The Anzick team used multiple methods to authenticate their sequences: the characteristic pattern of chemical damage that accumulates in genuinely ancient DNA, the consistency of the mitochondrial genome sequence across multiple independent extractions, and the analysis of the nuclear genome for internal consistency markers.

These authentication procedures provide strong evidence that the genome sequences they obtained are genuinely from the Anzick child and not from contamination by modern human DNA.

The Connection to North America’s Most Debated Site

Any comprehensive discussion of the Clovis culture and the first Americans must address the relationship between the Anzick burial and one of the most controversial sites in North American archaeology: Meadowcroft Rockshelter in Pennsylvania.

Meadowcroft Rockshelter, excavated by James Adovasio and his colleagues beginning in the 1970s, has produced what the excavators argue is evidence of human presence predating the Clovis horizon.