Half of Western European men descended from one Bronze Age “king”

Posted by DanielS on Monday, 02 May 2016 05:27.

The Telegraph, “Half of Western European men descended from one Bronze Age ‘king” 25 April 2016:

A bronze age burial South Uist, in the Outer Hebridean Western Isles

Mass graves were replaced by individual burials for the elite in the Bronze Age showing a shift in social structure Credit: PA

Half of Western European men are descended from one Bronze Age ‘king’ who sired a dynasty of elite nobles which spread throughout Europe, a new study has shown.

The monarch, who lived around 4,000 years ago, is likely to have been one of the earliest chieftains to take power in the continent.

He was part of a new order which emerged in Europe following the Stone Age, sweeping away the previous egalitarian Neolithic period and replacing it with hierarchical societies which were ruled by a powerful elite.

It is likely his power stemmed from advances in technology such as metal working and wheeled transport which enabled organised warfare for the first time.

Although it is not known who he was, or where he lived, scientists say he must have existed because of genetic variation in today’s European populations.

Dr Chris Tyler-Smith, from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, said: “One of the most novel and exciting things we have found in the study is the extraordinary explosion in numbers of males at specific times.

“In Europe there was huge population expansion in just a few generations. Genetics can’t tell us why it happened but we know that a tiny number of elite males were controlling reproduction and dominating the population.

“Half of the Western European population is descended from just one man. We can only speculate as to what happened. The best explanation is that they may have resulted from advances in technology that could be controlled by small groups of men.

“Wheeled transport, metal working and organised warfare are all candidate explanations that can now be investigated further.”

Studying the genomes of people across the world can show how populations have spread Credit: Alamy

The study analysed sequence differences between the Y chromosomes of more than 1200 men from 26 populations around the world using data generated by the 1000 Genomes Project.

The Y chromosome is only passed from father to son and so is wholly linked to male characteristics and behaviours. Mutations reveal which are related to each other and how far apart they are genetically so that researchers can build a family tree.

Dr Yali Xue, lead author from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, explained: “This pattern tells us that there was an explosive increase in the number of men carrying a certain type of Y chromosome, within just a few generations.

“We only observed this phenomenon in males, and only in a few groups of men.”

The team used the data to build a tree of the 1200 Y chromosomes. It shows how they are all related to one another. As expected, they all descend from a single man who lived approximately 190,000 years ago.

The most intriguing and novel finding was that some parts of the tree were more like a bush than a tree, with many branches originating at the same point.

The earliest explosive increases of male numbers occurred 50,000–55,000 years ago, across Asia and Europe, and 15,000 years ago in the Americas.

There were also later expansions in sub-Saharan Africa, Western Europe, South Asia and East Asia, at times between 4,000 and 8,000 years ago. The team believes the earlier population increases resulted from the first peopling by modern humans of vast continents, where plenty of resources were available.

Dr David Poznik, from Stanford University, California, first author on the paper, said: “We identified more than 60,000 positions where one DNA letter was replaced by another in a man with modern descendants, and we discovered thousands of more complex DNA variants.

“These data constitute a rich and publicly available resource for further genealogical, historical and forensic studies.”

The research was published in the journal Nature Genetics.

As European peoples we are stakeholders in a varied but identifiable genetic heritage: Participation in curating and defending these genetics is one of the most radical, verifiable and essential grounds upon which we can coordinate our fight for our interests..

Tags: Anthropology, Ethnicity and Ethnic Genetic Interests, Genetics & Human Bio-Diversity, Hermeneutics, Science & Technology, Social Constructionism, Social Sciences, White Nationalism

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Posted by common European ancestry cited on Tue, 03 May 2016 19:05 | #

DM, “The ‘founding fathers’ of Europe: DNA reveals all Europeans are related to a group that lived around Belgium 35,000 years ago”, 2 May 2016:

Experts analysed data from humans who lived 45,000 to 7,000 years ago

Genetic data shows all Europeans come from a single founding population

This population occupied northwest Europe 35,000 years ago before being displaced when another group of early humans arrived 33,000 years ago

The original group then re-expanded across the continent 19,000 years ago

Modern humans arrived in Europe 45,000 years ago but little is known about how they spread across the continent before the introduction of farming.

Now, researchers carrying out the most detailed genetic analysis of Upper Paleolithic Europeans to date have discovered a major new lineage of early modern humans.

This group, which lived in the northwest 35,000 years ago, directly contributed to the ancestry of present-day Europeans and is believed to have been formed of the ‘founding fathers’ of Europe.

Researchers carrying out the most detailed genetic analysis of Upper Paleolithic Europeans to date have discovered a major new lineage of early modern humans. This group, which lived in the northwest around 35,000 years ago, directly contributed to the ancestry of present-day Europeans.

Archaeological studies have previously found modern humans swept into Europe 45,000 years ago.

This ultimately led to the demise of the Neanderthals, despite the fact some modern humans interbred with these cousins.

During the Ice Age that ended 12,000 years ago, with its peak between 25,000 and 19,000 years ago when the melt started, glaciers covered Scandinavia and northern Europe all the way to northern France.

As the ice sheets retreated at the end of the last Ice Age, the region was repopulated.

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

TRACING EUROPEAN ANCESTRY

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Researchers from Harvard University analysed genome-wide data from 51 modern humans who lived between 45,000 and 7,000 years ago. The location and age of these humans is shown. Each bar corresponds to an individual, the colour represents the genetically defined cluster, and the height is proportional to age.

The team studied three 31,000-year-old skulls from Dolni Věstonice in the Czech Republic. For 5,000 years after this group lived, all samples, from Belgium, the Czech Republic, Austria and Italy, were found to be closely related, reflecting a population expansion associated with the Gravettian archaeological culture.

An early branch of the European founder population was displaced across much of Europe for around fifteen thousand years before becoming widespread again. The lower jaw of the 19,000-year-old ‘Red Lady of El Mirón Cave’. This is the first individual in the study to show the resurgence of ancestry.

BATTLE OF THE CULTURES: AURIGNACIAN VERSUS GRAVETTIAN

The genetic analysis shows the Aurignacian culture was displaced by the Gravettian culture, but later re-emerged.

Radiocarbon dating shows the Aurignacian culture from Europe and southwest Asia dominated from 47,000 to 41,000 years ago, although emerged in smaller groups earlier than this.

The group is categorised by its tools made of bone or antler points with grooves cut in the bottom.

The Aurignacian culture is categorised by its tools made of bone or antler points with grooves cut in the bottom as well as bladelets

Elsewhere, they made flint tools include blades and bladelets.

The people of this culture are also linked with early cave art, including animal engravings and imagery in the Chauvet cave in southern France.

By comparison, the Gravettians were a Stone Age culture known for making small pointed blades who lived across much of Europe.

This group of hunter gatherers lived in central and Eastern Europe between 30,000 and 20,000 years ago.

Remains of this prehistoric culture have been found in caves in southern France and more open sites on the plains of Central Europe and Russia.

Isotopic studies of human remains from the Czech Republic have also revealed that mammoths formed a large part of the Gravettian diet.

‘We see very different genetics spreading across Europe that displaces the people from the southwest who were there before.

‘These people persisted for many thousands of years until the arrival of farming.’

The study, published in Nature, also detected some mixture with Neanderthals, around 45,000 years ago, as modern humans spread across Europe.

The prehistoric human populations contained three to six per cent of Neanderthal DNA, but today most humans only have about two per cent.

‘Neanderthal DNA is slightly toxic to modern humans’ and this study provides evidence that natural selection is removing Neanderthal ancestry,’ Professor Reich added.

The genetic analysis shows the Aurignacian culture was displaced by the Gravettian culture, but later re-emerged. Radiocarbon dating shows the Aurignacian culture from Europe and southwest Asia dominated from 47,000 to 41,000 years ago (locations pictured), although emerged in smaller groups earlier than this.

During the first major warming period at the end of the Ice Age, a new population swept in from the southeast, drawing the gene pools of Europeans and Near Easterners closer together. The skull of a 14,000-year-old individual discovered at the Villabruna in northeastern Italy.

Ancient specimens are frequently contaminated with microbial DNA, as well as DNA from archaeologists or lab technicians who have handled the specimens.

An arm bone of a 35,000-year-old individual from Belgium was part of a previously undiscovered major lineage

To solve this problem scientists used a technique called in-solution hybrid capture enrichment.

They used about 1.2 million 52-base-pair DNA sequences corresponding to positions in the human genome that they were interested in as bait to target specific segments of DNA.

After they washed the ancient DNA over the 1.2 million probe sequences, the researchers sequenced the ancient DNA that was captured by the probes.

Prior to the Harvard Medical School study there were only four samples of prehistoric European modern humans 45,000 to 7,000 years old for which genomic data were available.

This made it difficult to understand how human populations migrated or evolved during this period.

Using a new technique, more samples could be assessed.

Professor Reich continued: ‘Trying to represent this vast period of European history with just four samples is like trying to summarise a movie with four still images.

‘With 51 samples, everything changes; we can follow the narrative arc; get a vivid sense of the dynamic changes over time.

‘And what we see is a population history that is no less complicated than that in the last 7,000 years, with multiple episodes of population replacement and immigration on a vast and dramatic scale, at a time when the climate was changing dramatically.’

The study also detected some mixture with Neanderthals, around 45,000 years ago, as modern humans spread across Europe. The prehistoric human populations contained three to six per cent of Neanderthal DNA, but today most humans only have about two per cent.