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Ancestry of Mariana Islanders linked to Philippines study
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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 15) A study of two ancient skeletons recovered from Guam indicates that the early settlers of the Mariana Islands in the western Pacific may have originated from the Philippines.
Scientists from Germany and Australia analyzed the DNA of two 2,200-year-old skeletons from the Ritidian Beach Cave site in Guam, which is the largest island in the Marianas, and “found that their ancestry is linked to the Philippines.”
“Moreover, they are closely related to early Lapita skeletons from Vanuatu and Tonga, suggesting that the early Mariana Islanders may have been involved in the colonization of Polynesia,” the study added. Vanuatu and Tonga are countries in the Pacific.
DNA from Guam s indigenous peoples traced to Taiwan: study
12/24/2020 04:58 PM
Ancient skeletons found in Ritidian, Guam. Photo courtesy of Hung Hsiao-chun
Taipei, Dec. 24 (CNA) A team of archaeologists from Taiwan and other countries has found that the origins of the Chamorro people in Guam are closely linked to the indigenous peoples of the northern Philippines, whose ancestry can be traced back to Taiwan.
In a recent study titled Ancient DNA from Guam and the peopling of the Pacific, the research team said DNA tracing suggested that the Chamorros had migrated from Taiwan to the Philippines and crossed the sea to Guam.
In new research, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Australian National University and the University of Guam analyzed ancient DNA from two humans who lived on Guam 2,200 years ago and found that their ancestry is linked to the Philippines. Moreover, they are closely related to ancient humans from Vanuatu and Tonga, suggesting that the early Mariana Islanders may have been involved in the colonization of Polynesia.
Tahitian warrior dugouts from ‘
Le Costume Ancien et Moderne’ by Giulio Ferrario, Milan, between 1816 and 1827.
Humans reached the Mariana Islands in the western Pacific by 3,500 years ago, contemporaneous with or even earlier than the initial peopling of Polynesia.
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IMAGE: Excavation work area outside the Ritidian Beach Cave site in northern Guam, Mariana Islands. view more
Credit: Hsiao-chun Hung
To reach the Mariana Islands in the Western Pacific, humans crossed more than 2,000 kilometres of open ocean, and around 2,000 years earlier than any other sea travel over an equally long distance. They settled in the Marianas around 3,500 years ago, slightly earlier than the initial settlement of Polynesia. We know more about the settlement of Polynesia than we do about the settlement of the Mariana Islands , says first author Irina Pugach, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. The researchers wanted to find out where people came from to get to the Marianas and how the ancestors of the present Mariana Islanders, the Chamorro, might be related to Polynesians.