© AP Photo/ Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History
This undated photo shows a scientific reconstruction of an ancient woman known as "La Mujer de las Palmas," based on the skeletal remains of a female who lived between 10,000 and 12,000 years ago in Tulum, Mexico.
This undated photo shows a scientific reconstruction of an ancient woman known as "La Mujer de las Palmas," based on the skeletal remains of a female who lived between 10,000 and 12,000 years ago in Tulum, Mexico.
Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History on Thursday released photos of the reconstructed image of a woman who probably lived on Mexico's Caribbean coast 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. She peeks out of the picture as a short, spry-looking woman with slightly graying hair.
Anthropologists had long believed humans migrated to the Americas in a relatively short period from a limited area in northeast Asia across a temporary land corridor that opened across the Bering Strait during an ice age.
But government archaeologist Alejandro Terrazas says the picture has now become more complicated, because the reconstruction more resembles people from southeastern Asian areas like Indonesia.
"History isn't that simple," Terrazas said. "This indicates that the Americas were populated by several migratory movements, not just one or two waves from northern Asia across the Bering Strait."
Some outside experts caution that the evidence is not conclusive.
