Solutrean hypothesis: genetics, the mammoth in the room

• Published in: World Archaeology
• Main Authors: Bradley, Bruce A., Oppenheimer, Stephen, Stanford, Dennis J.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis 2014
• Subjects: Archaeogenetics; migrations; Solutrean Hypothesis; Palaeo-Americans; mtDNA; aDNA; Beringia; Siberia
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10871/17123; https://doi.org/10.1080/00438243.2014.966273

© 2014 Taylor & Francis. This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in World Archaeology on 31/10/2014, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/00438243.2014.966273. The Solutrean Hypothesis for the origin of the Clovis archaeological culture has received numerous challenges and critiques. Oft-repeated contra-assertions, predominantly from archaeologists, range from: “NO genetic evidence”, to: it must have been either a sole Beringian or European origin, so Beringia wins, to: the troublesome fifth American mtDNA lineage “X2a” overlanded from West-Eurasia to Beringia, leaving no trace en-route, to: there is no evidence from the rest of the genome to parallel X2a. We refute these contra-assertions, detailing published contrary evidence, supporting a West-Eurasian origin for some Native American ancestors, mainly found in north-eastern America, in parallel to the majority arriving from Beringia. Specifically this includes mtDNA-X2a found in ancient and modern Native American populations, with no evidence to support migration of X2a through Siberia. Prima facie (i.e. under-researched) published evidence also exists for equivalent levels of West-Eurasian Y-chromosomes and autosomal markers in the same regions.