That's for reminding me of that. I am getting doubts about mtDNA V being one of the original maternal lineages of R1b tribes. I came to this conclusion due to several elements:
- Haplogroup V is found alongside U5 in North Africa and in cattle herding communities of the Sahel, where haplogroup R1b-V88 is often quite common (Hausa, Fulani).
- Haplogroup V (V7 and V15) is one of the typical European lineages that has been found in Armenia and Azerbaijan, which is close to the Neolithic homeland of R1b cattle herders.
- No mtDNA V has been found among Mesolithic or Neolithic Europeans to date, which suggests a later diffusion.
However the modern data points at a Middle Eastern origin of haplogroup HV0 and a probable expansion of the V branch from Northwest Africa to Iberia then to the rest of Europe. It's hard to reconcile the two datasets. Actually the only way to reconcile the two is to assume that haplogroup HV0 and V both originated in the Middle East, and that V was indeed found at least (but perhaps not exclusively) among Neolithic R1b cattle herders, and that some V subclades spread to Iberia via North Africa with R1b-V88, while others spread across the Caucasus with R1b-M269 and later Indo-Europeans. So far haplogroup V hasn't been found in Yamna, but it was found in Corded Ware and Unetice.
Interestingly haplogroup V seems virtually absent from Central and South Asia, which at least means it wasn't linked to the Indo-Iranian branch (R1a-Z93) of the Indo-Europeans.