Northener
Elite member
- Messages
- 2,024
- Reaction score
- 531
- Points
- 113
- Location
- Groningen
- Ethnic group
- NW Euro
- Y-DNA haplogroup
- E1b1b/ E-V22
E-V22
Neolithic pioneers from the Levantine
Introduction
How did a Levantine Y-DNA like E-V22 get into a Dutch guy like me? This basic curiosity is the drive behind this paper. FTDNA stated after the results of my Big-Y DNA:
"This haplogroup is an African lineage. It is currently hypothesized that this haplogroup dispersed south from Northern Africa within the last 3000 years with the Bantu agricultural expansion. It is an old, diverse haplogroup with many branches and is found distributed throughout Africa today. It is also found at a very low frequency in North Africa and the Middle East."
This didn't satisfy me, it did not close the gap between the Sahel and Northwestern Europe. And other explanations like "it was the Roman influence" neither, so I went further.
Although modern genetics is making fast progress in delivering facts and figures about the variations in the DNA of the human genome, this alone does not deliver a comprehensive image of the development of the human bearers of the DNA. When we want to get a more precise picture we have to place them in context. This paper is an attempt to combine the results from the latest DNA research on specific haplogroup E-V22 in combination with historical/archeological knowledge.
E-V22 is a genetic marker, which belongs to haplogroup E. E-V22 was first defined by the genetic Professor Cruciani (Cruciani 2004, 2007). The ‘father clade’ is E-M78. According to Y full (SNP analysis) E-M78 has a split of: E-Z1919. E-Z1919 on his turn has a mayor split: E-V22/L677 and E-V13. E-V13 can be considered as a ‘brother clade’ of E-V22. E-V13 is in this paper a reference point. In a recent survey about haplogroup E (Beniamino Trombetta e.a. 2015) this is illustrated as follows (the ‘pyramid’ lines are E-V13 and E-V22).
The period of research is restricted to the Neolithic age (about 10000-2000 BC). This isto be seen as the last phase of the Stone Age, marked by the domestication of animals, the development of agriculture, and the manufacture of pottery and textiles. The period after the Neolithic is also interesting but needs a separate research.
This paper is written from the idea, borrowed from the geneticist Professor Martin Richards, that the Neolithization went by ‘pioneer leapfrog colonization’ (Martin Richards 2010) whereby small groups of agriculturalist/pioneers, target for new arable land and then were surrounded by other groups of hunter-gatherer. In a later stage they interacted with each other.
Current situation
The starting point of the E-V22 is the current situation of the spread of haplogroup E-V22. Vincenzo Passariello recently published a figure on the Facebook page Human Population Genetic based on open data about E-V22.
The first picture gives an image about the worldwide appearance of E-V22. We see that E-V22 is widespread from Portugal in the west till Pakistan in the east mostly with modest percentages (mostly between 1-5%). There are a few exceptions: E-V22 major strongholds (above 20%) are Egypt and the Horn of Africa.
The second picture, also from Passariello, zooms in on Europe. There we see that that E-V22 is around 5% of the population in Asturias (Northern Spain), Andalucía (Southern Spain), Sicily, Luciana (Southern Italy) and Istanbul.
Natufian culture (13.000-11.000 BC)
As is stated E-V22 is a descendant of E-M78. According to Y-full , E-M78 is 21.700 years old. The origin of haplotype E-M78 lays most probably in the North Eastern part of Africa, Egypt or Northern Sudan/Ethiopia(Cruciani 2007, Begona Dobon 2015). From there it spreads to the rest of Africa, mostly the Northeastern part of it.
E-M78 went also outside Africa right through the so-called Levantine corridor. The Levant was part of the so-called Fertile Crescent. This area was the ‘Silicon Valley’ of the Neolithic (r)evolution c.q. the first development of the sedental agriculture.
The pre stadium of this is to be known as the Natufian culture. The Levantine corridor is also a major hub in genetic lines. A change in environment, a more sedental-lifestyle, creates also the conditions for changes in DNA. An obvious change is that the bone structure of the agriculturalist became lighter.
The Levantine corridor has best cards for the offspring of E-M78 called E-Z1919. This is dated by y-full at 12.000 years ago (10.000 BC) in the late Natufian/Khamian period.
Pre-Pottery Neolithic (8000 BC)
E-V22 on his turn is split out of E-Z1919 about 10.000 years ago (8000 BC) just at the beginning of the so-called pre-pottery culture that is considered as the first step in the real Neolithization. Towns (Jericho was the first) appeared on the scene.
The Neolithic ‘leaped frogged’ through land and also through water (island and/or coast ‘hopping’), (Peristera Paschou 2013). In the case of E-V22 brother clade E-V13 (formed 7500 years ago, 5500 BC) followed the way from the (Northern?) Levant (nowadays Northwestern Syria border Turkye) into Greece and the Balkan. And/or the way through the Mediterranean Sea.
At the Balkan (Albania/Kosovo) we see a kind of founder effect; E-V13 reaches in nowadays Kosovo 45%. The Balkan formed the major E-V13 stronghold and bridgehead into Europe. From the Balkan E-V13 used the grand central European rivers to spread the Neolithic into central Europe on to southern Scandinavia. In nowadays Denmark E-V13 is about 3%.
E-V22 Neolithic into Egypt (6000 BC)
The route of E-V22 is different. I presume that it stayed more in the Southern Levant. E-V22 is the most obvious candidate to introduce the Neolithic in Egypt. In an excellent dissertation from Noriyuki Shirai called “The Archaeology of the First Farmer-Herders in Egypt New Insights into the Fayum Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic” (Noriyuki Shirai 2010) it is shown how the Neolithic process in the Nile Delta proceeded.
Shirai makes clear that there was a certain cultural and economic influence from the Levantine. In other words: the Natufian Neolithic culture spread into Lower Egypt. There was an amount of settlers who came from the Levant. This process began about 6000 BC. The process was gradual, sedentary farmers lived, probably peacefully, nearby the hunter-gatherers. Due to climate change people where ‘forced’ to go to the Nile (Delta) and had to look for other ways to make a living: agriculture from the rich soil along the Nile. E-V22 mingled with indigenous people.
Shiria believes that demographic impact on population in Lower Egypt is “still unclear”. It is likely that farmer/settlers from the Levant wit an E-V22 DNA played a significant role in it. The founder effect is not as big as E-V13 in the Balkan but still left a significant demographic mark. The Neolithic spread is most evident from places like Fayum and Merimde The Fayum culture (6000 BC), Merimde culture (5000 BC), El Omari culture (4000 BC) and Maadi culture (4000 BC) are in Lower Egypt regional adapts of the Neolithic. In the unifying process of Lower and Upper Egypt during the reign of the Farao’s we can see that E-V22 also spread down the Nile, southward. E-V22 was one of the haplotypes who brought the Neolithic further into the Sahel/ Horn of Africa. As we have seen nowadays in the region we find major E-V22 strongholds. E-V22 is clearly part of the Levantine DNA admixture who spread the Neolithic (Marc Haber 2013).
Neolithic in Iberia (6000 BCE)
In the E-V22 SNP tree developed by Wim Penninx we see (on basis of a few examples!) a split on CTS 6080/ L1250/CTS11457). There is a subbranche with mainly Spanish and some English, German/Czech and Dutch representatives. The explanation lies probably in the impact from the Levantine DNA cluster on Iberia.
In Spanish archeology (Miriam Balmuth 1997) it is disputed if the Neolithic pottery (about 4700 BC) in Iberia, within the most famous the La Almagra pottery in Andalusia, is an internal phenomenon, as some stated, or was there a significant influence from the Levant, as others argue. They supposed that the key lay in demographic evidence to prove an Iberian-Levantine connection.
In 2011 researchers (Marie Lacan e.a. 2011) proved the existence of the Levantine DNA cluster namely G2a and E-V13 in Spanish persons from 7000 years ago (5000 BC). These prove there was really a connection between the neolithization of Iberia and the Levant. And up till now Andalusia is still a relatively European stronghold of E-V22.
Atlantic Neolithization (4000-2000 BC)
Iberia is a beachhead for the spread of the Neolithic of the Atlantic/ Northwestern Europe. From there the neolithization took place Northwest wards along the Atlantic and the North Sea Coast up to France, Ireland and the British Isles, the Netherlands, Northwestern Gemany and finally Southern Scandinavia (Pablo Arias 1999). Men with E-V22, along others of the Levantine admixture, were probably part of it. This is of course from an entirely different situation than in de Levant-Egypt case. In the Atlantic case there were most probably small numbers E-V22, who were almost swept away by the events after the Neolithic period. But Swedish research (Pontus Skoglund 2012), bases on Neolithic findings at Gokhem, did show that the Levantine DNA admixture was prominent along the Neolithic farmers of Scandinavia.
Conclusion
We went with giant leaps trough the Neolithic (DNA) history. Regarding the early origins and spread of haplogroup E-V22 it is made clear that the birth of E-V22 goes together with the dawn of the Neolithic in the Levant. E-V22 played a significant part in the spread of the Neolithic. The Neolithic Levantine genes are on of the three basic layers of our gene pool (Europe, Middle-East and North East Africa).
For E-V22 this was most fundamental (founders effect) in Egypt/Northeastern Africa. In these areas is E-V22 still a major part in the gene pool. In the Mediterranean/ Middle-East it left its (Neolithic) marks. In North (Western) Europe it left only a few traces. In this respect E-V22 isn’t representative for the Levantine admixture as a whole. Brother clade E-V13, also part of the Neolithic Levantine admixture, had a significant higher impact on the European gene pool. Maybe also caused by my impression that E-V22 almost exclusively spread by the maritime way.
But even for Northwestern Europe the slight E-V22 impact of the Neolithic is more satisfying explanation than I got in the first place.
Neolithic pioneers from the Levantine
Introduction
How did a Levantine Y-DNA like E-V22 get into a Dutch guy like me? This basic curiosity is the drive behind this paper. FTDNA stated after the results of my Big-Y DNA:
"This haplogroup is an African lineage. It is currently hypothesized that this haplogroup dispersed south from Northern Africa within the last 3000 years with the Bantu agricultural expansion. It is an old, diverse haplogroup with many branches and is found distributed throughout Africa today. It is also found at a very low frequency in North Africa and the Middle East."
This didn't satisfy me, it did not close the gap between the Sahel and Northwestern Europe. And other explanations like "it was the Roman influence" neither, so I went further.
Although modern genetics is making fast progress in delivering facts and figures about the variations in the DNA of the human genome, this alone does not deliver a comprehensive image of the development of the human bearers of the DNA. When we want to get a more precise picture we have to place them in context. This paper is an attempt to combine the results from the latest DNA research on specific haplogroup E-V22 in combination with historical/archeological knowledge.
E-V22 is a genetic marker, which belongs to haplogroup E. E-V22 was first defined by the genetic Professor Cruciani (Cruciani 2004, 2007). The ‘father clade’ is E-M78. According to Y full (SNP analysis) E-M78 has a split of: E-Z1919. E-Z1919 on his turn has a mayor split: E-V22/L677 and E-V13. E-V13 can be considered as a ‘brother clade’ of E-V22. E-V13 is in this paper a reference point. In a recent survey about haplogroup E (Beniamino Trombetta e.a. 2015) this is illustrated as follows (the ‘pyramid’ lines are E-V13 and E-V22).
The period of research is restricted to the Neolithic age (about 10000-2000 BC). This isto be seen as the last phase of the Stone Age, marked by the domestication of animals, the development of agriculture, and the manufacture of pottery and textiles. The period after the Neolithic is also interesting but needs a separate research.
This paper is written from the idea, borrowed from the geneticist Professor Martin Richards, that the Neolithization went by ‘pioneer leapfrog colonization’ (Martin Richards 2010) whereby small groups of agriculturalist/pioneers, target for new arable land and then were surrounded by other groups of hunter-gatherer. In a later stage they interacted with each other.
Current situation
The starting point of the E-V22 is the current situation of the spread of haplogroup E-V22. Vincenzo Passariello recently published a figure on the Facebook page Human Population Genetic based on open data about E-V22.
The first picture gives an image about the worldwide appearance of E-V22. We see that E-V22 is widespread from Portugal in the west till Pakistan in the east mostly with modest percentages (mostly between 1-5%). There are a few exceptions: E-V22 major strongholds (above 20%) are Egypt and the Horn of Africa.
The second picture, also from Passariello, zooms in on Europe. There we see that that E-V22 is around 5% of the population in Asturias (Northern Spain), Andalucía (Southern Spain), Sicily, Luciana (Southern Italy) and Istanbul.
Natufian culture (13.000-11.000 BC)
As is stated E-V22 is a descendant of E-M78. According to Y-full , E-M78 is 21.700 years old. The origin of haplotype E-M78 lays most probably in the North Eastern part of Africa, Egypt or Northern Sudan/Ethiopia(Cruciani 2007, Begona Dobon 2015). From there it spreads to the rest of Africa, mostly the Northeastern part of it.
E-M78 went also outside Africa right through the so-called Levantine corridor. The Levant was part of the so-called Fertile Crescent. This area was the ‘Silicon Valley’ of the Neolithic (r)evolution c.q. the first development of the sedental agriculture.
The pre stadium of this is to be known as the Natufian culture. The Levantine corridor is also a major hub in genetic lines. A change in environment, a more sedental-lifestyle, creates also the conditions for changes in DNA. An obvious change is that the bone structure of the agriculturalist became lighter.
The Levantine corridor has best cards for the offspring of E-M78 called E-Z1919. This is dated by y-full at 12.000 years ago (10.000 BC) in the late Natufian/Khamian period.
Pre-Pottery Neolithic (8000 BC)
E-V22 on his turn is split out of E-Z1919 about 10.000 years ago (8000 BC) just at the beginning of the so-called pre-pottery culture that is considered as the first step in the real Neolithization. Towns (Jericho was the first) appeared on the scene.
The Neolithic ‘leaped frogged’ through land and also through water (island and/or coast ‘hopping’), (Peristera Paschou 2013). In the case of E-V22 brother clade E-V13 (formed 7500 years ago, 5500 BC) followed the way from the (Northern?) Levant (nowadays Northwestern Syria border Turkye) into Greece and the Balkan. And/or the way through the Mediterranean Sea.
At the Balkan (Albania/Kosovo) we see a kind of founder effect; E-V13 reaches in nowadays Kosovo 45%. The Balkan formed the major E-V13 stronghold and bridgehead into Europe. From the Balkan E-V13 used the grand central European rivers to spread the Neolithic into central Europe on to southern Scandinavia. In nowadays Denmark E-V13 is about 3%.
E-V22 Neolithic into Egypt (6000 BC)
The route of E-V22 is different. I presume that it stayed more in the Southern Levant. E-V22 is the most obvious candidate to introduce the Neolithic in Egypt. In an excellent dissertation from Noriyuki Shirai called “The Archaeology of the First Farmer-Herders in Egypt New Insights into the Fayum Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic” (Noriyuki Shirai 2010) it is shown how the Neolithic process in the Nile Delta proceeded.
Shirai makes clear that there was a certain cultural and economic influence from the Levantine. In other words: the Natufian Neolithic culture spread into Lower Egypt. There was an amount of settlers who came from the Levant. This process began about 6000 BC. The process was gradual, sedentary farmers lived, probably peacefully, nearby the hunter-gatherers. Due to climate change people where ‘forced’ to go to the Nile (Delta) and had to look for other ways to make a living: agriculture from the rich soil along the Nile. E-V22 mingled with indigenous people.
Shiria believes that demographic impact on population in Lower Egypt is “still unclear”. It is likely that farmer/settlers from the Levant wit an E-V22 DNA played a significant role in it. The founder effect is not as big as E-V13 in the Balkan but still left a significant demographic mark. The Neolithic spread is most evident from places like Fayum and Merimde The Fayum culture (6000 BC), Merimde culture (5000 BC), El Omari culture (4000 BC) and Maadi culture (4000 BC) are in Lower Egypt regional adapts of the Neolithic. In the unifying process of Lower and Upper Egypt during the reign of the Farao’s we can see that E-V22 also spread down the Nile, southward. E-V22 was one of the haplotypes who brought the Neolithic further into the Sahel/ Horn of Africa. As we have seen nowadays in the region we find major E-V22 strongholds. E-V22 is clearly part of the Levantine DNA admixture who spread the Neolithic (Marc Haber 2013).
Neolithic in Iberia (6000 BCE)
In the E-V22 SNP tree developed by Wim Penninx we see (on basis of a few examples!) a split on CTS 6080/ L1250/CTS11457). There is a subbranche with mainly Spanish and some English, German/Czech and Dutch representatives. The explanation lies probably in the impact from the Levantine DNA cluster on Iberia.
In Spanish archeology (Miriam Balmuth 1997) it is disputed if the Neolithic pottery (about 4700 BC) in Iberia, within the most famous the La Almagra pottery in Andalusia, is an internal phenomenon, as some stated, or was there a significant influence from the Levant, as others argue. They supposed that the key lay in demographic evidence to prove an Iberian-Levantine connection.
In 2011 researchers (Marie Lacan e.a. 2011) proved the existence of the Levantine DNA cluster namely G2a and E-V13 in Spanish persons from 7000 years ago (5000 BC). These prove there was really a connection between the neolithization of Iberia and the Levant. And up till now Andalusia is still a relatively European stronghold of E-V22.
Atlantic Neolithization (4000-2000 BC)
Iberia is a beachhead for the spread of the Neolithic of the Atlantic/ Northwestern Europe. From there the neolithization took place Northwest wards along the Atlantic and the North Sea Coast up to France, Ireland and the British Isles, the Netherlands, Northwestern Gemany and finally Southern Scandinavia (Pablo Arias 1999). Men with E-V22, along others of the Levantine admixture, were probably part of it. This is of course from an entirely different situation than in de Levant-Egypt case. In the Atlantic case there were most probably small numbers E-V22, who were almost swept away by the events after the Neolithic period. But Swedish research (Pontus Skoglund 2012), bases on Neolithic findings at Gokhem, did show that the Levantine DNA admixture was prominent along the Neolithic farmers of Scandinavia.
Conclusion
We went with giant leaps trough the Neolithic (DNA) history. Regarding the early origins and spread of haplogroup E-V22 it is made clear that the birth of E-V22 goes together with the dawn of the Neolithic in the Levant. E-V22 played a significant part in the spread of the Neolithic. The Neolithic Levantine genes are on of the three basic layers of our gene pool (Europe, Middle-East and North East Africa).
For E-V22 this was most fundamental (founders effect) in Egypt/Northeastern Africa. In these areas is E-V22 still a major part in the gene pool. In the Mediterranean/ Middle-East it left its (Neolithic) marks. In North (Western) Europe it left only a few traces. In this respect E-V22 isn’t representative for the Levantine admixture as a whole. Brother clade E-V13, also part of the Neolithic Levantine admixture, had a significant higher impact on the European gene pool. Maybe also caused by my impression that E-V22 almost exclusively spread by the maritime way.
But even for Northwestern Europe the slight E-V22 impact of the Neolithic is more satisfying explanation than I got in the first place.
