The Mysteries of Moving Around

[smokingboot]

It seems my motherline is a strange and little known subclade of a vaguely obtuse haplogroup. In his book The Seven Daughters of Eve, Bryan Sykes calls the 'clan mother' Tara, claiming that she lived 17,00 years ago in Tuscany and her descendents spread out across the west to Ireland, hence her name meaning 'Rock' in Gaelic.

It's an old book and research has moved on. Turns out that the T haplogroup is pretty odd anyway; it accounts for some 10% of Europeans, is thought to have risen in the neolithic age, findings contradicted by mesolithic remains in Germany, seems to have either started in the near East and migrated into Europe, or the reverse, starting in Europe (many claim Italy as the founding place for this haplogroup) and then travelling 'back' into the near East, possibly Anatolia.

Most would claim the former, because received knowledge is that all Europeans come from the Middle East, it's just a question of when. However my subclade of the T haplogroup seems to be specifically absent from the Middle East. It turns up in Europe, like Athena sprung full-clad from the head of Zeus. The T haplogroup seems to be strongly connected with the advent of agriculture into Europe at the end of the last ice age, and it makes up a reasonable percentage (14-15%) of Yamna mitochondrial dna; these were pastoral nomads in Eastern Europe and the Ukraine, possibly even Russia. On the other hand, some studies show a very high percentage by T haplogroup standards (18%) among ancient Minoans. Meaning? I have no idea. People got around.

Anyway, here I am at T2e1. Apparently there are T2e1 hotspots in Mexico, Bulgaria (I think) and definitely Iceland; enough in the case of the latter to make it look like a founding point for the subgroup. What makes us so sure it wasn't the case, that this haplogroup didn't spread out from Iceland Eastwards? After all, T2e1 was thought to have 'returned' from West to East, so it's not as though groups never retrace their steps. Whatever the possibilities, credible and evidence driven theories of the dispersal tend to go along the following lines:

Root, Mitochondrial Eve, still much confusion but somewhere along here is the parent of:

Haplogroup L3, originating in East Africa, very important in the prehistory of humanity and its expansion, pretty much the ancestor responsible for all humans outside Africa and many within in Africa too. L3 seems to have taken over the world via a small band of early modern humans making their way across the red sea through Arabia and onwards. Oh for my time machine! Without these migrants, we would not exist. L3 is the parent of:

Haplogroup N originates in Asia or Africa, no-one is sure. Through mutation it is the parent of:

Haplogroup R originates in South Asia, is found pretty much everywhere and and is the parent of:

Haplogroup JT originates or is found among the ancient Etruscans and also Morocco. It is the parent of:

Haplogroup T originates in the Near East, parent of:

Branch T2 originates in the Near East, parent of:

Branch T2e1 originates in the European Mediterranean.

T2e1

Dispersal occurs along the Med basin into Western Mediterranean including Spain. Here, the signature T2e1a1 eventually originates among the Sephardim.

Extended sea-travel brings T2e1 to the British Isles early. It is rare here now.

Even earlier traces found in central Europe possibly from neolithic farmers in the fertile crescent of the near east, via land travel from Spain and Germany (Eh? *Looks blank* This is a direct quote and I don't quite understand it)

T2e1 dispersal further into Europe carried by long distance Jewish merchant families centred in Italy, from the same population that led to the Ashkenazim. But if these are the main carriers, why isn't the specific variant associated with the Sephardim (T2e1a1) more common than its ancestor T2e1 in these places? Have I missed something obvious?

Nordic conquest of British territories helps carry T2e1 to Norway first, then Iceland.

1492 Sephardim take a northern route out of Spain due to the expulsion, bringing a wave of T2e1 to Western and Northern Europe.

'Quiet' Judaism brings T2e1 to the Netherlands, colonial America, Mexico and South America.

The whole Sephardim issue interests me, because of Granada's ancient association with Jewish communities. Granada's name has a couple of possible origins: Pomegranate is the accepted one from the Latin meaning 'seeded apple,'and is the emblem to be found all over the city. But there is also K/Gharnattah, from the Moorish meaning Hill of Strangers or Hill of Pilgrims. Early Arabic writers called it Gharnatta al Yahud, Granada of the Jews. There appear to have been Jewish settlements here since very early, possibly even pre-Christian times, though it's hard to find sources for this on the internet now. But I recall reading this from creditable sources when I was younger.

Of course, the trouble with this is that, as with so much DNA research, it's extremely Euro-centric. One Chinese study associates T2e1 with longevity; but I've looked at so many papers I can't recall where this was from, or what population was being studied. My head feels like a bucket full of scraps, which all mean something in context, whatever that is. So enough for now; though there is much fascinating about the expansion of the tree of human development, the mingling of ways and cultures across the Earth, I can't read one more contradictory theory on it without losing my mind.