The origin of haplogroup I1-M253

Flann Fina

Regular Member
Messages
75
Reaction score
43
Points
18
Location
Florida
Ethnic group
English, Scottish & Irish
Y-DNA haplogroup
I1-FT80630
mtDNA haplogroup
H1e2
For those who are I1-M253 there’s a very interesting article that may be of interest to you.

See:

From Stone to Bronze in prehistoric Scandinavia
Posted by Genomic Atlas on 15 July, 2022

https://genomicatlas.org/2022/07/15...developments-in-scandinavian-archaeogenetics/




Here is an excerpt:

The origin of haplogroup I1-M253

Haplogroup I1, also known as I-M253, has puzzled experts and amateurs alike for a long time. Why was it so rare prior to the Nordic Bronze Age? How did it become the dominant Y-DNA haplogroup in Scandinavia? Is it native to Scandinavia, or did it get there far later than most would assume? These are questions that, with the help of old and new studies, are answerable. At least some of them.
I1 has an estimated TMRCA (Time To Most Recent Common Ancestor) of 4600 ybp, or 2600 BC. What this means is that all living I1 men descend from just one man who lived roughly 4600 years ago. The haplogroup has a dramatic, shallow phylogenetic structure, which strongly suggests that it was heavily bottlenecked before it expanded rapidly. Furthermore, it has an exceptional >310 unique mutations, a telltale sign of it being in a severely bottlenecked state before its explosive expansion during the Bronze Age, Iron Age and Viking Age. The phylogenetic tree below further illustrates the shallow phylogeny of the I1 haplogroup, which is a strong indicator of a rapid, recent growth:


Phylogeny of Y-chromosome haplogroups from Batini et al. (2015)

While I1 itself is 27,000 years old, it underwent a crash in terms of frequency and subclade diversity to the point where it was almost extinct. This long bottleneck lasted approximately between 25,000 BC and 2600 BC. During the bottleneck event, I1 must have been limited to a remarkably small group of men, perhaps at times even a single man. This is visible in the phylogenetic structure of I1, and has led to much speculation about where I1 managed to survive for so long before finally making a “comeback” and becoming a common Y-DNA haplogroup.
Sometimes, when an ancient sample is derived for some of the SNPs that define I1, but also ancestral for many other SNPs that define the haplogroup, that sample is labelled I-Z2699*/pre-I1. What this means is that the sample represents a position in the phylogenetic tree that can be described as being between I and I1, essentially on its way to developing into what we now know as I1. It was from one of those pre-I1 samples that the progenitor of all later I1 descended before that man ended the genetic bottleneck.
So far, the only pre-I1/I-Z2699* found anywhere in Northern Europe is the Mesolithic Scandinavian-Hunter-Gatherer sample SF11 (Stora Förvar 11) from what is now Gotland in Sweden. SF11 is derived for some of the SNPs that define I1, but also ancestral for some of them. In order to know with certainty that the progenitor of later I1 men had his deep origins in a SHG population, more pre-I1 samples from such a population is needed. Until then, we can only guess.
After SF11 who is dated to around 6500 BC, there is a large gap in time where no I1 samples are found in Scandinavia. Almost all of the Mesolithic samples from Scandinavia belong to haplogroup I2, and samples from Middle Neolithic Scandinavia (Funnelbeaker, Battle Axe, Pitted Ware) have yielded zero samples belonging to haplogroup I1. It is only in Late Neolithic Scandinavia, right on the verge of the Bronze Age, that the first I1 samples are found and the bottleneck appears to have ended. At the point where we find these early I1 carriers in the ancient DNA record, near Falköping in Sweden, they are already heavily admixed with Corded Ware-derived populations and derive the bulk of their ancestry from the steppe. Therefore, it is hard to figure out how and when I1-carriers first encountered and mixed with Corded Ware peoples. Future samples may help in solving this mystery. Until then, based on the data, there are three possible and realistic scenarios:

  • I1 was present as a very rare haplogroup among Pitted Ware hunter-gatherers in Scandinavia and encountered the Battle Axe people and mixed with them (or mixed with the FBC people before encountering the BAC)
  • I1 was picked up and assimilated by Single Grave people somewhere in Zealand or Scania
  • I1 was brought by the Corded Ware-derived groups from somewhere in Poland where it originally got into the Corded Ware population from a Globular Amphora source
The first scenario has some support (although evidence is still weak) if we take into account the single pre-I1 SHG sample. The Globular Amphora culture, however, is very well-sampled, and has only yielded haplogroup I2. Similarly, we now have plenty of samples from the local people in Zealand during the Middle Neolithic, thanks to Allentoft’s new study, with no samples of I1 found among them.
Upcoming samples from Mesolithic and Middle Neolithic Scandinavia may be able to tell us more about the ultimate origin of haplogroup I1. In the meantime, thanks to Allentoft’s new study, we know that I1 underwent a sharp, dramatic rise in frequency during the Nordic Bronze Age and spread when Germanic tribes migrated out of Scandinavia into Continental Europe. Until we get samples from hunter-gatherers from more remote regions of Mesolithic and Neolithic Scandinavia, the deep origins of I1 will likely remain shrouded in mystery.
Interestingly, studies like Patterson et al. 2022, Papac et al. 2021 and Rohrlach et al. 2021 found zero samples of haplogroup I1 in Bronze Age Continental Europe, despite sequencing many hundreds of samples from a very wide range of sites and countries all across Continental Europe.


 
Thanks for sharing that article Flann Fina. In my opinion that’s the best articulation and summary of the data we have thus far regarding early Scandinavia and the origins of modern I1.


If I1 had minimal numbers prior to the Late Neolithic / Early Bronze Age I don’t know if we’ll ever find it’s original homeland through ancient dna unless archeologists get lucky and find that needle in a haystack. How I1 was able to get a reproductive advantage during the Bronze Age is an equally fascinating mystery.
 
Thanks for sharing that article Flann Fina. In my opinion that’s the best articulation and summary of the data we have thus far regarding early Scandinavia and the origins of modern I1.


If I1 had minimal numbers prior to the Late Neolithic / Early Bronze Age I don’t know if we’ll ever find it’s original homeland through ancient dna unless archeologists get lucky and find that needle in a haystack. How I1 was able to get a reproductive advantage during the Bronze Age is an equally fascinating mystery.

Agreed.


Something favourable must have happened for I1 to gain the advantage in the Bronze Age. I find it really difficult to not just assume that the vast majority of I1 has some connection to Germanic migration at this point.
 
Thanks for sharing that article Flann Fina. In my opinion that’s the best articulation and summary of the data we have thus far regarding early Scandinavia and the origins of modern I1.


If I1 had minimal numbers prior to the Late Neolithic / Early Bronze Age I don’t know if we’ll ever find it’s original homeland through ancient dna unless archeologists get lucky and find that needle in a haystack. How I1 was able to get a reproductive advantage during the Bronze Age is an equally fascinating mystery.


Yes, I agree that is a nicely done and succinct presentation of the information we have at this point. One that is probably going to be my go to reference when I’m trying to give new potential - or recent - testers an idea of what our origins my have been. I also suspect we’ll never know where I1 original came from. Although, I am tending to lean in the direction of their first option:


  • I1 was present as a very rare haplogroup among Pitted Ware hunter-gatherers in Scandinavia and encountered the Battle Axe people and mixed with them (or mixed with the FBC people before encountering the BAC)
  • […]

  • The first scenario has some support (although evidence is still weak) if we take into account the single pre-I1 SHG sample …
Of course, there’s not much to hang our hats on there and I would be glad to see any of those three scenarios confirmed. Hopefully, some day. We’ll see. By the way, did you see my earlier post in the anthrogenica thread about discord and contacting Michalis?

 
Last edited:
Hello Flann Fina. I did see your earlier post. Thank you. I don’t post very often and when I do it will most likely be on this forum.

I agree with you that I’m leaning towards the first option as well even though all three scenarios are plausible.

I feel that if I1 was farming prior to encountering the Steppe folks they would have had larger numbers and would have been discovered already in the ancient dna record. I think they were a really isolated and small hunter gatherer group in Sweden. Maybe they weren’t even Pitted Ware along the coastlines but were an even more remote and smaller hunter gatherer group farther inland or in a less accessible mountainous region?

What’s interesting is that the I1 reproductive advantage during the Bronze Age didn’t change the autosomal make up of the Bronze Age folks so they had already been living and mixing with the Steppe folks for many generations prior to their reproductive advantage. How and why that occurred is a fascinating mystery.
 
Hello Flann Fina. I did see your earlier post. Thank you. I don’t post very often and when I do it will most likely be on this forum.
I agree with you that I’m leaning towards the first option as well even though all three scenarios are plausible.
I feel that if I1 was farming prior to encountering the Steppe folks they would have had larger numbers and would have been discovered already in the ancient dna record. I think they were a really isolated and small hunter gatherer group in Sweden. Maybe they weren’t even Pitted Ware along the coastlines but were an even more remote and smaller hunter gatherer group farther inland or in a less accessible mountainous region?
What’s interesting is that the I1 reproductive advantage during the Bronze Age didn’t change the autosomal make up of the Bronze Age folks so they had already been living and mixing with the Steppe folks for many generations prior to their reproductive advantage. How and why that occurred is a fascinating mystery.


It is indeed a fascinating mystery. Although, I think your scenario sounds very reasonable. I’m glad you got the earlier message. I just wanted to make sure you knew that option was available.


Edit: You may have already seen this but if not, Genomic Atlas put out an earlier article along the same lines last year:


Genetics of the Nordic Bronze Age

Bronze Age Scandinavia. Massive burial mounds full of wealth. Groups of armed men with bronze weapons manning boats. Status-obsessed hierarchical warriors and traders. The likeliest candidates for pre-Proto-Germanic speakers and a proto-Germanic material culture. But who were they, and where did they come from?
The people of the Nordic Bronze Age were skilled metalworkers and seafarers. They were expert traders, capable of running extensive trade networks. They were the ancestors of not only the Germanic tribes of the Migration Period, but also of the Vikings. This highly stratified society ruled by an aristocratic elite laid the foundation for much of what would become the Germanic peoples. In order to understand their genetic profile, we have to go back even further in time. Back – to a much more turbulent time. Namely, Neolithic and Chalcolithic Europe.
Genomic Atlas
https://genomicatlas.org/2021/04/25/genetics-of-the-nordic-bronze-age/amp/


 
I had not seen that other article before. Thanks for posting it. I like that website a lot based on the two articles I’ve read thus far. I’ll check out the rest of the website / articles when I have more time.
 
I1's origin remains mysterious. Judging from the Allentoft study, Scandinavian farmers are the least likely source, because it speaks of "a near-complete replacement of the local Neolithic farmer population inferred accross all sampled individuals." The farmer ancestry that remained in Scandinavia came from the GAC.
 
Another Germanic lineage, I-L801, was found in eight GAC-males (Schoeder 2019). But of course that doesn't prove I1 came from the GAC as well. It will be interesting to see what future research will find.
 
What points against an origin among the Pitted Ware or some other Scandinavian hunter gatherer group is that apparently Z58 was found in an individual from France from c. 3,300 BC and again in an individual from France from the Bronze Age (Brunel 2020 - the paper has been discussed on this forum).
 
I1 became an elite

Haplogroup I1 is SHG.
Think it this way, if everybody was an immigrant, you could not explain the WHG/SHG ancestry in Nordic nations.

Besides, there's simply no reason to believe otherwise, I1 expanded at the beggining of the Middle Ages FROM Scandinavia.


Haplogroup I1 lived in the northern edge of inhabitability while the I2 clades occupied Europe.
That explains why they're practically absent from the fossil record until they suddenly appear in Sweden.
This is clear.


The real quest is their 'sudden' expansion in the Metal Ages.
I1 people was, unlike other native European groups, independent and free, so I assume they used that space in order to form their own civilization.

I don't even think that the Corded Ware/Indoeuropean conquest wasn't even that of a conquest.
While the rest of lineages pretty much perished all over Europe, we don't even have that much of a proof that Scandinavian natives were subjugated.
I'll explain myself, haplogroup I1 lives in peoples and places that are usually considered prestigious: nobility, dominant regions inside countries...
So I think that R1a/R1b came as immigrants, rather than replacing then. And that's the reason why I1 has such high numbers.
 
Delete duplicate.
 
That's what FTDNA's Globetrekker says. A place in present-day northern France. How reliable is Globetrekker?

Capture d'écran 2023-10-28 172628.png
 
I1 became an elite

Haplogroup I1 is SHG.
Think it this way, if everybody was an immigrant, you could not explain the WHG/SHG ancestry in Nordic nations.

Besides, there's simply no reason to believe otherwise, I1 expanded at the beggining of the Middle Ages FROM Scandinavia.


Haplogroup I1 lived in the northern edge of inhabitability while the I2 clades occupied Europe.
That explains why they're practically absent from the fossil record until they suddenly appear in Sweden.
This is clear.


The real quest is their 'sudden' expansion in the Metal Ages.
I1 people was, unlike other native European groups, independent and free, so I assume they used that space in order to form their own civilization.

I don't even think that the Corded Ware/Indoeuropean conquest wasn't even that of a conquest.
While the rest of lineages pretty much perished all over Europe, we don't even have that much of a proof that Scandinavian natives were subjugated.
I'll explain myself, haplogroup I1 lives in peoples and places that are usually considered prestigious: nobility, dominant regions inside countries...
So I think that R1a/R1b came as immigrants, rather than replacing then. And that's the reason why I1 has such high numbers.

Yes, but this only concerns sub-clade DF29. Why has subclade 17954 become such a minority?
 
Yes, but this only concerns sub-clade DF29. Why has subclade 17954 become such a minority?

He didn't integrate to thd global population that came into Scandinavia, that's for sure
 
That's what FTDNA's Globetrekker says. A place in present-day northern France. How reliable is Globetrekker?

View attachment 14405
I would say, not very reliable in this case. As an example, look where they’ve placed I-L840. I-L840 is based off of the results of the ancient sample OST003. Who was a man who lived in the area of Tannenwerder, Lake Ostorf, Schwerin, Germany, Circa 3294 - 3032 BCE
 

This thread has been viewed 5174 times.

Back
Top