1 00:00:06,640 --> 00:00:08,207 Narrator: Deep in the basement of Denmark's 2 00:00:08,275 --> 00:00:13,012 National Museum, a Stone Age treasure lies hidden. 3 00:00:15,316 --> 00:00:17,082 Twenty-five years ago, it was locked 4 00:00:17,151 --> 00:00:21,020 away and forgotten. 5 00:00:21,522 --> 00:00:24,089 At the time, scientists had no idea that this 6 00:00:24,158 --> 00:00:27,192 seemingly ordinary object could have the power to 7 00:00:27,261 --> 00:00:30,162 rewrite history. 8 00:00:31,632 --> 00:00:33,966 In their hands was the raw material to 9 00:00:34,035 --> 00:00:39,304 reconstruct the identity of a 4,000-year-old human 10 00:00:39,373 --> 00:00:43,042 a feat scientists thought impossible until now. 11 00:00:47,815 --> 00:00:51,250 From these tiny blocks of DNA a human face begins 12 00:00:51,318 --> 00:00:55,621 to appear that threatens our long-held theory of 13 00:00:55,689 --> 00:01:00,292 how humans first entered the New World. 14 00:01:42,470 --> 00:01:44,870 The greatest scientific revelations often come 15 00:01:44,939 --> 00:01:48,507 from the most unlikely places. 16 00:01:48,576 --> 00:01:52,211 This desolate slab of ice, called Greenland, 17 00:01:52,279 --> 00:01:54,113 was one of the last frontiers to be 18 00:01:54,181 --> 00:01:57,583 inhabited by humans. 19 00:02:00,621 --> 00:02:03,188 The last place, you might think, to try and solve 20 00:02:03,257 --> 00:02:05,691 the huge question of how people migrated 21 00:02:05,759 --> 00:02:09,394 around the Earth. 22 00:02:16,036 --> 00:02:18,437 But one scientist thinks he may find the answer 23 00:02:18,506 --> 00:02:21,073 buried in the story of the first pioneers to 24 00:02:21,142 --> 00:02:23,876 enter this Arctic wilderness. 25 00:02:27,481 --> 00:02:29,148 Eske Willerslev: It's super fascinating to 26 00:02:29,216 --> 00:02:33,218 imagine what made people go into go into what really, 27 00:02:33,287 --> 00:02:36,488 at least today, consider a very hostile environment. 28 00:02:36,557 --> 00:02:39,291 But for the first people entering this area, I 29 00:02:39,360 --> 00:02:43,128 mean this is true exploration, right? 30 00:02:48,869 --> 00:02:51,436 Narrator: Around 4,500 years ago, the first 31 00:02:51,505 --> 00:02:54,039 settlers arrived in this icy world with nothing 32 00:02:54,108 --> 00:02:58,443 more than Stone Age tools. 33 00:02:58,746 --> 00:03:00,445 Every day their survival was at the 34 00:03:00,514 --> 00:03:04,516 mercy of the elements. 35 00:03:11,425 --> 00:03:13,692 Nobody knows who they were, where they came 36 00:03:13,761 --> 00:03:19,665 from, or why, after 1,500 years, they vanished. 37 00:03:26,407 --> 00:03:29,041 Dr. Eske Willerslev is obsessed with finally 38 00:03:29,109 --> 00:03:31,577 exposing the origin of the first explorers to 39 00:03:31,645 --> 00:03:35,447 reach Greenland. 40 00:03:37,251 --> 00:03:41,987 He is here hunting for human DNA. 41 00:03:45,459 --> 00:03:48,594 These Stone Age people, known as the Saqqaq, left 42 00:03:48,662 --> 00:03:50,929 so few traces; their very existence had 43 00:03:50,998 --> 00:03:53,432 been cast in doubt. 44 00:03:53,500 --> 00:03:55,167 Eske Willerslev: Is this skin, is this hair on it 45 00:03:55,236 --> 00:03:57,669 or is it just... 46 00:03:57,738 --> 00:03:59,571 Narrator: Until now, all that's been found are 47 00:03:59,640 --> 00:04:01,440 fragments of their harpoons, 48 00:04:01,508 --> 00:04:04,309 knives and clothing. 49 00:04:06,513 --> 00:04:08,981 But Eske is convinced that if he can get his 50 00:04:09,049 --> 00:04:11,316 hands on the genetic code of Greenland's first 51 00:04:11,385 --> 00:04:14,586 settlers, it might complete the entire 52 00:04:14,655 --> 00:04:17,022 puzzle of how humans first entered 53 00:04:17,091 --> 00:04:18,624 the new world. 54 00:04:28,002 --> 00:04:31,737 Eske Willerslev: A human bone? 55 00:04:32,406 --> 00:04:35,173 That's pretty amazing, actually. 56 00:04:37,111 --> 00:04:39,544 There exists, I think, it's like three bone 57 00:04:39,613 --> 00:04:43,615 fragments of the Saqqaq and that's basically it. 58 00:04:43,684 --> 00:04:46,451 All over the Arctic, right? 59 00:04:46,520 --> 00:04:49,121 So, it's a mystery what happened to the dead 60 00:04:49,189 --> 00:04:51,923 people from that culture. 61 00:04:57,164 --> 00:04:59,364 Narrator: For years, scientists have thought 62 00:04:59,433 --> 00:05:01,833 that the New World was settled by only a few 63 00:05:01,902 --> 00:05:05,537 explosive waves of migration. 64 00:05:05,839 --> 00:05:09,374 During the last Ice Age, about 20,000 years ago, 65 00:05:09,443 --> 00:05:11,677 the first inhabitants came across the Bering 66 00:05:11,745 --> 00:05:15,681 Strait land bridge, and populated the continent. 67 00:05:16,617 --> 00:05:20,485 But Eske's hunch is that there is more to the 68 00:05:20,554 --> 00:05:23,121 story there may have been others staking a claim to 69 00:05:23,190 --> 00:05:26,525 this virgin land. 70 00:05:27,995 --> 00:05:29,561 At last, he thinks he's got the 71 00:05:29,630 --> 00:05:32,664 tools to prove it. 72 00:05:32,933 --> 00:05:32,998 Eske Willerslev: So hopefully this core will 73 00:05:34,435 --> 00:05:36,535 contain, you know, DNA from the 74 00:05:36,603 --> 00:05:38,904 Saqqaq people themselves. 75 00:05:38,972 --> 00:05:41,973 We hope that they have been urinating here, too 76 00:05:42,042 --> 00:05:44,643 because this is the DNA from those cells that we 77 00:05:44,712 --> 00:05:47,913 are actually looking for. 78 00:05:48,849 --> 00:05:50,816 Being a molecular biologist, it's an 79 00:05:50,884 --> 00:05:52,818 incredible time. 80 00:05:52,886 --> 00:05:55,620 What we're doing here, fishing in the dirt, you 81 00:05:55,689 --> 00:05:58,924 know, for human DNA, and if you go back five, 82 00:05:58,992 --> 00:06:01,827 six years I wouldn't imagine that that 83 00:06:01,895 --> 00:06:03,662 would be possible. 84 00:06:03,731 --> 00:06:05,864 This development in genetics will really 85 00:06:05,933 --> 00:06:09,668 change how we look at human evolution and human 86 00:06:09,737 --> 00:06:13,505 migration, human spread across the world. 87 00:06:14,375 --> 00:06:17,342 Narrator: But after years combing the Arctic, Eske 88 00:06:17,411 --> 00:06:20,746 had hit a dead end. 89 00:06:23,984 --> 00:06:26,785 Of the few bones he'd found, none contain a 90 00:06:26,854 --> 00:06:30,355 viable sample of DNA. 91 00:06:32,426 --> 00:06:36,294 Then, where he least expects it, Eske hits the 92 00:06:36,363 --> 00:06:39,030 genetic jackpot. 93 00:06:39,266 --> 00:06:42,334 All that time, the elusive DNA he needed was 94 00:06:42,403 --> 00:06:43,902 just around the corner from his 95 00:06:43,971 --> 00:06:46,671 office in Copenhagen. 96 00:06:46,740 --> 00:06:49,775 Eske Willerslev: I spent years traveling around to 97 00:06:49,843 --> 00:06:52,978 the most remote places in Greenland searching for 98 00:06:53,046 --> 00:06:56,148 human remains and, without any luck, 99 00:06:56,216 --> 00:06:59,751 spending fortunes and freezing my butt off and 100 00:06:59,820 --> 00:07:02,387 then I found out what I was looking for was 101 00:07:02,456 --> 00:07:04,890 indeed lying in the basement of the National 102 00:07:04,958 --> 00:07:08,660 Museum in Copenhagen. 103 00:07:09,062 --> 00:07:10,629 Narrator: The prized sample Eske had been 104 00:07:10,697 --> 00:07:12,764 seeking had been gathering dust in the 105 00:07:12,833 --> 00:07:16,902 museum's archives for over two decades. 106 00:07:34,154 --> 00:07:37,722 On an expedition to Disko Bay in 1986, an 107 00:07:37,791 --> 00:07:40,959 archaeology team came across an unusual find 108 00:07:41,028 --> 00:07:44,763 buried in Greenland's permafrost. 109 00:07:47,367 --> 00:07:49,868 By a stroke of luck, a one-of-a-kind genetic 110 00:07:49,937 --> 00:07:53,705 sample had become encased in the frozen soil where 111 00:07:53,774 --> 00:07:58,109 it lay for over 4,000 years. 112 00:07:59,880 --> 00:08:02,013 At the time, this matted tuft of hair 113 00:08:02,082 --> 00:08:05,484 was merely a curiosity. 114 00:08:05,686 --> 00:08:08,954 DNA research was just getting off the ground. 115 00:08:09,022 --> 00:08:11,623 But to Eske's eyes, 25 years later, it's a 116 00:08:11,692 --> 00:08:14,993 potential gold mine. 117 00:08:15,062 --> 00:08:16,561 Eske Willerslev: Incredible actually, 118 00:08:16,630 --> 00:08:19,264 incredible finding. 119 00:08:19,333 --> 00:08:22,133 First, I thought, "Why didn't they tell me so I 120 00:08:22,202 --> 00:08:24,603 could have avoided, you know, freezing my butt 121 00:08:24,671 --> 00:08:27,038 off here in Greenland for all those years?" 122 00:08:27,107 --> 00:08:31,009 But quickly this feeling was replaced by just 123 00:08:31,078 --> 00:08:33,144 excitement that we were standing with 124 00:08:33,213 --> 00:08:35,981 something super unique. 125 00:08:36,049 --> 00:08:38,617 And I just knew it was very likely that this 126 00:08:38,685 --> 00:08:41,119 sample would work for DNA because of 127 00:08:41,188 --> 00:08:44,823 the really good quality. 128 00:08:47,661 --> 00:08:49,628 Narrator: With this 4,000-year-old clump of 129 00:08:49,696 --> 00:08:53,064 hair, Eske and his team of genetic whizzes set 130 00:08:53,133 --> 00:08:57,435 out to make history: to be the first to 131 00:08:57,504 --> 00:09:00,105 reconstruct the entire genetic makeup, or 132 00:09:00,173 --> 00:09:04,209 genome, of an ancient human. 133 00:09:11,585 --> 00:09:12,951 Eske Willerslev: What you're actually doing 134 00:09:13,020 --> 00:09:16,755 here is you're building a human, right? 135 00:09:16,823 --> 00:09:18,823 Like you're building a house of bricks, you're 136 00:09:18,892 --> 00:09:21,726 actually building, you know, you're recreating 137 00:09:21,795 --> 00:09:25,363 an ancient human the same way. 138 00:09:33,490 --> 00:09:35,657 Narrator: So how do you resurrect a 139 00:09:35,726 --> 00:09:39,628 4,000-year-old human from a few strands of hair? 140 00:09:42,366 --> 00:09:44,366 In their genetic test kitchen at Copenhagen 141 00:09:44,434 --> 00:09:47,736 University, Eske's team cooks up recipes for 142 00:09:47,804 --> 00:09:51,640 extracting ancient DNA. 143 00:09:51,908 --> 00:09:53,541 Ancient DNA is highly contaminated from 144 00:09:53,610 --> 00:09:56,544 bacteria in the soil and from contact with modern 145 00:09:56,613 --> 00:09:58,513 humans. 146 00:09:58,582 --> 00:10:00,282 So, they give the hair a good washing 147 00:10:00,350 --> 00:10:04,119 in a bath of bleach. 148 00:10:04,388 --> 00:10:07,055 Then, they add a dash of enzymes, which break down 149 00:10:07,124 --> 00:10:10,225 the cellular structure of the hair. 150 00:10:13,196 --> 00:10:15,363 Next, they shake it up and put it 151 00:10:15,432 --> 00:10:18,867 in the oven to bake. 152 00:10:20,103 --> 00:10:22,437 The heat activates the enzymes, 153 00:10:22,506 --> 00:10:25,640 which liquefies the hair. 154 00:10:26,943 --> 00:10:28,610 Now that they have a pure, concentrated 155 00:10:28,679 --> 00:10:31,913 sample, all their prep work boils down 156 00:10:31,982 --> 00:10:35,750 to a final test. 157 00:10:36,019 --> 00:10:38,586 If they succeed in drawing out the DNA, it 158 00:10:38,655 --> 00:10:42,691 will be a breakthrough in the world of genetics. 159 00:10:45,929 --> 00:10:49,531 They inject drops of the sample into a tray of gel 160 00:10:49,599 --> 00:10:53,068 and zap it with an electric current, putting 161 00:10:53,136 --> 00:10:57,806 the DNA on the move. 162 00:10:58,075 --> 00:11:00,642 The gel acts like a strainer the longer 163 00:11:00,711 --> 00:11:04,946 strands of modern DNA, seen in blue, get stuck, 164 00:11:05,015 --> 00:11:07,282 while the shorter fragments of ancient DNA, 165 00:11:07,351 --> 00:11:10,985 in yellow, are small enough to pass through. 166 00:11:12,189 --> 00:11:14,322 Eske Willerslev: The electric charge is really 167 00:11:14,391 --> 00:11:17,926 drawing the DNA through the gel. 168 00:11:17,994 --> 00:11:21,129 So we can actually see how the DNA is moving 169 00:11:21,198 --> 00:11:23,698 through the gel. 170 00:11:26,303 --> 00:11:27,602 Narrator: But the yellow cubes could 171 00:11:27,671 --> 00:11:30,505 be fool's gold. 172 00:11:30,574 --> 00:11:32,240 Eske won't know if it's really ancient 173 00:11:32,309 --> 00:11:36,611 DNA until they shine an ultraviolet light on it. 174 00:11:40,283 --> 00:11:42,884 Eske Willerslev: It's the first moment of truth, 175 00:11:42,953 --> 00:11:45,620 because if you get a negative result, it means 176 00:11:45,689 --> 00:11:48,356 that you haven't been able to amplify anything, 177 00:11:48,425 --> 00:11:52,694 then we just have to start all over again. 178 00:11:52,963 --> 00:11:55,063 Narrator: Laced in the gel, is a toxic chemical 179 00:11:55,132 --> 00:11:58,933 called ethidium bromide, which binds to the DNA 180 00:11:59,002 --> 00:12:03,605 and makes it glow pink under UV light. 181 00:12:04,674 --> 00:12:06,741 Eske Willerslev: The DNA is kind of flashing, so 182 00:12:06,810 --> 00:12:09,778 you can actually see, you know, the DNA itself 183 00:12:09,846 --> 00:12:11,713 inside the gel here. 184 00:12:11,782 --> 00:12:15,083 And it actually looks quite promising; it's 185 00:12:15,152 --> 00:12:18,686 very, very short pieces of DNA. 186 00:12:18,755 --> 00:12:21,756 That's usually a very good sign for, 187 00:12:21,825 --> 00:12:24,859 for ancient DNA. 188 00:12:27,364 --> 00:12:28,897 Narrator: After sweating it out in their kitchen 189 00:12:28,965 --> 00:12:31,499 for weeks, they see that their recipe 190 00:12:31,568 --> 00:12:34,702 was a huge success. 191 00:12:37,407 --> 00:12:42,210 DNA is usually invisible to scientists, but here, 192 00:12:42,279 --> 00:12:43,745 they can actually cut it out, 193 00:12:43,814 --> 00:12:46,381 like cubes of Jell-o. 194 00:12:46,450 --> 00:12:49,417 With these tiny blocks, they'll begin to re-build 195 00:12:49,486 --> 00:12:51,453 their ancient human. 196 00:12:52,055 --> 00:12:53,988 Eske Willerslev: It will be a major breakthrough. 197 00:12:54,057 --> 00:12:55,824 No one has, has done that for an 198 00:12:55,892 --> 00:12:58,426 ancient human before. 199 00:12:58,495 --> 00:13:01,996 And obviously we are also very excited about what 200 00:13:02,065 --> 00:13:04,365 the DNA will be able to tell us about this 201 00:13:04,434 --> 00:13:09,070 person, from where the person came, you know, 202 00:13:09,139 --> 00:13:11,606 potentially what the person looked like. 203 00:13:11,675 --> 00:13:15,310 So, I mean, it's all very exciting. 204 00:13:20,884 --> 00:13:22,450 Narrator: But to pull it off, 205 00:13:22,519 --> 00:13:26,354 they'll need massive amounts of computing power. 206 00:13:26,923 --> 00:13:28,790 Over the next several months, banks of 207 00:13:28,859 --> 00:13:30,792 high-powered sequencing machines will sift 208 00:13:30,861 --> 00:13:33,228 through the billions of genetic details packed 209 00:13:33,296 --> 00:13:37,332 inside the samples. 210 00:13:38,635 --> 00:13:41,402 An eternity for Eske and his team, who are now so 211 00:13:41,471 --> 00:13:43,838 close to finding out the identity of 212 00:13:43,907 --> 00:13:45,607 their Stone Age human. 213 00:14:01,191 --> 00:14:02,824 The Stone Age conjures up images of 214 00:14:02,893 --> 00:14:05,693 a primitive way of life. 215 00:14:05,762 --> 00:14:08,096 Yet what we do know from the tools the Saqqaq left 216 00:14:08,164 --> 00:14:12,100 behind is that they were extremely precise. 217 00:14:17,674 --> 00:14:20,909 Morten Meldgaard: They were exquisite hunters. 218 00:14:20,977 --> 00:14:23,278 When they came here, they came with a perfect tool 219 00:14:23,346 --> 00:14:27,315 kit, the harpoons, the lances, 220 00:14:27,384 --> 00:14:29,183 the bows and arrows. 221 00:14:29,252 --> 00:14:31,052 And they were beautiful in their 222 00:14:31,121 --> 00:14:35,623 technological refinement. 223 00:14:38,528 --> 00:14:42,230 The challenges that they met here were greater 224 00:14:42,299 --> 00:14:44,299 than what you have met when you were a 225 00:14:44,367 --> 00:14:47,702 Stone Age hunter in northern Europe. 226 00:14:56,012 --> 00:14:57,412 Narrator: The Saqqaq lived on the 227 00:14:57,480 --> 00:15:01,316 margins of survival. 228 00:15:01,384 --> 00:15:03,451 Almost all of Greenland is encased in a sheet of 229 00:15:03,520 --> 00:15:07,221 ice, thousands of feet thick. 230 00:15:08,024 --> 00:15:09,557 The sun doesn't appear for three 231 00:15:09,626 --> 00:15:11,559 months of the year. 232 00:15:11,628 --> 00:15:16,064 Temperatures plummet to 50 degrees below zero. 233 00:15:17,667 --> 00:15:19,834 It is a lifeless island, except 234 00:15:19,903 --> 00:15:22,971 on the very fringes. 235 00:15:26,443 --> 00:15:28,443 The first evidence of the Saqqaq surfaces around 236 00:15:28,511 --> 00:15:31,846 2500 BCE, about the time the Great Pyramids 237 00:15:31,915 --> 00:15:34,315 were being built. 238 00:15:34,384 --> 00:15:36,250 Their Stone Age culture thrived along these 239 00:15:36,319 --> 00:15:40,154 western shores for about 1,500 years, 240 00:15:40,223 --> 00:15:43,224 and then vanished. 241 00:15:43,293 --> 00:15:45,860 But beyond this snapshot, there are gaping holes in 242 00:15:45,929 --> 00:15:49,664 the story of these first Arctic hunters. 243 00:15:50,600 --> 00:15:55,536 Holes that Eske's betting his ancient DNA can fill. 244 00:15:56,573 --> 00:15:59,173 Reconstructing this Stone Age human, could finally 245 00:15:59,242 --> 00:16:02,310 solve the riddle of who the Saqqaq were 246 00:16:02,379 --> 00:16:06,047 and how they got here. 247 00:16:10,320 --> 00:16:12,153 Finally, Eske gets his hands on 248 00:16:12,222 --> 00:16:14,389 the sequencing data. 249 00:16:14,457 --> 00:16:16,391 In front of him is a puzzle with billions of 250 00:16:16,459 --> 00:16:20,728 pieces they will have to fit together. 251 00:16:20,997 --> 00:16:23,598 The good news is it that almost all the material 252 00:16:23,667 --> 00:16:25,933 is there to tease out the genetic traits 253 00:16:26,002 --> 00:16:29,303 of their ancient human. 254 00:16:30,674 --> 00:16:33,574 As they pick through the fragments, the first 255 00:16:33,643 --> 00:16:37,178 piece of the puzzle quickly falls into place. 256 00:16:38,982 --> 00:16:40,348 Eske Willerslev: One of the first things we 257 00:16:40,417 --> 00:16:42,984 actually found out was that we are talking about 258 00:16:43,053 --> 00:16:46,054 a male individual here and we could see that 259 00:16:46,122 --> 00:16:48,222 because we started getting Y chromosome 260 00:16:48,291 --> 00:16:50,858 sequences coming up and that's the only thing you 261 00:16:50,927 --> 00:16:52,360 find in males. 262 00:16:52,429 --> 00:16:54,762 If it had been a female, you would only have got X 263 00:16:54,831 --> 00:16:58,499 chromosomes coming up. 264 00:16:58,568 --> 00:17:00,034 Narrator: Eske and his team give their Stone Age 265 00:17:00,103 --> 00:17:03,204 man an identity. 266 00:17:03,406 --> 00:17:05,239 They name him Inuk, which means 267 00:17:05,308 --> 00:17:09,077 "human" in Greenlandic. 268 00:17:09,145 --> 00:17:10,912 Eske Willerslev: Already with this information you 269 00:17:10,980 --> 00:17:14,649 start wondering, what exactly did this male 270 00:17:14,718 --> 00:17:16,284 individual look like, right? 271 00:17:16,352 --> 00:17:19,887 I mean, what kind of eye color, skin color, what 272 00:17:19,956 --> 00:17:22,457 kind of stature, what kind of adaptations did 273 00:17:22,525 --> 00:17:27,028 he have to living in this very harsh environment? 274 00:17:32,469 --> 00:17:34,936 Narrator: Like code breakers in World War II, 275 00:17:35,004 --> 00:17:37,138 the team will have to scan through the reams of 276 00:17:37,207 --> 00:17:40,241 data, picking up on patterns that correspond 277 00:17:40,310 --> 00:17:44,045 to unique genetic traits. 278 00:17:45,081 --> 00:17:47,782 As they make one discovery after the next, 279 00:17:47,851 --> 00:17:49,917 they could hit upon the answer to a far more 280 00:17:49,986 --> 00:17:53,054 haunting question: Why the 281 00:17:53,123 --> 00:17:56,157 Saqqaq culture disappeared? 282 00:18:03,233 --> 00:18:07,001 Narrator: All life boils down to just four letters 283 00:18:07,070 --> 00:18:10,505 A, T, C and G. 284 00:18:12,942 --> 00:18:17,445 This is the alphabet of DNA. 285 00:18:17,714 --> 00:18:20,615 It sounds simple, but these letters, or bases, 286 00:18:20,683 --> 00:18:23,251 come in billions of combinations giving each 287 00:18:23,319 --> 00:18:26,120 of us a unique genetic code. 288 00:18:29,526 --> 00:18:31,225 Eske Willerslev: It's really the particular 289 00:18:31,294 --> 00:18:34,028 order of these four different bases that 290 00:18:34,097 --> 00:18:36,798 makes me different from anybody else. 291 00:18:36,866 --> 00:18:38,900 I mean, I have an identical twin brother, 292 00:18:38,968 --> 00:18:41,269 so we have exactly the same sequences, but 293 00:18:41,337 --> 00:18:44,972 besides that, I would be different from any other 294 00:18:45,041 --> 00:18:49,310 person in the world. 295 00:18:49,546 --> 00:18:51,212 Narrator: While his team dives into Inuk's genetic 296 00:18:51,281 --> 00:18:56,117 matrix, Eske goes after the bigger picture. 297 00:19:01,591 --> 00:19:05,259 He is back on the hunt for more DNA. 298 00:19:09,299 --> 00:19:12,600 To figure out why Inuk's people disappeared, he 299 00:19:12,669 --> 00:19:15,469 needs more human remains from the Saqqaq and the 300 00:19:15,538 --> 00:19:19,173 people who came after. 301 00:19:21,711 --> 00:19:25,279 So he heads back to Disko Bay, not far from where 302 00:19:25,348 --> 00:19:28,649 Inuk's hair was discovered. 303 00:19:35,625 --> 00:19:37,825 His hunting ground is the Stone Age settlement 304 00:19:37,894 --> 00:19:42,129 known as Qajaa a coastal oasis surrounded by ice 305 00:19:42,198 --> 00:19:47,301 flows streaming from Greenland's interior. 306 00:19:53,109 --> 00:19:54,909 Along the shoreline, Eske and 307 00:19:54,978 --> 00:19:57,078 colleague Morten Meldgaard encounter a 308 00:19:57,146 --> 00:20:01,048 wall of bones. 309 00:20:03,553 --> 00:20:06,254 Morten Meldgaard: It represents the leftovers 310 00:20:06,322 --> 00:20:09,523 of thousands of meals. 311 00:20:09,592 --> 00:20:14,228 Most of them are seal bones. 312 00:20:32,982 --> 00:20:36,617 When you look at the amount of remains of animals, 313 00:20:36,686 --> 00:20:38,886 and so on, it's just incredible what they were 314 00:20:38,955 --> 00:20:41,989 hunting at that time. 315 00:20:44,861 --> 00:20:47,395 Eske Willerslev: It's basically similar to kind 316 00:20:47,463 --> 00:20:49,597 of a polar bear, right? 317 00:20:49,666 --> 00:20:51,732 In food choice, a lot of meat, 318 00:20:51,801 --> 00:20:56,203 a lot of marine meat. 319 00:20:56,839 --> 00:20:58,172 Narrator: What they didn't have were 320 00:20:58,241 --> 00:20:59,941 a lot of vegetables. 321 00:21:00,009 --> 00:21:02,209 The Saqqaq would have relished the liver eaten 322 00:21:02,278 --> 00:21:03,945 fresh from the seals, which is 323 00:21:04,013 --> 00:21:08,249 rich in vitamins. 324 00:21:12,088 --> 00:21:15,423 Here, the churning of icebergs along the seabed 325 00:21:15,491 --> 00:21:17,391 dredges up nutrients that feed an 326 00:21:17,460 --> 00:21:21,963 abundance of marine life. 327 00:21:28,771 --> 00:21:33,874 Inuk probably hunted along these shores. 328 00:21:36,479 --> 00:21:39,080 Perhaps even some of these bones are leftovers 329 00:21:39,148 --> 00:21:42,483 from his kills. 330 00:21:45,588 --> 00:21:48,022 But out of all the bones found here, what's 331 00:21:48,091 --> 00:21:52,093 strange is that none of them are human. 332 00:21:52,695 --> 00:21:54,562 Eske Willerslev: We find so little human material 333 00:21:54,630 --> 00:21:56,964 and we find so much of the animals 334 00:21:57,033 --> 00:21:58,532 they were eating. 335 00:21:58,601 --> 00:22:01,268 It's a mystery, I mean, why there's so little 336 00:22:01,337 --> 00:22:04,271 remains from them. 337 00:22:06,175 --> 00:22:08,376 Narrator: Across all of Greenland, no Saqqaq 338 00:22:08,444 --> 00:22:12,380 grave or burial site has ever been found. 339 00:22:14,283 --> 00:22:16,283 Some speculate they placed their dead on 340 00:22:16,352 --> 00:22:20,855 icebergs and their bodies were carried out to sea. 341 00:22:23,192 --> 00:22:26,093 But if there are any buried bones, Eske is 342 00:22:26,162 --> 00:22:27,995 betting they'd be somewhere near this 343 00:22:28,064 --> 00:22:31,565 coastal depot. 344 00:22:33,703 --> 00:22:36,070 Many ancient people buried their dead where 345 00:22:36,139 --> 00:22:38,305 they had a view of the sea. 346 00:22:38,374 --> 00:22:41,275 So he and his team scour the headlands above the 347 00:22:41,344 --> 00:22:45,646 site, looking for ancient DNA. 348 00:23:22,452 --> 00:23:24,985 Among the rocks overlooking the fjord, 349 00:23:25,054 --> 00:23:27,988 their luck appears to turn. 350 00:23:29,325 --> 00:23:32,626 Eske Willerslev: Have you found something? 351 00:23:38,668 --> 00:23:41,268 Amazing. 352 00:23:41,337 --> 00:23:42,970 Narrator: From the looks of it, they suspect this 353 00:23:43,039 --> 00:23:45,773 could be a grave of the Dorset people: the next 354 00:23:45,842 --> 00:23:48,309 culture to show up in Greenland about the time 355 00:23:48,377 --> 00:23:51,412 the Saqqaq disappeared. 356 00:23:57,887 --> 00:23:59,753 Eske Willerslev: It could potentially be Dorset, 357 00:23:59,822 --> 00:24:03,791 because of the grave setting, so, uh, exactly 358 00:24:03,860 --> 00:24:07,228 the type of material that potentially could solve, 359 00:24:07,296 --> 00:24:11,165 you know, the question of where the Dorset came. 360 00:24:22,545 --> 00:24:26,747 What would be really interesting to explore is 361 00:24:26,816 --> 00:24:29,016 if these are actually the descendants of Inuk's 362 00:24:29,085 --> 00:24:32,019 people or is it another people moving in and that 363 00:24:32,088 --> 00:24:35,256 Inuk's people are dying out and we basically 364 00:24:35,324 --> 00:24:37,658 don't know that. 365 00:24:39,162 --> 00:24:41,095 Narrator: Figuring out if the Saqqaq became the 366 00:24:41,164 --> 00:24:43,864 Dorset people, or if they are completely separate 367 00:24:43,933 --> 00:24:46,734 groups, is key to understanding how this 368 00:24:46,802 --> 00:24:50,070 Arctic wilderness was settled. 369 00:24:51,841 --> 00:24:54,542 If Eske can nail it, it could change our whole 370 00:24:54,610 --> 00:24:56,911 perspective of how humans migrated into 371 00:24:56,979 --> 00:24:58,445 the new world. 372 00:25:06,088 --> 00:25:07,621 Narrator: The skull could be the missing 373 00:25:07,690 --> 00:25:11,325 link Eske's been searching for. 374 00:25:13,763 --> 00:25:16,197 But on his quest to find more DNA, 375 00:25:16,265 --> 00:25:20,834 he's leaving nothing to chance. 376 00:25:21,637 --> 00:25:23,871 Luckily, there are other places to look, 377 00:25:23,940 --> 00:25:27,541 besides just human bones. 378 00:25:33,015 --> 00:25:35,916 Eske is trying to dig down to the Dorset layer 379 00:25:35,985 --> 00:25:39,720 in hopes of striking a vein of DNA. 380 00:25:39,789 --> 00:25:41,956 But even with a hair dryer, they can only thaw 381 00:25:42,024 --> 00:25:45,159 out a couple inches a day. 382 00:25:45,595 --> 00:25:47,861 Eske Willerslev: We have to go that far, further, 383 00:25:47,930 --> 00:25:50,931 and then we should be there. 384 00:25:53,502 --> 00:25:56,604 The idea is to use a drilling machine to take 385 00:25:56,672 --> 00:25:59,406 permafrost cores, frozen cores from the culture 386 00:25:59,475 --> 00:26:01,175 layer of the Dorset. 387 00:26:01,244 --> 00:26:04,311 If they have, you know, crapped or urinated here 388 00:26:04,380 --> 00:26:08,849 in this area, there will come DNA out with that. 389 00:26:20,730 --> 00:26:22,997 Narrator: In the hole next door, archaeologists 390 00:26:23,065 --> 00:26:26,533 are exposing a frozen timeline of over 4,000 391 00:26:26,602 --> 00:26:29,603 years of Greenland's history. 392 00:26:30,906 --> 00:26:33,307 Encased In these layers are clues to what 393 00:26:33,376 --> 00:26:36,343 happened to Inuk's people. 394 00:26:37,613 --> 00:26:39,213 Morten Meldgaard: In the top layer here, the Thule 395 00:26:39,282 --> 00:26:42,416 culture, which is from where the present day 396 00:26:42,485 --> 00:26:44,952 Greenlanders, they descend. 397 00:26:45,021 --> 00:26:47,221 And then we have a thin horizon with Dorset 398 00:26:47,290 --> 00:26:50,291 culture, and then moving down here, we have the 399 00:26:50,359 --> 00:26:52,793 Saqqaq culture, which you see all the sticks and 400 00:26:52,862 --> 00:26:57,598 the wood that was the period of Inuk. 401 00:26:57,867 --> 00:26:59,667 Narrator: These three hunting societies shared 402 00:26:59,735 --> 00:27:02,603 many similarities, but the differences in their 403 00:27:02,672 --> 00:27:04,838 tools make scientists question if 404 00:27:04,907 --> 00:27:07,941 they are all related. 405 00:27:08,010 --> 00:27:09,443 Morten Meldgaard: This harpoon that I'm holding 406 00:27:09,512 --> 00:27:13,213 here is a typical Saqqaq harpoon. 407 00:27:13,282 --> 00:27:15,549 You can see all the small details; there's nothing 408 00:27:15,618 --> 00:27:17,818 extravagant; it's just what's necessary 409 00:27:17,887 --> 00:27:21,722 to get the animal. 410 00:27:25,394 --> 00:27:27,227 In the end of the harpoon, you would have a 411 00:27:27,296 --> 00:27:30,964 small blade here made of stone so it would be 412 00:27:31,033 --> 00:27:35,602 shot, goes right into the seal. 413 00:27:36,305 --> 00:27:37,905 And it gives you an impression of 414 00:27:37,973 --> 00:27:41,108 a perfect hunter. 415 00:27:44,413 --> 00:27:46,313 Narrator: In contrast to the Saqqaq's highly 416 00:27:46,382 --> 00:27:49,216 practical society, the Dorset appear to be a 417 00:27:49,285 --> 00:27:51,785 much more spiritual people. 418 00:27:53,089 --> 00:27:55,622 Morten Meldgaard: This is a Dorset harpoon head 419 00:27:55,691 --> 00:27:58,225 which is quite different it has sort 420 00:27:58,294 --> 00:28:01,662 of facial markings. 421 00:28:01,731 --> 00:28:04,665 In the Dorset culture, we have much more lively 422 00:28:04,734 --> 00:28:09,002 expression of shamanism and spiritual things. 423 00:28:12,274 --> 00:28:14,608 There is evidence further south that the Saqqaq and 424 00:28:14,677 --> 00:28:18,011 Dorset briefly overlapped. 425 00:28:18,080 --> 00:28:19,747 Narrator: Either the Saqqaq radically 426 00:28:19,815 --> 00:28:22,316 transformed into the Dorset culture or they 427 00:28:22,385 --> 00:28:24,284 are entirely different people who crossed 428 00:28:24,353 --> 00:28:27,855 each other's tracks. 429 00:28:29,558 --> 00:28:31,692 A band of mossy turf marking the end of the 430 00:28:31,761 --> 00:28:35,662 Saqqaq culture exposes an intriguing possibility. 431 00:28:38,601 --> 00:28:39,933 Morten Meldgaard: It indicates a period of 432 00:28:40,002 --> 00:28:42,169 time with more moisture and probably also a 433 00:28:42,238 --> 00:28:44,838 cooler climate. 434 00:28:44,907 --> 00:28:47,374 Climate change here has a quite significant 435 00:28:47,443 --> 00:28:51,245 influence on the survival of people. 436 00:29:02,525 --> 00:29:04,358 Narrator: During this time, the site was 437 00:29:04,427 --> 00:29:07,361 completely abandoned until the Dorset appeared 438 00:29:07,430 --> 00:29:11,565 roughly 700 years later. 439 00:29:13,636 --> 00:29:17,070 Two possibilities emerge: either climate change 440 00:29:17,139 --> 00:29:20,874 triggered the collapse of the Saqqaq or it forced 441 00:29:20,943 --> 00:29:23,277 their culture to move on and evolve 442 00:29:23,345 --> 00:29:25,946 into the Dorset. 443 00:29:33,122 --> 00:29:35,622 The only way for Eske to know for sure 444 00:29:35,691 --> 00:29:39,693 is to start lining up his strands of DNA. 445 00:29:41,630 --> 00:29:44,264 Back in Copenhagen, his team has begun to piece 446 00:29:44,333 --> 00:29:48,068 together Inuk's physical appearance. 447 00:29:50,906 --> 00:29:53,841 By matching up snippets of his code to a global 448 00:29:53,909 --> 00:29:57,044 database of modern human DNA, they start to 449 00:29:57,112 --> 00:30:01,448 rebuild an image of their Stone Age hunter. 450 00:30:02,117 --> 00:30:04,184 Each trait they uncover leads them closer to 451 00:30:04,253 --> 00:30:07,187 revealing the Saqqaq's origins, and the bigger 452 00:30:07,256 --> 00:30:09,356 picture of human migration into 453 00:30:09,425 --> 00:30:11,558 the new world. 454 00:30:12,461 --> 00:30:14,027 Eske Willerslev: We have actually found evidence 455 00:30:14,096 --> 00:30:18,565 in multiple places in the genome that Inuk has been 456 00:30:18,634 --> 00:30:21,235 genetically adapted to living in 457 00:30:21,303 --> 00:30:22,903 an Arctic environment. 458 00:30:22,972 --> 00:30:26,440 And I find that quite interesting, given that 459 00:30:26,509 --> 00:30:28,942 he's actually the first people getting into the 460 00:30:29,011 --> 00:30:31,311 high Arctic, right? 461 00:30:31,380 --> 00:30:34,248 These people have adapted very quickly, 462 00:30:34,316 --> 00:30:36,016 I mean, people that weren't able 463 00:30:36,085 --> 00:30:38,685 to handle the very low temperatures 464 00:30:38,754 --> 00:30:42,222 would probably disappear quite quickly. 465 00:30:44,126 --> 00:30:45,592 Narrator: From this genetic insight, 466 00:30:45,661 --> 00:30:47,794 illustrator Nuka Godtfredsen begins to 467 00:30:47,863 --> 00:30:51,331 sketch out Inuk's profile. 468 00:30:54,103 --> 00:30:56,003 Eske Willerslev: In terms of body stature, 469 00:30:56,071 --> 00:30:58,171 you would probably have had low surface 470 00:30:58,240 --> 00:31:00,941 area to body mass. 471 00:31:01,010 --> 00:31:04,011 He would have been most likely very stocky built 472 00:31:04,079 --> 00:31:08,582 in order to avoid loss of heat from his surface. 473 00:31:14,256 --> 00:31:16,523 When we're diving deeper and deeper into the 474 00:31:16,592 --> 00:31:19,226 genome, you know, first we start getting a kind 475 00:31:19,295 --> 00:31:22,262 of just all appearance of this particular 476 00:31:22,331 --> 00:31:26,767 individual, the body structure. 477 00:31:28,304 --> 00:31:30,938 But then you start building up a face of 478 00:31:31,006 --> 00:31:36,810 this Inuk you're almost getting a personal 479 00:31:36,879 --> 00:31:41,415 relationship to this long dead individual, right? 480 00:31:42,284 --> 00:31:44,284 Which is quite amazing, when you are thinking 481 00:31:44,353 --> 00:31:46,920 about that what you started off with just a 482 00:31:46,989 --> 00:31:48,655 tuft of hair. 483 00:31:57,616 --> 00:31:59,182 Narrator: After months scanning the 484 00:31:59,251 --> 00:32:00,884 streams of code, the fragments 485 00:32:00,953 --> 00:32:04,388 of Inuk's image fall into place. 486 00:32:06,825 --> 00:32:09,059 Suddenly, the code breakers find themselves 487 00:32:09,128 --> 00:32:13,597 staring into the eyes of their Stone Age hunter. 488 00:32:14,667 --> 00:32:16,767 They've isolated a key pattern in the genome 489 00:32:16,835 --> 00:32:21,438 that tells them Inuk had brown eyes. 490 00:32:22,041 --> 00:32:23,874 While the eyes are often the most revealing about 491 00:32:23,943 --> 00:32:28,211 a person, for Eske's team, they're a dead end. 492 00:32:30,115 --> 00:32:33,650 Brown eyes are the most common in the world. 493 00:32:35,487 --> 00:32:37,821 Surprisingly, it's the quirky shape of Inuk's 494 00:32:37,890 --> 00:32:40,791 teeth that gives them their first big lead. 495 00:32:42,394 --> 00:32:43,894 Eske Willerslev: Here we see a single 496 00:32:43,963 --> 00:32:48,832 substitution, from a T to a C, where the common one 497 00:32:48,901 --> 00:32:51,935 is a T, but Inuk has a C. 498 00:32:52,004 --> 00:32:54,004 And this particular position that really 499 00:32:54,073 --> 00:32:56,773 means that he has a special type of front 500 00:32:56,842 --> 00:33:00,377 teeth the inner side of the teeth kind of have a 501 00:33:00,446 --> 00:33:04,314 shovel-form type of shape. 502 00:33:05,184 --> 00:33:06,683 Narrator: Inuk's distinctive teeth narrow 503 00:33:06,752 --> 00:33:10,387 down the possibilities. 504 00:33:10,456 --> 00:33:12,122 Just as winning the lottery can come down to 505 00:33:12,191 --> 00:33:15,659 a single number, a single letter of code can make 506 00:33:15,728 --> 00:33:17,227 all the difference in pinpointing 507 00:33:17,296 --> 00:33:19,830 Inuk's origins. 508 00:33:20,299 --> 00:33:21,698 Eske Willerslev: The deeper we went into 509 00:33:21,767 --> 00:33:24,201 interpreting the genomic information, the more we 510 00:33:24,269 --> 00:33:26,169 started getting a portrait of this 511 00:33:26,238 --> 00:33:28,872 individual Inuk appearing. 512 00:33:28,941 --> 00:33:33,710 We could see that he most likely had brown skin he 513 00:33:33,779 --> 00:33:37,280 seems to have a tendency to baldness. 514 00:33:37,349 --> 00:33:41,351 He had dry ear wax, instead of wet ear wax, 515 00:33:41,420 --> 00:33:45,522 which is actually quite typical for Asians. 516 00:33:47,393 --> 00:33:50,260 Narrator: On their own, these traits seem random, 517 00:33:50,329 --> 00:33:52,562 but stitched together, they're leading Eske to 518 00:33:52,631 --> 00:33:57,701 an unexpected revelation about Inuk's roots. 519 00:34:01,173 --> 00:34:02,973 But the clincher is when they discover his 520 00:34:03,042 --> 00:34:06,576 distinctive type A blood. 521 00:34:07,846 --> 00:34:09,846 Eske Willerslev: The blood type could suggest 522 00:34:09,915 --> 00:34:13,083 that maybe he came a long way from Greenland, 523 00:34:13,152 --> 00:34:14,317 you know? 524 00:34:14,386 --> 00:34:16,420 That he's not related to any of the New World 525 00:34:16,488 --> 00:34:19,156 people like Native Americans and 526 00:34:19,224 --> 00:34:21,324 present-day Inuits. 527 00:34:21,393 --> 00:34:25,128 And so, so together with, you know, reconstructing 528 00:34:25,197 --> 00:34:29,299 the facial features of Inuk, you kind of start 529 00:34:29,368 --> 00:34:32,302 getting this hint that maybe he was 530 00:34:32,371 --> 00:34:35,005 something very different. 531 00:34:37,743 --> 00:34:41,178 Of course, this is super exciting, because then it 532 00:34:41,246 --> 00:34:44,948 starts changing the common view of migration 533 00:34:45,017 --> 00:34:47,317 into the New World. 534 00:34:58,363 --> 00:35:00,330 Narrator: To confirm their hunch that Saqqaq 535 00:35:00,399 --> 00:35:02,532 may be genetically unique, they compare 536 00:35:02,601 --> 00:35:05,802 Inuk's DNA side-by-side with DNA from native 537 00:35:05,871 --> 00:35:10,073 Inuit people living in Greenland today. 538 00:35:19,918 --> 00:35:23,320 The results are conclusive there is no 539 00:35:23,388 --> 00:35:26,990 direct DNA link between them. 540 00:35:28,026 --> 00:35:31,428 The Saqqaq people went extinct. 541 00:36:02,461 --> 00:36:04,294 Eske Willerslev: The conclusion we must draw 542 00:36:04,363 --> 00:36:08,598 from the genome of Inuk is that, for whatever 543 00:36:08,667 --> 00:36:11,835 reason, they basically died out. 544 00:36:19,645 --> 00:36:23,613 They came into this unexplored land and 545 00:36:23,682 --> 00:36:26,950 presumably did really well for a 546 00:36:27,019 --> 00:36:30,187 few thousand years. 547 00:36:33,091 --> 00:36:36,560 Then something must have hit them, because they 548 00:36:36,628 --> 00:36:40,931 just seem to disappear at that time. 549 00:36:51,977 --> 00:36:54,177 Narrator: One possibility is that, as the climate 550 00:36:54,246 --> 00:36:57,547 grew colder around Disko Bay, the Saqqaq followed 551 00:36:57,616 --> 00:36:59,849 their food supply to the warmer waters 552 00:36:59,918 --> 00:37:03,086 of southern Greenland. 553 00:37:04,590 --> 00:37:06,523 In these new hunting grounds, they may have 554 00:37:06,592 --> 00:37:09,559 clashed with the Dorset people. 555 00:37:12,598 --> 00:37:13,697 Eske Willerslev: You definitely start 556 00:37:13,765 --> 00:37:16,266 wondering what could be the reason for the 557 00:37:16,335 --> 00:37:22,105 disappearance; one scenario could be that, 558 00:37:22,174 --> 00:37:25,942 due to the competition of resources, later people 559 00:37:26,011 --> 00:37:29,579 like the Dorset pushed out or caused the 560 00:37:29,648 --> 00:37:33,016 extinction of Inuk's people. 561 00:37:34,519 --> 00:37:36,720 Narrator: With the revelation that Inuk's 562 00:37:36,788 --> 00:37:38,655 people went extinct, Eske's quest takes an 563 00:37:38,724 --> 00:37:41,925 abrupt turn. 564 00:37:45,230 --> 00:37:48,565 As he attempts to pinpoint Inuk's exact origins, 565 00:37:48,634 --> 00:37:50,200 the trail of DNA leads him 566 00:37:50,269 --> 00:37:53,503 further than expected. 567 00:37:55,240 --> 00:37:58,141 A discovery, thousands of miles from where Inuk's 568 00:37:58,210 --> 00:38:01,778 hair was found, is about to shake up the history 569 00:38:01,847 --> 00:38:05,382 of not just the Arctic, but the entire New World. 570 00:38:14,493 --> 00:38:16,960 Narrator: DNA is to modern science what astronomy 571 00:38:17,029 --> 00:38:20,797 was to the Age of Galileo. 572 00:38:22,200 --> 00:38:25,402 For Eske and his team, rebuilding Inuk the first 573 00:38:25,470 --> 00:38:28,438 complete ancient genome is like discovering 574 00:38:28,507 --> 00:38:31,574 a new planet. 575 00:38:31,877 --> 00:38:34,177 Now, they have to place his origins in the vast 576 00:38:34,246 --> 00:38:37,347 universe of human genetics. 577 00:38:38,750 --> 00:38:41,551 Poring over a map of all known DNA of people 578 00:38:41,620 --> 00:38:45,221 living today, they finally find a match. 579 00:38:48,493 --> 00:38:50,527 Eske Willerslev: We are actually looking at 580 00:38:50,595 --> 00:38:53,530 around one million specific positions in the 581 00:38:53,598 --> 00:38:56,299 genome, and then comparing them to a 582 00:38:56,368 --> 00:38:59,202 number of people in the Old World, from 583 00:38:59,271 --> 00:39:02,205 northeastern Siberia, China, Europe, 584 00:39:02,274 --> 00:39:03,707 Africa, et cetera. 585 00:39:03,775 --> 00:39:06,710 And then we can actually pinpoint, you know, 586 00:39:06,778 --> 00:39:10,580 which populations from today are most 587 00:39:10,649 --> 00:39:13,850 closely related to Inuk. 588 00:39:14,086 --> 00:39:16,219 And there, it seems like he's falling together 589 00:39:16,288 --> 00:39:18,888 with Chukchi and Koryaks these Old World 590 00:39:18,957 --> 00:39:22,425 populations from northeastern Siberia. 591 00:39:27,399 --> 00:39:29,265 Narrator: The realization that Inuk's roots lie 592 00:39:29,334 --> 00:39:33,303 deep in Siberia is a bombshell. 593 00:39:35,307 --> 00:39:38,074 It's hard proof that the Saqqaq were not part of 594 00:39:38,143 --> 00:39:41,544 any known migrations into the New World. 595 00:39:43,882 --> 00:39:45,415 Eske Willerslev: The traditional view is that 596 00:39:45,484 --> 00:39:47,717 there has been two, possibly three migrations 597 00:39:47,786 --> 00:39:49,185 into the New World. 598 00:39:49,254 --> 00:39:54,391 And what Inuk tells us is that this is not correct. 599 00:39:58,363 --> 00:40:00,130 Narrator: The picture of how the New World was 600 00:40:00,198 --> 00:40:03,466 settled used to be very simple. 601 00:40:03,535 --> 00:40:05,802 The first wave of people reached the Americas by 602 00:40:05,871 --> 00:40:10,206 crossing a land bridge over the Bering Strait. 603 00:40:11,009 --> 00:40:13,543 The Inuit people were a second wave, settling in 604 00:40:13,612 --> 00:40:17,046 Alaska and the Canadian Arctic. 605 00:40:19,518 --> 00:40:21,818 But this new Saqqaq migration from the heart 606 00:40:21,887 --> 00:40:28,091 of Siberia is a curveball 5,000 years ago, they 607 00:40:28,160 --> 00:40:30,727 made an epic journey all the way across the brutal 608 00:40:30,796 --> 00:40:34,597 Arctic into Greenland. 609 00:40:34,666 --> 00:40:36,766 What's most impressive is that they did it at a 610 00:40:36,835 --> 00:40:39,202 time when there was no land bridge across the 611 00:40:39,271 --> 00:40:41,671 Bering Strait. 612 00:40:41,740 --> 00:40:44,374 As the Ice Age ended, rising sea levels wiped 613 00:40:44,443 --> 00:40:48,445 out the main passageway to the Americas. 614 00:40:48,713 --> 00:40:50,213 Eske Willerslev: The old idea of peopling of the 615 00:40:50,282 --> 00:40:55,051 Americas is that people came to the New World 616 00:40:55,120 --> 00:40:57,620 through this land bridge at a time where you can 617 00:40:57,689 --> 00:40:59,722 say that those two land masses 618 00:40:59,791 --> 00:41:03,426 were still connected. 619 00:41:04,162 --> 00:41:06,563 But Inuk's people expansion into the New 620 00:41:06,631 --> 00:41:09,933 World definitely happened where it was water in 621 00:41:10,001 --> 00:41:12,902 between the two continents. 622 00:41:12,971 --> 00:41:16,105 So they must have made it either by boat or over 623 00:41:16,174 --> 00:41:19,609 the ice in the winter time. 624 00:41:20,078 --> 00:41:22,779 It's a remarkable journey. 625 00:41:23,448 --> 00:41:25,048 Narrator: Their story is a marvel of 626 00:41:25,116 --> 00:41:27,283 the Stone Age. 627 00:41:27,352 --> 00:41:29,853 But without the DNA of Inuk's hair, 628 00:41:29,921 --> 00:41:32,589 it may never have been told. 629 00:41:34,559 --> 00:41:36,659 How many other stories like the Saqqaq are out 630 00:41:36,728 --> 00:41:40,396 there waiting to be uncovered? 631 00:41:40,866 --> 00:41:43,199 Eske Willerslev: We see typically as scientists 632 00:41:43,268 --> 00:41:45,902 these events of spreading as 633 00:41:45,971 --> 00:41:48,404 something very simple, right? 634 00:41:48,473 --> 00:41:51,374 I would say what Inuk really, I mean, tells me 635 00:41:51,443 --> 00:41:54,477 is that, that, you know, there's probably been 636 00:41:54,546 --> 00:41:57,413 many trial and errors, you know, not only for 637 00:41:57,482 --> 00:42:00,283 the Americas and for Greenland, but other 638 00:42:00,352 --> 00:42:03,453 places in the world as well. 639 00:42:05,290 --> 00:42:08,024 We don't see that by just looking at the modern 640 00:42:08,093 --> 00:42:12,395 genetics we have to go back in time and explore 641 00:42:12,464 --> 00:42:15,265 the human material, and then we can actually get 642 00:42:15,333 --> 00:42:18,935 glimpse of these trial and errors. 643 00:42:19,170 --> 00:42:20,803 It shows us that things are a bit more 644 00:42:20,872 --> 00:42:24,073 messy than we thought. 645 00:42:24,142 --> 00:42:25,909 It's a much richer story, much more exciting 646 00:42:25,977 --> 00:42:29,846 really, from my point of view. 647 00:42:33,685 --> 00:42:35,852 Narrator: Only now that they know where Inuk came 648 00:42:35,921 --> 00:42:38,021 from can they add the finishing touches 649 00:42:38,089 --> 00:42:41,491 to his portrait. 650 00:42:41,893 --> 00:42:44,127 To fill in the blanks, Eske and artist Nuka 651 00:42:44,195 --> 00:42:46,696 Godtfredsen study photographs of Chukchis 652 00:42:46,765 --> 00:42:49,532 from Siberia. 653 00:43:02,647 --> 00:43:04,547 At last, months of sweating the 654 00:43:04,616 --> 00:43:07,717 details pay off. 655 00:43:07,786 --> 00:43:09,552 Like a ghost, the face of their Stone Age 656 00:43:09,621 --> 00:43:12,188 hunter finally appears. 657 00:43:18,063 --> 00:43:20,129 Morten Meldgaard: All of a sudden, we are sitting 658 00:43:20,198 --> 00:43:23,499 face to face with Inuk. 659 00:43:23,568 --> 00:43:27,337 I mean, it's very different, having a look 660 00:43:27,405 --> 00:43:30,173 at a piece of human bone. 661 00:43:30,241 --> 00:43:33,309 There's a big jump from that to be able to see 662 00:43:33,378 --> 00:43:36,546 these people face to face. 663 00:43:41,186 --> 00:43:43,286 Narrator: For Eske, the completion of the first 664 00:43:43,355 --> 00:43:47,724 ancient genome is the achievement of a lifetime. 665 00:43:47,792 --> 00:43:51,227 But this isn't the end of the story it's 666 00:43:51,296 --> 00:43:54,530 a brand new beginning for science. 667 00:44:04,042 --> 00:44:07,176 The race is on, to find the next genetic insight 668 00:44:07,245 --> 00:44:11,080 into how we got to where we are today. 669 00:44:20,325 --> 00:44:22,492 Eske's convinced there will be many more 670 00:44:22,560 --> 00:44:25,228 Inuks to come. 671 00:44:30,001 --> 00:44:31,267 Eske Willerslev: In science, you always have 672 00:44:31,336 --> 00:44:33,736 to do one example to show, well, 673 00:44:33,805 --> 00:44:37,740 this is indeed possible. 674 00:44:38,543 --> 00:44:44,180 Inuk opened the door into a complete new level of 675 00:44:44,249 --> 00:44:46,015 ancient genetics, really. 676 00:44:46,084 --> 00:44:49,852 And also on understanding human history.