Re: Archaeological sensation in Oestfold

Jack Linthicum <jacklinthicum@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > wrote:


[...]
Archaeological sensation in Oestfold
Norwegian archaeologists are puzzled by a find which indicates an Inka
Indian died and was buried in the Oestfold city of Sarpsborg 1000
years ago.

26.06.2007 06:57

[...]


This is what Martin Rundkvist has to say

<http://scienceblogs.com/aardvarchaeology/2007/06/no_that_norwegian_guy_was_not.php>
with a picture.

No, That Norwegian Guy Was Not an Inca Indian

There's a newsbit doing the rounds of international
summer-starved media about a funny cranium found
at St. Nicholas' church in Sarpsborg, Norway during
excavations headed by Mona Beate Buckholm of
Østfoldmuseet. The cranium belonged to a batch of
bones surfacing when some rose bushes were
moved. Radiocarbon dates them to most likely the
11th century AD. The find is touted as having "the
same genetic marks as the Inca people of Latin
America". This is an oversimplification.

Here's what it's all about, and I translate from the
Norwegian:
"One of the men had a cranium with a split neck
bone, a so-called 'Inca bone'. That is, he was the
bearer of a rare hereditary trait where the seam
between the two points called asterion in the rear of
the neck does not ossify and close during foetal
development in the usual way. In people with an Inca
bone, this seam remains visible throughout their
lives. This trait almost exclusively occurs in South
American Indians, and is most common in Peru."

"Almost exclusively". "Most common". As there are
no South American artefacts from the site, the most
parsimonious view is that the find demonstrates the
existence of this trait among 11th century Norwegians
as well.

So it is indeed the Inca bone thing, and not a reduced
bone in the neck, which means the Hanihara/Ishida
article /is/ relevant.
To remind you: it states that in Europe the frequency
of the Inca bone is relatively low.

--
p.a.

.