Pedra do Alexandre Hunter-Gatherer

The individual from Pedra do Alexandre (Carnaúba dos Dantas, Rio Grande do Norte) lived within the window 2900–2450 BCE, a time when coastal and inland wetland landscapes of northeastern Brazil hosted diverse foraging communities. Archaeological data indicates occupation of shoreline, lagoon and riverine ecotones during the Brazilian Archaic period, broadly associated here with the Lagoa de Encantada hunter-gatherer tradition. Shell middens, scattered lithics and ephemeral hearth features in comparable sites suggest a seasonal, mobile use of resource-rich littoral habitats.

Limited evidence suggests these communities emphasized fishing, mollusk gathering and the exploitation of freshwater and estuarine resources, but preservation biases and sparse excavation mean that many details remain unclear. The genetic sample is a rare direct window into personal ancestry from this era: while the archaeological record provides landscape and material context, the DNA gives a human signature that can be compared to other ancient and modern genomes. Because this dataset is a single individual, any model of population movement, interaction or continuity must be treated as provisional. Further sampling across sites and time is required to move from evocative possibility to robust narrative.

The genetic profile from Brazil_RN_ALE_MH_HG_4600BP is based on a single individual dated to the late 4th–mid 3rd millennium BCE. Reported uniparental markers are Y-chromosome haplogroup Q and mitochondrial haplogroup C1b. Both lineages are well-established components of Native American genetic diversity: haplogroup Q is a common paternal lineage across the Americas, while C1b is one branch of the founding maternal C lineages.

These assignments are consistent with deep Pan-American ancestry and with archaeological expectations for pre-agricultural hunter-gatherer populations in Brazil. Comparative ancient-DNA analyses place such haplogroups within broader patterns of early peopling and regional differentiation in South America. But with n=1, population-level inferences (timing of local continuity, degrees of admixture, or fine-scale migrations) are highly tentative. Genetic affinities to the Lagoa de Encantada tradition or to later Indigenous groups can be hypothesized, yet require additional ancient genomes from neighboring sites and periods to test.

Thus the genetic data opens powerful avenues for linking material culture to demography, even as it underscores the urgent need for more samples to turn preliminary signal into a robust picture of northeastern Brazil’s past.