posted
The ancient Egyptians could soon be getting their genomes sequenced as a matter of routine. That’s the view, at least, of the first researchers to use next-generation techniques to analyse DNA from Egyptian mummies.
In a preliminary study that the authors describe as “a first step”, they detected hints of one of the mummies’ ancestral origins, as well as pathogens and a range of plant materials presumably used in the embalming process. The researchers, led by Carsten Pusch, a geneticist at the University of Tübingen in Germany, published their findings last week in the Journal of Applied Genetics.
Previous studies of DNA from Egyptian mummies have used a technique called polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to amplify specific segments of DNA. But these studies have been controversial. The PCR method is susceptible to contamination with modern DNA, especially when amplifying genes from humans or bacteria that are likely to be present in the environment.
DNA degrades relatively quickly in warm conditions, leading to doubts that it would survive for long in the Egyptian desert. For example, a high-profile DNA analysis of 3,300-year-old royal mummies published by Pusch and his colleagues in 2010 attracted scepticism. But the authors stood by their results, arguing that the embalming process must have preserved the DNA despite the heat.
Further support for their argument came in 2011, when researchers amplified DNA from 2,000-year-old mummified crocodile hatchlings. So researchers on both sides of the debate have been looking forward to the application of next-generation sequencing techniques. Instead of amplifying specific sequences, these methods read millions of small fragments and give a broad picture of all the DNA present in a sample, making it easier to spot contamination.
Since 2010, next-generation sequencing has been used to decipher the genomes of a variety of ancient humans preserved in cold conditions, including a 4,000-year-old Palaeo-Eskimo dubbed Saqqaq Man; ‘Denisova Man’, a novel hominin unearthed in Siberia[5]; and ‘Ötzi the Iceman’, a 5,300-year-old mummy found frozen in the Central Eastern Alps.
Now, Pusch and his colleagues, including Rabab Khairat, have carried out next-generation sequencing on five Egyptian mummified heads held at the University of Tübingen. The heads date from relatively late in ancient Egyptian history — between 806 bc and 124 ad.
The data sets retrieved so far are small — a tiny fraction of what would be required for a whole genome sequence. But they show that human DNA survives in the mummies and that it is amenable to sequencing.
The researchers determined that one of the mummified individuals belongs to an ancestral group, or haplogroup, called I2, believed to have originated in Western Asia. They also retrieved genetic material from the pathogens that cause malaria and toxoplasmosis, and from a range of plants that includes fir and pine — both thought to be components of embalming resins — as well as castor, linseed, olive, almond and lotus.
According to Pusch, the proportion of human DNA in the identified sequences is comparable to that from frozen specimens, such as Saqqaq Man. In mummies, “DNA preservation appears to be independent of temperature,” he says.
But Tom Gilbert, who leads two research groups at the Center for GeoGenetics in Copenhagen and was part of the team that sequenced the Saqqaq genome, warns against making such a comparison, because many of the sequences obtained in the latest study were unidentifiable.
Now that Pusch and his colleagues have demonstrated next-generation sequencing in Egyptian mummies, however, moving on to entire genomes “isn’t rocket science”, Gilbert says. “What limits you is the size of a sample. For Denisova Man they had just a finger bone. Here they have the whole mummy.”
Indeed, Pusch and his colleagues say that they are now working on a more comprehensive analysis, and that “entire-genome sequencing of ancient Egyptian individuals is likely to become standard in the not-too-distant future”.
posted
How about excavating the tombs of French and British monarchs buried respectively in the St-Denis Basilica and Westminster Abbey? I am sure their DNA is just as important as that of the AE pharaohs.
But the grave robbers of AE tombs would not be allowed to do the same in Europe.
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quote:Originally posted by lamin: How about excavating the tombs of French and British monarchs buried respectively in the St-Denis Basilica and Westminster Abbey? I am sure their DNA is just as important as that of the AE pharaohs.
But the grave robbers of AE tombs would not be allowed to do the same in Europe.
True.
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The fact that the governments of Egypt allow excavating the tombs of AE pharaohs and royalty is proof that the dominant classes in Egypt really have little or no connection to Egypt's 3000+ years past. For most of such people only the Koran matters the biggest crime is not to rob an AE tomb but to "insult Islam".
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^ That's an understatement. The 'Arab' elite of the country knows full and well that pharaonic civilization is a culture of al jahiliyyah (the time of ignorance) i.e. time before the Prophet Muhammad. Ironically, it is the interests of the West as well as the rest of the world that provides a great deal of investment in the Egyptian economy via media and tourism that is the ONLY reason why the pharaonic ruins and pyramids are being protected by the government. There have long been Islamic clerics who call for the dismantlement and destruction of the pyramids and tombs, now that the Muslim Brotherhood is in charge this threat is even greater yet the economic toll is too great for the Egyptian government to allow that to happen. Posts: 26238 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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The researchers determined that one of the mummified individuals belongs to an ancestral group, or haplogroup, called I2, believed to have originated in Western Asia.
The mitochondrial nucleotide(s) that determined this is/are?
“It would be nice to know more about the origins of the ancient Egyptians,” says Pusch. “Where did they come from? Where did they go? Are there still traces of ancestral DNA in today’s Egypt?”
The researchers should not be too biased in favor of ancient Egyptians; they should afford the same focus to ancient Greeks, so that...
“It would be nice to know more about the origins of the ancient Greeks,Where did they come from? Where did they go? Are there still traces of ancestral DNA in today’s Greece?”
Time to give the ancient Greeks a level playing field in research, is it not. They should not be taken for granted as true Europeans.
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^ if so, it means they start all over, again.
Y-DNA haplogroup I is a European haplogroup, representing nearly one-fifth of the population. It is almost non-existent outside of Europe, suggesting that it arose in Europe. Estimates of the age of haplogroup I suggest that it arose prior to the last Glacial Maximum.
posted
Just to point out: An excerpt from the researchers' (Pusch et al.) paper refers to the I2--in question--in connection with mtDNA sequencing. So, the Y-DNA with the same namesake is not the issue here.
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quote:Originally posted by Troll Patrol: ^ if so, it means they start all over, again.
Whatever nuclear DNA that had already been detected in the mummies, assuming they were not casualties of contamination, degradation et al., should still be valid. Genome-wide or wider sequencing should have no bearing on those results, other than possibly shed light on other ancestry that would have been otherwise obscure. If memory serves me correctly, other segments of nuclear DNA, outside of Y-DNA, had already been undertaken on ancient Egyptian remains; recall DNA reports posted by the likes of DNAtribes, for instance...the only issue the researchers' mentioned could possibly have with these, is presumably the focus on only specific loci of chromosomes under study.
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quote:Originally posted by The Explorer: Just to point out: An excerpt from the researchers' (Pusch et al.) paper refers to the I2--in question--in connection with mtDNA sequencing. So, the Y-DNA with the same namesake is not the issue here.
Oh, okay.
So they speak of a female.
Posts: 22234 | From: האם אינכם כילדי הכרית אלי בני ישראל | Registered: Nov 2010
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posted
It doesn't have to be a female. Both male and female can be tested for mtDNA.
-------------------- The Complete Picture of the Past tells Us what Not to Repeat Posts: 7516 | From: Somewhere on Earth | Registered: Jan 2008
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quote:Originally posted by The Explorer: It doesn't have to be a female. Both male and female can be tested for mtDNA.
Yes, that's true. I was just guessing.
quote: Now, Pusch and his colleagues, including Rabab Khairat, have carried out next-generation sequencing on five Egyptian mummified heads held at the University of Tübingen. The heads date from relatively late in ancient Egyptian history — between 806 bc and 124 ad.
posted
Yeah, the late dates had already been noted...but that doesn't absolve the researchers from quality DNA-sequencing work.
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quote:Originally posted by The Explorer: Yeah, the late dates had already been noted...but that doesn't absolve the researchers from quality DNA-sequencing work.
I have noticed.
quote: The researchers determined that one of the mummified individuals may belong to an ancestral group, or haplogroup, called I2, believed to have originated in Western Asia. They also retrieved genetic material from the pathogens that cause malaria and toxoplasmosis, and from a range of plants that includes fir and pine — both thought to be components of embalming resins — as well as castor, linseed, olive, almond and lotus.
Posts: 22234 | From: האם אינכם כילדי הכרית אלי בני ישראל | Registered: Nov 2010
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I do agree on placing some emphasis on the reported age of the mummified specimens, to put things into perspective...after all, the ancient Egyptian culture, which was for a good period of time predominantly under indigenous domination, had already been eroded after a series of foreign takeovers.
It strikes me however, that European/European-descended researchers just can't seem to come to terms with the fact that Europe did not culturally bloom as early as other locations around the globe...and so, they have to treat non-Europeans of antiquity, like the ancient Egyptians, as if they were foreign to Earth, and that they need to be heavily placed under a microscope like laboratory specimens...and they mostly do this with non-Europeans!
Posts: 7516 | From: Somewhere on Earth | Registered: Jan 2008
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quote:Originally posted by The Explorer: I do agree on placing some emphasis on the reported age of the mummified specimens, to put things into perspective...after all, the ancient Egyptian culture, which was for a good period of time predominantly under indigenous domination, had already been eroded after a series of foreign takeovers.
It strikes me however, that European/European-descended researchers just can't seem to come to terms with the fact that Europe did not culturally bloom as early as other locations around the globe...and so, they have to treat non-Europeans of antiquity, like the ancient Egyptians, as if they were foreign to Earth, and that they need to be heavily placed under a microscope like laboratory specimens...and they mostly do this with non-Europeans!
I agree on this.
1) I read somewhere Romans use to take Vandal slaves to Egypt. Vandals descent from Germans, who came from North Europe.
2) why is it that: Outside of Europe, the highest frequencies of mitochondrial haplogroup I observed so far appear in the Cushitic-speaking El Molo (23%) and Rendille (>17%) in northern Kenya (Castrì 2008).
I have not been able to find a group outside of Africa with a frequency come even close. Or am I overlooking something?
The highest of Western Europe is in France.
-France (Finistere) - 2/22 9.10% (Dubut et al. 2003)
The highest of Eastern Europe is in Lemko and Croatia.
-Lemko 6/53 11.32% (Nikitin et al. 2009)
-Croatia (Krk) 15/133 11.28% (Cvjetan et al. 2004)
For Asia it is:
-Iran (North) - 3/31 9.70% (Terreros et al. 2011)
-Sindhi Indo-European 1/23 8.70% (Quintana-Murc et al. 2004)Posts: 22234 | From: האם אינכם כילדי הכרית אלי בני ישראל | Registered: Nov 2010
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Could be the result of genetic drift. The key to determining the most likely provenance of African hg I DNA, is to extensively look at the sequences respective to populations and the global distribution pattern of the clade itself.
There are parties who take it for granted that anything which is deemed to be outside of the major L-designated haplogroups has got to have a non-African origin...I recall coming across material some time back, which even opened up the possibilities that some or another of such clades, that fall outside the latter, may very well be products of convergent evolution, attributable to the degree of tendencies made permissible by a common ancestral substratum!
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quote:Originally posted by The Explorer: Could be the result of genetic drift. The key to determining the most likely provenance of African hg I DNA, is to extensively look at the sequences respective to populations and the global distribution pattern of the clade itself.
There are parties who take it for granted that anything which is deemed to be outside of the major L-designated haplogroups has got to have a non-African origin...I recall coming across material some time back, which even opened up the possibilities that some or another of such clades, that fall outside the latter, may very well be products of convergent evolution, attributable to the degree of tendencies made permissible by a common ancestral substratum!
Pusch et al.
quote:believed to have originated in Western
I will do some more research into that.
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Aside from the scientific jargon, i.e. of always leaving room for possibility of disproof, authors have to use "believe", because much of the time, the would-be "most fundamental/rudimentary" clades of the bulk of major haplogroups, which predominantly make up the ancestral lines of non-African populations, are elusive. A good amount of the conclusions built around these clades come from guesswork around geographical distribution of the clades, not on the actual most phylogenetically-basic common recent ancestral clade(s).
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quote:Originally posted by The Explorer: Aside from the scientific jargon, i.e. of always leaving room for possibility of disproof, authors have to use "believe", because much of the time, the would-be "most fundamental/rudimentary" clades of the bulk of major haplogroups, which predominantly make up the ancestral lines of non-African populations, are elusive. A good amount of the conclusions built around these clades come from guesswork around geographical distribution of the clades, not on the actual most phylogenetically-basic common recent ancestral clade(s).
I understand why they use "believe". I just find it ironic.
From what I understand Hg N is parental to Hg I. And some "claim" that Hg N has originated in Asia.
Is this correct?
Posts: 22234 | From: האם אינכם כילדי הכרית אלי בני ישראל | Registered: Nov 2010
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quote:Originally posted by Troll Patrol: ^ if so, it means they start all over, again.
Whatever nuclear DNA that had already been detected in the mummies, assuming they were not casualties of contamination, degradation et al., should still be valid. Genome-wide or wider sequencing should have no bearing on those results, other than possibly shed light on other ancestry that would have been otherwise obscure. If memory serves me correctly, other segments of nuclear DNA, outside of Y-DNA, had already been undertaken on ancient Egyptian remains; recall DNA reports posted by the likes of DNAtribes, for instance...the only issue the researchers' mentioned could possibly have with these, is presumably the focus on only specific loci of chromosomes under study.
I overlooked this post by you, earlier on.
However, I'd like to add some more info.
King Tut died from sickle-cell disease, not malaria
King Tutankhamun died from sickle-cell disease, not malaria, say experts. A team from Hamburg's Bernhard Noct Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNI) claim the disease is a far likelier cause of death than the combination of bone disorders and malaria put forward by Egyptian experts earlier this year.
The BNI team argues that theories offered by Egyptian experts, led by antiquities tsar Zahi Hawass, are based on data that can be interpreted otherwise. They say further analysis of the data will confirm or deny their work. Hawass' claim, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association this February, and followed by a swarm of accompanying television shows, claimed King Tut suffered from Kohler's disease, a bone disorder prohibiting blood flow, before succumbing to malaria.
Multiple bone disorders, including one in Tutankhamun's left foot, led to the Kohler's diagnosis, while segments of a malarial parasite were found via DNA testing. Yet the BNI team claims the latter results are incorrect. “Malaria in combination with Köhler's disease causing Tutankhamun's early death seems unlikely to us,” say Prof Christian Meyer and Dr Christian Timmann.
Instead the BNI team feels sickle-cell disease (SCD), a genetic blood disorder, is a more likely reason for the Pharaoh's death aged just 19. The disease occurs in 9 to 22 per cent of people living in the Egyptian oases, and gives a better chance of surviving malaria; the infestation halted by sickled cells.
They say the disease occurs frequently in malarial regions like the River Nile, and that it would account for the bone defects found on his body.
“The genetic predisposition for (SCD) can be found in regions where malaria frequently occurs, including ancient and modern Egypt.” says Meyer. “The disease can only manifest itself when a sickle cell trait is inherited from both parents: it is a so-called 'recessive inheritance'.” A family tree for the Pharaoh suggested by Hawass himself appears to back the BNI team's case.
The relatively old age of Tutankhamun's parents and relatives – up to 50 years – means they could very well have carried sickle-cell traits, and could therefore have been highly resistant to malaria. The high likelihood that King Tut's parents were siblings means he could have inherited the sickle cell trait from both and suffered from SCD.
“Sickle-cell disease is an important differential diagnosis: one that existing DNA material can probably confirm or rule out,” conclude Timmann and Meyer. They suggest that further testing of ancient Egyptian royal mummies should bear their conclusions in mind.
King Tut's young demise has long been a source of speculation. As well as malaria, recent decades have seen scholars argue that he was murdered, and that he died from infection caused by a broken leg.
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Let me just say that said claim is just one of the possibilities out there, based on material accessible to me.
It's possible that I have missed it, but I have not come across material that has pointed out the most basic N clade to date outside of Africa, that is supposedly representative of the most common recent ancestor to all N sub-clades.
-------------------- The Complete Picture of the Past tells Us what Not to Repeat Posts: 7516 | From: Somewhere on Earth | Registered: Jan 2008
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quote:Originally posted by The Explorer: Let me just say that said claim is just one of the possibilities out there, based on material accessible to me.
It's possible that I have missed it, but I have not come across material that has pointed out the most basic N clade to date outside of Africa, that is supposedly representative of the most common recent ancestor to all N sub-clades.
This gene-tree is based on mtDNA.
Sorry for the large image, it is as it comes. And I have no small version.
quote:Evolutionary history of mtDNA haplogroup structure in African populations inferred from mtDNA d-loop and RFLP analysis.
(A) Relationships among different mtDNA haplogroup lineages inferred from mtDNA d-loop sequences and mtDNA coding region SNPs from previous studies (Kivisild, Metspalu, et al. 2006). Dashed lines indicate previously unresolved relationships.
(B) Relative frequencies of haplogroups L0, L1, L5, L2, L3, M, and N in different regions of Africa from mtDNA d-loop and mtDNA coding region SNPs from previous studies.
(C) Relative frequencies of haplogroups L0, L1, and L5 subhaplogroups (excluding L2 and L3) in different regions of Africa from mtDNA d-loop and mtDNA coding region SNPs from previous studies. Haplogroup frequencies from previously published studies include East Africans (Ethiopia [Rosa et al. 2004], Kenya and Sudan [Watson et al. 1997; Rosa et al. 2004]), Mozambique (Pereira et al. 2001; Salas et al. 2002), Hadza (Vigilant et al. 1991), and Sukuma (Knight et al. 2003); South Africans (Botswana !Kung [Vigilant et al. 1991]); Central Africans (Mbenzele Pygmies [Destro-Bisol et al. 2004], Biaka Pygmies [Vigilant et al. 1991], and Mbuti Pygmies [Vigilant et al. 1991]); West Africans (Niger, Nigeria [Vigilant et al. 1991; Watson et al. 1997]; and Guinea [Rosa et al. 2004]). L1*, L2*, and L3* from previous studies indicate samples that were not further subdivided into subhaplogroups.
posted
You could leave it as a working link, if you want to, just to preserve the screen size of the thread.
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^ Ah, so it is mitochondrial DNA hg I2. I don't know much about it except that it is postulated to have arisen in Southwest Asia specifically the Iranian area, though as Troll Patrol noted there are significant frequencies among East African, specifically Cushitic speaking groups. By the way, what time period is the mummy who carries I2 from??
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quote:Originally posted by Djehuti: ^ Ah, so it is mitochondrial DNA hg I2. I don't know much about it except that it is postulated to have arisen in Southwest Asia specifically the Iranian area, though as Troll Patrol noted there are significant frequencies among East African, specifically Cushitic speaking groups. By the way, what time period is the mummy who carries I2 from??
quote: Now, Pusch and his colleagues, including Rabab Khairat, have carried out next-generation sequencing on five Egyptian mummified heads held at the University of Tübingen. The heads date from relatively late in ancient Egyptian history — between 806 bc and 124 ad.
Posts: 22234 | From: האם אינכם כילדי הכרית אלי בני ישראל | Registered: Nov 2010
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While not excluding the possibility that this haplogroup group reached Egypt via the Horn, lets not forget that Eurasian mtDNAs other than U6 and M1 in Semitic and Cushitic Horner populations mostly correlate with the introduction of Ethio-Semetic languages into the Horn, around 3kya. If Ethiopiwn mtDNA I2 is indeed associated with the said admixture event, it seems unlikely that Ethiopian geneflow explains this lineage.
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While we on the subject of Pusch et al's research, I wonder what he and his colleagues would think of the DNATribes reports? I recall they got quite upset when people starting claiming King Tut was R1b.
quote:Originally posted by Swenet: While not excluding the possibility that this haplogroup group reached Egypt via the Horn, lets not forget that Eurasian mtDNAs other than U6 and M1 in Semitic and Cushitic Horner populations mostly correlate with the introduction of Ethio-Semetic languages into the Horn, around 3kya. If Ethiopiwn mtDNA I2 is indeed associated with the said admixture event, it seems unlikely that Ethiopian geneflow explains this lineage.
From what I could trace quickly, (with the help of wiki)
While not excluding the possibility that this haplogroup group reached Egypt via the Horn, lets not forget that Eurasian mtDNAs other than U6 and M1 in Semitic and Cushitic Horner populations mostly correlate with the introduction of Ethio-Semetic languages into the Horn, around 3kya.
1. I see that you are still talking out of the orifice in your behind, concerning fairy-tale "Eurasian origins" of hg U6 and hg M1, lacking substance other than parroting hearsay from the net.
I am open to acquainting myself with what you seem to take for granted as "Eurasian mtDNAs" in "Semitic and Cushitic Horner populations".
2. Given the prospect of a lack of structuring of hg N, for one, along linguistic lines concerning the main Semitic and Cushitic speaking Ethiopian groups, begs the question of what you are basing your notion that these "Eurasian mtDNAs" correlate "mostly with the introduction of Ethio-Semetic languages into the Horn, around 3kya" on!
3. What is the "introduction of Ethio-Semitic languages around 3 kya, into the African Horn based on?
quote: If Ethiopiwn mtDNA I2 is indeed associated with the said admixture event, it seems unlikely that Ethiopian geneflow explains this lineage.
Talk about muddled up presentation of thought:
1. What is the "admixture event" here; is it the supposed "not excluding the possibility that this haplogroup group reached Egypt via the Horn, or...is it the supposed "introduction of Ethio-Semetic languages into the Horn, around 3kya"?
2. Either way, why would "Ethiopian gene flow" need to "explain" hg I2?
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This talk of "Afro-Asiatic" is simply a racist ploy be orthodox Euro-anthropology. Asia is the world's biggest continent and its by-far largest population percentages are Sinoid(60%), Indoid(30%), Indo-European( 6%:Iran, Armenia, Turkey, Caucasus area) and the rest 4%.
So to label migrants from the Horn into the Arabian peninsula who then tracked back as "Afro-Asiatic' is just bogusly Eurocentric. And the Andaman Islanders? Asiatic?
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^ I agree, though actually proto-Semitic was said to have developed in 'Asia' (the Levant) among proto-Afrisian speakers from Africa. I agree that another name needs to be used for the language group than 'Asian'. I personally like Afro-Erythrean. By the way, the Andamanese ARE Asian and thus Asiatics.
quote:Originally posted by Troll Patrol: From what I could trace quickly, (with the help of wiki) Amhara Ethiopia Afro-Asiatic > Semitic 1/120 0.83% --Kivisild 2004
Beta Israel Ethiopia Afro-Asiatic > Cushitic 0/29 0.00% --Behar 2008a
From the same wiki source: Outside of Europe, the highest frequencies of mitochondrial haplogroup I observed so far appear in the Cushitic-speaking El Molo (23%) and Rendille (>17%) in northern Kenya (Castrì 2008).
According to Wiki, the only Ethio-Semitic speakers who carry hgI are Amhara less than 1% and Gurage at 4%, yet the highest percentages according to them outside of Europe are found among Cushitic speaking El Molo and Rendille. This is rather curious and bespeaks its association with something other than Semitic.
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quote:Originally posted by Troll Patrol: Now, Pusch and his colleagues, including Rabab Khairat, have carried out next-generation sequencing on five Egyptian mummified heads held at the University of Tübingen. The heads date from relatively late in ancient Egyptian history — between 806 bc and 124 ad.
The above time period corresponds with the 3rd Intermediate Period [the 23rd (Libyan) dynasty] up to Roman Imperial times. So how will that answer the following questions Pusch asks: “It would be nice to know more about the origins of the ancient Egyptians,” says Pusch. “Where did they come from? Where did they go? Are there still traces of ancestral DNA in today’s Egypt?”
One would think they would test mummies from earlier periods such as from the Old Kingdom if one wants to find 'origins'. Posts: 26238 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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24BC, Rome On the 15th March 44BC, Julius Caesar is assassinated in Rome. A new regime comes to birth when his adopted son, Octavius, becomes the first Emperor of the Roman Empire as Augustus on the 16th January 27BC. One African woman stands against the might of Rome. Her name is Kandake Amanirenas, otherwise known as Candace of Meroe.
Director: Jason Young
Writer: Jason Young (screenplay)
Stars: Grahame Edwards, Mari Ellingson, Richard Ward | See full cast and crew
quote:According to Wiki, the only Ethio-Semitic speakers who carry hgI are Amhara less than 1% and Gurage at 4%, yet the highest percentages according to them outside of Europe are found among Cushitic speaking El Molo and Rendille. This is rather curious and bespeaks its association with something other than Semitic.
As far as I know, Afrasan speaking Ethiopians, whether Semitic speakers or Cushitic speakers, cannot be differentiated based on mtDNA. They generally all have a very similar mtDNA profile. This, to me, hints at the scenario that most of their Eurasian mtDNAs derive from the same Semetic speaking population. Why? Kinda hard to imagine all these different Eurasian mtDNAs reaching seperate Ethiopian etnhic groups one by one, in very similar frequencies.
The Eurasian signal in Ethiopians (of course, not including much older Eurasian M1 and U6) has been has been dated to 3kya by Pagani et al 2012:
quote:Humans and their ancestors have traversed the Ethiopian landscape for millions of years, and present-day Ethiopians show great cultural, linguistic, and historical diversity, which makes them essential for understanding African variability and human origins. We genotyped 235 individuals from ten Ethiopian and two neighboring (South Sudanese and Somali) populations on an Illumina Omni 1M chip. Genotypes were compared with published data from several African and non-African populations. Principal-component and STRUCTURE-like analyses confirmed substantial genetic diversity both within and between populations, and revealed a match between genetic data and linguistic affiliation. Using comparisons with African and non-African reference samples in 40-SNP genomic windows, we identified “African” and “non-African” haplotypic components for each Ethiopian individual. The non-African component, which includes the SLC24A5 allele associated with light skin pigmentation in Europeans, may represent gene flow into Africa, which we estimate to have occurred ∼3 thousand years ago (kya). The non-African component was found to be more similar to populations inhabiting the Levant rather than the Arabian Peninsula, but the principal route for the expansion out of Africa ∼60 kya remains unresolved. Linkage-disequilibrium decay with genomic distance was less rapid in both the whole genome and the African component than in southern African samples, suggesting a less ancient history for Ethiopian populations.
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^ So are you suggesting then that hg I2 is present among the aforementioned populations due to founder effect? And what about the Omotic speaking populations; do you include them under this common Eurasian mtDNA profile?
-------------------- Mahirap gisingin ang nagtutulog-tulugan. Posts: 26238 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Djehuti: ^ So are you suggesting then that hg I2 is present among the aforementioned populations due to founder effect? And what about the Omotic speaking populations; do you include them under this common Eurasian mtDNA profile?
From what I've gathered, Ethiopia in general, but Afro-Asiatic speakers in particular, including Omotic speakers, have been impacted by the same demic expansion ~3kya. The Eurasian portion of Cushitic, Semitic and Omotic speakers is very similar, although Omotic speakers seem to have retained more of their pre-semitic local heritage. See Plaster 2011 (p166).
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[gft] Extinct. South Blue Nile area. Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, South, Ethiopian, South, Outer, n-Group
Geez
(Still used in the orthodox church and in religious manuscripts) [gez] Extinct. Also spoken in Eritrea. Alternate names: Ancient Ethiopic, Ethiopic, Ge’ez, Giiz.
Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, South, Ethiopian, North
Mesmes
[mys] Extinct. Gurage, Hadiyya, Kambatta Region. Dialects: Related to West Gurage.
[amh] 17,372,913 in Ethiopia (1998 census). 14,743,556 monolinguals. Population total all countries: 17,417,913. Ethnic population: 16,007,933 (1998 census). North central Ethiopia, Amhara Region, and in Addis Ababa. Also spoken in Egypt, Israel, Sweden. Alternate names: Abyssinian, Ethiopian, Amarinya, Amarigna.
[agj] 10,860 (1998 census). 44,737 monolinguals. Population includes 47,285 in Amharic, 3,771 in Oromo, 541 in Tigrigna (1998 census). Ethnic population: 62,831 (1998 census). Fragmented areas along the Rift Valley in settlements like Yimlawo, Gusa, Shonke, Berket, Keramba, Mellajillo, Metehara, Shewa Robit, and surrounding rural villages. Dialects: Ankober, Shonke. It is reported that the ‘purest’ Argobba is spoken in Shonke and T’olaha. Lexical similarity 75% to 85% with Amharic.
[har] 21,283 (1998 census). 2,351 monolinguals. 20,000 in Addis Ababa, outside Harar city (Hetzron 1997:486). Ethnic population: 21,757 (1998 census). Homeland Eastern, traditionally within the walled city of Harar. Large communities in Addis Ababa, Nazareth, and Dire Dawa. Alternate names: Hararri, Adare, Adere, Aderinya, Adarinnya, Gey Sinan.
[ior] 280,000. Population includes 50,000 Endegeny. West Gurage Region, Innemor and Endegeny woredas. Alternate names: Ennemor. Dialects: Enegegny (Enner). Part of a Gurage cluster of languages.
[gru] 254,682 (1998 census). Ethnic population: 363,867 (1998 census) including 4,000 Gogot. Gurage, Kambaata, Hadiyya Region, just southwest of Addis Ababa. Alternate names: Soddo, Soddo Gurage, North Gurage. Dialects: Soddo (Aymallal, Aymellel, Kestane, Kistane), Dobi (Dobbi, Gogot, Goggot). Not intelligible with Silte or West Gurage. Dobi speakers’ comprehension of Soddo is 76%, and Soddo speakers’ comprehension of Dobi is 90%.
[sgw] 440,000. Population includes Chaha 130,000, Gura 20,000, Muher 90,000, Gyeto 80,000, Ezha 120,000. West Gurage Region, Chaha is spoken in and around Emdibir, Gura is spoken in and around Gura Megenase and Wirir, Muher is spoken in and around Ch’eza and in the mountains north of Chaha and Ezha, Gyeto is spoken south of Ark’it’ in K’abul and K’want’e, Ezha is spoken in Agenna. Alternate names: Central West Gurage, West Gurage, Guragie, Gouraghie, Gurague. Dialects: Chaha (Cheha), Ezha (Eza, Izha), Gumer (Gwemarra), Gura, Gyeto, Muher. A member of the Gurage cluster of languages.
[xst] 827,764 (1998 census). Ethnic population: 900,348 (1998 census). About 150 km south of Addis Ababa. Alternate names: East Gurage, Selti, Silti. Dialects: Enneqor (Inneqor), Ulbarag (Urbareg), Wolane (Walane). Not intelligible with West or North Gurage. 40% or less intelligible with Chaha (Central West Gurage).
[tir] 3,224,875 in Ethiopia (1998 census). 2,819,755 monolinguals. Population total all countries: 4,449,875. Ethnic population: 3,284,568 (1998 census). Tigray Province. Also spoken in Eritrea, Germany, Israel. Alternate names: Tigrinya, Tigray.
Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, South, Ethiopian, North
Gafat
[gft] Extinct. South Blue Nile area. Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, South, Ethiopian, South, Outer, n-Group
Geez (Still used in the orthodox church and in religious manuscripts) [gez] Extinct. Also spoken in Eritrea. Alternate names: Ancient Ethiopic, Ethiopic, Ge’ez, Giiz.
Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, South, Ethiopian, North
Zay
[zwa] 4,880 (1994 SIL). Ethnic population: 4,880. Shores of Lake Zway and eastern islands in Lake Zway. Alternate names: Zway, Lak’i, Laqi, Gelilla. Dialects: No dialect variations. Lexical similarity 61% with Harari, 70% with Silte (M. L. Bender 1971).
"Omotic looks like being a reasonably nuclear member of [AA]. For example Blažek claims that for some 80 per cent of the names for parts
of the body found among the various Omotic languages cognates can be identified among the Chadic languages—which … is a family of languages situated on the other side of the African Continent"
The following comparison between OM and PIE is limited to Fleming's alleged OM/AA cognates. The comparison is also limited in another way: With few exceptions, OM is compared to one language, PIE, and not to all the 449 IE languages (Gordon 2005); including all languages in the comparison would have made it even easier to find similarities.
BE, CH, CU, EG, and SE forms are left out, but are found in 4.2-3. The source for IE forms is Mallory & Adams (2006), unless other works are referred to.
I have included data from Greenberg's (2000-2002) Eurasiatic (IE, Uralic, Altaic, Gilyak, Korean-Japanese-Ainu, Chukotian, and Eskimo-Aleut) and Ruhlen's (1994)«global etymologies ». Fleming's methods are similar to those of Greenberg and Ruhlen, and the EA and GE data emphasize the arbitrariness of Fleming's results.
Most resemblances in grammatical morphology between OM and AA are also found between OM and IE:
6 Conclusion
My conclusion is that Omotic should be treated as an independent language family. No convincing alternative has ever been presented.
Hayward (1995: 11) writes that «[i]t is, of course, a relief not to have Omotic as an isolate; we do not need a whole family of 'Basques' on our hands!» An alternative point of view is possible. Africa is the cradle of mankind.
Why are there no language isolates on a continent where humans have lived since language was invented?
Omotic livestock terminology and its implications for the history of Afroasiatic
The Omotic languages were the last branch of Afroasiatic to be formally recognised, and even today, some researchers would like to see them re-united with Cushitic. Nonetheless, following Bender (1975) and Hayward (1989), the acceptance of the distinctive nature of Omotic is the dominant paradigm. Bender (2000, 2003) has presented an overall picture of Omotic phonology, morphology and lexicon and collected together the majority of references as well as a variety of unpublished materials. The features of Omotic that continue to persuade authors such as Lamberti & Sottile (1997:19) it should be considered ‘West Cushitic’ are though by most researchers to be simply evidence of extensive long-term interactions between the two Afroasiatic branches.
Most likely, however, is that Omotic is simply older than the other branches of the phylum and this is in turn is because SW Ethiopia is the homeland of the phylum. If this is the case, then Omotic may well throw light on the primary expansion of Afroasiatic. Archaeology in this part of Ethiopia is too weak to advance any clear correlations, but it is possible to examine the Afroasiatic languages for possible reconstructions that may point to the lifeways of early speakers (Blench 2006).
A Typology of Verbal Derivation in Ethiopian Afro-Asiatic Languages, Dissertation put forward by; Tolemariam Fufa Teso
Promoters commissioners:
Prof. dr. M. Mous
Prof. dr. Baye Yimam (Addis Ababa University) Additional promoters:
Dr. Azeb Amha Prof. dr. O.D. Gensler (Addis Ababa University) Prof. dr. F.H.H Kortlandt Dr. L.I. Kulikov Dr. C.H. Reintges (CNRS-Université Paris 7) Prof. dr. H.J. Stroomer
quote:According to Wiki, the only Ethio-Semitic speakers who carry hgI are Amhara less than 1% and Gurage at 4%, yet the highest percentages according to them outside of Europe are found among Cushitic speaking El Molo and Rendille. This is rather curious and bespeaks its association with something other than Semitic.
As far as I know, Afrasan speaking Ethiopians, whether Semitic speakers or Cushitic speakers, cannot be differentiated based on mtDNA. They generally all have a very similar mtDNA profile. This, to me, hints at the scenario that most of their Eurasian mtDNAs derive from the same Semetic speaking population. Why? Kinda hard to imagine all these different Eurasian mtDNAs reaching seperate Ethiopian etnhic groups one by one, in very similar frequencies.
The Eurasian signal in Ethiopians (of course, not including much older Eurasian M1 and U6) has been has been dated to 3kya by Pagani et al 2012:
quote:Humans and their ancestors have traversed the Ethiopian landscape for millions of years, and present-day Ethiopians show great cultural, linguistic, and historical diversity, which makes them essential for understanding African variability and human origins. We genotyped 235 individuals from ten Ethiopian and two neighboring (South Sudanese and Somali) populations on an Illumina Omni 1M chip. Genotypes were compared with published data from several African and non-African populations. Principal-component and STRUCTURE-like analyses confirmed substantial genetic diversity both within and between populations, and revealed a match between genetic data and linguistic affiliation. Using comparisons with African and non-African reference samples in 40-SNP genomic windows, we identified “African” and “non-African” haplotypic components for each Ethiopian individual. The non-African component, which includes the SLC24A5 allele associated with light skin pigmentation in Europeans, may represent gene flow into Africa, which we estimate to have occurred ∼3 thousand years ago (kya). The non-African component was found to be more similar to populations inhabiting the Levant rather than the Arabian Peninsula, but the principal route for the expansion out of Africa ∼60 kya remains unresolved. Linkage-disequilibrium decay with genomic distance was less rapid in both the whole genome and the African component than in southern African samples, suggesting a less ancient history for Ethiopian populations.
Compare with the date associated with the yellow arrow going into Ethiopia, per Kitchen et al 2009:
The idea that Ethiopians are UNIFORMLY mixed with a recent migration of "Eurasian" populations is strictly nonsensical. Which tells me that some of the genes that they call "Eurasian" are actually African as we have discussed many times before. It is impossible to believe that such a large population of Africans is UNIFORMLY MIXED with some Eurasian population which is only 3,000 years old, but the Ethiopians as the paper studied are Millions of years old.
The point being how come these millions of year old Ethiopian populations aren't called out for the AFRICAN genetic impact they had on surrounding populations for the last million years? Why is the reverse case of some "Eurasian" component in the Ethiopian gene pool always being played up as being so significant? What are they trying to pretend that "Eurasians" have the same genetic importance on the human history tree as Ethiopians? Seriously? Are they trying to pretend that Europeans actually GAVE something significant to the Ethiopian gene pool, while ignoring the fact that Ethiopians and other Africans are the MOTHER gene pool of all humans? LOL!
But I wouldn't be surprised. Europeans are desperate in clinging to the notion that all humanity originated somehow in Europe. Note the following from CBS Sunday Morning from the end of April. They actually start off with NEANDERTHALS as if they represent the first humans! Anything to make it seem as if white Europeans are the first "humans". Not one mention of Africa which is the BIRTHPLACE of Africans AND the Neanderthal.
And they have the nerve to say that over time brown skin will be more common, when brown skin and black skin is the ORIGINAL skin color of mankind and has been the dominant skin color for most of human history..... These clowns never give up.
Genetic evidence of an early exit of Homo sapiens sapiens from Africa through eastern Africa
quote: The mitochondrial haplogroup M, first regarded as an ancient marker of East-Asian origin4, 5, has been found at high frequency in India6 and Ethiopia7, raising the question of its origin.(A haplogroup is a group of haplotypes that share some sequence variations.) Its variation and geographical distribution suggest that Asian haplogroup M separated from eastern-African haplogroup M more than 50,000 years ago.
Two other variants (489C and 10873C) also support a single origin of haplogroup M in Africa.
These findings, together with the virtual absence of haplogroup M in the Levant and its high frequency in the South-Arabian peninsula, render M the first genetic indicator for the hypothesized exit route from Africa through eastern Africa/western India. This was possibly the only successful early dispersal event of modern humans out of Africa.
To construct maternal phylogeny and prehistoric dispersals of modern human being in the Indian sub continent, a diverse subset of 641 complete mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genomes belonging to macrohaplogroup M was chosen from a total collection of 2,783 control-region sequences, sampled from 26 selected tribal populations of India. On the basis of complete mtDNA sequencing, we identified 12 new haplogroups - M53 to M64; redefined/ascertained and characterized haplogroups M2, M3, M4, M5, M6, M8′C′Z, M9, M10, M11, M12-G, D, M18, M30, M33, M35, M37, M38, M39, M40, M41, M43, M45 and M49, which were previously described by control and/or coding-region polymorphisms. Our results indicate that the mtDNA lineages reported in the present study (except East Asian lineages M8′C′Z, M9, M10, M11, M12-G, D ) are restricted to Indian region.The deep rooted lineages of macrohaplogroup ‘M’ suggest in-situ origin of these haplogroups in India.
The mitochondrial haplogroup M which was first regarded as an ancient marker of East-Asian origin [30]–[31], had been found at high frequency in India [32] and Ethiopia [33], thus raising the question of its origin.
The presence of M haplogroup in Ethiopia, named M1, led to the proposal that haplogroup M originated in eastern Africa, approximately 60,000 years ago, and was carried towards Asia [34].
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