Luzia Woman (
Portuguese pronunciation: [luˈzi.ɐ]) is the name for an Upper Paleolithic period skeleton of a
Paleo-Indian woman who was found in a cave in
Brazil. Some archaeologists believe the young woman may have been part of the first wave of immigrants to South America. Nicknamed Luzia (her name pays homage to the famous African fossil "
Lucy", who lived 3.2 million years ago), the 11,500-year-old skeleton was found in Lapa Vermelha, Brazil, in 1975 by archaeologist
Annette Laming-Emperaire.
[1]
Computerized reconstruction of Luzia's face. Skin color and hair features are suppositions.
Discovery[edit]
Luzia was originally discovered in 1975 in a
rock shelter by a joint French-Brazilian expedition that was working not far from
Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The remains were not articulated. The skull, which was separated from the rest of the skeleton but was in surprisingly good condition, was buried under more than forty feet of mineral deposits and debris.
There were no other human remains at the site. New dating of the bones announced in 2013 confirmed that at an age of 10,030 ± 60 14C yr
BP(11,243–11,710 cal BP). Luzia is one of the most ancient American human skeletons ever discovered.
[2] Forensics have determined that Luzia died in her early 20s. Although flint tools were found nearby, hers are the only human remains in Vermelha Cave.
Phenotypical analysis[edit]
Her facial features include a narrow, oval cranium, projecting face and pronounced chin, strikingly dissimilar to most Native Americans and their
indigenous Siberian forebears. Anthropologists have variously described Luzia's features as resembling those of
Negroids,
Indigenous Australians,
Melanesians and the
Negritos of
Southeast Asia.
Walter Neves, an anthropologist at the University of São Paulo, suggests that Luzia's features most strongly resemble those of Australian Aboriginal peoples.
Richard Neave of Manchester University, who undertook a
forensic facial reconstruction of Luzia described it as negroid.
[3]
Neves and other Brazilian anthropologists have theorized that Luzia's Paleo-Indian predecessors lived in South East Asia for tens of thousands of years, after migrating from Africa, and began arriving in the
New World, as early as 15,000 years ago. The oldest confirmed date for an archaeosite in the Americas is 18,500 and 14,500 cal BP. for the
Monte Verde site in southern Chile.
[4] Some anthropologists have hypothesized that a population from coastal
East Asia migrated in boats along the Kuril island chain, the Beringian coast, and down the west coast of the Americas during the decline of the
Last Glacial Maximum.
[5][6]
Neves' conclusions have been challenged by research done by anthropologists Rolando Gonzalez-Jose, Frank Williams and William Armelagos who have shown in their studies that the cranio-facial variability could just be due to
genetic drift and other factors affecting cranio-facial plasticity in Native Americans.
[7][8][9]
A comparison in 2005 of the
Lagoa Santa, Minas Gerais specimens, with modern
Aimoré people of the same region, also showed strong affinities, leading Neves to classify the Botocudos as Paleo-Indians.
[10]
