These were real people, living in a specific place at a specific time, doing specific things that left traces in the archaeological record.

The DNA is one more trace — a particularly informative one — but it is not the whole story.

The Morphological Question in Detail

The debate about the morphological characteristics of the Lagoa Santa skulls and what those characteristics mean for the interpretation of early American settlement requires somewhat more technical detail than has been provided so far, because the technical details matter for understanding why the debate was as contentious and as long-lived as it was.

Cranial morphology — the shape of the skull — is described and quantified using a set of measurements and ratios that capture different aspects of skull form.