South-to-north migration preceded the advent of intensive farming in the Maya region

Authors

Douglas J. Kennett, University of California, Santa Barbara
Mark Lipson, Harvard Medical School
Keith M. Prufer, The University of New Mexico
David Mora-Marín, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Richard J. George, University of California, Santa Barbara
Nadin Rohland, Harvard Medical School
Mark Robinson, University of Exeter
Willa R. Trask, Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam
Heather H. J. Edgar, The University of New Mexico
Ethan C. Hill, The University of New Mexico
Erin E. Ray, The University of New Mexico
Paige Lynch, The University of New Mexico
Emily Moes, The University of New Mexico
Lexi O’Donnell, University of Mississippi
Thomas K. Harper, Pennsylvania State University
Emily J. Kate, Universität Wien
Josue Ramos, Belize Institute of Archaeology
John Morris, Belize Institute of Archaeology
Said M. Gutierrez, Ya’axché Conservation Trust

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-1-2022

Abstract

The genetic prehistory of human populations in Central America is largely unexplored leaving an important gap in our knowledge of the global expansion of humans. We report genome-wide ancient DNA data for a transect of twenty individuals from two Belize rock-shelters dating between 9,600-3,700 calibrated radiocarbon years before present (cal. BP). The oldest individuals (9,600-7,300 cal. BP) descend from an Early Holocene Native American lineage with only distant relatedness to present-day Mesoamericans, including Mayan-speaking populations. After ~5,600 cal. BP a previously unknown human dispersal from the south made a major demographic impact on the region, contributing more than 50% of the ancestry of all later individuals. This new ancestry derived from a source related to present-day Chibchan speakers living from Costa Rica to Colombia. Its arrival corresponds to the first clear evidence for forest clearing and maize horticulture in what later became the Maya region.

Relational Format

journal article

Recommended Citation

Kennett, D. J., Lipson, M., Prufer, K. M., Mora-Marín, D., George, R. J., Rohland, N., Robinson, M., Trask, W. R., Edgar, H. H. J., Hill, E. C., Ray, E. E., Lynch, P., Moes, E., O’Donnell, L., Harper, T. K., Kate, E. J., Ramos, J., Morris, J., Gutierrez, S. M., … Reich, D. (2022). South-to-north migration preceded the advent of intensive farming in the Maya region. Nature Communications, 13(1), 1530. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29158-y

DOI

10.1038/s41467-022-29158-y

Accessibility Status

Searchable text