Submitted by one of our archaeologist friends:

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http://www2.ari.net/rjohnson/articles/VOLCANO.UIL.html


CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- A new hypothesis about recent human evolution
suggests that a horrific "volcanic winter" 71,000 years ago, followed by
the coldest 1,000 years of the last Ice Age, brought widespread famine and
death to modern human populations around the world. The abrupt
"bottleneck," or decrease, in our ancestors' populations, in turn, brought
about the rapid "differentiation" -- or genetic divergence -- of the
surviving population.

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"You've got to keep fighting. You've got to risk your life every six months
to stay alive."   --- Elia Kazan