Fifth Daughter of Europa
<b>Perhaps the most stunning conclusion of many reached in this comprehensive review of European maternal genetic prehistory is the identification and dating of Europe's first founder line, U5.</b> Initially it was only U5, a genetic great-granddaughter of one of the four main Levantine founders, who moved into Europe. <b>The Europa clan is characteristic of the Near East and Europe. In spite of its antiquity, it is not found in East Asia, being confined to the Levant and the Gulf western Central Asia, countries round the Mediterranean, and Europe, with an ancient daughter branch, U2i, in India.</b> The clan as a whole has an antiquity of over 50,000 years in the Near East. According to the molecular clock, our fifth daughter of Europa, U5, also dates back 50,000 years and represents by far the earliest line to enter Europe, 15,000 years before the next European founder line. But how it is that Europa's genetic signal spread to the Near East and, through her daughter U5, on to Europe, from 54,400 to 50,000 years ago, when the archaeological dates for the Upper Palaeolithic first appearing in the Levant, and then the earliest Aurignacian in Bulgaria, are respectively only 47,100 and 46,000 years? This difference can be explained by a systematic under-recording of radiocarbon dates for any age over 40,000 years, giving a ceiling effect.
<b>Although U5apparently had her origins in the Near east at roughly the same time as her entry into Europe, her descendants are found there now only in a restricted area in minorities living mainly in Turkey and the Trans-Caucasus region of Turkey and Iran. These minorities include the Turks, Armenians, Azerbaijanis, and Kurds, all of whom still live within the ancient limits of the Fertile Crescent that stretches from Turkey and the Trans-Caucasus south-east along the Zagros Mountains through Iraq and Iran. </b>The Fertile Crescent co-extends with Kurdistan, finally forming a corridor parallel to but north of Mesopotamia, running towards the coast of the Arabian Gulf and thus linking the Levant with the Indian Ocean. Significantly, U5 is almost absent from Arabia, apparently denying those peoples' ancestors as the primary source population for the first Aurignacian colonization of Europe.
Do we have any genetic trail that exactly fits the rapid movement of the Aurignacian tool-makers, westward within central Europe, taking them to the Pyrenees and Spain by 40,000 years ago? Although U5 is now ubiquitous in Europe, we do know that the oldest Europa great-granddaughter, U5a, dating from around 40,000 years ago, is commonest in the Basque country of northern Spain. <b>One of the only European refuges during the last ice age, the Basque region managed to preserve more of its original genetic diversity than did other parts of Western Europe.</b>
U5 is thus the one surviving Europa daughter line that identifies the first European ancestors up to 50,000 years ago, and is an ancestral type shared with Armenians, Turks, Azeris, and Kurds. What do we know of her family, where did she come from, and who were her sisters? Inspection of the gene-line tree gives us a genealogy that we can recount in biblical style: <b>Europa was genetic daughter of R ('Rohani'), who was genetic daughter of Nasreen, who was the genetic daughter of the out-of-Africa L3.</b> By what route, however, did the Europa maternal clan arrive in the Levant, and where was her daughter U5, who colonized Europe, born? Both the N ('Nasreen') and Rohani root types are unknown except in South Asia, where Nasreen root types are found at low rates and Rohani is found in great variety. Most Rohani types in India are found nowhere else, and the great diversity of Rohani in India allows us to estimate when her line began to expand. <span style='color:red'>This was at least 55,000 years ago, thus predating the arrival of Rohani's daughter Europa in the Levant and making a <i><span style='font-family:Geneva'><span style='color:purple'>strong case for South Asia as the ultimate ancestral home of European lines</span></i>. Even this expansion date is likely to be an underestimate of the age of the Rohani clan. Rohani may well be older than 55,000 years in Asia: much older estimates of the ages of two Asian subgroups of Rohani have been obtained in China</span>.</span>
<b>Perhaps the most stunning conclusion of many reached in this comprehensive review of European maternal genetic prehistory is the identification and dating of Europe's first founder line, U5.</b> Initially it was only U5, a genetic great-granddaughter of one of the four main Levantine founders, who moved into Europe. <b>The Europa clan is characteristic of the Near East and Europe. In spite of its antiquity, it is not found in East Asia, being confined to the Levant and the Gulf western Central Asia, countries round the Mediterranean, and Europe, with an ancient daughter branch, U2i, in India.</b> The clan as a whole has an antiquity of over 50,000 years in the Near East. According to the molecular clock, our fifth daughter of Europa, U5, also dates back 50,000 years and represents by far the earliest line to enter Europe, 15,000 years before the next European founder line. But how it is that Europa's genetic signal spread to the Near East and, through her daughter U5, on to Europe, from 54,400 to 50,000 years ago, when the archaeological dates for the Upper Palaeolithic first appearing in the Levant, and then the earliest Aurignacian in Bulgaria, are respectively only 47,100 and 46,000 years? This difference can be explained by a systematic under-recording of radiocarbon dates for any age over 40,000 years, giving a ceiling effect.
<b>Although U5apparently had her origins in the Near east at roughly the same time as her entry into Europe, her descendants are found there now only in a restricted area in minorities living mainly in Turkey and the Trans-Caucasus region of Turkey and Iran. These minorities include the Turks, Armenians, Azerbaijanis, and Kurds, all of whom still live within the ancient limits of the Fertile Crescent that stretches from Turkey and the Trans-Caucasus south-east along the Zagros Mountains through Iraq and Iran. </b>The Fertile Crescent co-extends with Kurdistan, finally forming a corridor parallel to but north of Mesopotamia, running towards the coast of the Arabian Gulf and thus linking the Levant with the Indian Ocean. Significantly, U5 is almost absent from Arabia, apparently denying those peoples' ancestors as the primary source population for the first Aurignacian colonization of Europe.
Do we have any genetic trail that exactly fits the rapid movement of the Aurignacian tool-makers, westward within central Europe, taking them to the Pyrenees and Spain by 40,000 years ago? Although U5 is now ubiquitous in Europe, we do know that the oldest Europa great-granddaughter, U5a, dating from around 40,000 years ago, is commonest in the Basque country of northern Spain. <b>One of the only European refuges during the last ice age, the Basque region managed to preserve more of its original genetic diversity than did other parts of Western Europe.</b>
U5 is thus the one surviving Europa daughter line that identifies the first European ancestors up to 50,000 years ago, and is an ancestral type shared with Armenians, Turks, Azeris, and Kurds. What do we know of her family, where did she come from, and who were her sisters? Inspection of the gene-line tree gives us a genealogy that we can recount in biblical style: <b>Europa was genetic daughter of R ('Rohani'), who was genetic daughter of Nasreen, who was the genetic daughter of the out-of-Africa L3.</b> By what route, however, did the Europa maternal clan arrive in the Levant, and where was her daughter U5, who colonized Europe, born? Both the N ('Nasreen') and Rohani root types are unknown except in South Asia, where Nasreen root types are found at low rates and Rohani is found in great variety. Most Rohani types in India are found nowhere else, and the great diversity of Rohani in India allows us to estimate when her line began to expand. <span style='color:red'>This was at least 55,000 years ago, thus predating the arrival of Rohani's daughter Europa in the Levant and making a <i><span style='font-family:Geneva'><span style='color:purple'>strong case for South Asia as the ultimate ancestral home of European lines</span></i>. Even this expansion date is likely to be an underestimate of the age of the Rohani clan. Rohani may well be older than 55,000 years in Asia: much older estimates of the ages of two Asian subgroups of Rohani have been obtained in China</span>.</span>