Did Haplogroup R* domesticate cattle in Siberia, ancient Near East?

Tabaccus Maximus

Tabaccus Maximus
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Ethnic group
Galo-Germanic Atlantic Fringe
Y-DNA haplogroup
R1b - SRY 2627
mtDNA haplogroup
H1a
Dienekes has linked to a study which is probably in the top ten biggest anthropology news stories this year:

http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2013/11/early-cattle-management-in-ne-china.html

In short, we continue to see very interesting cultural connections between ancient Northeast Asia and the Near East.
It appears Taurine cattle were potentially domesticated a bit earlier in Northeast Asia, although not necessarily ancestral to modern NE varieties, but possibly in part.

I've speculated before that a R* population imported domestic use ceramics in the Near East/SWA during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic.
Ceramic use and Taurine Cattle domestication appear in about the same area (Northern Mespotamia, Syria) at about the same time (10,500 bp)

R* is the only haplogroup that had a presence in the historical area (NE Asia) were ceramics were first used and where Taurine were potentially first domesticated.


R* is also oddly out of place in West Eurasia, it's only relative being the sparsely represented haplogroup N* which may have had a more modern movement with historical peoples.

What this could mean is that hunter-gatherers were in fact the first people to have domesticate cattle. And why not? After all, ceramic technology appears to have its genesis in hunting and fishing cultures of East Asia.

A more interesting question is how this technology (ceramics, cattle production) spread to the West? Again, the only remote candidate is haplogroup R, for it generally absent in the early Neolithic but by the end of the Neolithic forms its current position in Europe, accelerating rapidly to exclusion in some cases.


http://www.eupedia.com/forum/threads/29173-24-000-year-old-Mal-ta-Siberians-(ydna-R*-and-mtdna-U*)

http://www.eupedia.com/forum/threads/29193-quot-NOP-quot-of-MNOPS-(K-M526)-and-ceramic-pottery

http://www.eupedia.com/forum/threads/29167-Haplogroup-P-M45-link-to-Mound-Building
 
One more interesting note:

The Brahman (or Zebu) was separately domesticated in the Northern Indus Valley. It's worth noting that PPN rules apply here as well. In the case of Mehrgahr, evidence of intrusive population in the early Neolithic is a little more clear. Suppine burials become flexed, single burials, etc, etc.

Now take the autosomal components. Gedrosian, West Asian, whatever you want to call it. In the case of the Mal'ta autosomal components, it would appear there is a long thread waiting to be pulled.
 

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