Star Gift

Chapter Fifteen

The professor went over to a make shift shelf in the corridor and took out a binder. She opened it in front of Michael. There were a series of lines and numbers in the form of a complex graphs.

"The first amazing thing learned here about the Pueblo people's remains genetically, is their total matriarchal gene dominance."

Blake gave a puzzled look.

"It means all of the people here, in each of these giant complexes throughout he canyon, came from an original line of females genetically. Each population or mega-clan carried those genes of one ancestral woman over thousands of years and many generations"

"You're kidding me," Michael said under his breath.

"No. This is real. And as a woman, I'm thrilled by this discovery. It means that females were the primary lineage which was carefully preserved within the Chocoan culture. It seems to be consistent among all the mega clan structures throughout the canyon. People living within these clusters, like resident bases."

"So, let me get this straight. Girls were allowed to marry men outside their own large complex, but all the females living within each architectural area were descended from this original matriarchal line. In essence, the culture was matrilineal, derived from the same woman? That is an amazing find."

"Yes, Michael. But not nearly so significant as what I'm about to show you"

Twua pulled out another large notebook and opened it to similar pages of charts based on gene data.

"It's been known since around the year 2000, from early gene analysis that the Pueblo peoples here in Chaco Canyon were not the ancestors of many of the southwestern tribes, though cultural connections exist. But genetically they were totally different. Showing segments of gene data inconsistent with the Hopi, Zuni, Acoma, and especially the Navajo, who always considered them an enemy in ancient times. While there are some trace elements of their genes making their presence randomly in fragmented lines of Native Americans today, the carriers of these genes for the most part left the stage completely, taking their genetic profile with them.

"Your're kidding me. That's . . . astounding!" Michael interjected. "And quite telling. But those genetic lines had to come from somewhere, Tuwa. Who were the Pueblo's . . . the Chacoan peoples' ancesters then?"

"Well Native Americans as we know, originated from Asian cultures entering the continent at the Pacific northwest, across the ice sheets of the Bering Sea many millennia before. They migrated southward, then eastward across the Americas."

"Yeah, OK  We're certain now that occurred around 16,000 years ago."

"Correct.  But the origins of the Pueblo people, these Chocoans . . . some call the Anasazi . . . seem to be much older. And you might not guess where and from whom we found their genetic links."

"Where? Which culture?"

"The very oldest recorded on Earth."

"Seriously?  Let me guess. Somewhere off-continent completely?"

"Exactly. And impossibly distant."

"Wow. My guess then,  as unlikely as it is . . . would be the Sumerians. From the river valleys pf southern Iraq. The oldest culture known. Historically before and overlapping with the Egyptians."

"That's what I've always liked about you, Michael. You do your homework."

"Seriously, Twua? Well with all genetics aside, your must then be factoring in their cosmology, right? Their phenomenal connection to the stars?"