The first human inhabitants of the Americas may have originated in Europe.

Last night I caught a fascinating documentary on Nova about the peopling of the Americas. Although there are no conclusive findings, one standing theory really struck me.

It posits that the first Americans came from Europe (France and Spain) via small boats, leapfrogging their way from iceberg to iceberg across the Atlantic ocean.

There are several proof points. The first highlights similarities in product and process between the spearheads made in ancient Europe and the ones made in the Americas a bit later.

The second points to a genetic attribute found in the mitochondria that is shared by the American Indians and some peoples in Western Europe (American Indians also share DNA ancestry with East Asians).

Scientists are still debating and researching, but I found the potential implications to be troublesome:

If American Indians were descended, at least in part, from ancient Europeans, it means that the conquest of America by the modern Europeans had them destroying their not so long lost cousins.

It’s a kind of irony and tragedy that only humans can produce.

jf