Schroeder Hannes, Ávila-Arcos María C, Malaspinas Anna-Sapfo, Poznik G David, Sandoval-Velasco Marcela, Carpenter Meredith L, Moreno-Mayar José Víctor, Sikora Martin, Johnson Philip L F, Allentoft Morten Erik, Samaniego José Alfredo, Haviser Jay B, Dee Michael W, Stafford Thomas W, Salas Antonio, Orlando Ludovic, Willerslev Eske, Bustamante Carlos D, Gilbert M Thomas P
Centre for Geogenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, 1350 Copenhagen, Denmark; Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, 2300 Leiden, The Netherlands;
Centre for Geogenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, 1350 Copenhagen, Denmark; Department of Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305;
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015 Mar 24;112(12):3669-73. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1421784112. Epub 2015 Mar 9.
Between 1500 and 1850, more than 12 million enslaved Africans were transported to the New World. The vast majority were shipped from West and West-Central Africa, but their precise origins are largely unknown. We used genome-wide ancient DNA analyses to investigate the genetic origins of three enslaved Africans whose remains were recovered on the Caribbean island of Saint Martin. We trace their origins to distinct subcontinental source populations within Africa, including Bantu-speaking groups from northern Cameroon and non-Bantu speakers living in present-day Nigeria and Ghana. To our knowledge, these findings provide the first direct evidence for the ethnic origins of enslaved Africans, at a time for which historical records are scarce, and demonstrate that genomic data provide another type of record that can shed new light on long-standing historical questions.
在1500年至1850年期间，超过1200万非洲奴隶被运往新大陆。绝大多数奴隶是从西非和中西部非洲运来的，但他们的确切来源大多不明。我们利用全基因组古代DNA分析，研究了在加勒比海圣马丁岛发现的三名非洲奴隶遗骸的基因来源。我们将他们的起源追溯到非洲不同的次大陆源人群，包括喀麦隆北部说班图语的群体以及生活在当今尼日利亚和加纳的非班图语使用者。据我们所知，这些发现为非洲奴隶的种族起源提供了首个直接证据，而这一时期的历史记录稀少，同时也证明基因组数据提供了另一种记录类型，能够为长期存在的历史问题带来新的启示。
