A human face carved on a pebble from the Late Natufian site of Nahal Ein Gev II
There is a paucity of Palaeolithic art in the southern Levant prior to 15 000 years ago. The Natufian culture (15 000–11 500 BP; Grosman 2013) marks a threshold in the magnitude and diversity of artistic manifestations (Bar-Yosef 1997). Nevertheless, depictions of the human form remain rare—only a few representations of the human face have been reported to date. This article presents a 12 000-year-old example unearthed at the Late Natufian site of Nahal Ein Gev II (NEGII), just east of the Sea of Galilee, Israel (Figure 1). The object provides a glimpse into Natufian conventions of human representation, and opens a rare opportunity for deeper understanding of the Natufian symbolic system. There is a paucity of Palaeolithic art in the southern Levant prior to 15 000 years ago. The Natufian culture (15 000–11 500 BP; Grosman 2013) marks a threshold in the magnitude and diversity of artistic manifestations (Bar-Yosef 1997). Nevertheless, depictions of the human form remain rare—only a few representations of the human face have been reported to date. This article presents a 12 000-year-old example unearthed at the Late Natufian site of Nahal Ein Gev II (NEGII), just east of the Sea of Galilee, Israel (Figure 1). The object provides a glimpse into Natufian conventions of human representation, and opens a rare opportunity for deeper understanding of the Natufian symbolic system.
Figure 1. The human face carved on a limestone pebble from Nahal Ein Gev II (Late Natufian) (photograph by Gabi Laron).
Figure 4. Comparison of human faces on pebbles: a) Nahal Ein Gev II; b–c) Eynan (after Perrot 1966); and d) el-Wad (after Garrod & Bates 1937) (not to scale, drawn by Hadas Goldgeier).
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Neolithization of North Africa involved the migration of people from both the Levant and Europe 2017
Rosa Fregel, Fernado L. Mendez, Youssef Bokbot, Dimas Martin-Socas, Maria D. Camalich-Massieu, Maria C. Avila-Arcos, Peter A. Underhill, Beth Shapiro, Genevieve L Wojcik, Morten Rasmussen, Andre E. R. Soares, Joshua Kapp, Alexandra Sockell, Francisco J. Rodriguez-Santos, Abdeslam Mikdad, Jonathan Santana, Aioze Trujillo-Mederos, Carlos D. Bustamante doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/191569
bstract
One of the greatest transitions in the human story was the change from hunter-gatherer to farmer. How farming traditions expanded from their birthplace in the Fertile Crescent has always been a matter of contention. Two models were proposed, one involving the movement of people and the other based on the transmission of ideas. Over the last decade, paleogenomics has been instrumental in settling long-disputed archaeological questions, including those surrounding the Neolithic revolution. Compared to the extensive genetic work done on Europe and the Near East, the Neolithic transition in North Africa, including the Maghreb, remains largely uncharacterized. Archaeological evidence suggests this process may have happened through an in situ development from Epipaleolithic communities, or by demic diffusion from the Eastern Mediterranean shores or Iberia. In fact, Neolithic pottery in North Africa strongly resembles that of European cultures like Cardial and Andalusian Early Neolithic, the southern-most early farmer culture from Iberia. Here, we present the first analysis of individuals' genome sequences from early and late Neolithic sites in Morocco, as well as Andalusian Early Neolithic individuals. We show that Early Neolithic Moroccans are distinct from any other reported ancient individuals and possess an endemic element retained in present-day Maghrebi populations, indicating long-term genetic continuity in the region. Among ancient populations, early Neolithic Moroccans share affinities with Levantine Natufian hunter-gatherers (~9,000 BCE) and Pre-Pottery Neolithic farmers (~6,500 BCE). Late Neolithic (~3,000 BCE) Moroccan remains, in comparison, share an Iberian component of a prominent European-wide demic expansion, supporting theories of trans-Gibraltar gene flow. Finally, the Andalusian Early Neolithic samples share the same genetic composition as the Cardial Mediterranean Neolithic culture that reached Iberia ~5,500 BCE. The cultural and genetic similarities of the Iberian Neolithic cultures with that of North African Neolithic sites further reinforce the model of an Iberian intrusion into the Maghreb.Posts: 42924 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010
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quote:Originally posted by Elmaestro: 1.you made a 10 millenia skip
2.post drift Recombination is always possible
3.Natufians and the later near eastern farmers were only PARTLY African, less than 21%.
I did? I'm just sort of quoting this from comments on the nature article. But I see. Natufians weren't that genetically "African" to begin with.
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Neolithization of North Africa involved the migration of people from both the Levant and Europe 2017
Rosa Fregel, Fernado L. Mendez, Youssef Bokbot, Dimas Martin-Socas, Maria D. Camalich-Massieu, Maria C. Avila-Arcos, Peter A. Underhill, Beth Shapiro, Genevieve L Wojcik, Morten Rasmussen, Andre E. R. Soares, Joshua Kapp, Alexandra Sockell, Francisco J. Rodriguez-Santos, Abdeslam Mikdad, Jonathan Santana, Aioze Trujillo-Mederos, Carlos D. Bustamante doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/191569
bstract
One of the greatest transitions in the human story was the change from hunter-gatherer to farmer. How farming traditions expanded from their birthplace in the Fertile Crescent has always been a matter of contention. Two models were proposed, one involving the movement of people and the other based on the transmission of ideas. Over the last decade, paleogenomics has been instrumental in settling long-disputed archaeological questions, including those surrounding the Neolithic revolution. Compared to the extensive genetic work done on Europe and the Near East, the Neolithic transition in North Africa, including the Maghreb, remains largely uncharacterized. Archaeological evidence suggests this process may have happened through an in situ development from Epipaleolithic communities, or by demic diffusion from the Eastern Mediterranean shores or Iberia. In fact, Neolithic pottery in North Africa strongly resembles that of European cultures like Cardial and Andalusian Early Neolithic, the southern-most early farmer culture from Iberia. Here, we present the first analysis of individuals' genome sequences from early and late Neolithic sites in Morocco, as well as Andalusian Early Neolithic individuals. We show that Early Neolithic Moroccans are distinct from any other reported ancient individuals and possess an endemic element retained in present-day Maghrebi populations, indicating long-term genetic continuity in the region. Among ancient populations, early Neolithic Moroccans share affinities with Levantine Natufian hunter-gatherers (~9,000 BCE) and Pre-Pottery Neolithic farmers (~6,500 BCE). Late Neolithic (~3,000 BCE) Moroccan remains, in comparison, share an Iberian component of a prominent European-wide demic expansion, supporting theories of trans-Gibraltar gene flow. Finally, the Andalusian Early Neolithic samples share the same genetic composition as the Cardial Mediterranean Neolithic culture that reached Iberia ~5,500 BCE. The cultural and genetic similarities of the Iberian Neolithic cultures with that of North African Neolithic sites further reinforce the model of an Iberian intrusion into the Maghreb.
The idea of an Iberian intrusion is unfounded because the cultures associated with the Iberian neolithic have their earliest origination in Africa. Moreover as noted by Doug, the earliest dated center for cattle domestication in the world was at Nabta. Africans from Nabta spread the agro-pastoral tradition into the Levant and later Yamna and across Europe.
-------------------- C. A. Winters Posts: 13012 | From: Chicago | Registered: Jan 2006
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quote:Originally posted by beyoku: The significance is that its an early Genetic sample from the Near East and is supposed to represent the First Farmers. Furthermore a lot of the autosomal DNA of the Middle East and North Africa (Ancient Egyptians included)....and West Eurasian presumed ancestry in Africa south of the Sahara is absorbed and characterized as this component that is nearly fixed in Natufian:
What should also be kept in mind is that these autosomal alleles could just as likely be African in origin and not necessarily Eurasian. And that African origin is not the same as modern day Sub-Saharan!
-------------------- Mahirap gisingin ang nagtutulog-tulugan. Posts: 26249 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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posted
^ Because "Sub-Sahara" is just one region or section of Africa while North Africa is another but both are equally African. Obviously there are spatial differences between populations. For example it has been shown both through cranial morphology as well as genetics that Southeast Asians also differ from northeast Asians, this does not mean that one population is less "Asian" than another. Then there is also the temperal difference between populations. Studies show that a major population in one area today may be genetically different from an earlier population who lived in the same area or region. In this case we are talking about prehistoric Egypt and the Levant right next door. Even if we are to assume that these particular Fayum Mummies analyzed represent indigenous Egyptians considering they date from the late New Kingdom to the early Roman Period, only the obtuse would assume they share a similar autosomal profile with say modern day Bantus!
How many people are aware that modern eastern Siberians have autosomal profiles different from say typical East Asians let alone those from Southeast Asia? I plan on making a thread about that.
-------------------- Mahirap gisingin ang nagtutulog-tulugan. Posts: 26249 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Elmaestro: well shit, Good, the whole thread is basically summerized in a single shot. A Comprehensive look at what we are dealing with here...
quote: BOLD -Lazaridis Else - Me
A population without Neanderthal admixture, basal to other Eurasians, may have plausibly lived in Africa.
-Basal Eurasian, might be African
Craniometric analyses have suggested an affinity between the Natufians and populations of north or sub-Saharan Africa24,25,
-See Akachi and Beyoku's Posts above...
a result that finds some support from Y chromosome analysis which shows that the Natufians and successor Levantine Neolithic populations carried haplogroup E, of likely ultimate African origin, which has not been detected in other ancient males from West Eurasia
African Uniparentals yadda yadda
**However, no affinity of Natufians to sub-Saharan Africans is evident in our genome-wide analysis, as present-day sub-Saharan Africans do not share more alleles with Natufians than with other ancient Eurasians
The thorn... See below
(We could not test for a link to present-day North Africans, who owe most of their ancestry to back-migration from Eurasia26,27.)
Well we have some ancient North Africans whose genetic correspondance opens up room for speculation now don't we.... IAM are almost half the age of Natufians yet the latter can be modeled as partially the the former... See posts on fregel 2017 Above
** Now going back to the note about Africans sharing no more alleles.. etc. An interesting thing to note is that the African ancestry in Natufians won't be similar to the Modern African populations without indirect recombination. Going back >15kya We have no clue what the African autosomal genetic landscape might've looked like, but in the f4 tests used to come to the conclusion that modern Africans don't share more alleles with Natufians than other Eurasians, look at the Yoruban scores. Basically YRI are share more alleles with Non WHG(modeled) Eurasians, despite the fact that the population that contributed to Natufian Ancestry were very different from modern NC speakers Autosomaly.
And I've also Ran This Some time ago so yeah, that's that.... EHG in this case is an umbrella term for Eurasian Hunter gatherers... not Eastern HG...
So to neatly wrap this thread up in a nice bow, we can loosely interpret that Natufian culture spawned from a convergence of African AfroAsiatic protocultures and a distinct group of Western Eurasian Huntergathers... The former likely related to predynastic egyptians. In light of the Ancient North African genomes, it makes no sense to deny African Admixture of some sort.
Don't know HOW I missed this post.
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quote: According to ancient DNA analyses conducted by Lazaridis et al. (2016) on Natufian skeletal remains from present-day northern Israel, the Natufians carried the Y-DNA (paternal) haplogroups E1b1b1b2(xE1b1b1b2a,E1b1b1b2b) (2/5; 40%), CT (2/5; 40%), and E1b1(xE1b1a1,E1b1b1b1) (1/5; 20%).[19]
quote: E-Z830 (E1b1b1b2)[edit] A recently confirmed sub-clade of E-Z827, Z830, includes the confirmed sub-clades of E-M123, E-M293, and E-V42, and is a sibling clade to E-L19. Currently, the E-M35 phylogeny project recognizes four distinct clusters of Z830* carriers, two of which are exclusively Jewish in origin. The remaining two are significantly smaller, and include scattered individuals in Germany, Spain, Latin America, Egypt, and Ethiopia.[34][35][36][37]
quote:E-P2, also known as E1b1, is a human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup. This paternal clade had an ancient presence in the Middle East, and is now primarily distributed in Africa, with lower frequencies in the Middle East and Europe.
quote:The proto-Afro-Asiatic group carrying the E-P2 mutation may have appeared at this point in time and subsequently
[…]
The expansion, carrying the diversified E-P2 mutation, may be responsible for the migration of male populations to different parts of the continent and henceforth the rise and spread of the bearers of the macrohaplogroup.
[…]
This scenario is more substantiated by the refining of the E-P2 (Trombetta et al35) and its two basal clades E-M2 and E-M329, which are believed to be prevalent exclusively in Western Africa and Eastern Africa, respectively.
[…]
Given the proposed origin of Maghreb ancestors56, 57, 58, 59 in North Africa, our network dating suggested a divergence of North Western African populations from Eastern African as early as 32 000 YBP, which is close to the estimated dates to the origin of E-P2 macrohaplogroup.
quote:Sub-Saharan African Y chromosome diversity is represented by five main haplogroups (hgs): A, B, E, J, and R (Underhill et al. 2001; Cruciani et al. 2002; Tishkoff et al. 2007). Hgs J and R are geographically restricted to eastern and central Africa, respectively, whereas hg E shows a wider continental distribution (see also Berniell-Lee et al. 2009; Cruciani et al. 2010).
--Chiara Batini
Signatures of the Preagricultural Peopling Processes in Sub-Saharan Africa as Revealed by the Phylogeography of Early Y Chromosome Lineages
quote: An independent high resolution MSY phylogeny has been recently obtained from 2,870 Y-SNPs discovered (or re- discovered) in the course of a large whole-genome re-sequencing study, but the observed variable sites all belong to the recent ‘‘out of Africa’’ CT clade [15]. Recently, in a re-sequencing study of the Y chromosome, the root of the tree moved to a new position and several changes at the basal nodes of the phylogeny were introduced [16]
[..]
Phylogenetic Mapping
Most of the mutations here analyzed belong to the African portion of the MSY phylogeny, which is comprised of haplogroups A1b, A1a, A2, A3 and B [16]. Through phylogenetic mapping it was possible to identify 15 new African haplogroups and to resolve one basal trifurcation (Figure 1). A new deep branch within the ‘‘out of Africa’’ haplogroup C was also identified (Figure S1).
Haplogroup A1b. The P114 mutation, which defines hap- logroup A1b according to Karafet et al. [14], had been detected in central-western Africa at very low frequencies (in total, three chromosomes from Cameroon) [16,19].
[...]
‘‘Out of Africa’’ haplogroups. All Y-clades that are not exclusively African belong to the macro-haplogroup CT, which is defined by mutations M168, M294 and P9.1 [14,31] and is subdivided into two major clades, DE and CF [1,14]. In a recent study [16], sequencing of two chromosomes belonging to haplogroups C and R, led to the identification of 25 new mutations, eleven of which were in the C-chromosome and seven in the R-chromosome. Here, the seven mutations which were found to be shared by chromosomes of haplogroups C and R [16], were also found to be present in one DE sample (sample 33 in Table S1), and positioned at the root of macro-haplogroup CT (Figure 1 and Figure S1). Six haplogroup C chromosomes (samples 34–39 in Table S1) were analyzed for the eleven haplogroup C- specific mutations [16] and for SNPs defining branches C1 to C6 in the tree by Karafet et al. [14] (Figure S1). Through this analysis we identified a chromosome from southern Europe as a new deep branch within haplogroup C (C-V20 or C7, Figure S1). Previously, only a few examples of C chromosomes (only defined by the marker RPS4Y711) had been found in southern Europe [32,33]. To improve our knowledge regarding the distribution of haplogroup C in Europe, we surveyed 1965 European subjects for the mutation RPS4Y711 and identified one additional haplogroup C chromosome from southern Europe, which has also been classified as C7 (data not shown). Further studies are needed to establish whether C7 chromosomes are the relics of an ancient European gene pool or the signal of a recent geographical spread from Asia. Two mutations, V248 and V87, which had never been previously described, were found to be specific to haplogroups C2 and C3, respectively (Figure S1). Three of the seven R-specific mutations (V45, V69 and V88) were previously mapped within haplogroup R [34], whereas the remaining four mutations have been here positioned at the root of haplogroups F (V186 and V205), K (V104) and P (V231) (Figure S1) through the analysis of 12 haplogroup F samples (samples 40–51, in Table S1).
[...]
Supporting Information
Figure S1 Structure of the macro-haplogroup CT. For details on mutations see legend to Figure 1. Dashed lines indicate putative branchings (no positive control available). The position of V248 (haplogroup C2) and V87 (haplogroup C3) compared to mutations that define internal branches was not determined. Note that mutations V45, V69 and V88 have been previously mapped (Cruciani et al. 2010; Eur J Hum Genet 18:800–807). (TIF)
--Fulvio Cruciani et al.
Molecular Dissection of the Basal Clades in the Human Y Chromosome Phylogenetic Tree
quote:does the present MSY tree compare with the backbone of the recently published “reference” MSY phylogeny?13 The phylogenetic relationships we observed among chromosomes belonging to haplogroups B, C, and R are reminiscent of those reported in the tree by Karafet et al.13
[...]
deepest branching separates A1b from a monophyletic clade whose members (A1a, A2, A3, B, C, and R) all share seven mutually reinforcing derived mutations (five transitions and two transversions, all at non-CpG sites).
[...]
The first branching in the MSY tree has been reported to be the one that separates the African-specific clade A (called clade I in 10) from clade BT (clade II-X in 10), whereas the second branching determines the subdivision of BT in clades B, mostly African, and CT, which comprises the majority of African and all non-African chromosomes.13,14 This branching pattern, along with the geographical distribu- tion of the major clades A, B, and CT, has been interpreted as supporting an African origin for anatomically modern humans,10 with Khoisan from south Africa and Ethiopians from east Africa sharing the deepest lineages of the phylogeny.15,16
[...]
To test the robustness of the backbone and the root of current Y chromosome phylogeny, we searched for SNPs that might be informative in this respect. To this aim, a resequencing analysis of a 205.9 kb MSY portion (183.5 kb in the X-degenerate and 22.4 kb in the X-transposed region) was performed for each of seven chromosomes that are representative of clade A (four chromosomes belonging to haplogroups A1a, A1b, A2, and A3), clade B, and clade CT (two chromosomes belonging to haplogroups C and R) (Table S1 available online).
The phylogenetic relationships we observed among chromosomes belonging to haplogroups B, C, and R are reminiscent of those reported in the tree by Karafet et al.13 These chromosomes belong to a clade (haplogroup BT) in which chromosomes C and R share a common ancestor (Figure 2).
--Fulvio Cruciani
A Revised Root for the Human Y Chromosomal Phylogenetic Tree: The Origin of Patrilineal Diversity in Africa
Good luck with that.
Posts: 22234 | From: האם אינכם כילדי הכרית אלי בני ישראל | Registered: Nov 2010
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quote: The ‘Basal Eurasians’ are a lineage hypothesized
—Iosif Lazaridis Genomic insights into the origin of farming in the ancient Near East
quote:And long before “Support from the relationship of genetic and geographic distance in human populations for a serial founder effect originating in Africa”.
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