A new study has been released exploring the DNA of current and ancient people of places like Alaska, Greenland, and Siberia, revealing that a number of cultures survived the harsh climate for thousands of years.
People from Arctic Canada and the Aleutian Islands were also studied by an international team headed by the Centre for GeoGenetics at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, according to a press release issued by the university.
The study revealed that the Paleo-Eskimo, who lived from about 5,000 years ago until about 700 years ago in the Arctic, represented a district wave of migration, separate from Native Americans.
"They were, in a sense, sitting ducks and either they were pushed out into the fringes of the Arctic area where they couldn't survive economically or else they may simply have been annihilated in some strange way," said William Fitzhugh, director of the Arctic study center at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, according to the release.
Lundbeck Foundation Professor Eske Willerslev from Centre for GeoGenetics at the Natural History Museum, University of Copenhagen, said that the Paleo-Eskimos were the first people in the Arctic.
They also survived without outside contact for over 4,000 years, Willerslev added.
Dr. Maanasa Raghavan of Centre for GeoGenetics and lead author of the article, said that the Paleo-Eskimos disappeared around 700 years ago, or about the same time when the ancestors of modern-day Inuit spread eastward from Alaska, after surviving in near-isolation in the harsh Arctic environment for more than 4,000 years.
"The occupational history of the Arctic is unique compared to other regions of the world," said Raghavan, according to the release. "Cultural changes were brought about by movement of ideas and not new people coming into the region."
Ever since the discovery of a Paleo-Eskimo culture in the North American Arctic in 1925, archaeologists had been puzzled by their relationship with the 'Thule' culture ancestors of the modern Inuit, said co-author Dr. William Fitzhugh, from the Arctic Studies Centre at the Smithsonian Institution.
The study was published this week in the journal Science.
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