From Arabia to Iberia: A Y chromosome perspective. Regueiro M1, Garcia-Bertrand R2, Fadhlaoui-Zid K3, Álvarez J1,
Abstract At different times during recent human evolution, northern Africa has served as a conduit for migrations from the Arabian Peninsula. Although previous researchers have investigated the possibility of the Strait of Gibraltar as a pathway of migration from North Africa to Iberia, we now revisit this issue and theorize that although the Strait of Gibraltar, at the west end of this corridor, has acted as a barrier for human dispersal into Southwest Europe, it has not provided an absolute seal to gene flow. To test this hypothesis, here we use the spatial frequency distributions, STR diversity and expansion time estimates of Y chromosome haplogroups J1-P58 and E-M81 to investigate the genetic imprints left by the Arabian and Berber expansions into the Iberian Peninsula, respectively. The data generated indicate that Arabian and Berber genetic markers are detected in Iberia. We present evidence that suggest that Iberia has received gene flow from Northwest Africa during and prior to the Islamic colonization of 711A.D. It is interesting that the highest frequencies of Arabia and Berber markers are not found in southern Spain, where Islam remained the longest and was culturally most influential, but in Northwest Iberia, specifically Galicia. We propose that Moriscos' relocations to the north during the Reconquista, the migration of cryptic Muslims seeking refuge in a more lenient society and/or more geographic extensive pre-Islamic incursions may explain the higher frequencies and older time estimates of mutations in the north of the Peninsula. These scenarios are congruent with the higher diversities of some diagnostic makers observed in Northwest Iberia.
1. Introduction Western Europe, including the Iberian Peninsula, was first populated by humans relatively recently in the mid upper Paleolithic 35,000– 40,000 years ago (ya) (Cavalli-Sforza et al., 1994). Although Europe is characterized by overall genetic homogeneity, in comparison to other biogeographical regions (Lao et al., 2008), Iberia, in particular, has been a recipient as well as a reservoir of human diversity. During the last Ice Age (18,000–80,000 ya), for example, the Peninsula became a human refugium as glaciers advanced, covering most of Europe encap- sulating human populations and genetic diversity in what is now Portugal and Spain (Richards et al., 2000; Torroni et al., 2000). When the ice sheet began to retreat, about 15,000 ya, subsequent to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), this sanctuary was one of the sources that par- ticipated in the repopulation of Europe.
Starting in the late Paleolithic, a number of archeological sites begin to signal the impact of specific pre-historical cultures of diverse origins on the Iberian Peninsula. The most significant groups include the Tartessians (Koch, 2013), of unknown origins that appeared during the 9th century before the common era (BCE) (Marcos Garcia, 1987; Almagro-Gorbea, 2004), Proto-Indo Europeans from the steeps of East- ern Europe (Mallory et al., 1997) or Eastern Mediterranean Islands (Fernández et al., 2014) early in the Neolithic (7500–5500 BCE), Ibe- rians from the Eastern Mediterranean or North Africa in the 6th century BCE (Sanmartí, 2005) and Celts from Central Europe about 450 BCE (Judice Gamito, 1994). In more recent historical times, Phoenicians from the Middle East, Greeks, Romans, Germanic tribes from Central Europe, Vikings from Scandinavia, Arabs from the Persian Gulf region and Berbers from Northwest Africa as well as the Roma from India have contributed to the Iberian genetic make-up (de Hoz, 1982; Gieben, 1991). Several of the above mentioned migrations are clearly reflected in the collage of cultures, linguistic affinities, music and archi- tecture that are on display in the various regions of Iberia today, yet it remains to be ascertained to what extent this extreme cultural diversity is in fact reflected in the gene pools of its extant populations. Gene flow from North Africa to Iberia has been in demonstrated in a number of previous publications (Rando et al., 1998; Pereira et al., 2005; Plaza et al., 2003; Santos et al., 2014) and higher frequency of some Y-chromosome North African lineages have been observed in northern Iberia (Adams et al, 2008). By the late 7th century CE, Arabian and Bedouin forces coming from the Arabian capital of Damascus had reached the far west of North Africa (Maghreb). In 711 CE, a Berber-speaking army under Arabian suzerainty crossed over into the Iberian Peninsula and, within four years, had cap- tured almost the entire Peninsula, with the exception of Asturias, the northern Basque country, Cantabria, Galicia and most of the Pyrenees in the north, which remained largely unoccupied. Arabian and Berber forces then remained in control of most of the Peninsula for more than five centuries, with a subsequent gradual withdrawal toward the southern region of Andalusia driven by the reconquest by Christian forces (La Reconquista) (Harvey, 2005). By the end of the 13th century, after almost 800 years of occupation, all Islamic political control ended in Iberia with the fall of the enclave of Granada late December 1492 (Domínguez Ortiz and Vincent, 1979). Although the Christian reconquest put an end to the Muslim political control in Iberia, people of the Islamic faith were allowed to remain in what is now Spain and Portugal as part of the terms of surrender at Gra- nada in 1492. In fact, it was not until the mid 1520s that the Muslims were forced to convert to Christianity or were expelled from Iberia, and it was not until 114 years later, in 1614, that a final ultimatum was given to the last Muslims residents of al-Andalus (the Arabic name given to the region) (Barkai, 1984). Undoubtedly, during the 800 years of Islamic occupation, some degree of bidirectional gene flow between the two communities occurred as interreligious mar- riages and conversions took place. Further, during the century immedi- ately following the fall of Granada, repatriation of Muslims, to the north of Spain and relocation of Christians to the vacant lands in Andalusia, in the south, provided for additional complexity to this major bidirectional exodus. Specific regions affected by this influx of Muslims that were forced to relocate out of al Andalus was the northwest corner of the Pen- insula, mountainous and low in population density area, known today as Galicia (Harvey, 2005). It is thought that approximately half of the Muslim residents of al- Andalus selected to convert (Jayyusi, 1994; O'Shea, 2006). Of those that converted, some became practicing Christians adopting new names. Others, the so called crypto-Muslims, were baptized and pro- fessed to be Christians but in fact continued practicing the old religion and/or cultural elements of Islam in secret (Stem, 1964; Guettat, 1980; Barkai, 1984; Jayyusi, 1994; Bahrami, 1995; Menocal et al., 2000). Con- sidering the wide geographical extend of the occupation and duration of the Muslim dominion as well as the policy and magnitude of conver- sions, it is reasonable to expect that the Islamic dominion had a pro- found impact on the genetic make-up of Iberia. This contention is supported by a recent study of Botigue and colleagues (Botigue et al., 2013) that argues for most of the introgression from North Africa occur- ring during the past 300 years. Therefore, we hypothesize that the Is- lamic stay in Iberia affected the genetic constitution of populations in the Peninsula and that due to the policies of relocation of people after the fall of Granada, the distribution of Arab and Berber markers is not uniform within the Iberian Peninsula. Previous studies have highlighted the genetic characteristics and similarities between the Middle East and northeastern Africa as well as the clear genetic differentiation among Northwest Africa and both Sub-Sahara Africa and Europe, including Iberia. Traditionally, studies accessing the role played by the Strait of Gibraltar tend to indicate that this short but treacherous 14 km stretch of water acted more like a barrier halting bidirectional migration (Cavalli-Sforza et al., 1994), yet more recent work suggests that high rates of gene flow have oc- curred since pre-Neolithic times (Currat et al., 2010). Genetic studies indicate that the contemporary populations of Spain are not uniform. The Basque, for example, is characterized by several high frequency genetic markers including Y haplogroup R1b and its de- rivative R1b1b2 at 87.1% (highest in Western Europe) (Alonso et al., 2005; Balaresque et al., 2010) and the blood groups' Rh negative andO alleles, at 35% and 55% (Cavalli-Sforza et al., 1994; Capelli et al., 2009), respectively, but exhibits one of the lowest frequencies (2%) in Iberia of the Berber marker E1b1b1b1a-M81 on the Y chromosome (Flores et al., 2004). M81 originated in North Africa about 5600 ya and it is thought to signal migrations connected with the Islamic dispersals (Cruciani et al., 2004) and possibly with the Roman and Carthaginian expansions. This marker was found by Flores and collaborators at highest frequencies in Malaga (11.5%), Galicia (10.5%) and Cantabria (8.6%) (Flores et al., 2004). Other investigators have reported commen- surate levels of M81 in the provinces of Andalusia (Semino et al., 2004) and Catalonia (Adams et al., 2008), yet reduced levels or no M81 in other regions of Spain (Flores et al., 2004; Semino et al., 2004). E1b1b1c-M123 is another mutation exhibiting geographical partitioning within Iberia. It is thought to have originated in the region of the Near East or Anatolia in the early Neolithic and its dispersal into Europe, the Levant and North Africa mirrors very closely the dissemina- tion of farming during the Neolithic (Semino et al., 2004). Like M81, M123 is seen at its highest frequencies within Iberia in the extreme northwest province of Galicia (5.2%) (Adams et al., 2008), a level as high or higher than in Tunisia (5.2%) and Algeria (3.1%), respectively (Arredi et al., 2004). Much lower levels or no detection have been re- ported in various regions of central and northern Iberia (Flores et al., 2004; Adams et al., 2008). M123's low frequencies in Western Europe, other than in Iberia, suggest that it may have penetrated the Peninsula from Northern Africa across the Mediterranean Sea and not by land, through continental Europe. Phoenician trading, which flourished from 1200 to 300 BCE could have contributed to the distribution of this marker and its introduction into Iberia. E1b1b1a-M78 is another Y chromosome marker that partitions non-uniformly within Iberia, with the province of Asturias, in the northwest of the Peninsula (just east of Galicia), exhibiting the highest frequency (10.0%). Southern Spain and southern Portugal possess only 3.2% and 4.1%, respectively, of this mark- er (Cruciani et al., 2007). M78 is thought to have originated in Northeast Africa, specifically in what is now Egypt or Libya (Cruciani et al., 2007) about 17,000–20,000 ya. It is possible that M78 may represent a signa- ture of the Phoenician dominion that spread across the Mediterranean. M78's presence in Iberia dates back to at least the early Neolithic since 7000 year old funeral remains of individuals carrying this mutation were discovered in a Catalonian cave in northeastern Spain (Lacan et al., 2011). The Y chromosome marker J1a2b-P58 with origin in the Middle East approximately 10,000 ya is associated with the expansion of Semitic herder-hunters into the Arabian Peninsula (Chiaroni et al., 2010). It has been reported that dispersals carrying different J1 subhaplogroups markers entered North Africa in historic times (Semino et al., 2004). Specifically, P58 is tied to the Arabization of Northwest Africa (Ennafaa et al., 2011). J1 subhaplogroups, although highly abundant in Arabia, where it reaches levels of 40%–75%, in Iberia, it has only been de- tected in Andalusia in southern Spain and at minimal frequency of 1.1% (Semino et al., 2004). In terms of mtDNA, the North African-specific U6 haplogroup dated to about 50,000 ya has only been observed in the northwest of the Pen- insula, with Galicia (2.2%) and northern Portugal (4.3%) exhibiting the highest frequencies (González et al., 2003). Based on this distribution and the higher diversity value (0.014 ± 0.001) in this area compared to North Africa (0.006 ± 0.001), it was suggested that historic events alone, such as the Muslim occupation, cannot be the sole cause of the U6's presence in Iberia and that migrations dating from pre-Neolithic times are also responsible (González et al., 2003). The other maternal lineages that signal North African and Sub-Saharan gene flow belong to macro-haplogroup L. L1 in the Peninsula is attributed to a number of Middle Eastern and Arabic migrations into Northern Africa driven by Phoenician and Arabian occupations, respectively (Cerezo et al., 2012). The highest frequencies of this haplogroup are seen in Cordoba in southern Spain at 8.30% (Casas et al., 2006; Hernández et al., 2014) and Galicia at 3.70% (Achilli et al., 2007) while the lowest are observed
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Amazing how northwest Africa seems to have undergone all these epic losses of diversity right under our noses. These seem to be demographic events that took place when people in the Mediterranean basin were literate. But we have no written records of this. Only thing we have is evidence that people all over the Maghreb are much closer linguistically and genetically than they should be.
When European countries, and sometimes even the Canary Islands, have more diversity for key Maghrebi lineages (e,g,, U6 and E-M81) than North Africa, that's saying something. When it comes to rare Maghrebi E clades, in some cases, their low frequencies are a tie between the Maghreb and coastal Europe.
Cautionary tale for people who try to conveniently project stereotyped modern day Maghrebi phenotypes and genotypes back into ancient times,
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As I said many times not only Arabia....but southern Europe is an extension of Africa. This also brings into question what I have always said, - "Islam" preceded Mohammed in Europe and that would explains it's early presence in North Africa and Southern Europe. Islam may be another Nile Valley originated religion just as Judiasm.
Quote: "and/or more geographic extensive ******pre-Islamic******* incursions may explain the higher frequencies and older time estimates of mutations in the north of the Peninsula. These scenarios are congruent with the higher diversities of some diagnostic makers observed in Northwest Iberia"
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Africans/Blacks/North Africans have been in Southern Europe/Europe long before the advent of Islam. Blacks have been in Europe since the very beginning. Don't believe me? Ask the 6000year old Black European La Brana. Lol! Modern Europeans and there delusion. Tsk! Tsk! Lol!
-------------------- Without data you are just another person with an opinion - Deming Posts: 12143 | From: When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable | Registered: Jun 2007
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That is why PN2-E1b1b is(will be found) found amongst the Neolithics in Iberia and rest of Southern Europe like Italy , Sardinia and Greece....and the Levant. mtDNA HG-H is the counter part of E1b1b and hg-G. The confounding thing is why R1b-M269 became so dominant and essentially replaced y-DNA G. Since E1b1b is still found at high frequency in Southern Europe but Yhg-G virtually disappeared.
Quote: le that M78 may represent a signature of the Phoenician dominion that spread across the Mediterranean. M78’s presence in Iberia dates back to at least the early Neolithic since 7,000 year old funeral remains of individuals carrying this mutation were discovered in a Catalonian cave in northeastern Spain (Lacan et al., 2011).
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Sudan was not included in the study. Tsk! Tsk!
Quote: The higher gene diversity values for J1a2b2*-L147.1 in Egypt (0.3539 ± 0.0599), may be indicative of a Northeast ****African***** origin for the M147.1 mutation.
-------------------- Without data you are just another person with an opinion - Deming Posts: 12143 | From: When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable | Registered: Jun 2007
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Amazing how northwest Africa seems to have undergone all these epic losses of diversity right under our noses. These seem to be demographic events that took place when people in the Mediterranean basin were literate. But we have no written records of this. Only thing we have is evidence that people all over the Maghreb are much closer linguistically and genetically than they should be.
When European countries, and sometimes even the Canary Islands, have more diversity for key Maghrebi lineages (e,g,, U6 and E-M81) than North Africa, that's saying something. When it comes to rare Maghrebi E clades, in some cases, their low frequencies are a tie between the Maghreb and coastal Europe.
Cautionary tale for people who try to conveniently project stereotyped modern day Maghrebi phenotypes and genotypes back into ancient times,
So this study only confirms what I've always suspected about Maghrebi populations and what past posters like Rasol and Supercar have been saying-- that modern Maghrebi populations provide a poor sample of the genetic diversity that once existed in the area.
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posted
Haplogroups do NOT equal phenotype. R1b-V88 comes to mind.
-------------------- Without data you are just another person with an opinion - Deming Posts: 12143 | From: When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable | Registered: Jun 2007
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True. But a loss of hg diversity lends itself to cherry picking by those who want to identify ancient North Africans with a certain genotype and phenotype. Now mostly lost or rare links with dark skinned North Africans (e.g. E-M33, E-M78, E-Z827[xE-M81]) would make that much harder.
Posts: 8785 | From: Discovery Channel's Mythbusters | Registered: Dec 2009
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Amazing how northwest Africa seems to have undergone all these epic losses of diversity right under our noses. These seem to be demographic events that took place when people in the Mediterranean basin were literate. But we have no written records of this. Only thing we have is evidence that people all over the Maghreb are much closer linguistically and genetically than they should be.
When European countries, and sometimes even the Canary Islands, have more diversity for key Maghrebi lineages (e,g,, U6 and E-M81) than North Africa, that's saying something. When it comes to rare Maghrebi E clades, in some cases, their low frequencies are a tie between the Maghreb and coastal Europe.
Cautionary tale for people who try to conveniently project stereotyped modern day Maghrebi phenotypes and genotypes back into ancient times,
So this study only confirms what I've always suspected about Maghrebi populations and what past posters like Rasol and Supercar have been saying-- that modern Maghrebi populations provide a poor sample of the genetic diversity that once existed in the area.
Yes. And clues in this paper add to other clues we already have that show that the diversity of modern day Berber speakers is a shell of what it once was. Modern day northwest Africans are a close-nit group within a larger and more diverse family that included Numidians and other groups.
Imagine if we had a group of modern Egyptians whose paternal lines mostly trace back to King Tut and that the descendants of contemporaries of King Tut only had a small representation in this Y pool. Something like that happened in northwest Africa right under the nose of ancient geographers and historians. How do we know it happened this recently? Because the Canary Islands were settled only recently, and DNA from 'aboriginals' and living Islanders preserve some key Berber lineages better than mainland Maghrebis do.
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Amazing how northwest Africa seems to have undergone all these epic losses of diversity right under our noses. These seem to be demographic events that took place when people in the Mediterranean basin were literate. But we have no written records of this. Only thing we have is evidence that people all over the Maghreb are much closer linguistically and genetically than they should be.
When European countries, and sometimes even the Canary Islands, have more diversity for key Maghrebi lineages (e,g,, U6 and E-M81) than North Africa, that's saying something. When it comes to rare Maghrebi E clades, in some cases, their low frequencies are a tie between the Maghreb and coastal Europe.
Cautionary tale for people who try to conveniently project stereotyped modern day Maghrebi phenotypes and genotypes back into ancient times,
MAN... This is why I hold you, Beyoku and DJ in high respects. I never looked at it this way!
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Amazing how northwest Africa seems to have undergone all these epic losses of diversity right under our noses. These seem to be demographic events that took place when people in the Mediterranean basin were literate. But we have no written records of this. Only thing we have is evidence that people all over the Maghreb are much closer linguistically and genetically than they should be.
When European countries, and sometimes even the Canary Islands, have more diversity for key Maghrebi lineages (e,g,, U6 and E-M81) than North Africa, that's saying something. When it comes to rare Maghrebi E clades, in some cases, their low frequencies are a tie between the Maghreb and coastal Europe.
Cautionary tale for people who try to conveniently project stereotyped modern day Maghrebi phenotypes and genotypes back into ancient times,
MAN... This is why I hold you, Beyoku and DJ in high respects. I never looked at it this way!
Thanks. It's good to see that things we already knew about Maghrebi diversity in one marker system:
quote:In order to evaluate their most probable origins, haplogroup frequency distribution patterns should be contrasted with the distribution of their respective variances. However, the number of samples with sound variances precludes their presentation as diffusion maps. For the whole haplogroup U6 and large geographic areas it is possible to estimate the respective diversities using the pi statistic. Nearly identical diversities are found for Europe (4.625 ± 0.737) and the Middle East (4.653 ± 1.230). The Maghreb (3.203 ± 0.524) and East Africa (3.097 ± 1.869) are at a second level, whilst West Africa (2.127 ± 0.961) contains the least diversity. However, the only significant differences between areas are those found when comparing Europe to the Maghreb (p = 0.036) and West Africa (p = 0.011).
can now be extended to Maghrebi TMRCAs in the Y DNA marker systems thanks to the paper cited in the OP. We're making progress.
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Amazing how northwest Africa seems to have undergone all these epic losses of diversity right under our noses. These seem to be demographic events that took place when people in the Mediterranean basin were literate. But we have no written records of this. Only thing we have is evidence that people all over the Maghreb are much closer linguistically and genetically than they should be.
When European countries, and sometimes even the Canary Islands, have more diversity for key Maghrebi lineages (e,g,, U6 and E-M81) than North Africa, that's saying something. When it comes to rare Maghrebi E clades, in some cases, their low frequencies are a tie between the Maghreb and coastal Europe.
Cautionary tale for people who try to conveniently project stereotyped modern day Maghrebi phenotypes and genotypes back into ancient times,
So this study only confirms what I've always suspected about Maghrebi populations and what past posters like Rasol and Supercar have been saying-- that modern Maghrebi populations provide a poor sample of the genetic diversity that once existed in the area.
Yes. And clues in this paper add to other clues we already have that show that the diversity of modern day Berber speakers is a shell of what it once was. Modern day northwest Africans are a close-nit group within a larger and more diverse family that included Numidians and other groups.
Imagine if we had a group of modern Egyptians whose paternal lines mostly trace back to King Tut and that the descendants of contemporaries of King Tut only had a small representation in this Y pool. Something like that happened in northwest Africa right under the nose of ancient geographers and historians. How do we know it happened this recently? Because the Canary Islands were settled only recently, and DNA from 'aboriginals' and living Islanders preserve some key Berber lineages better than mainland Maghrebis do.
Remember the abundance of (sub-Saharan?) African-like skeletal material found in various Carthaginian sites? Where do you do think the biologically African people represented by that material went, if they're not so abundant in the region today? Were they absorbed by other populations in the region, or were they somehow driven away or wiped out?
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^ Actually I don't remember that. Can you post a link to that thread?? Do you recall a past thread Tukuler made about the Canary Islands natives?
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quote:Originally posted by Djehuti: ^ Actually I don't remember that. Can you post a link to that thread?? Do you recall a past thread Tukuler made about the Canary Islands natives?
posted
My guess is that it part of the SSA ancestry in Mozabites that doesn't vary among individuals. It's definitely not in the SSA ancestry that varies widely among individuals, which is more recent and hasn't yet disseminated in the general population.
It's interesting that the Central Tunisian sample sequenced by Henn shows very little detectable SSA ancestry. There are no migration edges from SSA samples to this Tunisian sample (see treemix below). Carthage included territory in what is coastal Algeria and Tunisia, today. So, if Carthage was populated by people with varying degrees of SSA ancestry (ranging from a lot, to hybrids, to people who are like Henn et al's Tunisian sample), this Tunisian sample is simply another reason to raise questions about continuity.
quote:Originally posted by Swenet: My guess is that it part of the ancestry in Mozabites that doesn't vary among individuals. It's definitely not in the SSA ancestry that varies widely among individuals, which is more recent and hasn't yet disseminated in the general population.
It's interesting that the Central Tunisian sample sequenced by Henn shows very little detectable SSA ancestry. There are no migration edges from SSA samples to this Tunisian sample (see treemix below). Carthage was located in what is Algeria and Tunisia, today. So, if Carthage was populated by people with varying degrees of SSA ancestry (ranging from a lot, to hybrids, to people who are like Henn et al's Tunisian sample), this Tunisian sample is simply another reason to raise questions about continuity.
But wouldn't you agree that the ancestral African component of the Mozabites wouldn't be close to Yorubas even if we had a pristine sample of said ancient lineage? How does the Yoruba sample as a "proxy" for Sub Saharan match against other African populations in Nigeria, Chad or Sudan?
The point being this is another example of a misleading conclusion based on bad data.
Because what this is implying is that there is a big distance between Mozabites, their ancestral African component (if it is truly identified as African) and any near by populations in the Sahel who have a majority of African lineages. I would argue that kind of theorizing and extrapolation is false.
It would be nice to see a comprehensive map of all the L haplogroups posessed across all of the various populations in North Africa, especially Haplogroup L3 and L1.
Unfortunately they would make a comprensive DNA map like this because they are trying to chop the data into chunks for the purposes of specific research topics.
quote: According to Maca-Meyer et al. (2001), "L3 is more related to Eurasian haplogroups than to the most divergent African clusters L1 and L2".
L3 is the haplogroup from which all modern humans outside of Africa derive.
Basal haplogroup L3* is found among Nubians (13.8%), as well as Socotri (4.3%).
Undifferentiated L3 is widely distributed, particularly in the Chad Basin. It is also found among Egyptians inhabiting El-Hayez oasis (11.4%).
posted
I've noticed that Maca-Meyer tends to write from a Eurocentric perspective, a lot.
We can see in the above, the L3 was once claimed as being more "eurasian". lol smh
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^Ps, Maca-Meyer used to write / bolster the term caucasian, instead of the now so popular replacement "Eurasians"! So it is clear what Maca-Meyer means, whenever Maca-Meyer writes.
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quote:Originally posted by Doug M: But wouldn't you agree that the ancestral African component of the Mozabites wouldn't be close to Yorubas even if we had a pristine sample of said ancient lineage? How does the Yoruba sample as a "proxy" for Sub Saharan match against other African populations in Nigeria, Chad or Sudan?
The point being this is another example of a misleading conclusion based on bad data.
Because what this is implying is that there is a big distance between Mozabites, their ancestral African component (if it is truly identified as African) and any near by populations in the Sahel who have a majority of African lineages. I would argue that kind of theorizing and extrapolation is false.
It would be nice to see a comprehensive map of all the L haplogroups posessed across all of the various populations in North Africa, especially Haplogroup L3 and L1.
Unfortunately they would make a comprensive DNA map like this because they are trying to chop the data into chunks for the purposes of specific research topics.
quote: According to Maca-Meyer et al. (2001), "L3 is more related to Eurasian haplogroups than to the most divergent African clusters L1 and L2".
L3 is the haplogroup from which all modern humans outside of Africa derive.
Basal haplogroup L3* is found among Nubians (13.8%), as well as Socotri (4.3%).
Undifferentiated L3 is widely distributed, particularly in the Chad Basin. It is also found among Egyptians inhabiting El-Hayez oasis (11.4%).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_L3_(mtDNA) [/qb]
Here is a PCA constructed using African mtDNA haplotypes only (non-L haplotypes, with the exception of U6 and M1, are omitted). So it's perfect for understanding what the African side of Maghrebis as a whole looks like.
quote:Principal component (PC) analysis was performed on the basis of the haplogroup composition (relative frequencies) in the various population samples (considering L-haplogroups plus U6 and M1).
Maghrebi samples (squares in upper left corner) cluster with Niger-Congo speaking West Africans (Sr: Serer; Wo: Wolof; Sn: Senegal; Yo: Yoruba) more than they cluster with Chadic speakers (Ha: Hausa). Other western Sahelian samples with various linguistic affiliations other than Chadic (Fu: Fulbe; Tu: Tuareg; So: Songhai; Ka: Kanuri) are just as similar or more similar to Maghrebis compared to Chadic speakers.
The mtDNA data shows that it makes little sense to bicker about which West/Central African sample is 'better' to use in this kind of analysis. They're all close to the Maghrebi sample when it comes to their mtDNA L lineages.
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quote:Originally posted by Doug M: But wouldn't you agree that the ancestral African component of the Mozabites wouldn't be close to Yorubas even if we had a pristine sample of said ancient lineage? How does the Yoruba sample as a "proxy" for Sub Saharan match against other African populations in Nigeria, Chad or Sudan?
The point being this is another example of a misleading conclusion based on bad data.
Because what this is implying is that there is a big distance between Mozabites, their ancestral African component (if it is truly identified as African) and any near by populations in the Sahel who have a majority of African lineages. I would argue that kind of theorizing and extrapolation is false.
It would be nice to see a comprehensive map of all the L haplogroups posessed across all of the various populations in North Africa, especially Haplogroup L3 and L1.
Unfortunately they would make a comprensive DNA map like this because they are trying to chop the data into chunks for the purposes of specific research topics.
quote: According to Maca-Meyer et al. (2001), "L3 is more related to Eurasian haplogroups than to the most divergent African clusters L1 and L2".
L3 is the haplogroup from which all modern humans outside of Africa derive.
Basal haplogroup L3* is found among Nubians (13.8%), as well as Socotri (4.3%).
Undifferentiated L3 is widely distributed, particularly in the Chad Basin. It is also found among Egyptians inhabiting El-Hayez oasis (11.4%).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_L3_(mtDNA)
Here is a PCA constructed using African mtDNA haplotypes only (non-L haplotypes, with the exception of U6 and M1, are omitted). So it's perfect for understanding what the African side of Maghrebis as a whole looks like.
quote:Principal component (PC) analysis was performed on the basis of the haplogroup composition (relative frequencies) in the various population samples (considering L-haplogroups plus U6 and M1).
Maghrebi samples (squares in upper left corner) cluster with Niger-Congo speaking West Africans (Sr: Serer; Wo: Wolof; Sn: Senegal; Yo: Yoruba) more than they cluster with Chadic speakers (Ha: Hausa). Other western Sahelian samples with various linguistic affiliations other than Chadic (Fu: Fulbe; Tu: Tuareg; So: Songhai; Ka: Kanuri) are just as similar or more similar to Maghrebis compared to Chadic speakers.
The mtDNA data shows that it makes little sense to bicker about which West/Central African sample is 'better' to use in this kind of analysis. They're all close to the Maghrebi sample when it comes to their mtDNA L lineages. [/QB]
Thanks for that. It kind of shows what I am saying which is that these L lineages in the Maghreb are not simply based on inputs due to "slavery".
But nevertheless that won't stop them from making slick statements like this:
quote:In West Africa, the Middle Stone Age and Late Stone Age are poorly understood, but East, Central, and southern Africa provide evidence of regional traditions dating back to the Acheulian, >200,000 years ago (Phillipson 1993). North Africa has had a distinct history, oriented more towards the Mediterranean, since the late Pleistocene.
As if to say North Africans are not "Africans" like the rest of the populations in the study. Implying that North Africa was overrun by "Eurasians" 20,000 to 50,000 years ago. Even though Europe was not even settled 40,000 years ago and the rest of Eurasia was primarily populated by various African aboriginal types.
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^ I remember a Spanish study Swenet sent me a couple years ago by I believe Gonzalez et al. which stated that even the alleged 'Eurasian' mitochondrial clades of U6 and M1 are not restricted to the Maghreb but are also found farther south in West Africa indicating that there was continuity between Northwest Africa and West Africa farther south.
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