Luzia Woman

Luzia Woman is the name for the skeletal remains of a prehistoric woman found in a cave in Brazil, South America. Some archaeologists believe the young woman may have been part of the first wave of immigrants to South America. Named Luzia (her name pays homage to the famous African fossil "Lucy," who lived 3.2 million years ago), the 11,500 year-old skeleton was found in Lapa Vermelha, Brazil in 1975 by archaeologist Annette Laming-Emperaire. [cite web|url=http://www.cabrillo.edu/~crsmith/luzia.html|title=Luzia Woman|publisher=Discovery Communications Inc.|author=C. Smith|date=1999|accessdate=2007-12-21]

Although dozens of skeletons have emerged from the caves dotting Lagoa Santa in eastern Brazil, this one in particular has recently caused a stir—25 years after it was dug up from a 40-foot-deep pit.

New dating of the bones have determined that Luzia is one of the most ancient American human skeletons ever discovered. Forensics have determined that Luzia died in her early 20s. Although flint tools were found nearby, hers are the only human remains in Vermelha Cave.

Her facial features include a narrow, oval cranium, projecting face and pronounced chin, leading Brazilian anthropologists to theorize that Luzia's predecessors traveled across the Bering Strait, perhaps following the coastline by boat, from northeast Asia, where her ancestors had lived for tens of thousands of years since human migrations from Africa. Dr. Walter Neves, anthropologist at the University of São Paulo, suggests that Luzia belonged to these people who began arriving in the New World as early as 15,000 years ago. Anthropologists have variously described her features as African, Australian aborigine, Melanesian, or Negrito. A facial reconstruction of Luzia's face was made by Richard Neave of Manchester University who stated that "I personally would stick my neck out and say it is conclusive support for his [Neve's] findings and demonstrates without any doubt at all" that Luzia was of non-Mongoloid origin. [cite web|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A01EFDC1438F935A15753C1A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2|title=An Ancient Skull Challenges Long-Held Theories|author=Larry Rohter|publisher="New York Times", 26 Oct 1999|date=1999|accessdate=2008-02-15] A later comparison in 2005 of the Lagoa Santa specimens with the recently extinct Botocudos of the same region also showed strong affinities leading Walter Neves to classify the Botocudos as Paleo Indians. [cite web|url=http://www.jornaldaciencia.org.br/Detalhe.jsp?id=32121|title=Os sobreviventes: Crânios de índios extintos do Brasil Central indicam elo com primeiros povoadores da América|author=Reinaldo José Lopes|publisher="Jornal da Ciência", 10 Oct 2005|date=2005|accessdate=2008-02-15]

Luzia stood just under five feet tall—about one-third of her skeleton has been recovered. Her remains seem to indicate that she died either in an accident or as the result of an animal attack. She was a member of a group of hunter-gatherers who subsisted largely on fruits and berries, and probably an occasional piece of meat. Luzia was originally discovered in 1975 in a rock shelter by a joint French-Brazilian expedition that was working not far from Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The remains were not articulated. The skull itself was buried under more than forty feet of mineral deposits and debris—separated from the rest of the skeleton—but in surprisingly good condition.

There were no other human remains at the site; Luzia appeared to have died alone. But more than forty other skeletons from the same general period have been found in a nearby area called Lagoa Santa. Brazilian scientists hope to be able to test Dr. Neves's migration theory by doing radiocarbon dating on some of these remains. Among these bones was an unusual, and undated, calotte (skullcap) that somehow simply disappeared [Beattie, O.B., & Bryan, A.L., "A Fossilized calotte with Prominent Browridges from Lagoa Santa, Brazil". "Current Anthropology", Vol. 25, No. 3, 1984.] .

Dr. Sergio Pena, a geneticist at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, has already begun conducting DNA tests while other samples have been sent to the Max Planck Anthropological Institute in Germany for further DNA testing.

This general region, not far from the Atlantic coastline, has been the focus of archeological activity since the middle of the 19th century, when Peter Wilhelm Lund, a Danish naturalist, first encountered human skeletal remains. Many of the specimens unearthed at that time are now stored in the Zoology Museum at the University of Copenhagen. However, when Dr. Neves went to examine them, he found that the material had not been catalogued by geological strata, resulting in more questions than answers.

A somewhat controversial theory, known as the Solutrean hypothesis, explores the possibility of trans-Atlantic voyages directly from the continent of Europe to the eastern shores of America. ["Science" 10 April 1998: Vol. 280. no. 5361 and NOVA ONLINE, PBS broadcast 15 February 2000.] [cite web|url=http://www.cabrillo.edu/~crsmith/origins.html|title=Native Peoples of North America|publisher=Cabrillo education|author=C. R. Smith|date=2006|accessdate=2007-12-26] At present, Dr. Neves does not subscribe to trans-Atlantic hypotheses. [cite web|url=http://www.lagoasanta.com.br/homem/minas_na_vanguarda_arqueologica.htm|title=Archaeological Sites in the Forefront|author=Jáder Rezende|date=10 August 2003|accessdate=2008-01-09|language=Portuguese]

ee also

* Models of migration to the New World
* Pre-Siberian American Aborigines
* Walter Neves

References