The Settlement of Western Europe, A Genetic Perspective.

Why is this argument important. To begin, the LGM a peak that was
reached in coldness and glaciation occurred between about 19500 and
16000 years altered to an extreme degree as a measure of
temperature
and habiation that previously peaked abou 120ky previous. This
Extreme may or may not have resulted in suggested disequilibria an
migrations.

The archaeological perspective. Before 50 kya neandertals inhabited
europe, around 40 kya peoples moved in from central asia and the
middle east and populated europe. Based on observed morphological
shifts Ns and Hs intermixed to a lessor degree and the N morphology
went extinct. After the LGM these people repopulated europe from
lowland enclaves around the black, the mediterranean and iberia.

The genetic perspective. Before 200 kya a derivative of homo
erectus
referred to as heidelbergensis evolved into a species known as Homo
neandertalensis, this species went extinct as humans entered
western eurasia. Genetics does not determine the cause.
The genetics informs us that two principle migrations occurred,
one through iberia from NW africa that is all but absent
archaeologically, and one through eastern europe. These two waves
met contemporaneously in northern iberia and weastern france, and
very little geneflow of eastern europeans to the southern regions
of iberia. The Pasiegos of spain represent _one_ eastern extract
with very little in terms of african gene flow. Iberias settlement
patterns are ancient and more stable than most of europe. The
expectation is with constant equilibrated occupation (settlement)
that nodes would appear in iberia, this is observed as where iberia
has been regionally examine local haplotypes of local recombination
appear. Some such as in portugal or around ancient cities can be
explained by migrations from the near east. Most others appear to
have ancient in-situ origins.
A study of the haplotypes around the NW african, SW european
region revealed the number of alleles in common between several
haplotypes, each region with a different combination of alleles to
generat haplotypes emphasizing a common regional origin and long
term distinctions. Of particular interest are the recombinants of
northern iberia, within the population many can be found in
northern europe. 1 particular recombinant Super B8 A1 Cw7 B8 DR3
DQ2.5 can be found in part in northern africa, the DR3 DQ2.5 is
found and a very low frequency of B8 DR3 DQ2, the Ax B18 DR3 DQ2.5
is found at very high frequencies on sardinia, the B18 component is
elevated in north africa. The A1 Cw7 Bx component is nodal in
northern europe and eastern regions. Therefore Super B8 is likely a
recombinant between Eastern derived and Southern derived haplotypes
the recombined. When this occurred cannot be precisely defined in
an of itself. These recombinants in the basque and tuscan
populations are not alone, many other south/east haplotypes are
observed in these groups, and many are scattered to the north. The
basic assumption is that the recombinations started taking place
about 30 to 40 kya. Super B8 confers susceptibility to several
diseases including Triticeae intolerance that type 1 diabetes,
there may be a relationship, there are a number of similarities, it
also appears to confer partial susceptibility to arthritus.
The Irish population is the nodal center of Super B8 in europe,
this is not to say that the Islandic population descended from the
Irish or that the center of expansion was Ireland but that there
was an assymetric expansion as a result of a serial process of
migration. About 1/3rd to 1/2 of the Irish haplotypes can be traced
to the protobasque or similar local peoples, it is important to
note that the basque appear to have been shifted slightly westward
as the similar groups exist to the east and SE suggesting that the
neolithization of iberia forced peoples to slightly shift. As far
as we can tell there was a french equivilent that has diffused into
the french population, but there are few residual descendants or
ethnic basque in SW france.
What is important to note about the Irish is that there are
interlocus recombinants not observed elsewhere, but these are at
modest frequencies, indicating the time involved in equilibration
is between 1/3 and 1/2 of the basque. The basic assumption is that
regional isolation occurred about 15 to 20 kya. In addition the
frequencies of less recombined traits are typically those of
eastern origin, suggesting a process of motion of a core group from
northern iberia northward and admixture. The other point is that
the frequencies of traits that can be traced to the Irish, with the
exception of the cornish are roughly the same from Scandinavia to
Ireland, suggesting all of these came from a ubiquitous expansion.
IOW the cornish may be an early split or an admixed with some lost
channel people, but the majority of pre-neolithic islanders evolved
from a single population and that during its initial phases of
growth then population was for all intents and purposes randomly
intermixing over the initial region of expansion.
If the group had migrated from the south after the expansion we
would expect serialized biasing as people moved north if this were
the cause of introduction of percentages of south and east, thus I
think a holocene migration from 2 groups is unlikely. What is more
likely is that the group had become isolated as 1 or 2 groups
before the LGM, admixed before the holocene and then migrated from
a proximal site into the Ilses. The site could have been the with
the offshore regions of NW france, W france or SE "Ilses". When
structuring this argument I found the need for another enclave,
since the belgium and czech peoples appear to be intermediate
between the basque and Irish, but with also recombinant traits,
suggesting a long period of indepenence, therefore this people
looks like either a southern channel "Elbe" people or western
france. This pushes the protoIrish north of western france and
possibly over the altantic outlet of the LGM 'channel' itself.
In such a scenario one expects that the population probably would
have subsisted almost entirely on marine foods and
opportunistically or seasonally taking from megafauna or land
mammals that passed by their settlements. It does explain some of
the extreme phenotypes observed in the region.
So the genetic seems to imply a line of different peoples dotting
the atlantic coast of europe during the LGM, generally small in
population. As the ice retreats these populations expand to the
east. The basque show some similarities with the tuscan
populations, and may have contributed to the swiss, although
austria and switzerland appear to have been repopulated from the
east. The proto-basque population appears to have blocked
migrations from iberia, but the level of unique basque alleles in
france are less than one expects, the level of belgium/czech like
alleles are also less than one expects, Super B8 is found in the
french with more recombinants which can be explained by irish and
basque contributions or possibly a region of origin in northern or
northwestern france. The upper hand of expansion within the western
atlantic culture appears to have been the northern most isolate.
Aside from repopulating the ilse, this group accounts for most of
the genetic makeup of Norway, Sweden, Denmark and appears to have
spread in more recent times into Finland, the Western black Sea,
Russia, Central Asia and Western China. The challenge of survival
in the extreme NW europe during the interglacial probably lead to
arctic adaptations and a mesolithic lifestyle that was favorable
above the early neolithic zones.

What about france. As I have said many times france and germany
have an 'antinodal' character. It is important to add to this the
fact that the majority of the french and german population share
the same 'antinode' and that by extension one can add at least part
of the italian peninsula to that. Denmark, Poland, Czech Republic,
Swizterland, Austria, Belgium, Spain demarkate the sides of the
anti-node. When nodes were looked for in the region, they were at
relatively low frequencies and bore similarities with nodes in the
far east. This is very much suggestive of a depopulation
repopulation event, the indigenous peoples were depopulated, the
culture ebbed and upon rehabitation outside groups were more
prosperous. The influx into the region appears to have been
dominated from the NW, probably from the atlantic. There appears to
have been expansion from the South, generallly of an afro-arabic
type nature, this is probably from the mesolithic or later and
displacing the Northern adapted peoples to the northern or higher
latitudes with these peoples settling into the paris basin. During
the preagrarian period it appears that people migrated in and out
of germany and france, each time leaving a few traits from their
places of origins. Iberia being the exception where people appear
to have settled into specific regions, were less prone to migrate,
but did recieve migrants from africa and the middle east.
Most of the migrants appear to have been from regionally local
peoples, from italy, from switzerland, austria, poland, western
hungary, the Ilses. The haplotype frequencies from the middle east
produce an independent vector to the Near East or North africa that
is longer.
The most predominant DR-DQ type is DR3-DQ2.5 in france, however
it is not super B8, it represents contributions from sardinia,
north africa, the NW and the basque, IOW even when we examine a
peak haplotype it exhibits many directions of origins.

The basic argument I can make is that in the post LGM environment
western frances (offshore regions) produced 2 or more migratory
populations. 2 of these populations are excellently suited for
northerward expansion, one appears to have stayed mostly north of
the channel but explains some of the haplotypes south of the
channel. The other stayed south of the channel but appears ot have
introgressed later into SE england. There was no preferential
migrant, in the long term for most of france and germany. It could
be that rearborealization allowed only small numbers of mesolithic
hunters into the region and caused unusual dispersions that was
facilititative for different peoples at different times. It is
possible that a nodal population migrated inot the region and that
a climatic event wiped them out. It is hard to say.

The italian peninsula is also perplexing, the typing of the
Tuscan region has been rewarding as this shows a relationship with
the basque suggesting a cultural continuoum at one time between
italy and northern spain that spans the putative gulf of Leon
enclave of southern france. Most of Italy shows and antinodal
character. The strongest influences have been from greek and are
probably related to historic and post neolithic migrations. Like
france an inadequate number of regional typing has been done to
establish potential regional nodes for unique haplotypes.

The austrian region. Within central europe there appear to be two
nodes, the Czech republic which is probably derived or split from a
western node, and Austria. Austria appears to have infilled from
the SE after the LGM, not specifically, some of austrian haplotypes
can be explained by recent migrations from goths or germans, but
there are haplotypes that are shared with regional peoples
indicating nodal clines specific to the region. Hungary appears to
have been recently admixed and is difficult to 'parse'. Romania
shows similarities unique to South-North eastern europeans, and
that larger grouping links itself to at least on portion of
haplotype introduced to the Inuit.
Greece appears to have been a nodal center, it has been largely
influenced by anatolia, given the general pattern of west to east
migrations of recent times, the meditterian reversal of the pattern
is notable. Greece has genetic imput from the NW, notable austria,
it also has genetic input from the subsaharan peoples and this is
probably peoples who introduced certain pottery techniques and
pastoral techniques.
The Near East is characterized by a sharp cline between NW
influences and Arabian punctation. The cline shows two patterns of
intermixing, in the south a tendancy for isolation and maintenance
of tribal boundaries, this extends all the way to pakistan, but
tends to remain in desertified or coastal regions. North of the
line we see alot of similarities between iranians, kurdish,
anatolians, phonecians, grecan, and italian peoples. This strongly
suggest an ancient and vibrant north eastern mediterranean culture.
External to this we have the NE black sea 'isolate', svanetians,
armenians, each showing cryptic links to distal peoples. An example
of this cline for instance one can show more divergence between the
Jordanian and Gaza population than one can demonstrate between the
Irish and Austrian populations. Of course we can argue that gazans
have this long relationship with egypt, but this is only one
instance, similar patterns are found between other proximal
peoples. The most interesting of which is between the Omani and the
Balochs of S. Iran, both showing excessive eurasian diversity but
equally isolated from one another indicating very ancient regional
ancestry and tribalized mixing patterns.
The contrast between Iberia(with many prominant regional nodes)
and france ('antinodal' and diffusive) and between S. Arabia and
the regions of the NE mediterranean establish latitudinal dependent
mixing patterns, it suggests that in the stable tropics people tend
to isolate and evolve as discrete units, in the extreme latitudes
such as ireland, scotland, norway, or the Inuit and siberians also
tend to isolate. But in the open temperate zones there is a
considerable amount of admixing, patterns broken by mountainous
regions with good evidence of motion across corridors. The genetic
studies from africa show that only in recent time have agriculture
and pastoralism broken these ancient patterns, with some regions
being much less effected because of extreme adaptations (!kung-
desert, pygmies-wetland jungles). So that the genetics needs to be
also a consideration with the archaeology, because the genetics is
the result of isolation and selection of ancestral regions, and the
archaeology is a result of cultural adaptations of those same
ancestral regions, with borrowing of styles that go beyond the gene
flow, still reflecting regional uniqueness of food and food
tolerances (positive selection we cannot see, negative selection
that we are only now seeing).



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