On the west coast of Greenland, on the island of Qeqertasussuk, lives an ancestor of ours whose remains, along with a lock of hair preserved in the ice, were found in 1986. Inuk died at a young age. In the following years, a team of experts led by Danish scientists Eske Willerslev and Morten Rasmussen analyzed the ancient remains, mapped the DNA of the hair and sequenced 80 percent of his genome. In this way, it was possible to discover numerous details of the life and identity of Inuk, who belonged to the Saqqaq culture, descendants of populations that migrated from Siberia over 5,000 years ago and were the first to inhabit the lands of Greenland. He had dark skin, his eyes were brown and so was his hair, which was thick even if apparently the young man was prone to baldness. He fed on sea birds and seal meat, his blood type was A+ and both his physique and metabolism were adapted to life in the Arctic climate, even though not many generations had passed since his ancestors had arrived on those lands.
