Uncovering the ultimate family tree

[mr blur]

Uncovering the ultimate family tree

Manfred Huchthausen, a 58-year-old teacher, proudly showed me around his well-tended garden. "Isn't it beautiful?" he asked, pointing to the lush flower bed and immaculate lawn.

"But I know that you want to see the cave, don't you? I'll show you," he said, chuckling.

Mr Huchthausen reckons he has the longest proven family tree in the world

The Lichtenstein Cave is a short drive away from Manfred's village, deep in the Harz mountains.

This is the spot where Manfred's relatives, dating back 3,000 years, were buried. The cave remained hidden from view until 1980, and it was only later, in 1993, that archaeologists discovered 40 Bronze Age skeletons.

The 3,000-year-old skeletons were in such good condition that anthropologists at the University of Goettingen managed to extract a sample of DNA. That was then matched to two men living nearby: Uwe Lange, a surveyor, and Manfred Huchthausen, a teacher. The two men have now become local celebrities.

"It's odd, standing here in the same area where my ancestors were buried. I felt really strange when I had the bones, the skull of my great-great-great grandfather dating back 120 generations, in my hands," said Manfred.

<snip>

Very cool.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7570928.stm

[semillama]

1. Wow, that's awesome

It's particularly impressive to Americans, I think, who for the most part don't go back more than 500 years here...

[realisticphish]

2. yeah

the absence of direct ancient history helps in some situations, imho, but we miss out on a lot of cool stuff too