DNA Deciphers Roots of Modern Europeans

DNA Deciphers Roots of Modern Europeans
(nytimes.com, June 10,2015)

On Wednesday in the journal Nature, two teams of scientists — one based at the University of Copenhagen and one based at Harvard University — presented the largest studies to date of ancient European DNA, extracted from 170 skeletons found in countries from Spain to Russia. Both studies indicate that today’s Europeans descend from three groups who moved into Europe at different stages of history.

The first were hunter-gatherers who arrived some 45,000 years ago in Europe. Then came farmers who arrived from the Near East about 8,000 years ago.

Finally, a group of nomadic sheepherders from western Russia called the Yamnaya arrived about 4,500 years ago. The authors of the new studies also suggest that the Yamnaya language may have given rise to many of the languages spoken in Europe today.

From past studies, I recall that Europeans lactose tolerance came with the genetic influence from Near Eastern farmers, circa 8K YBP. One of the above studie's authors also suggests that the first instance of the Indo-European language appeared from this group (mainly in southern Europe). He also suggests that the Indo-European language had a major (re)introduction into central and northern Europe from the Yamnaya from the Steppes.

a reply to: Blackmarketeer

Interesting.

So if I'm a predominantly Western, Central, and Northern European American, and I am not lactose intolerant, but rather digest lactose amazingly well, would it possibly mean my European genes were influenced also by Near Eastern genes?

Fascinating stuff. It also explains why Europeans are so "rainbow" colored, meaning Europeans have the widest range of pigmentation amongst humans, from albino fair to deep olive skin, and every shade of hair and eye color known to man. It also kinda kills the idea of a "pure" European. Ancestry from Africa, Asia, and the middle east.

a reply to: r0xor

Yep. Because that is the route through which the first dairy farmers arrived in Europe before recorded history. They migrated through the middle and near east, through the Mediterranean and Black Sea areas before even the Egyptians were around.

How does this fit into the story that Europeans are comprised of Neandertal and HSS, along with another HSS culture that has yet to be identified? Is this clarification of that, or just examination of a different granular level? 45kya....would indicate that this is overlapping the neandertal culture, and omitting the genetic influence from them.

Well, these guys haven't really told us anything new.... at all. This information has been out there for anyone to find, for years now. Those who are tuned in to modern genetics have known this stuff for a long time.

Lactose tolerance is linked to pastoralism, but I believe it's a rather more recent development than the first waves of Neolithic farmers. Plus, it's more common in areas of Europe that have the least Neolthic ancestry.

These geneticists really don't have half a clue what they're talking about, anyway. They keep changing the narrative every few years. First they were linking mainly R1a to the Kurgan burial culture and Yamna, and now they've done a 360 turn and are linking it to R1b based some new findings. If that's true, it would mean modern Western Europeans (particularly the Brits and Iberians) are the most closely related to the bearers of Indo-European languages.

It's very counter-intuitive, you'd think it would be the Eastern Europeans who are genetically closer to Yamna, and that's what they originally thought. Now they're saying differently.

So, we really don't know what to believe yet. Take everything these guys say with a grain of salt. It's all still very conjectural at this point.

originally posted by: Skadi_the_Evil_Elf
a reply to: r0xor

Yep. Because that is the route through which the first dairy farmers arrived in Europe before recorded history. They migrated through the middle and near east, through the Mediterranean and Black Sea areas before even the Egyptians were around.

Maybe I really am part Jew, because I just LOVE cheeses of all kinds, wow!!

Thought someone out there would find this funny.

en.wikipedia.org...
British Israelism (also called Anglo-Israelism) is a doctrine based on the hypothesis that people of Western European and Northern European descent, particularly those in Great Britain, are the direct lineal descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of the ancient Israelites. The doctrine often includes the tenet that the British Royal Family is directly descended from the line of King David.

Rats love cheese too.

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
How does this fit into the story that Europeans are comprised of Neandertal and HSS, along with another HSS culture that has yet to be identified? Is this clarification of that, or just examination of a different granular level? 45kya....would indicate that this is overlapping the neandertal culture, and omitting the genetic influence from them.

You're talking less than 3% Neanderthal, with a higher percentage than that for Near-Eastern DNA.

originally posted by: Blackmarketeer
DNA Deciphers Roots of Modern Europeans
(nytimes.com, June 10,2015)

On Wednesday in the journal Nature, two teams of scientists — one based at the University of Copenhagen and one based at Harvard University — presented the largest studies to date of ancient European DNA, extracted from 170 skeletons found in countries from Spain to Russia. Both studies indicate that today’s Europeans descend from three groups who moved into Europe at different stages of history.

The first were hunter-gatherers who arrived some 45,000 years ago in Europe. Then came farmers who arrived from the Near East about 8,000 years ago.

Finally, a group of nomadic sheepherders from western Russia called the Yamnaya arrived about 4,500 years ago. The authors of the new studies also suggest that the Yamnaya language may have given rise to many of the languages spoken in Europe today.

From past studies, I recall that Europeans lactose tolerance came with the genetic influence from Near Eastern farmers, circa 8K YBP. One of the above studie's authors also suggests that the first instance of the Indo-European language appeared from this group (mainly in southern Europe). He also suggests that the Indo-European language had a major (re)introduction into central and northern Europe from the Yamnaya from the Steppes.

Lactose tolerance has nothing to do with the middle east, never had ... anymore than "lactose intolerance" is the norm. Both statements are false.

Selecting 170 skeletons to do the study, is just another one of those hoax ... where you try to find specimens to fit the logic of what conclusion you are trying to make.

Northern Europeans have a genetic relations with Asians ... makes sense, since it's Eurasia. About 5000 yeas ago, northern Europe was NOT frozen ... contrary to many modern "belief". At that time, scandinavia was warmer than today ... any "moron" should be able to conclude that migration was simpler over the continent, than over the bottom of the ocean, or through mountain ranges.

Another clue here, is that in ancient times ... we didn't have sheep. We had goats. In fact, mountain goats ... and the mountain goat, is the ancestor of the sheep.

This fact alone, should be a tell tale for anyone, as to migration patterns. Although it is still a very "which came first, the hen or the egg", kind of clue. But it does tell us, that the sheep hearders did originate from montainous regions ... not the flat lands of the middle east.

I've been looking at the human model for migration lately and topics like this certainly do help

Fascinating stuff

Star and Flag.

a reply to: Blackmarketeer

Hi Blackmarketeer,
Dienekes posted this study a coulpe of days ago,

Abstract from paper,

The Bronze Age (BA) of Eurasia (c. 3,000-1,000 years BC, 3-1 ka BC) was a period of major cultural changes. Earlier hunter-gathering and farming cultures in Europe and Asia were replaced by cultures associated with completely new perceptions and technologies inspired by early urban civilization. It remains debated if these cultural shifts simply represented the circulation of ideas or resulted from large-scale human migrations, potentially also facilitating the spread of Indo-European languages and certain phenotypic traits. To investigate this and the role of BA in the formation of Eurasian genetic structure, we used new methodological improvements to sequence low coverage genomes from 101 ancient humans (19 > 1X average depth) covering 3 ka BC to 600 AD from across Eurasia. We show that around 3 ka BC, Central and Northern Europe and Central Asia receive genetic input through people related to the Yamnaya Culture from the Pontic-Caspian Steppe, resulting in the formation of the Corded Ware Culture in Europe and the Afanasievo Culture in Central Asia. A thousand years later, genetic input from North-Central Europe into Central Asia gives rise to the Sintashta and Andronovo Cultures. During the late BA and Iron Age, the European-derived populations in Asia are gradually replaced by multi-ethnic cultures, of which some relate to contemporary Asian groups, while others share recent ancestry with Native Americans. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesised spread of Indo-European languages during early BA and reveal that major parts of the demographic structure of present-day Eurasian populations were shaped during this period. We also demonstrate that light skin pigmentation in Europeans was already present at high frequency during the BA, contrary to lactose tolerance, indicating a more recent onset of positive selection in the latter than previously believed.

101 Ancient Genomes From Bronze Age Eurasia
Link to study abstract
I added the bold to illustrate that statement, " while others share recent ancestry with Native Americans", can you say Hg C1 found in icelanders and in neolithic remains from nw russia

Most of world diversity in hg C1 is in the Americas. Hg C1 is known in the New World in three high-frequency forms – C1b, C1c and C1d (see below, from Der Sarkissian 2011, 165).

this man was buried on the Kola pennisual in russia 3500 years ago.

and

Another Old World C1 lineage, namely C1e, has recently popped up not in Siberia or East Asia where American Indians are thought to have originated, but in Icelanders (Ebenesersdóttir et al. 2011. “A new subclade of mtDNA haplogroup C1 found in Icelanders: Evidence of pre-Columbian contact?” Am J Phys Anthropol 144, 92-99). (Comp. the occurrence of some Sinodonty dental traits in Icelanders.) Its phylogenetic proximity to the Amerindian clades and the physical proximity of Iceland to the New World via the Atlantic invoked recent (past 1000 years) admixture from a New World population to the Norse as an explanation. It’s important that neither in the case of C1a, nor in the case of C1e researchers hesitate to postulate an Amerindian origin for these Old World branches of C1. The recent origin of C1e in Iceland, however, can hardly withstand close scrutiny because hg C is not found in the Inuits with whom the Vikings might have interacted around 10th century AD. Additionally, C1 was reported in Germans, Canarians, Indians and Bashkirs (these sequences lack np 16356 HVR-I diagnostic of the sub-clades C1a and np 16051 HVR-I diagnostic of C1d) further reinforcing the impression that it’s an old European clade driven into obscurity by either selection or massive population replacements.

Yuzhnyi Olenii Ostrov:Ancient MtDNA Evidence for Amerindian Admixture in Europe.
Also another recent paper finds Hg A10 in ancient eurasian burials, Hg A10 has also been found among the Chumash of the california coast

I think the study muddies the water more than it helps.

The 'founding fathers' of Europe: DNA reveals all Europeans are related to a group that lived around Belgium 35,000 years ago

David Reich and his colleagues from Harvard University analysed genome-wide data from 51 modern humans who lived between 45,000 and 7,000 years ago to study this repopulation.

Remains found from this period include three 31,000-year-old skulls from Dolni Věstonice in the Czech Republic, the lower jaw of the 19,000-year-old 'Red Lady of El Mirón Cave' and the skull of a 14,000-year-old individual discovered at the Villabruna in northeastern Italy, among others.

The genetic data shows that, beginning 37,000 years ago, all Europeans come from a single founding population that persisted through the Ice Age.

The founding population has deep branches in different parts of Europe, one of which is represented by a specimen from Belgium.

In fact, present-day Europeans can trace their ancestry back to this group of humans who lived in northwest Europe 35,000 years ago.

However, this founding population, which was part of the Aurignacian culture, became displaced when another group of early humans, members of a different culture known as the Gravettian, arrived on the scene in many parts of Europe 33,000 years ago.

Then, around 19,000 years ago, a population related to the Aurignacian culture re-expanded across Europe.

It is thought these people went on to repopulate Europe after the vast ice sheets retreated.

Based on the earliest sample in which this ancestry is observed, it is plausible this population expanded from the southwest - present-day Spain - after the Ice Age peaked.

The second event the researchers detected happened 14,000 years ago when populations from the southeast, around Turkey and Greece, spread into Europe, displacing the first group of humans.

Professor Reich added: 'We see a new population turnover in Europe, and this time it seems to be from the east, not the west.

British Israelism (also called Anglo-Israelism) is a doctrine based on the hypothesis that people of Western European and Northern European descent, particularly those in Great Britain, are the direct lineal descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of the ancient Israelites. The doctrine often includes the tenet that the British Royal Family is directly descended from the line of King David.

HOW IS THIS NOT NAZISM under a different name?

originally posted by: bob234arley

British Israelism (also called Anglo-Israelism) is a doctrine based on the hypothesis that people of Western European and Northern European descent, particularly those in Great Britain, are the direct lineal descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of the ancient Israelites. The doctrine often includes the tenet that the British Royal Family is directly descended from the line of King David.

HOW IS THIS NOT NAZISM under a different name?

And what does any of that have to do with the subject at hand?