Luzia Woman (11,500 years old)
Luzia Woman is the name for the skeleton of a Paleo-Indian woman found in a cave in Brazil. Some archaeologists believe the young woman may have been part of the first wave of immigrants to South America. Nicknamed Luzia (her name pays homage to the famous African fossil “Lucy”, who lived 3.2 million years ago), the 11,500 year-old skeleton was found in Lapa Vermelha, Brazil, in 1975 by archaeologist Annette Laming-Emperaire. Anthropologists have variously described Luzia's features as resembling those of Negroids, Indigenous Australians,Melanesians and the Negritos of Southeast Asia.
New dating of the bones have determined that Luzia is one of the most ancient American human skeletons ever discovered. Read More