Caribbean’s first people wiped out 1,000 years before the Spanish came

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Spanning more than 700 islands, the Caribbean Sea was one of the last places colonized by Native Americans as they explored and settled North and South America. Thanks to genetic material gleaned from the bones of ancient Caribbean residents, the invisible history of this tropical archipelago is coming to light.

Among the surprising findings is that most of the Caribbean’s original inhabitants may have been wiped out by South American newcomers a thousand years before the Spanish invasion that began in 1492.

Moreover, indigenous populations of islands like Puerto Rico and Hispaniola were likely far smaller at the time of the Spanish arrival than previously thought.

Extracting DNA from bones in warm, wet places like the Caribbean was impossible until a few years ago. But thanks to recent advances in genetic technology, a Harvard University lab run by geneticist David Reich was able to recover DNA from 174 individuals excavated at sites from Venezuela to the Bahamas.

Study confirmed a wave of pottery-making farmers island-hopped across the Caribbean. On many islands they encountered a foraging people who arrived some 6,000 or 7,000 years ago from the coasts of Central America and northern South America.

The foragers—known as Archaic Age people—seem to have largely vanished soon after the newcomers appeared.

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[The Fame Monster 4,554]

Imagine the beauty of the Caribbean Islands back then when it was only inhabited by Native Americans…  
I am one of those people who thinks the world was more beautiful place when people were living more simpler life in the nature. Of course there were way more problems back then with staying healthy, providing food, etc., but imagine the BEAUTY of the nature!!! 

[A MESS 3,938]

2 hours ago, The Fame Monster said:

Imagine the beauty of the Caribbean Islands back then when it was only inhabited by Native Americans…  
I am one of those people who thinks the world was more beautiful place when people were living more simpler life in the nature. Of course there were way more problems back then with staying healthy, providing food, etc., but imagine the BEAUTY of the nature!!! 

Same. I know that history proved time and time again that homo homini lupus, that every human can be evil to others and that oppressed can become oppressor, but I feel most of the America's populations would have developed a wonderful world (based on the portion of their beliefs I know about) opposed to the euro-centric ones our ancestors imposed over everything.

[AsleepOnTheCeiling 6,940]

2 hours ago, The Fame Monster said:

Imagine the beauty of the Caribbean Islands back then when it was only inhabited by Native Americans…  
I am one of those people who thinks the world was more beautiful place when people were living more simpler life in the nature. Of course there were way more problems back then with staying healthy, providing food, etc., but imagine the BEAUTY of the nature!!! 

The world is a bit less grim when we think about the fact that we are a lot less violent than we were centuries ago. Not to dismiss wars currently happening, but we're not constantly fighting over territory. 

[RAMROD 117,011]

2 hours ago, The Fame Monster said:

Imagine the beauty of the Caribbean Islands back then when it was only inhabited by Native Americans…  
I am one of those people who thinks the world was more beautiful place when people were living more simpler life in the nature. Of course there were way more problems back then with staying healthy, providing food, etc., but imagine the BEAUTY of the nature!!! 

It probably also smells of poo everywhere. Cos indigenous people don't know about modern septic systems.

Ancient nomadic tribes moved every two or three days as the campsites got too odorous and messy. Also, early sedentary villages are a problem too. Archeologists escalated a cliff dwelling which was under an overhang so much was preserved. Several of the rooms were abandoned before the whole village was deserted. Those abandoned rooms were used for throwing garbage in - and as a toilet. They found many coprolites (human waste). They were examined and found to contain many parasites. Also there was a lot of garbage at the base of the cliff, as is usually the case. Here there were a lot of potsherds indicating it was a garbage heap. 

[RAMROD 117,011]

3 minutes ago, TortureMeOnReplay said:

The world is a bit less grim when we think about the fact that we are a lot less violent than we were centuries ago. Not to dismiss wars currently happening, but we're not constantly fighting over territory. 

So true.
 

Tribal warfare and ethnic conflicts happened a lot back then. The romanticism of ancient life is simply because ignorance. From all the stuffs we learn on museums and more, that archaic times seems like  a whole lot worser than today tbh.

Not to mention the animism and such that require human sacrifice. Usually either children or virgin female

Example: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/mass-child-human-animal-sacrifice-peru-chimu-science

 

[Nemo 4,410]

This reads a bit like an apologia for conquistadors. "They didn't kill nearly as many people as we thought, and besides, everybody does it."

Which isn't to say that it isn't true. But I have to wonder.

[The Fame Monster 4,554]

But imagine the BEAUTY guys!!! Imagine the BEAAAUUUUTYYYYY!!! 

It was like living in a real Chromatica back then 

[Debithius 6,056]

5 hours ago, A MESS said:

Same. I know that history proved time and time again that homo homini lupus, that every human can be evil to others and that oppressed can become oppressor, but I feel most of the America's populations would have developed a wonderful world (based on the portion of their beliefs I know about) opposed to the euro-centric ones our ancestors imposed over everything.

Uhm, beliefs or no beliefs, they still colonazied and wiped each other out. They were no different from what Europeans were.