All of the ancient and modern sequences fell into two major
lineages. The majority (15/17) of the modern samples had haplotypes
that included the so called ‘Polynesian motif’ or Hg B4a1a1a
(Trejaut et al., 2005). Similarly, six of the ancient samples also were
identified as having the B4a1a1a defining mutations. The remaining
samples (2/17 modern samples and 1/7 ancient) had mutations
that define the Q1 haplogroup, which is of Near Oceanic origin, but
had been found previously to be at low frequency across Remote
Oceania and as far east as Samoa and the Cook Islands (Friedlaender
et al., 2005; Kayser et al., 2006). These results extended the distribution
of haplogroup Q1 eastwards and, for the first time, provided
evidence that it was introduced to Polynesia prior to
European arrival in the region, and most likely as part of the founding population of the Gambier Archipelago. This study also
presented the first replicated aDNA sequence data of archaeological
human remains in the Pacific and demonstrated continuity between
ancient and modern populations in East Polynesia.