Comments on: Ötzi, first, but not last, farmer?

By: Connor

Connor — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 10:16:54 +0000

@pconroy – thanks for this but I’m not sure that this is correct: either my distant relatives colonised Ireland/british isles at the same time as Scandanavia or it is down to Viking/Norman immigration to the British Isles. I live in the North of Ireland where not many Viking strongholds were based. But this is exactly what I was saying – there is not a clear picture about North-West Europe, especially the British Isles.

By: pconroy

pconroy — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 01:28:02 +0000

Connor,

Your Y-DNA haplogroup is found today at highest concentrations in Sweden, and in Ireland is indicative of Viking ancestry.

By: Connor

Connor — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 08:46:52 +0000

Hey I just got back my 23andme genotype results back and my paternal haplotype came out as I1*. I am from Northern Ireland but can’t really make sense of any of the published European phylogeography stuff. Any plans in doing a post about North-West Europe? Maybe you have already done this but couldn’t find it – if so I apologise.

By: Eze

Eze — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 07:34:00 +0000

How in the world did 23&me come up with that distribution?

The haplogroup maps on 23andMe are often incorrect and/or outdated.

By: Grey

Grey — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 02:03:55 +0000

My theory, admittedly based on minimal evidence except that i like it, is the Milky Bar Kid theory.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YayqNv_RcE4&feature=related

One layer of neolithic population got pushed into marginal terrain in the north-west by later arrivals. Then either because the arable part of their agricultural package was less effective in that terriotory or because they needed to prioritize animals for winter heat they became dependent on cattle and especially milk.

(Cows producing milk and heat during the winter whereas fields don’t.)

A fairly dramatic extinction event ensued that weeded out the lactose intolerant and the population regrew from that base but physically bigger because milk is just so great. This group then pushed back out from their circular refuge centred somewhere around Oslo, merging perhaps with the more asia-tinged Indo-Europeans coming from the east.

Separately i find it interesting that the germanic tribes changed from infantry-based to cavalry-based between Caesar’s time and the fall of Rome c400 years later. Or rather the Caesar-era tribes (and the Anglo-Saxons and Scandinavians in the later period) were predominantly infantry-based whereas the Goths and Franks etc had somehow morphed into what was effectively a european version of steppe lancers on heavier horses.

By: qohelet

qohelet — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 18:01:13 +0000

I get the sense that they’re using Moroccan Jewish frequency figures for Northwest Africa, which is obviously problematic.

By: ohwilleke

ohwilleke — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 16:27:42 +0000

The non- African part of the Y-DNA G haplogroup map looks right.

The African part, does not. Earlier this week I was looking a dozens of Y-DNA studies for Afro-Asiatic linguistic populations in Africa. G was almost invariably in the top five at non-fluke proportions in almost every single Egyptian sample. G was almost completely absent from Berber and Northwest African Arab samples. This is almost the inverse of the distribution shown on the African portion of the map.

How in the world did 23&me come up with that distribution?