More cold water on our image of lost tribes in the rainforest living unchanged since the dawn of time.
Nearest we can tell, the uncontacted tribes are refugees from great civilizations who got wiped out by European diseases.
Nearest we can tell, the uncontacted tribes are refugees from great civilizations who got wiped out by European diseases.
The news here isn't the discovery of some new civilation, it's the discovery of a hopefully-undisturbed Mayan site. The others were "abandoned" but still largely plundered, leaving only the big stone monuments undisturbed.
Measles was probably from the middle east (first identified in Persia) and smallpox originated in North Africa.
Additionally, the long east-west band of temperate climates across Europe, Asia, and Africa accommodated trade and travel, where the varied north/south orientation of North and South America (especially the relatively impassable central isthmus) impeded trade. This allowed crops, animals, and diseases to all spread quickly in one and poorly in the other, exposing entire populations to diseases much earlier.
Let's not forget that Europe, Asia, and Africa have all had major die-offs in history when new diseases were introduced. They just all got introduced to the Americas at once.