National Geographic News, Reporting Your World Daily

Monday, November 23, 2009

Photo: Prehistoric Hair Suggests 1st Eskimos Came From Asia


Email to a Friend	<< Back to Full Story

The first Eskimos to colonize the New World did not descend from Native Americans, nor are they the ancestors of modern-day Inuit, according to a DNA study of ancient hair from Greenland (top).

Archaeological studies link the earliest Eskimos in Greenland instead to the Saqqaq culture, which appeared some 4,500 years ago and used lightweight tools such as knives (bottom) and harpoons.

The population that would eventually give rise to modern-day Inuit eventually overtook them.

Photographs courtesy of Bjarne Grønnow