The modern history of Uruguay, a country located in the middle of the lower east coast of the continent of South America, is limited to the European conflict shaped by the colonial interests of the Spanish, British and Portuguese powers, as we do not know anything about the history of the indigenous Uruguayans.

However, a recent study published in the journal PNAS Nexus on April 21 was able to hear the echo of the indigenous peoples of Uruguay after it had been missing since prehistoric times.

According to the press release published by an Emory University blog, this study provides the first observation of the complete genetic sequence of the ancient people of Uruguay.

Hence, it gives us a historical look at the indigenous people of this region.

It is worth noting that the European military campaigns in this region were a major cause of the destruction of the remains of the indigenous population, and therefore it became difficult to identify the characteristics of the indigenous population.

According to the report published by the "Science Alert" website, researchers analyzed the remains of two people who lived long before Christopher Columbus' voyage that crossed the Atlantic Ocean to explore the New World (the Americas).

South America was home to regional diversity and did not belong to a single origin (Reuters)

different migrations

The results of these analyzes revealed new evidence indicating that the indigenous peoples of South America did not all follow a single migration.

John Lindo, an Emory University anthropologist and co-author of the study, notes that these findings "support the idea that South America was home to regional diversity, rather than the monolithic idea that peoples in North and South America belonged to a single Native American race."

The two remains were discovered at a 2,000-year-old archaeological excavation site on the coastal city of Rocha in southeastern Uruguay.

Genetic analyzes also revealed that the first remains of a female, estimated to be around 1,400 years old.

However, it was difficult to determine the gender of the second remains, which appear to have lived about 650 years ago.

Although these two remains are separated by many centuries, their genes have helped connect the indigenous Uruguayans, the peoples of eastern Brazil, and the ancient peoples of Panama (that stretch of land connecting South and North America).

The absence of the connection of the indigenous peoples of Uruguay and the Amazon population is caused by a separation that occurred between the ancestors (Reuters)

drenched sweat

Surprisingly, the genomes of the two discovered remains do not seem to be related in any way to the indigenous people of the Amazon (the indigenous peoples who still inhabit the Amazon forests in South America), which suggests that there is a separation that occurred between the ancestors, which caused the absence of this genetic link between peoples The original that inhabited South America.

Lindo states that this "contradicts the theory of unilateral migration".

However, to resolve this controversy requires more evidence, which is difficult to collect due to the climate of South America.

In contrast to Europe, the humid and warm conditions in most parts of the South American continent do not help to preserve the genetic material inside the bones of the dead, as well as the processes of genocide and slavery contributed to the dispersal and displacement of the indigenous population, so tracking their genome - before the European conquest - It's tough.

It is worth noting that the last chapter of Uruguay's indigenous ethnic past was written in 1831, when the last group of indigenous people was wiped out by the state, so Uruguay lacks knowledge of its ethnic origin.

Lindo concludes that "the complete genetic sequences of the original Uruguayans enabled us to reconstruct, if at least a small part of the genetic history of these peoples."