ARCUS 14th Annual Meeting and Arctic Forum 2002

Paleogenetic Assessment of Human Migration and Population Replacement in North American Arctic Prehistory

M. Geoffrey Hayes¹, J.B. Coltrain², D.H. O'Rourke^3
1Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, 270 South 1400 East - Room 102, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA, Phone 801/581-6251, Fax 801/581-6252, geoff.hayes@anthro.utah.edu
²Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, 270 South 1400 East - Room 102, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA, Phone 801/585-6444, Fax 801/581-6252, coltrain@anthro.utah.edu
³Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, 270 South 1400 East - Room 102, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA, Phone 801/581-7454, Fax 801/581-6252, dennis.orourke@anthro.utah.edu

Common explanations for transitions in the archaeological record include cultural diffusion of new technologies, or rapid replacement of a resident population by more recent migrants. The former involves genetic continuity across the transition, whereas the latter suggests a genetic replacement across the transition. Two interesting cases from the North American Arctic allow for an examination of these polar explanations for such transitions. Aleut prehistory is characterized as archaeologically continuous for at least the past 4000 years, but with an associated skeletal transition from dolichocranic to brachycranic occurring approximately 1000 years before present. In the eastern Canadian Arctic an early culture complex (the Dorset) was rapidly replaced by a strikingly different culture complex (the Thule) approximately 1000 BP. Our studies compare the genetic relationship across these transitions by examining DNA extracted from archaeologically recovered pre- and post-transition individuals. To date DNA has been extracted and mtDNA amplified from >35 individuals from the Aleutians and >40 individuals from the Hudson’s Bay region. A comparison of mtDNA haplogroup frequencies, defined by the presence or absence of minimally four to six restriction sites or length polymorphisms, suggests continuity in the Aleutians, since there are no significant differences between pre and post-transition populations (both approximately 70% haplogroup D, 30% haplogroup A). In the Eastern Canadian Arctic replacement is best supported since the earlier Dorset population is fixed for haplogroup D, while the later Thule population is fixed for haplogroup A.

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