A month ago I posted Don’t trust an archaeologist about genetics, don’t trust a geneticist about archaeology, in response to James Fallows at At 5% Neanderthal, You Are an Outlier. Fallows has now put up a follow up, The Neanderthal Defense Committee Swings Into Action, where he links to my response post. This prompted the original archaeologist in question to reach out to me via email. I am posting the letter, with their permission, below.
Hello!
I’m dropping an email because I followed a link from Fallows to find my email to him highlighted negatively on your blog. I’ve emailed a few times with Mr. Fallows on various topics and had no idea he was going to post that email – he didn’t ask until after it was already up and so, yes you’re right it was a casual dashed off email and confused two different articles (both of which incidentally I have read so please no more comments on what I may or may not have done). Mea Culpa. And you’re right, I’m not a geneticist – I’m not even a lab scientist. However, I know a heck of a lot about archaeology and I work closely with …