Archaeogenetics, Epistemology, and the Peopling of the Americas

We respond to the portions of Meltzer et al. (2026a. “Genetic Evidence and the Peopling of the Americas.” PaleoAmerica) critique that bear on our e-letter to Science [Potter, B. A., T. C. Zeng, D. Reich, H. Poinar, P. Flegontov, B. Llamas, S. Fiedel, et al. 2026b. “Archaeogenetics, Monte Verde, and the Peopling of the Americas: Reply to Meltzer et al. (2026).” Science], focusing on areas where our interpretations of the archaeogenetic record of the peopling of the Americas differ. Our central argument is that current evidence does not yet uniquely discriminate among several plausible geographic models (Figure 1). We therefore focus on the extent to which the available genetic, archaeological, and geological evidence constrains the timing, location, and routes of the initial peopling.