Ancient woman suggests diverse migration

from AP - Associated Press (Friday July the 23th)

MEXICO CITY – A scientific reconstruction of one of the oldest sets of human remains found in the Americas appears to support theories that the first people who came to the hemisphere migrated from a broader area than once thought, researchers say.
Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History on Thursday released photos of the reconstructed image of a woman who probably lived on Mexico's Caribbean coast 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. She peeks out of the picture as a short, spry-looking woman with slightly graying hair.
Anthropologists had long believed humans migrated to the Americas in a relatively short period from a limited area in northeast Asia across a temporary land corridor that opened across the Bering Strait during an ice age.
But government archaeologist Alejandro Terrazas says the picture has now become more complicated, because the reconstruction more resembles people from southeastern Asian areas like Indonesia.
"History isn't that simple," Terrazas said. "This indicates that the Americas were populated by several migratory movements, not just one or two waves from northern Asia across the Bering Strait."
Some outside experts caution that the evidence is not conclusive.
Ripan Malhi, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois, said that "using facial reconstructions to assign ancestry to an individual is not as strong as using ancient DNA to assess the ancestry of the individual, because the environment can influence the traits of the face."
"All of the current genetic evidence points to Northeast Asia as the main source for Native Americans," Malhi said.
However, there have been few opportunities to use DNA or other methods to identify the origins of the first inhabitants because only a handful of skeletons from 10,000 years ago have survived.
The female is known as "La Mujer de las Palmas," or "The Woman of the Palms," after the sinkhole cave near the Caribbean resort of Tulum where her remains were found by divers and recovered in 2002.
Because rising water levels flooded the cave where she died or was laid to rest, her skeleton was about 90 percent intact. Archaeologists and physical anthropologists calculated she was between 44 and 50 years old when she died, was about 5 feet (1.52 meters) tall and weighed about 128 pounds (58 kilograms).
Experts also measured skull features and calculated the muscle and other tissue layers that once covered her face, which served as a guide for experts in paleo-anthropological modeling at the Atelier Daynes in France to complete a model of the woman.
The model shows a stocky woman and clad in a simple knee-length woven tunic. She had a broad face, prominent cheeks, thin lips, and little trace of the epicanthic eye-folds that characterize many modern Asian populations.
"Her body structure, skin and eyes are similar to the population of Southeast Asia," the institute said in a statement.
Susan Gillespie, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Florida, noted that while the Bering land bridge theory still has a lot of support, "the situation is messier than the straightforward scenario ... of big-game hunters chasing woolly mammoths over the exposed `Bering bridge' to Alaska."
"Recently there has been more serious inquiry into the various origins of migrants, modes of transportation, and dates of when they got here," Gillespie said in an e-mail message. "Dates for peopling of the Americas have been pushed way back, and with the finding of very early skeletal remains, the genetic/skeletal linkages to peoples of northeast Asia has become more cloudy."
But Gillespie cautioned against comparing a reconstructed face from 10,000 years ago to modern populations in places like Indonesia, which have also probably changed over 10 millennia.
"You have to find skeletons of the same time period in Asia, or use genetic reconstructions, to make a strong connection, and cannot rely on modern populations," she wrote. "Do we have any empirical data on what Southeast Asian women looked like ... 10,000 years ago?"

古代女子提出不同的迁移墨西哥城 - 对人类最古老的一套科学的重建仍然在美洲发现的理论，似乎是支持了谁来到南半球第一人从更广阔的面积比以前认为迁移，研究人员说。
墨西哥国立人类学和历史上周四公布了一个女人谁可能对墨西哥的加勒比海岸1万年至12000年以前重建图像照片。她扫视了作为一个短，轻快前瞻性略有花白头发的女人照片。
人类学家早就相信人类迁移到美洲在相对短的时期，从有限的东北亚地区对面一个临时陆地走廊横跨白令海峡开设了一个冰河时期。
但是政府说，考古学家亚历特拉萨斯图片已变得更加复杂，因为重建更类似于从印度尼西亚等东南亚地区的人民。
'历史是没有那么简单，'特拉萨斯说。 '这表明，美洲是由几个移民运动，不只是一个或两个波从亚洲北部人口越过白令海峡。
一些专家警告说，外部的证据不确凿。
Ripan Malhi，人类学助理教授，伊利诺斯大学，他说，'使用面部重建分配给个人的祖先是不是用古老的DNA来评估个人的祖先同样强烈，因为环境可以影响的特点脸。
'所有的遗传证据表明，当前的主要来源为美国原住民的东北亚，'Malhi说。
不过，有没有机会使用DNA或其他方法确定的第一批居民，因为只有极少数的骸骨从1万年前存活下来的起源。
女性被称为'拉代拉斯帕尔马斯洪都拉斯社区，'或'女人的手掌，'后，附近的图伦加勒比海度假，她的遗体被发现的潜水员，在2002年恢复陷穴窟。由于不断上升的水位升高，淹没了山洞，她还是死了安息，她的骨骼是百分之九十左右不变。人类学家，考古学家和物理计算她的44和50岁的时候，她死了，约5英尺（1.52米）身高，体重约128磅（五十八公斤）。
专家们还测量和计算功能头骨和其他组织的肌肉层，一旦涉及她的脸，作为一个在工作室戴恩斯专家在古人类学的造型在法国担任指导，完成了女子模型。
该模型显示了一个矮胖女子，在一个简单的膝盖编织外衣穿着长。她有一个广泛的脸，突出的脸颊，薄薄的嘴唇，和小微量的epicanthic眼褶皱许多现代亚洲所特有的人口。
'她的身体结构，皮肤和眼睛有类似东南亚的人口，'该研究所在一份声明中说。
苏珊吉莱斯皮，一个人类学在佛罗里达大学副教授指出，尽管白令陆桥理论仍然有很大的支持，'的情况较简单的情况下梅西尔...大游戏猎人追逐猛犸象在暴露`白令桥'到阿拉斯加。
'最近出现了较为严重到各移民来源的调查，运输方式和日期时，他们来到这里，'吉莱斯皮说，在一封电子邮件。为美洲人群的'日期已被推迟回程，并在很早就发现骨骼遗骸，遗传/到东北亚更加多云人民骨骼之间的联系。'
但吉莱斯皮告诫比较从10,000年前重建面对在印度尼西亚，这也可能超过10千百年的现代人口转变的地方。
'你必须找到在亚洲，同一时期的骨骼或使用基因重组，使一个强大的连接，并不能依靠现代人口，'她说。 '我们是否有什么经验数据东南亚妇女的模样...几年前万？'