The 9,000-Year-Old Child’s Tooth Found In An Alaska Cave — And The DNA Test That Revealed A Lost Population Of The First Americans
Collections from Arctic archaeological sites are being systematically inventoried and reassessed.
Analytical sensitivity is increasing with each iteration of next-generation sequencing technology.
And the ethical frameworks for research involving Indigenous ancestral remains are maturing as the scientific community develops more robust practices of community engagement.
The Trail Creek tooth pointed the way.
The next tooth, the next bone, the next specimen that holds enough genetic material to speak — that is what the field is looking for.
And the landscape of the Seward Peninsula, and the broader Beringian region, still holds whatever secrets the permafrost and the cave sediment and the deep Holocene deposits have been keeping for thousands of years.
— END —