Tracing back Phoenician & Arabic DNA in modern Spaniards using Haak 2015's admixtures

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Tracing back Phoenician & Arabic DNA in modern Spaniards using Haak 2015's admixtures

I have updated the genome-wide section of my Genetic history of the Iberian peninsula by analysing Haak 2015's admixtures (K=20).

Haak et al.'s autosomal data shows that the Basques and other North Spaniards differ from other Spaniards by the absence of Bedouin-like (purple), Caucaso-Gedrosian (greyish green), and East African (pink) admixtures. These three components are found among the Southwest Asians (Arabs) and North Africans. These undeniably represent the genetic contributions of the Arabs and Berbers from the Moorish period, but also probably to a considerable extent that of the ancient Phoenicians.

The Bedouin-like admixture is the dominant component and accounts for approximately 10% of the Central and South Spanish DNA. This admixture peaks in Saudi Arabia and Yemen and some of it could indicate medieval Arabic ancestry. Then comes the Caucaso-Gedrosian (5%), which is found mostly in the Middle East, but is absent from Morocco and most of Algeria. This admixture is found in Tunisia (8%) and Sardinia (3%) though, which strongly suggests that the Phoenicians brought it to the West Mediterranean. The East African admixture only makes up 1% of Spanish genomes, the same percentage as in Sicilians and North African Jews. Berbers and Egyptians have about 10% of this admixture. Neolithic farmers would have contributed most of the 50% of the orange admixture, which represents the Early European Farmer admixture taken from actual Neolithic samples. Some Neolithic admixture would have come from the Phoenicians and the Moors. Comparing the admixtures found in Lebanon, Sardinia and Tunisia, it seems that the ancient Phoenicians had about one third of Bedouin-like (purple), one third of Caucaso-Gedrosian (greyish green) and one third of Neolithic Farmer (orange).

Since the Caucaso-Gedrosian was probably brought to Spain mostly by Phoenicians (being nearly absent from Algerian, Mozabite and BedouinB), it can be inferred that the Phoenicians contributed approximately 12% of the DNA in an average South Spanish genome (4% for each of the three admixtures). The other 6% of the Bedouin-like admixture would be medieval Arabic in origin. Using the proportions of modern Saudi Arabs as a proxy, we can estimate that the Bedouin-like admixture made up 75% of medieval Arabs' genomes. That would give a total of about 8% of Arabic DNA in a South Spanish genome today.


What about the 80% left ?


The remaining 80% of the Central/South Spanish genome is half West European Mesolithic Hunter-Gatherer (WHG) and half Early European Farmer (EEF). The Haak 2015 paper shows that Early Neolithic farmers from northern Spain (Catalonia) had between 0 and 10% of Mesolithic HG admixture (the rest being only EEF). This had increased to nearly 20% in all samples by the Middle Neolithic (so 80% EEF and 20% WHG). The assimilation of the WHG population undoubtedly continued during the Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic, probably reaching the parity observed in the Basque people in the 2nd millennium BCE.

The complete absence of Caucaso-Gedrosian admixture (i.e. the "Armenian-like" component of Yamna samples) among Neolithic farmers as well as modern Basques and North Spaniards (including Catalans) means that by the time R1b spread around Iberia their carriers' genomes had become so diluted that they had lost virtually all their Yamna admixture.

Considering that the vast majority of Spanish R1b belong to the DF27 branch, and mostly the deep L176.2 subclade for the Catalans and the M153 subclade for the Basques, it is not unlikely that the Spanish R1b has its roots in Southwest France, and that the introgression to the Iberian peninsula only dates from the Iron Age to Middle Ages. R1b could have come in several waves, from the Hallstatt Celts (500 BCE) and ancient Vascons/Gascons to the Franks (800-1000 CE), and spread southward with the Reconquista.

Hallstatt Celts would have carried R1b-U152, though, and the fact that U152 only makes up between 1 and 5% of the Spanish male lineages today can either mean that:

A) the Celts didn't have a significant impact on the Iberian population (unlikely considering that over half of the peninsula was Celtic speaking before the Roman conquest)

B) Celtic paternal lineages were replaced by haplogroups of later invaders, be them Germanic (R1b-S21, I1, I2a2a, R1a) or of Gascon origin (R1b-DF27). Surprisingly it is essentially the Gascon/Basque lineages that predominate today, even though M153 is only about 1300 years old. This would suggest a very recent, and indeed medieval replacement of a large percentage of paternal lineages.
 
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shouldn't Caucasus_Gedrosia be a trace of Indo Europeans, since it is found virtually in all Europeans and even stronger in everyone else there .I doubt it has anything to do with Phoenicians.
 
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shouldn't Caucasus_Gedrosia be a trace of Indo Europeans, since it is found virtually in all Europeans.I doubt it has anything to do with Phoenicians.

Indo-Europeans did bring Caucasus_Gedrosia with them, but it got diluted on the way, and by the time R1b-P312 people reached Iberia not much of it was left. That explains why the Basques and Catalans have none of it despite having over 80% of R1b.

Using the archeology of bronze age and the presence of horses, I was able to determine that R1b did not enter Iberia until 1800 BCE, but only in small groups and in limited regions like Murcia and central Castile. It wasn't until 1200 to 500 BCE that R1b really spread around Iberia. In the case of the Basque, the TMRCA of R1b-M153 suggests it did start spreading until 1300 years ago, but could only have reached high percentages of R1b later in the Middle Ages, a good 3500 to 4000 years after R1b reached Central Europe.

There is a good chance that the Reconquista also spread many northern male lineages southward, changing a lot the pre-Moorish Y-DNA frequencies.

Therefore the dominance of R1b in Iberia appears to be a fairly recent phenomenon, contrarily to the rest of Europe.
 
This is a theory to explain the difference in admixture between southern Spanish and Basque, but it is not a certainty, I'm sure other theories can be found to fit the equasion.
So you have to support it by other facts which you mention here.

But I have some questions.
You suppose Spanish BB are not R1b, while German BB are.
Does the German BB have another origin than Spanish BB?

Where did you find the history re introcuction of horses in Spain?

Officially bronze age started 1800 BC in Spain. First bronze age culture was El Argar, other followed soon.
But check the history of La Bastida. http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Bastida_de_Totana
They are the progenitors of El Argar, they started to conquer the El Argar area 1800 BC.
La Bastida is a fortification built on a hilltop 2000 BC. The military fortification was in Anatolian/Mesopotamian style.
Since 2200 BC there was a village on that hilltop which was burnt down by overseas invaders 2000 BC.
They buried the death in jars or stone cists. 1800 BC they started building fortifications and new towns in the El Argar area.

The La Bastida people were a small tribe, possibly R1b, but they were not numerous.
It looks like other bronze age cultures in Iberia were indogenous imitators of El Argar.
I didn't find anything about horses and La Bastida/El Argar
 
But I have some questions.
You suppose Spanish BB are not R1b, while German BB are.
Does the German BB have another origin than Spanish BB?

I have explained all this in detail here and here.

Officially bronze age started 1800 BC in Spain. First bronze age culture was El Argar, other followed soon.
But check the history of La Bastida. http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Bastida_de_Totana
They are the progenitors of El Argar, they started to conquer the El Argar area 1800 BC.
La Bastida is a fortification built on a hilltop 2000 BC. The military fortification was in Anatolian/Mesopotamian style.
Since 2200 BC there was a village on that hilltop which was burnt down by overseas invaders 2000 BC.
They buried the death in jars or stone cists. 1800 BC they started building fortifications and new towns in the El Argar area.

The La Bastida people were a small tribe, possibly R1b, but they were not numerous.
It looks like other bronze age cultures in Iberia were indogenous imitators of El Argar.
I didn't find anything about horses and La Bastida/El Argar

If El Argar really originated in La Bastida, and La Bastida were immigrants from Anatolia or Mesopotamia, then they wouldn't be Indo-European R1b. All I can say with confidence is that R1b-P312 (and subclades) was not widespread and perhaps not even present in Iberia before 1800 BCE, and that it wasn't until the first millennium BCE that R1b became a major lineage in the peninsula. I on't venture to speculate more without additional data about deep R1b subclades and their TMRCA in Iberia, or ancient Y-DNA from Bronze Age Iberia.
 
Hmm, interesting; I have always heard from people in Europe tell me that the Spanish people of the South and the Portuguese people were not white. They always told me the Northern Spaniards were the white people; while the Andalusians were Arabs.

I've interacted with Spaniards before and I can tell that there may be some sort of Arabic (non-white European) admixture. I've noticed they are a nation with a high amount of black hair. They also have features that look very Near Eastern. Lots of Spaniards look similar to Lebanese people and other Semites.

The Basques are probably the only ethnic group in Spain that could be considered 100% European.
 
I have explained all this in detail here and here.



If El Argar really originated in La Bastida, and La Bastida were immigrants from Anatolia or Mesopotamia, then they wouldn't be Indo-European R1b. All I can say with confidence is that R1b-P312 (and subclades) was not widespread and perhaps not even present in Iberia before 1800 BCE, and that it wasn't until the first millennium BCE that R1b became a major lineage in the peninsula. I on't venture to speculate more without additional data about deep R1b subclades and their TMRCA in Iberia, or ancient Y-DNA from Bronze Age Iberia.

Troy fortifications were also in this 'Anatolian-Mesopotamian' style, so they may have been Indo-European or not.

I don't have the details. I know Spain has a lot of R1b, but I suspect this is divided over many subclades of R1b?
And yes, I think R1b-P312 was a later arrival in Iberia.

Chalcolithic was brougth by immigrants, just like BB, but neolithic megalithism persisted, so chalcolithic and BB didn't replace neolithic population.
Neither was the bronze age invasion massive, as I explained here above.
Phoenicians were traders, along the Spanish westcoast and Rio Tinto area.
There were some agricultural Phoenician colonisers in the Valencia area, but this was not a massive invasion either.
Strange, when Greek colonisers came to the Spanish westcoast a non-IE language was spoken there, but it was not Semitic/Phoenician either.
When Punicians came, Iberia was allready taken by Celtic tribes, many of which were Hannibals' allies.
600 BC La Tene Celts arrived, this may have been a massive invasion, but it was more centered on northwest Iberia
It seems there were a lot of invasions, but none massive.

Do you know more about horses in Iberia?
 
Hmm, interesting; I have always heard from people in Europe tell me that the Spanish people of the South and the Portuguese people were not white. They always told me the Northern Spaniards were the white people; while the Andalusians were Arabs.

There is not really much phsyical difference between North and South Spain. At least not that much that the North could look total European and the South non European.
 
I have expanded the OP to explain the origin of the non-Phoenician and non-Arabic admixture among Spaniards.
 
Hmm, interesting; I have always heard from people in Europe tell me that the Spanish people of the South and the Portuguese people were not white. They always told me the Northern Spaniards were the white people; while the Andalusians were Arabs.

I've interacted with Spaniards before and I can tell that there may be some sort of Arabic (non-white European) admixture. I've noticed they are a nation with a high amount of black hair. They also have features that look very Near Eastern. Lots of Spaniards look similar to Lebanese people and other Semites.

The Basques are probably the only ethnic group in Spain that could be considered 100% European.

I fervently and with great interest went to look up what 100% European mean and I stumbled onto this:-

......both Africans and Asians contributed to the settlement of Europe, which began about 40,000 years ago. It seems very reasonable to assume that both continents nearest to Europe contributed to its settlement, even if perhaps at different times and maybe repeatedly. It is reassuring that the analysis of other markers also consistently gives the same results in this case. Moreover, a specific evolutionary model tested, i.e., that Europe is formed by contributions from Asia and Africa, fits the distance matrix perfectly (6). In this simplified model, the migrations postulated to have populated Europe are estimated to have occurred at an early date (30,000 years ago), but it is impossible to distinguish, on the basis of these data, this model from that of several migrations at different times.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_history_of_Europe

:unsure:
 
I did not mean Arabs in a literal sense. Just wanted to clear that up.
 
There is not really much phsyical difference between North and South Spain. At least not that much that the North could look total European and the South non European.
I disagree; The Basques and Catalans look totally different from Andalusians. Basques and Catalans look more Northern European and look very similar; while Andalusians fit the Mediterranean phenotype. Basques look more like Celts.

have talked to Spanish people before; and it is evident to me that a few of them do have Semitic admixture in the South; more than people would realize. The Southern Portuguese have a lot of this admixture the most. Even Italians appear more European than Southern Portuguese or Southern Spanish people.

I disagree that haplogroup T is of Arabic origin though; I am guessing it has more to do with Greco-Roman colonization.

Some of Andalusian culture isn't even European in origin and is clearly, evidently North African. I've even gotten Spaniards to admit to me that they believe they have some Arabic ancestry. There are even old Mosques still in Andalusia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosque–Cathedral_of_Córdoba


Why is everyone taking this personally? As if you have to be politically correct on this board....using terms like "white", "European", or "Arab" are not bad or derogatory. Even Albanians I would consider "white people" or "Europeans" genetically more so than Southern Iberians.
 
I fervently and with great interest went to look up what 100% European mean and I stumbled onto this:-

......both Africans and Asians contributed to the settlement of Europe, which began about 40,000 years ago. It seems very reasonable to assume that both continents nearest to Europe contributed to its settlement, even if perhaps at different times and maybe repeatedly. It is reassuring that the analysis of other markers also consistently gives the same results in this case. Moreover, a specific evolutionary model tested, i.e., that Europe is formed by contributions from Asia and Africa, fits the distance matrix perfectly (6). In this simplified model, the migrations postulated to have populated Europe are estimated to have occurred at an early date (30,000 years ago), but it is impossible to distinguish, on the basis of these data, this model from that of several migrations at different times.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_history_of_Europe

:unsure:
You are going with a mainstream definition of European based on a hypothesis that might not even be true. And notice; there is no language group in Europe that is not European in origin; other than Afro-Asiatic. Also, please notice that the The South Asians that speak Indo-European speak a European language group; because Indo-European developed in Eastern Europe.

It figures that you are from Malta, though. Where did the Maltese language come from? Obviously not Europe.
 
You are going with a mainstream definition of European based on a hypothesis that might not even be true. And notice; there is no language group in Europe that is not European in origin; other than Afro-Asiatic. Also, please notice that the The South Asians that speak Indo-European speak a European language group; because Indo-European developed in Eastern Europe.

hypothesis and scientific facts are not the same thing.


It figures that you are from Malta, though. Where did the Maltese language come from? Obviously not Europe.

This thread is not about Maltese Language (which has been discussed before) but you can always read more about it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maltese_language

If you find it interesting you can always start a new thread or visit the older ones

http://www.eupedia.com/forum/thread...ltese-people/page3?highlight=Maltese+language

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Doesn't make much sense. The Phoenicians were a very small population, and they didn't even penetrate inland, they only setteld in a few coastal towns. Also genetically it doesn't make sense : the typical levantine R1b (~8% in modern Lebanese) is almost absent in much of Spain, not to mention E-V22 (virtually absent in most of Spain). In my opinion, what differentiates southern spaniards from basques, is a Tuscan-like admixture population (remember that ancient sample from neolithic Spain, he was autosomally plotting with Tuscans).
 
I disagree; The Basques and Catalans look totally different from Andalusians. Basques and Catalans look more Northern European and look very similar; while Andalusians fit the Mediterranean phenotype. Basques look more like Celts.

have talked to Spanish people before; and it is evident to me that a few of them do have Semitic admixture in the South; more than people would realize. The Southern Portuguese have a lot of this admixture the most. Even Italians appear more European than Southern Portuguese or Southern Spanish people.

I disagree that haplogroup T is of Arabic origin though; I am guessing it has more to do with Greco-Roman colonization.

Some of Andalusian culture isn't even European in origin and is clearly, evidently North African. I've even gotten Spaniards to admit to me that they believe they have some Arabic ancestry. There are even old Mosques still in Andalusia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosque–Cathedral_of_Córdoba


Why is everyone taking this personally? As if you have to be politically correct on this board....using terms like "white", "European", or "Arab" are not bad or derogatory. Even Albanians I would consider "white people" or "Europeans" genetically more so than Southern Iberians.
Don't talk nonsense. Southern Spaniards look almost the same as the rest of Spaniards.
 
The remaining 80% of the Central/South Spanish genome is half West European Mesolithic Hunter-Gatherer (WHG) and half Early European Farmer (EEF). The Haak 2015 paper shows that Early Neolithic farmers from northern Spain (Catalonia) had between 0 and 10% of Mesolithic HG admixture (the rest being only EEF). This had increased to nearly 20% in all samples by the Middle Neolithic (so 80% EEF and 20% WHG). The assimilation of the WHG population undoubtedly continued during the Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic, probably reaching the parity observed in the Basque people in the 2nd millennium BCE.

.
This makes no sense. The EEF component itself is a mixture of WHG and Ancient Near-East farmer. Otherwise, the EEF wouldn't plot halfway between the WHG and the Near-East.
 
Doesn't make much sense. The Phoenicians were a very small population, and they didn't even penetrate inland, they only setteld in a few coastal towns. Also genetically it doesn't make sense : the typical levantine R1b (~8% in modern Lebanese) is almost absent in much of Spain, not to mention E-V22 (virtually absent in most of Spain). In my opinion, what differentiates southern spaniards from basques, is a Tuscan-like admixture population (remember that ancient sample from neolithic Spain, he was autosomally plotting with Tuscans).

Doesn't matter if they didn't penetrate inland. Genes flow with intermarriages over time, and 3000 years is more than enough to diffuse genes over most of the peninsula.

Check the new major study of Catalan, Valencian and Balearic Y chromosomes. Even in north-east Spain, which wasn't colonised at all by the Phoenicians, there is 1% of R1b-M343 (almost surely V88), 2.2% of Southwest Asian E1b1b (V22 + M123), 1% of J1-P58 and 1% of T. So even if I don't include the 7.3% of J2a and the 3.9% of G2a, which are both of Near Eastern origin too, there is already over 5% of clearly Southwest lineages. Imagine what it must be in Andalusia. Closer to 15%, I would think.

But let's not forget that the main Y-haplogroup of the Phoenicians was J2a, which could have accounted for a third of all lineages. It would be reasonable to assume that about half of the J2a in Spain is not Roman or Greek, but rather Phoenician or Arabic. Some G2a is also Phoenician or Arabic. It's not all Neolithic or Roman. So the proportion of Southwest Asian (Phoenician + Arabic) Y-DNA in north-east Spain is closer to 10%, while in Andalusia it could exceed 20%.
 
This thread is so full of inaccuracies. How come Arabs contribute 8% DNA when there has never been an arab population here to begin with ? The Arabs during the muslim occupation whrere only the elites (the Califas) and the armies, but never part of the population, it was never massive. Here is an extract from the book "The Preching of Islam; A history of the propagation of the MUslim Faith." , where it says :

"one point only in the evidence may be mentioned, derived from a letter written in 1311, in which it is stated that of the 200,000 Muhammadans then living in the city of Granada, not more than 500 were of Arab descent, all the rest being descendants of converted Spaniards."
 

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