How ancient genomes uncovered a lost population in Colombia
A study has brought to light the existence of a lost population in Colombia, thanks to the analysis of ancient human genomes.
Conducted by an international research team including the University of Tübingen, the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, and the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, the findings suggest that these early settlers of the Altiplano region around Bogotá date back around 6,000 years.
They represent a population type that had not been previously recognised, vanishing from history about 2,000 years ago after being replaced by migrants from Central America. The research was published in the journal Science Advances.
The researchers focused on genetic material from 21 individuals, excavated from five archaeological sites on Colombia's high plains. Professor Cosimo Posth, the senior author of this study, states, "These are the first ancient human genomes from Colombia ever to be published." The samples were collected from bones and teeth, spanning nearly 6,000 years until just before Spanish colonisation. The oldest remains were found in the Checua site, located north of Bogotá at an altitude of about 3,000 meters.
Genomic analysis indicated that Checua's inhabitants were part of a relatively small group of hunter-gatherers. Kim-Louise Krettek, the study’s first author, noted, “Our results show that the Checua individuals derive from the earliest population that spread and differentiated across South America very rapidly.” Remarkably, the initial genetic makeup of these populations has no known descendants; Krettek observed, “We couldn’t find descendants of these early hunter-gatherers... That means in the area around Bogotá, there was a complete exchange of the population.”
Following this initial period, the study suggests that new cultural influences arrived via Central America, bringing technological advances such as ceramics and possibly the Chibchan languages, which are still present in Central America. Co-author Andrea Casas-Vargas remarked, “In addition to technological developments... the second migration probably also brought the Chibchan languages into what is present-day Colombia.”
The complete disappearance of this original genetic trace is quite atypical for South America, as noted by Casas-Vargas. Historically, populations in the Andes and southern regions have shown strong genetic continuity. She added, “It was that way as well in the populations which followed the hunter-gatherers in the Bogotá Altiplano until the arrival of European conquerors.
