption the maiden, an Inca mummy found on Mount Llullaillaco in Argentina in 1999, was used in the study.

Two of the main questions that the scientific community has done for decades about the first inhabitants of the Americas are: how they spread throughout the continent? and what was the real impact of the arrival of the European conquerors on these populations?

Now, a genetic study from DNA samples taken from 92 mummies and skeletons of pre-Columbian times coming mostly from Chile, Bolivia and Peru provides clues to answer both questions.

the study, whose results were published in an article in the journal Science Advances , was based on the study of DNA mitochondrial -the passing from mothers to children-of these individuals who lived between made between 8600 years and 500 years, which was compared with that of the current populations of those countries.

that DNA was extracted from samples hair, teeth and bones of mummies and skeletons.

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Image caption of the 84 genetic lineages found in human remains analyzed none managed to survive in today’s indigenous populations.

According to the findings of the study, the effects of the arrival of Europeans on the original indigenous population were devastating: of the 84 genetic lineages found in human remains analyzed none could endure in the current indigenous populations.

that, according to scientists, argue in part the theory that a large proportion of indigenous inhabitants of America disappeared after the arrival of the conquistadores Spanish, due to factors such as disease brought from the old continent, the war and the collapse of pre-Columbian societies.

However, to better determine the causes of the disappearance of these indigenous populations still have work to do including the extraction and study of nuclear DNA from mummies.

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Image caption Archaeologists excavate the site of Huaca Pucllana in Lima.

Bastien Llamas, one of the principal investigators, recognized the magazine Science with the study of mitochondrial DNA “we see only a part of the history, “which extends from mother to child.

This also has the peculiarity that naturally tends to disappear whenever a woman has no children or only have sons.

the study of nuclear DNA, however, allow to have information from both the maternal and paternal and can help understand the impact that could have the arrival of the colonizers.

the study also provides more precise about the arrival of the first inhabitants of the continent through the Bering Strait, connecting Asia with the northwestern part of North America during the last ice age tracks.

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Image caption 92 pre-Columbian mummies and skeletons were used in the study.

“Our genetic reconstruction confirms that the first Americans came about 16,000 years ago by the Pacific , bordering a massive ice sheets blocking a route into the continent and only opened much later, “said Alan Cooper, director of the Australian Centre on ancient DNA (ACAD, for its acronym in English) from the University of Adelaide institution who led the study.

the advance towards the south of the continent would have done in a period of about 1,500 years.

“They spread south fairly quickly, reaching Chile about 14,600 years ago” Cooper said in a press release issued by the ACAD.

“Our study is the first genetic real-time recording of these key issues related to the process of peopling of the Americas,” he told the magazine Science Wolfgang Haak, scientist at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and one of the research participants.

“to have a more complete picture, however, we need a concerted effort to build a complete database of DNA from the current inhabitants and their pre-Columbian ancestors, “said the expert.