Ancient dna from the Canary Islands

Angela

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See: Riccardo Rodriguez-Varela
Genomic Analyses of Pre-European Conquest Human Remains from the Canary Islands Reveal Close Affinity to Modern North Africans


http://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(17)31257-5

The results are as expected for Guanches, but it's good to get confirmation. They provide mtDna and yDna as well. Interesting they already had quite a bit of L3. Even more interesting if they could get earlier samples.

"Highlights


  • •​
    The first genome-wide data from the Guanches confirm a North African origin
  • •​
    The Guanches were genetically most similar to modern North African Berbers
  • •​
    Modern inhabitants of Gran Canaria carry an estimated 16%–31% Guanche autosomal ancestry

Summary

The origins and genetic affinity of the aboriginal inhabitants of the Canary Islands, commonly known as Guanches, are poorly understood. Though radiocarbon dates on archaeological remains such as charcoal, seeds, and domestic animal bones suggest that people have inhabited the islands since the 5th century BCE [1, 2, 3], it remains unclear how many times, and by whom, the islands were first settled [4, 5]. Previously published ancient DNA analyses of uniparental genetic markers have shown that the Guanches carried common North African Y chromosome markers (E-M81, E-M78, and J-M267) and mitochondrial lineages such as U6b, in addition to common Eurasian haplogroups [6, 7, 8]. These results are in agreement with some linguistic, archaeological, and anthropological data indicating an origin from a North African Berber-like population [1, 4, 9]. However, to date there are no published Guanche autosomal genomes to help elucidate and directly test this hypothesis. To resolve this, we generated the first genome-wide sequence data and mitochondrial genomes from eleven archaeological Guanche individuals originating from Gran Canaria and Tenerife. Five of the individuals (directly radiocarbon dated to a time transect spanning the 7th–11th centuries CE) yielded sufficient autosomal genome coverage (0.21× to 3.93×) for population genomic analysis. Our results show that the Guanches were genetically similar over time and that they display the greatest genetic affinity to extant Northwest Africans, strongly supporting the hypothesis of a Berber-like origin. We also estimate that the Guanches have contributed 16%–31% autosomal ancestry to modern Canary Islanders, here represented by two individuals from Gran Canaria."

SampleOriginMolecular SexGenome CoverageMitochondrial Genome CoverageSNPs in HO DatasetMitochondrial HaplotypesY Chromosome HaplotypesC14Radiocarbon Date Before PresentC14Radiocarbon Date, Calibrated Common EraMitochondrial Contamination Estimate/Confidence interval
gun002TenerifeXY0.21294.774,618H1cfE1b1b1b1a1 E-M183951 ± 261089.4 ± 65.53.63%/2.42%–4.85%
gun005Gran CanariaXX0.47341.1140,873H2aNA1082 ± 26956 ± 612.41%/1.56%–3.27%
gun008Gran CanariaXX0.30690.9101,216L3b1aNA1116 ± 26935.5 ± 56.51.65%/1.35%–1.95%
gun011TenerifeXY3.93931.6370,465T2c1d2E1b1b1b1a1 E-M1831216 ± 27791.5 ± 96.50.53%/0.38%–0.69%
gun012TenerifeXY0.54214.3157,104U6b1aE1b1b1b1a1 E-M1831421 ± 28621 ± 395.97%/4.22%–7.73%
gun001TenerifeXY0.0169.6NAU6b1aNANANANA
gun004TenerifeNA0.00449.98NAJ1c3NANANA5.76%/3.57%–7.95%
gun006Gran CanariaXY0.02712.21NAL3b1aNANANA6.60%/1.87%–11.33%
gun007Gran CanariaXY0.0033.47NAL3b1aNANANANA
gun013TenerifeNA0.00514.2NAU6b1aNANANA13.79%/1.24%–26.34%
gun014TenerifeXY0.0084.2NAU6bNANANANA
 
Guanche had EEF ancestry lacking in Berber populations, also made contact with Europeans before Spain

"The results of the ADMIXTURE analysis furthermore show that the Guanches carried early European farmer (EEF)-like ancestry; this ancestry component is widespread (though at varying proportions) in present-day North Africans and Middle Easterners but rare or largely absent in some Berber populations (Figure 3). The EEF component is strongly associated with early Neolithic farmers from Anatolia and Europe (as well as present-day Sardinians), hinting at a possible link between present-day North Africans and the expansion of Neolithic culture through the Mediterranean [31, 32, 33], though it could also reflect post-Neolithic gene flow among Mediterranean groups [34]. The Guanches also appear to have carried varying proportions of Middle Eastern ancestry, best represented by the HO Bedouin_B population."


"We also note that one Guanche individual (gun005) carried a greater proportion of hunter-gatherer (HG)-like ancestry than the other individuals, possibly suggesting low-level gene flow from a European source that predates the European conquest. Although our results are overall consistent with an origin from a single ancestral population in North Africa, the possible small-scale introgression from other sources postdating the earliest settling is consistent with archaeological finds of Phoenician-Punic amphora in Buena Vista (Lanzarote) and Roman amphora fragments retrieved from El Bebedero (Lanzarote), indicating that the islands (and local islanders) were in at least sporadic contact with other peoples and cultures prior to the European colonization in the 15th century CE [5]."
 
I think that Guanches were a similar "product" as that of the Chagossians

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chagossians

that is, a dominating empire peoples an unhabited island with slaves or low-class people to get revenues. By that Guanches had not ships, they were sent by Carthaginians or Romans, with some Europeans also.
 

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