Beyond the Bering Strait - DNA Evidence Rocks the Boat
2006 05 21
By Will Hart | genesisrace.com
Article received from Light Eye
In recent years, genetic research has produced
unexpected results that have opened the doors to many
historical mysteries. The surprising outcomes have
also provoked unintended controversy. The reasons
that these DNA investigations have sparked intense
debates in the fields of anthropology, history and
even cultural evolution will become clear as our
story unfolds.
The genetic probes began innocently enough with
geneticists wanting to see what secrets human genes
might reveal about our complex, mysterious and often
disputed history. Anthropologists and historians had
long thought that the America's had been populated by
Asians crossing a land bridge that connected Asia and
North America during the last Ice Age. This was
referred to as the 'Bering Strait Crossing' theory
and was believed to have occurred about 12,000 years
ago.
Genetic analysis on Native American DNA samples began
in the 1980s. However, the research effort greatly
accelerated in the 1990s due to rapid technological
progress in the field. In fact, the early results
confirmed the generally accepted theory showing a
clear link between Native Americans and DNA samples
collected from native peoples in Siberian-Asia.
Nevertheless, as the studies both deepened and
broadened to include Asians across the continent, the
increasing data revealed that the migration pattern
had been more complex than anthropologist's had
envisioned.
The early results showed that Native American tribes
were comprised of four distinct mtDNA haplogroups, A,
B, C, and D. The haplogroup designations represent
four different (maternal) lineages. These four
lineages are found throughout North, Central and
South America. However, only three of them A, C, and
D were discovered in the Siberian-Asian populations.
The B haplogroup was traced to aboriginal population
groups in Southeast Asia, China, Japan, Melanesia,
and Polynesia.
Before proceeding we should briefly clarify what
mtDNA is. There are two types of genetic material
used for analysis, cellular and mtDNA, the latter is
found in human mitochondia outside the nucleus of
cells and is only transferred down generations
through females, hence mtDNA stands for maternal DNA.
This type is simpler than the cellular DNA and it
evolves faster,so it is used to distinguish human
groups that evolved in separate geographic areas.
In historical terms, what the genetic evidence
obtained from mtDNA samples translated into was a
much more diverse and complex migration pattern that
included people arriving to the America's in boats.
Thor Heyerdahl had hypothesized that this was the
case by showing that it was possible during his Kon
Tiki expeditions across the Pacific Ocean to Peru.
While orthodox anthropologists embraced the results
of the earliest DNA findings, the later results
caused consternation and controversy. They not only
showed that the Americas were settled by many
different racial groups coming from many different
parts of Asia, the genetic findings also demonstrated
that the migration events took place much earlier
than previously thought.
Anthropologists, archaeologists and historians had
postulated that the migrations had taken place less
than 20,000 years ago. DNA analysis placed the
initial wave of migration at between 38-50,000 years
before present. This finding too raised eyebrows in
the orthodox community. However, in recent years
radiocarbon dated materials from South America,
California and the Southwestern United States has
come to light and the dates agree with the
conclusions of the DNA research.
Clearly, the genetic investigations had produced a
mixed bag of outcomes for orthodox anthropologists
and historians. In general, their long held theories
about a north Asian origin for Native American
populations were proven correct. Nevertheless, their
narrow focus on Siberia, the single land-bridge
migration route and their chronology had been in
error. Some of the Asian immigrants did come from
Siberia along that route but other groups came from
Japan, Polynesia, etc., in boats and their journeys
began in remote antiquity.
Genetic researchers determined that 96% of Native
Americans fell into one of the four A-D haplogroups
and while these mtDNA types were also found in Asia
they are not present in Europe or Africa. This too
indicates that Asia was the ancestral region of most
Native American tribes. Then in 1997 another lineage
was discovered, which geneticists dubbed X. This
discovery ignited a storm of controversy that has not
died down to this day. The X haplogroup needs
careful,thoughtful, and deep historical analysis
because this group may well hold one of the most
important keys to unlocking the secrets of our
collective past.
Obviously about 4 percent of Native Americans, from
Alaska to the tip of South America, do not fall into
one of the four major haplogroups. Scientists assumed
that these minority lineages came from interactions
with European and African groups since the time of
Columbus. This proved to be true for about 1.5% of
Native Americans however 2.5% were found to belong to
the X lineage. Once this small mtDNA group was
identified as a distinct genetic type, the race was
on to ascertain their place of origin.
This is where the mystery really gets complicated and
interesting. In spite of the fact that the previous
genetic data was forcing the orthodoxy to make some
alterations in their migration scheme and chronology,
as we saw their basic paradigm had been confirmed.
But the discovery of the X haplogroup changed that
situation dramatically. It was known to exist in
Europe in about 5% of the population and unknown in
Asia and Africa at the time. The X lineage was
ascertained to have arrived in the Americas from
about 38,000 to 10,000 years ago. What could this
mean?
At first anthropologists argued that since Europeans
had not traveled across the Atlantic at such a remote
point in time the X group had to be the outcome of
post Columbus contact and intermarriage. However when
researchers analyzed ancient DNA samples, found in
the Great Lakes (Mound Builder) region, which dated
back long before Columbus they identified some of the
samples as belonging to the X group. This proved they
were not the outcome of any post-Columbus contact and
were not of recent origin.
When investigators compiled the genetic data on the
distribution of the X haplogroup in the America's
what they discovered sent shock waves through the
conventional and alternative history camps. The X
lineage was only found in a handful of tribes
scattered across the country, the Yakima and Sioux in
the northwest and the Navajo in the southwest, in
about 5% of their populations. However, the greatest
concentrations by far occurred in the Ojibway, Oneota
and Nuu-Chah-Nulth tribes where almost 25% of the
tribal members fell into the X lineage.
Moreover, the vast majority of tribes contained no X
members. In fact, it was not found in any native
tribes in Central or South America. Again, what did
these patterns mean? Independent researchers
associated with the Edgar Cayce Association (A.R.E.)
quickly pointed out that the data supported some of
the material found in the Atlantis readings that the
'sleeping prophet' had given in the 1930s. Cayce
noted that some Atlantis refugees had immigrated to
the northeastern region of the United States and
later formed the Iroquois nation. It was in those
tribes that the highest concentration of the X
haplogroup was found.
The Cayce readings also claimed that some of these
refugees went to the American southwest and others
migrated to the Mound Builder region and formed that
civilization. Odd that his psychic information would
so closely parallel the distribution pattern of the X
lineage. Cayce had also given the dates that these
migrations had occurred and they too agreed with the
DNA findings. The plot was surely thickening in a
most fascinating way. If the story stopped here it
would be enough to hold interest and provoke thought
however it goes farther, much farther.
The apparent widespread presence of the X lineage
across what is now known as the United States appears
to show a wide initial dispersal. One could postulate
a west-east migration of this haplogroup from
Siberian Asia. But that scenario poses two serious
obstacles:1) the greatest concentration of this group
is found in the northeastern region of the United
States and 2) X is virtually absent in Asia.
Like a good detective novel, all of the clues had not
been uncovered in the late 1990s when the X group had
been identified and was being hotly debated.
Geneticists pressed forward and launched a probe into
the Altai tribe located in the Gobi desert and found
the X lineage in small numbers. This is the only
population in Asia that exhibits this haplogroup and
as such they comprise a tiny, isolated genetic
island. Orthodox anthropologists were elated when the
news reached their ears. They seized on this finding
as smoking gun proof that the X group in North
America had its ancestral roots in Siberian Asia, end
of story.
To say that this was an unscientific rush to a final
conclusion that just happened to agree with their
long held beliefs is an understatement. Let us pause
and use logic and commonsense and try to walk through
what we are being asked to accept. The Gobi Desert is
about 8,000 miles from the northeastern section of
the United States. We are being told that this tribe
trekked that distance and transferred their genes
from their ancestral homeland to the Great Lakes
without depositing the X group genes in any other
part of Asia, Alaska, Canada, and the region between
Washington and the Northeast America.
Everyone agrees that any such migration would have
taken place during the harshest of conditions since
the Ice Age still held this entire region in its
frigid grip. Furthermore, we are being asked to
suspend our disbelief raised by the notion that a
tiny tribe trekked these vast distances across a
frozen landscape for unknown reasons. Why would any
small tribe risk everything and wander half way
around the globe during an ice age when they did not
know what lay beyond the next horizon? In fact,
anthropologists and historians know that this is not
the way human tribes have operated since the dawn of
time.
On February 16, 1932 Cayce related some information
during a reading that is extraordinarily cogent to
this unfolding genetic mystery story. When asked
about the position of the continent of Atlantis he
replied:
"The position the continent Atlantis occupied, is
that as between the Gulf of Mexico on the one hand -
and the Mediterranean upon the other. Evidences of
this lost civilization are to be found in the
Pyrenees and Morocco on the one hand, British
Honduras, Yucatan and America upon the other."
Now, we must pick up the trail of clues on the other
side of the Atlantic. Let us keep in mind that when
Cayce gave this reading DNA had not yet been
discovered and there was no such thing as mtDNA
analysis. Nevertheless, he mentioned "evidences" in
two specific locales, the Pyrenees, a mountain range
sandwiched in between France and Spain where the
Basques live, and Morocco where another ancient
group, the Berbers resides. Astonishingly, these two
populations contain the highest frequencies of the X
lineage found in Europe and North Africa.
The Basques have long puzzled anthropologists,
linguists and historians because, although they are
Caucasian they do not fit in with the rest of the
European populations. Their language is not related
to any other tongue in the world. Prior to the advent
of genetic research tools investigators used the ABO
blood groups to study the relationships between human
populations as well as their migration patterns. The
Basques turned out to be unique in terms of blood
types as well. As a population they contain the
highest levels of Rh- 'O' negative blood in the world
and among the lowest type B.
Now, what Cayce was suggesting is that some of the
people that fled the sinking continent went west and
settled and became the Iroquois. Others went east to
the Iberian Peninsula then the Pyrenees (Basques),
and the West Coast of North Africa then the Atlas
Mountains (Berbers). Turning to the Berbers we find
yet another group that contains the highest frequency
of haplogroup X in the world. Is it a coincidence
that these disparate peoples share a very rare mtDNA
lineage?
It is unfortunate that the Berbers have never
received much attention from science over the years.
Here we have a Caucasian race living in North Africa
of all places. Anthropologists dismissed them because
they did not fit well into the 'Out of Africa'
scenario and it was assumed that they had back
immigrated southward from somewhere in Europe.
However, that theory has been abandoned and
scientists now accept the fact that they are an
indigenous people, which they believe go back to the
Stone Age. But how can this be we must ask since the
rest of the continent below the Sahara is black
African?
Article from: http://www.genesisrace.com
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