The reconstruction of Kennewick Man’s face in the image below was done for the Smithsonian. See Bruwelheide, “Identity Through Science and Art,” Kennewick Man: The Scientific Investigation of an Ancient American Skeleton, Chapter 28, at 526, 531 (2014).
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Kennewick Man is Haplogroup X: What Does it Mean?
By Guest Blogger, David Read
“Kennewick Man is perhaps the most famous and well-preserved ancient Native American skeleton found in North America. Recent DNA testing of Kennewick Man’s bones shows that his mitochondrial DNA is haplogroup X. Does this mean anything for the Book of Mormon?
Since Kennewick Man boasts haplogroup X2a DNA, his skeleton presents a unique opportunity to learn more regarding the ancient people who came from this haplogroup X ancestry. Interestingly, his physical features support the Book of Mormon account of a potential Middle Eastern ancestry.
Kennewick Man’s bones. Photograph by Chip Clark, Smithsonian Institution.
Dr. James Chatters, the forensic anthropologist who was the first to study Kennewick Man, initially assumed that Kennewick Man was neither Native American nor ancient, due to notable typical Caucasian features such as a square, prominent bilateral chin, Caucasian-type jaw and cheekbones, and eye orbital measurements. He said, “My first thought was that this skull belonged to someone of European descent. … [T]he characteristics were consistent with … a white person, a Caucasian.” Chatters, Ancient Encounters: Kennewick Man and the First Americans, at 20 (2001). Chatters stated that Kennewick Man “differed in almost every respect” from typical Native American peoples, and that he had never seen a Native American skull with so many “Caucasoid” features. Chatters, “The Recovery and First Analysis of an Early Holocene Human Skeleton from Kennewick, Washington,” American Antiquity, 65(2), at 305-306 (2000). Likewise, a second forensic anthropologist who viewed the skull also confidently concluded “Male Caucasian … Easy call … White guy.” See Chatters, Ancient Encounters: Kennewick Man and the First Americans, Touchstone, 38 (2001). This changed when the skeleton’s carbon dating occurred and subsequent testing (including DNA testing) proved Kennewick Man to be an ancient Native American.
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Chatters has since pointed out that Kennewick Man isn’t the only ancient Native American skeleton with Caucasian-like features, listing several other ancient skulls such as Spirit Cave Man, Stick Man, and skulls from the Marmes Rockshelter site and from the Horn Shelter site as additional examples of ancient Native American skulls with Caucasian-like features found in North America. Chatters, Ancient Encounters: Kennewick Man and the First Americans, at 20-21, 165, 182, 195-96 (2001). It should be noted that Dr. Chatters is not a member of the Church and believes that Kennewick Man lived 9,000 years ago, prior to Book of Mormon timeframes. There is conflicting carbon dating evidence, however, indicating that Kennewick Man instead lived only a little over 2,000 years ago. This evidence is explained in my recent book Face of a Nephite: DNA Studies and the Book of Mormon. https://www.digitalegend.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=357
The place Kennewick Man had been buried in Eastern Washington. Photograph by Thomas W. Stafford with Skeleton Illustration from Douglas Owsley. Image from Preston, “The Kennewick Man Finally Freed to Share His Secrets,” Smithsonian magazine (September 2014).
Subsequent analyses of Kennewick Man by other experts have also concluded that Kennewick Man has clear Caucasian physiological features. This would fit a Middle Eastern ancestry as described in the Book of Mormon. These experts have proposed similarities between Kennewick Man’s skull and bone structures to Europeans. See Gill, “15 East Polynesian and Paleoindian Parallels and Contrasts in Skeletal Morphology,” Skeletal Biology of the Ancient Rapanui, at 275 and 281-283 (2016). As noted by one scientist who studied Kennewick Man’s features in relation to historic population groups, “The lack of similarity of Kennewick Man to … [current typical] American Indians is striking,” finding that the features noted from his skull were much closer to those found among Caucasian peoples. Gill, “Morphological Features that Reflect Population Affinities,” Kennewick Man, Chapter 27, at 515 (2014). Other researchers agree, indicating that Kennewick Man’s physical features fall closer to Caucasian-type groups than to any typical Native American group. See, e.g., Jantz, “Cranial Morphometric Evidence for Early Holocene Relationships and Population Structure,” Kennewick Man: The Scientific Investigation of an Ancient American Skeleton, Chapter 25, at 476, 479 (2014) (“Kennewick Man’s morphology is slightly more similar to Europeans than it is to Native Americans … he would be an extremely atypical member of any [current known] Native American group.”).
Artistic recreations of Kennewick Man’s appearance, based on the skull, are reproduced below.
Figure 14. Artistic facial reconstructions of Kennewick Man. James Chatters and Tom McClelland made the clay reconstruction in the first two figures above, reproduced in “Kennewick Man Realized,” Science, Vol. 279 (February 20, 1998). The reconstruction in the latter two images was made for the Smithsonian by Bruwelheide, “Identity Through Science and Art,” Kennewick Man: The Scientific Investigation of an Ancient American Skeleton, Chapter 28, at 526, 531 (2014).
Kennewick Man’s Caucasian features, together with his mtDNA haplogroup X DNA, lend support to the idea that the ancient Native American population with haplogroup X DNA may have had more Caucasian features, similar to Kennewick Man. This fits a Middle Eastern ancestry such as described in the Book of Mormon and conflicts with the common assumption in the science of an East Asian ancestry for all Native Americans via the Bering Strait. This constitutes a surprising finding regarding Native American origins which fits with, and lends support to, the authenticity of the Book of Mormon.
Even though Kennewick Man provides evidence associating haplogroup X with a Non-Asian, Caucasian look in the Americas before Columbus, until more discoveries emerge confirming a connection between haplogroup X and a Caucasian-like appearance in the Americas before European admixture, mainstream scientists will likely continue to refuse to accept the correlation.
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David Read Patent Attorney, JD
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Despite popular belief, the currently available DNA evidence supports the Book of Mormon. Critics who attempt to rely on DNA evidence to attack the truth of the Book of Mormon misinterpret or misconstrue what the DNA evidence actually shows. In this presentation, Mr. Read will present more DNA evidence that has recently come to light supporting Book of Mormon claims. As one example, Mr. Read will discuss further scientific studies which again confirm that mitochondrial DNA haplogroup X (previously publicized by Rod Meldrum) is found among Native Americans and originated in the Middle East.
Indeed, one recent study found a variety of haplogroup X in Egypt that is just four mutations away from the type found in Native Americans, which undermines the critics’ previous claims that Native American haplotype X2a has “too many mutations” from the haplogroup X haplotypes found in the Middle East to fit a Book of Mormon timeframe for a migration from the Middle East to the Americas. Mr. Read will also present new DNA evidence regarding Y DNA haplogroup R, which is a second non-Asian DNA type found in large numbers among some Native American groups. Mr. Read will present evidence showing that this non-Asian DNA type also predates Columbus and has a distribution pattern in common with haplogroup X. This means that there is now a second and separate line of DNA evidence that corroborates the haplogroup X information and is again consistent with the Book of Mormon. Finally, Mr. Read will explain the significance of recent findings about an ancient Native American skeleton known as Kennewick Man, whose DNA is haplogroup X, but whose carbon dating has been commonly reported as being over 8,000 years old. Because of the reported carbon dating, Kennewick Man is now often used by critics to argue that haplogroup X in the Americas predates Book of Mormon timeframes. However, this again misconstrues the evidence. Mr. Read will demonstrate that a more complete analysis of the carbon dating for Kennewick Man shows that his correct age is within Book of Mormon timeframes and once again supports the DNA evidence in favor of the Book of Mormon. David possesses many intellectual interests. Before finishing his juris doctorate in law and becoming a patent attorney and later a judge, he earned undergraduate degrees in chemistry and philosophy. Over the past 10 years, he has completed a considerable amount of research into the historical authenticity of the Book of Mormon with a particular emphasis on DNA evidence related to the Book of Mormon. Through this research, he has recently uncovered additional DNA evidence that corroborates and supports the historical authenticity of the Book of Mormon.
David is an accomplished researcher. Over his career as a patent attorney, he has collaborated with inventors in numerous scientific fields. These include pharmaceuticals, medical devices, firearms, computer software, hybrid vehicles, battery technologies, pollution control technologies, textile manufacturing equipment, diesel and gasoline engines, chemical testing equipment, agricultural chemicals, turbocharging systems, fuels, coal gasification, and power plant technologies.
In each of these areas, he researched and came up to speed on the state-of-the-art knowledge in the field to thoroughly understand the new invention and the scientific consensus, interacted with experts in that field, and assessed and argued whether an invention was new or would be obvious to other experts in that scientific field. His work required him to reliably evaluate the state of established scientific knowledge in various scientific fields. He has taken that experience and applied it here to the DNA evidence related to Native Americans.
David lives in Michigan. He and his wife Barbara have five children: Amy, Charlotte, Sarah, Seth, and Matthew. David currently serves as the Sunday School President in his ward.
