A focus on language and culture can cloud the genetics. Both language and culture can be picked up; neither are passed on intact like y-DNA. Also, languages and cultures do not give birth to other languages and cultures. They evolve, often by incorporation of features from other languages and cultures. Indo-European languages, for instance, are unlikely to derive wholly from proto-Indo-European.
Considering extant R-M269 at any one point during the early to mid 5th millennium BC, it is important to take into account that we are not looking for a people, but a person. According to yfull's estimates, all known M269 descends from a single man who lived in 4,400 BC. Trying to pinpoint this man definitively is like looking for a needle in a barn full of haystacks, particularly as he could have moved around a lot for all we know. We can only get a general flavour of his origin by looking at the broad indications that current genetic data provides.
To summarise my own research in this area regarding the formation of SNPs associated with Indo-European:
R1b-M269
1. Estimates from y-DNA phylogeny and STR variance predict a most likely origin zone for M269 somewhere around Northern Romania/Moldova/North Western Ukraine.
2. Estimates from mt-DNA associated with M269 populations predict a most likely core origin zone in Poland/Northern Romania/Moldova/Western Ukraine.
3. Estimates from a-DNA associated with M269 populations predict a most likely core origin zone in Northern Ukraine/Belarus.
R1a-Z645
1. Estimates from y-DNA phylogeny and STR variance predict a most likely origin zone for Z645 somewhere around Poland/Eastern Slovakia/North Western Ukraine.
2. Estimates from mt-DNA associated with Z645 populations predict a most likely core origin zone in Eastern Poland/Eastern Slovakia/North Western Ukraine.
3. Estimates from a-DNA associated with Z645 populations predict a most likely core origin zone in Northern Ukraine/Belarus.
These readings look both fairly internally consistent and pretty similar to each other. Are there any reasons why they do not look possible? Given the similar geography, I would not be surprised if early bearers of these SNPs shared certain cultural or linguistic traits.
The early geographical development of these SNPs is a different question. Branches of M269, for instance, look most likely to have spread South and South East (Balkans, Anatolia, Caucasus) fairly early on, and South West (France, Spain) not too long afterwards. There is nothing to say that all of these branches would have retained the same core language group or culture, which would depend on how numerous and influential the bearers of each branch were within the developmental populations in which they found themselves and on the appropriateness of the culture to the new environments.
Considering extant R-M269 at any one point during the early to mid 5th millennium BC, it is important to take into account that we are not looking for a people, but a person. According to yfull's estimates, all known M269 descends from a single man who lived in 4,400 BC. Trying to pinpoint this man definitively is like looking for a needle in a barn full of haystacks, particularly as he could have moved around a lot for all we know. We can only get a general flavour of his origin by looking at the broad indications that current genetic data provides.
To summarise my own research in this area regarding the formation of SNPs associated with Indo-European:
R1b-M269
1. Estimates from y-DNA phylogeny and STR variance predict a most likely origin zone for M269 somewhere around Northern Romania/Moldova/North Western Ukraine.
2. Estimates from mt-DNA associated with M269 populations predict a most likely core origin zone in Poland/Northern Romania/Moldova/Western Ukraine.
3. Estimates from a-DNA associated with M269 populations predict a most likely core origin zone in Northern Ukraine/Belarus.
R1a-Z645
1. Estimates from y-DNA phylogeny and STR variance predict a most likely origin zone for Z645 somewhere around Poland/Eastern Slovakia/North Western Ukraine.
2. Estimates from mt-DNA associated with Z645 populations predict a most likely core origin zone in Eastern Poland/Eastern Slovakia/North Western Ukraine.
3. Estimates from a-DNA associated with Z645 populations predict a most likely core origin zone in Northern Ukraine/Belarus.
These readings look both fairly internally consistent and pretty similar to each other. Are there any reasons why they do not look possible? Given the similar geography, I would not be surprised if early bearers of these SNPs shared certain cultural or linguistic traits.
The early geographical development of these SNPs is a different question. Branches of M269, for instance, look most likely to have spread South and South East (Balkans, Anatolia, Caucasus) fairly early on, and South West (France, Spain) not too long afterwards. There is nothing to say that all of these branches would have retained the same core language group or culture, which would depend on how numerous and influential the bearers of each branch were within the developmental populations in which they found themselves and on the appropriateness of the culture to the new environments.