At https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/09/240904130925.htm … we are told a new model is able to identify phases of human dispersal across Europe. They were looking at population densities during the Aurignacian period – 43,000 to 32,000 years ago. Basically it begins just after the Laschamp event and may also embrace the event that sparked the late Glacial Maximum, around 30,000 or so years ago [coinciding with the extinction of some large animals in Australia]. The idea was to try and understand the demographic changes after Laschamp – and its pinch point in global population. The first movement, they say, was from the Levant region, or ultimately, somewhere in western Asia, towards the Balkans. This was followed by another phase that involved a rapid expansion into western Europe. The third phase was characterised by a decline in human numbers and the fourth marks an increase in regional population pockets and their appearance in unsettled areas such as Britain and Iberia. Of course, they are inhibited by the small numbers of skeletal material that has survived from the Late Pleistocene. Not only that, the model seems to show climate change impacted human dispersal. That is the thinking in creating the model. How did climate impact human numbers. Climate scientists appear to have been part of the modelling team. However, rapid climate change is not explained but catastrophism could be associated with rapidity – but as always is omitted. These findings are valuable as they may actually pinpoint possible catastrophic events on a global scale.
At https://phys.org/news/2024-09-ancient-dna-rapa-nui-easter.html … Rapa Nui, or Te Pito-o-Te Henua [Easter Island to oldies], is one of the most isolated places in the world. It is 1900 km east of the closest Polynesian island and 3700 km west of South America. Jared Diamond’s idea of ‘ecological suicide’ was popular a couple of decades ago, and was born out of the idea, in part, and as propaganised, humans are going to run out of oil at some point in the near future. The last bit didn’t age very well as oil wells are being sunk in many new locations. Since its publication there have been several articles in journals disputing the idea the inhabitants of Easter Island soiled their own nest. After all, it was in his head and he never did any real research. In spite of that he sold a lot of books. The idea was eagerly taken up by environmental NGOs in general, and climate alarmists who like to point fingers at odd things in the past.
Another point of contention is – did the early Polynesians on Rapa Nui reach the Americas – north or south. Now we have a genetic study based on 15 individuals who lived between AD1670 and 1950. The remains are in a museum in Paris. Polynesians peopled Easter Island around AD1200 and the landscape changed dramatically. The local pine trees did not last too long, for example, but no surprise there as the Polynesians were farmers and gardeners. The newcomers also built the enigmatic moai – stone statues placed in all corners of the island.
The study expected to find a genetic signature of a population collapse, they continue – such as a drop in genetic diversity. Instead, the genetic analysis shows a gradual population inrease – which totally contradicts the idea of ecological suicide. Evidence was also found that the inhabitants did indeed reach South America. Some ten per cent of the gene pool has an indigenous American origin – and they interacted with them long before Europeans arrived after 1722. Contacts with America occurred between the 13th and 15th centuries, we are told, suggesting their data base was older than the 1670s as mentioned earlier. Altogether it seems to show Polynesians discovered America before Christopher Columbus.
For more info go to https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07881-4 … and was published in the journal Nature.