Norse in USA ca 1000 AD Finally Proven

[uniface]

When Christopher Columbus paraded his newly discovered American Indians through the streets of Spanish towns at the end of the 15th century, he was not in fact introducing the first native Americans to Europe, according to new research.
Scientists who have studied the genetic past of an Icelandic family now claim the first Americans reached Europe a full five centuries before Columbus bumped into an island in the Bahamas during his first voyage of discovery in 1492.
Researchers said today that a woman from the Americas probably arrived in Iceland 1,000 years ago, leaving behind genes that are reflected in about 80 Icelanders today.
Initial suggestions that the genes may have arrived via Asia were ruled out after samples showed they had been in Iceland since the early 18th century, before Asian genes began appearing among Icelanders.
Investigators discovered the genes could be traced to common ancestors in the south of Iceland, near the Vatnajˆkull glacier, in around 1710.
"As the island was practically isolated from the 10th century onwards, the most probable hypothesis is that these genes correspond to an Amerindian woman who was taken from America by the Vikings some time around the year 1000," Carles Lalueza-Fox, of the Pompeu Fabra university in Spain, said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/ ... e-research

[Rokcet Scientist]

Loot!

[Tiompan]

"As the island was practically isolated from the 10th century onwards, the most probable hypothesis ..... "

Really?

George

[Rokcet Scientist]

"As the island was practically isolated from the 10th century onwards, the most probable hypothesis ..... "

And before that 10th century it was a bustling metropolis and a hub in the east-west trade?

[Tiompan]

probably arrived in Iceland 1,000 years ago +most probable hypothesis =Finally proven ??

George

[Minimalist]

Aw, c'mon George. They have to sneak a few weasel words in.

Their data suggests that a north American native female was in Iceland c 1000 AD. Their scenario for how she got there is speculative. Vikings coming back from L'Anse aux Meadows is possible but there are any number of other scenarios.

In fact, about the only thing I would rule out is that Iceland was a "hub" for east-west trade.

[Tiompan]

OK , I was being "cruel" but the "finally proven " was a wee bit too much first thing in the morning . There is precious little detail on the DNA which would help . The claim that Asian genes were not found until after the 18th C is surely open to question , if it's a particular haplotype who is to say how it arrived ? .It's 2,6000 Km from Vatnajokull to L'Anse aux Meadows and only half that to Scandanavia where there are plentiful Asian genes to be found among the Inuit . Or is that too simple ?

George

[Minimalist]

I don't know about "simple" but it surely is not as "sexy."

[gunny]

Read an interesting saga on the first appearance of the Vikings in North America. They landed on a beach, and saw some "Skraelings" asleep under an overturned canoe. Of course they went over and killed them.

[gunny]

At a later visit they brought 6 women. One, who thought perhaps that she was not getting enough attention, killed the other 5 with an axe as they slept. Nice people, those Vikings. Read where there in a group in the UK saying that the Vikings were pussycats and not near as bad as people think.

[Digit]

According to our Liberal Left there's no such thing as an evil person gunny, they are all victims!
According to them the Vikings were farmers looking for land. Same as with the Somali pirates, driven to piracy through poverty.
With the rose tinted spectacles binned I suspect that the Vikings actually used terror as a weapon as they were often outnumbered if people stood and fought back, better from the Viking's view point if people fled at the first site of a dragon ship.

Roy.

[Rokcet Scientist]

[...] Scandanavia where there are plentiful Asian genes to be found among the Inuit . Or is that too simple ?

No, it is even simpler. One doesn't need la-di-da genetic research to establish the Asian-ness of the people that live north of the polar circle in Scandinavia. 20-20 vision suffices. They are an obvious mix of mongoloïd and caucasian staring you in the face (as are millions of Russians!).
BTW, those people are known as 'Sami' (a.k.a. 'Lapps'), not Inuit.



Sami woman, early 20th century.

[Tiompan]

[...] Scandanavia where there are plentiful Asian genes to be found among the Inuit . Or is that too simple ?

No, it is even simpler. One doesn't need la-di-da genetic research to establish the Asian-ness of the people that live north of the polar circle in Scandinavia. 20-20 vision suffices. They are an obvious mix of mongoloïd and caucasian staring you in the face (as are millions of Russians!).
BTW, those people are known as 'Sami' (a.k.a. 'Lapps'), not Inuit.



Sami woman, early 20th century.

I was actually thinking of Inuit, not Saami (they wouldn't appreciate being called lapps ), the mistake was to use Scandanavia when Greenland was much nearer and more appropriate . Whilst the Saami are Eurasian they do have a very distinctive haplotype U5 b which would have been noticed ,one hopes , by the researchers . Visually the Saami are also far less Asian in appearance .

George

[Tiompan]

One doesn't need la-di-da genetic research to establish the Asian-ness of the people that live north of the polar circle in Scandinavia. 20-20 vision suffices. They are an obvious mix of mongoloïd and caucasian staring you in the face (as are millions of Russians!).

One thing that la di da genetics is very useful at pointing out is don't trust the visual .The Jews of Rusape in Zimbabwe are a good example of that . One generation can obliterate visual signs of Asian ,Caucasian ,Negroid features .

George

[E.P. Grondine]

And of course, for anyone who wants to know what happened, the Five Nation's accounts of the Norse are passed on in "Man and Impact in the Americas".