A burial at the end of the ice age
In 1968, construction workers digging near Wilsall, Montana, uncovered the only known burial associated with the Clovis culture in the world. The site contained the remains of a male infant, now known as Anzick-1, who died between one and two years of age. Radiocarbon dating places the burial at approximately 12,707–12,556 years before the present. The child's remains and the artifacts buried with him were coated in powdered red ocher, a natural iron-ore pigment used in ceremonial burials by many ancient peoples.
This was no ordinary grave. Placed with the infant was the largest collection of Clovis artifacts ever found together. The assemblage includes over 115 items, with more than 100 stone tools and 15 tools made from antlers. These artifacts include finely crafted bifaces and distinctive fluted projectile points known as Clovis points. The presence of these objects, all covered in ocher, shows a deliberate ritual burial. The collection of artifacts is now curated at the Montana Historical Society.
The first ancient American genome
Decades after the discovery, scientists sequenced the complete genome of the Anzick child, the first ancient Native American genome to be fully sequenced. The results, published in 2014, linked the Clovis people and modern indigenous populations. The analysis showed that the Anzick-1 genome is more closely related to all living Native American populations—from Canada to the tip of South America—than to any other population on Earth. This evidence shows that contemporary Native Americans are direct descendants of the Clovis people who inhabited the continent at the end of the last ice age.
The genetic data also settled a long-standing debate about the origins of people in the Americas, refuting theories of a European origin for the Clovis people. The infant's mitochondrial DNA belongs to haplogroup D4h3a, a lineage found in Native American populations, particularly along the Pacific coast and in South America. His Y-chromosome belongs to haplogroup Q-L54, a founding lineage for peoples of the Americas. The genetic analysis also connected the Anzick child to a 24,000-year-old individual from the Mal'ta site in Siberia, showing the migration from Asia across the Bering Strait land bridge. After the scientific studies concluded, and following consultations with several tribes, the child was reburied. On June 28, 2014, an intertribal ceremony was held to return the remains, known to local tribes as Xaasaa Cheege ("Upper-Lying-Down-Boy"), to the earth near where he was found.