De quand date le peuplement du Brésil ? Contributions osseuses et moléculaires

The date of the earliest human occupation in America is a matter of great debate with estimates ranging from 16,000 to 130,000 years for the time of the arrival of Homo sapiens on the continent. Ages older than ca. 50,000 years imply that the New World could have been populated by other species of the genus Homo. Hypotheses of a settlement prior to the last glacial maximum, however, remain entrenched in the debate around the anthropogenic or natural origin of features or objects described as bonfires, stone artifacts and cut/break marks on animal bones. Human skeletons older than 12,000 years, which would constitute indisputable evidence of human presence, have never been described for the New World. Genetic analyzes of current populations and ancient skeletons indicate an age of colonization of no more than ca. 16,000 years ago. Therefore, the bioarchaeological evidence favors an understanding of settlement occurring after the last glacial maximum in America. Alternatively, it indicates that if there was a very old population in the New World it disappeared without a trace, an event that would be unique in deep history of humanity.