Luzia Woman is the name given to an ancient Paleo-Indian woman from the Upper Paleolithic period. Her skeleton, which is about 11,500 years old, was discovered in a cave at the Lapa Vermelha archaeological site in Pedro Leopoldo, located in the Greater Belo Horizonte region of Brazil. The remains were found in 1974 by archaeologist Annette Laming-Emperaire.

The name "Luzia" was chosen in honor of the Australopithecus fossil named Lucy. Luzia’s fossil was kept at the National Museum of Brazil, where it was displayed to the public until it was broken into pieces during a fire that destroyed the museum on September 2, 2018. On October 19, 2018, it was announced that most of Luzia’s remains were found among the museum debris, allowing scientists to reconstruct part of her skeleton.

History

Luzia was first found in 1974 in a rock shelter by a team of French and Brazilian scientists working near Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The bones were not put together properly. The skull, which was separated from the rest of the body, was in surprisingly good condition and was buried under more than forty feet (12 meters) of minerals and debris. No other human remains were found at the site.

In 2013, tests on charcoal from the same layer of soil as Luzia’s bones showed the remains are about 10,030 years old, with a possible range of 11,243 to 11,710 years. Luzia is one of the oldest human skeletons found in the Americas. Scientists determined she died in her early 20s. Flint tools were found nearby, but no other human remains were discovered in Vermelha Cave.

The Luzia Woman’s fossils were thought to be destroyed in a fire at the National Museum in September 2018. However, firefighters later found a human skull in the burned museum. On October 19, 2018, it was announced that the Luzia skull was found, but it was broken into pieces. About 80% of the pieces were identified as parts of the forehead, nose, and side bones, which are stronger and more likely to survive. A piece of her thigh bone and part of the box that held the skull were also recovered. Scientists have not yet put the bones back together.

Phenotypical analysis and genotype

Luzia's skull had a narrow, oval shape, a forward-facing face, and a prominent chin. These features were very different from those of most Native Americans and their ancestors from Siberia. Scientists compared Luzia's appearance to that of Indigenous Australians, Melanesians, and the Negritos of Southeast Asia. Walter Neves, a scientist at the University of São Paulo, believed Luzia's features most closely matched those of Australian Aboriginal peoples.

Neves and other Brazilian scientists proposed that Luzia's ancestors lived in Southeast Asia for thousands of years after leaving Africa. They may have reached the Americas as early as 15,000 years ago. The oldest confirmed evidence of human activity in the Americas is from a site in southern Chile called Monte Verde, dated to between 18,500 and 14,500 years ago. Some scientists think people from coastal East Asia traveled by boat along the Kuril islands, the Beringian coast, and the west coast of the Americas during a time when glaciers were melting. In 1998, Neves and another scientist named André Prous studied Luzia's skull and dated it to be about 11,400 years old.

Neves' ideas have been questioned by other scientists, including Rolando González-José, Frank Williams, and William Armelagos. They found that differences in skull shapes among Native Americans might be due to genetic changes over time rather than different origins. A 2005 study comparing Luzia's remains to those of the Aimoré people in the same region showed strong similarities, leading Neves to classify the Aimoré as descendants of early South American populations.

Scientists used 3D printers to recreate Luzia's skull based on research conducted at the National Institute of Technology by students from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

In 2018, scientists from the University of São Paulo and Harvard University published a study that challenged the idea that Luzia had ancestors from Australia or Melanesia. Using DNA analysis, they found that Luzia's genetic makeup was entirely related to Native American populations. This study was published in the journal Cell, and another study in Science shared new findings about the DNA of early people in the Americas.

DNA from remains found near Luzia's site also shows connections to Native American populations. Two individuals from Lagoa Santa share the same type of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) as an ancient person found in Montana called Anzick-1. Other Lagoa Santa individuals share the same Y chromosome type as a person found in Nevada called Spirit Cave. A sculpture of Luzia, which showed features similar to those of Indigenous Australians and Melanesians, was created in 1999. André Strauss, a scientist from the Max Planck Institute, stated that skull shape does not always accurately show where people are from. He explained that genetic evidence proves Luzia's people were fully related to Native Americans and not connected to groups from Africa or Australia.

Anthropometry

Luzia was about 5 feet tall; about one-third of her bones have been found. Her remains suggest she died around 20 years old, possibly from an accident or an animal attack. She was part of a group of people who hunted and gathered food.