Genetic flow across the Strait of Gibraltar

Researchers from the University of Geneva try to address the somewhat complex problem of genetic flow across the Strait of Gibraltar, between SW Europe and NW Africa, in a new paper:

Mathias Currat et al., Human genetic differentiation across the Strait of Gibraltar. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 2010. Open access.

They analyze a number of genetic variables such as Y-DNA, mtDNA, blood groups ABO and Rh, and other antigen/antibody systems (HLA, MNS and GM) and produce a number of statistical analysis for them. However they acknowledge that their modeling on continuous, rather than punctual, gene flow, may have some difficulties providing clear-cut answers.

Still they do produce results that are in general favorable for the P scenario (flow since 20,000 years ago), excepting to some extent the Y-DNA, which is probably a secondary sex-biased element overall.

Above: The scenarios are described in page 10 and in the supplementary material. P is "Paleolithic" flow beginning 20,000 years ago (Ibero-Maurusian or Oranian culture) among small populations, N instead is "Neolithic" flow among larger populations. PN is intermediate and PNI is intermediate but also considering the Islamic expansion (though details are not provided).

They also produce results of quite greater affinity within each region (SW Europe and NW Africa) than between them, as expected.


Notice in this graph (and also fig. 3) how autosomal markers' curves and that of mtDNA (MT-HV1, in blue) are very similar, however while mtDNA tends to lesser homogeneity within regions, it strongly tends to higher homogeneity instead across the Strait. This I interpret as meaning greater affinity across the strait in the Paleolithic, before the primarily male expansions reflected in the Y-DNA, altered the scenario.

Sadly no graphs for each of the two regions is provided, what does not allow us to make a more detailed assessment, like whether the Y-DNA expansion happened at both coasts or not, and, if so, if they were fully comparable or somehow different. I say this because the apparent SW European origin of North African mtDNA H (c. 25%) detected by Cherni 2008, and probably other haplogroups like V and K, would be consistent with a more European-like population before the E1b1b1 expansion in the context of Capsian culture (in North Africa) which is probably associated also to the expansion of Afroasiatic languages. However I see no reason to support a similar male-biased expansion in SW Europe.

Let the authors conclude:

Conclusion

While contrasted conclusions were obtained by previous studies based mostly on single genetic loci, our study clarifies the role of the Strait of Gibraltar regarding its permeability to gene flow. Indeed, our multi-locus approach led us to take into account variations between loci when trying to infer past history of human populations around the Gibraltar area. We were thus able to show that the Y chromosome on one side, and HLA-DRB1 on the other side constitute two extreme cases of very strong and very weak (respectively) genetic differentiations between populations across the Strait. The lack of genetic differentiation for HLA-DRB1 is particularly interesting because it can be explained by balancing selection (with a coefficient of selection estimated here to be around 2%). Given the huge worldwide dataset available for this locus, a better understanding on the mechanisms of selection at HLA loci could be very helpful to the study of human evolution, and more generally MHC. Our results obtained for Gibraltar have to be confirmed by further studies in other areas, especially where gene flow between populations is reduced. This work thus constitutes a step forward towards a better characterization of the combined effects of selection and demography on the genetic structure of populations, and especially on their genetic differentiation.

New paper on Mediterranean genetics

We have a new free interesting paper by researchers of the Universitat de Barcelona on the issue of the Mediterranean partial barrier to genetic flow:

G. Athaniasadis et al., The Mediterranean Sea as a barrier to gene flow: evidence from variation in and around the F7 and F12 genomic regions. BMC Evolutionary Biology 2010. Open access.

The F7 and F12 genomic regions refer to a diverse set of neutral and functional polymorphisms located in and around the coagulation factor VII and XII genomic regions (F7 and F12).

Conclusions

As there is no consensus between the two genomic regions regarding gene flow through the Sahara, it is hard to reach a solid conclusion about its role in the differentiation between the two Mediterranean shores and more data are necessary to reach a definite conclusion. However our data suggest that the Mediterranean Sea was at least partially a barrier to gene flow between the two shores.

They compared a set of diverse populations from North West Africa, Iberia and Occitania (South France) and the Aegean area, using also samples from Ivory Coast and Bolivian natives as outgroups.

As the authors admit some uncertainty remains at not sampling some important Mediterranean regions. They mention Italy and the Adriatic but I'd say that a study like this would benefit from including mainland Greeks, other West Asians (Levant specially) and Egyptians, as well as some NW European outgroups (Scottish?).

I do welcome anyhow the sampling of Occitans, a much needed comparison from the viewpoint of Basque and Iberian genetics in particular.

From the study I have selected this PC graph (above) as most representative of their conclusions (fig. 3C). As I like to do, I have made some annotations in various colors: in red locations of the samples (so you don't have to check fig. 1 all the time), in gray the PC axes, in blue their possible meaning (my best hunch).

I have also marked two rather tight clusters (High Atlas and Pyrenees), both with a marked tendency to one pole of the PC2 axis, and two less clearly defined ones (Other North Africans and a mish-mash of Andalusians, Occitans and Cretans).

The High Atlas (or South-SE Moroccan) cluster is the most neatly distinct of all and shows very strong tendency in both PC axes. The African tendency (-PC1)>

The Pyrenean (or North-NE Iberian) cluster shares the same characteristics but with a clear European tendency instead of an African one.

The 'Other North African' cluster is really loose and is only defined because of the differences to the rest of groups, which should have been relativized if Egyptian and Levant samples would have been included most probably. Notice that the +PC2 pole, that I have dubbed 'Neolithic' just indicates an apparent more West Asian tendency, which might or not be Neolithic as such.

The Andalusia-Toulouse-Crete cluster is probably an artifact caused by their neutrality in the West Europe-West Asia (Paleo-Neolithic) axis rather than a true clustering. In any case, the clustering of the Cretan sample with SW Europeans is consistent in all three PC graphs what suggests that, at least in this aspect, Cretans are not so close to Anatolians as geography, history and haploid genetics suggests.

Also, the position of Asturians is very noticeable because they do not cluster at all with Pyrenean peoples but rather seem intermediate between the SW Europeans with a more Medeiterranean tendency (Andalusians, Occitans) and the Turkish sample. Knowing that in other markers, such as Y-DNA, Asturias tends to cluster with other West Iberian regions (Galicia, Leon, Portugal, Extremadura) one wonders if there was demic replacement in that country and, if so, when did it happen. Because it is something that is not obvious at all in the archaeological nor the historical records.

New analysis of African mtDNA

There is a new paper on 'African' mtDNA L(xM,N) with a focus on trans-Saharan flow:

Nourdin Harich et al., The trans-Saharan slave trade - clues from interpolation analyses and high-resolution characterization of mitochondrial DNA lineages. BMC-Evolutionary Biology 2010. Open access.

The authors conclude that all or most of this mtDNA flow happened in recent times within the trans-Saharan slave trade, mostly in the last few centuries of Arab domination. I think that this position is simply untenable (and I'd dare say falling into 'romantic' Orientalism per many of the reasonings like: some harems could be enormous, reaching even the extravagating number of 14,000 concubines) but there is interest anyhow in the data managed (from many other different studies mostly) and specially in the many nice distribution maps provided.

They do not only fall into pseudo-romantic visions of the slave trade and its importance but also fall in another pool of moving sands: excessive reliance on the molecular clock age estimation methods, when they draw their conclusions.

I really fail to see how MC age estimates of c. 10-15,000 years ago (L3) can justify a recent shared ancestry within the slave trade. They would actually point, if anything, to late Paleolithic or Epipaleolithic migrations (Capsian culture?) There is only one case with a more recent date in all the L3 comparisons but it's not between an Tropical and Mediterranean Africans but between one Jordanian and one North American (Afro-American?) Instead there are many L3 cases with older age estimates: up to 37,000 years ago.

They do not have age estimates for the other haplogroups, specially some L0 and L2 sublineages that also permeate the Sahara-Red Sea barrier.

As I have said before, some of these lineages look very old North of the Sahara (see here) and may have been pouring towards the North and NE since around the out-of-Africa migrational episode, which may be c. 120,000 BP, quite roughly.

They fail to analyze two particular haplogroups that are apparently more common North of the Sahara and East of the Red Sea: L3k and L3i respectively (L3i is plotted on a map but North African specific L3k is totally ignored).

As I said above, the best is the distribution maps, which allow for a quick visual impression of the distribution of the L(xM,N) lineages. Form these I think that:

• L0a shows a clear South-East Africa-West Asia distribution, with some very high concentrations in this last region. I previously mentioned that I think that L0a1b2 and L0a1c (?) are clear candidates for a Middle Paleolithic flow to West Asia related to the OOA migration.
  
• L1b surely had a Middle Sahelian origin but also clearly permeates across the Sahara. Within it, L1b1a2 is typical of the Red Sea area, while L1b1a5 is found in Mauritania and Cyprus (per Behar 2008). I think that its expansion happened some time after the L3 one (29 CR mutations to the root vs the 23 of L3) but may well belong to the late phase of the Abbassia Pluvial.
  
• L2a is so ubiquitous that cannot be analyzed as a whole. The timeline of its expansion is surely the same as that of L1b (again 29 CR mutations to the root) but it's much more impressive in its dimensions. Some of the high level sublineages (L2a1j) are exclusive of the Mediterranean, while some others are shared across the desert and surely deserve specific attention if we want to clarify anything.
  
• L2d. The map concentrates this lineage in West Sahara but (from Behar 2008) it's actually also present in Ethiopia, Algeria and Yemen. It's another candidate for an old lineage beyond the Sahara.
• L3b also looks pretty much North African/West Asian but has also presence in West and East Africa.
• L3d is an even more clear case of a North African/West Asian lineage: rare south of the Sahara and very common north of it.
  
• L3e looks by the map as split in a North African and a Bushman clades, however by Behar's data the situation is much more complex: scattered in many distinct African and West Asian populations, all very suggestive of an old spread within the L3 explosion (OOA related).
  
• L3f looks like spread from Sudan in all directions early on as well.
  
• L3i is shown as the Red Sea-South Arabia lineage it is and is a very strong candidate for OOA migration remnant in Southern Arabia. Can never be attributed to 'slave trade' but it's most probably the "little sister" (niece in fact) of M and N. It is actually closer to the L3 root than M and N by CR mutation count, so it's surely older, just that it did not reach South Asia.
  
• L3x is a very similar case, however it should be slightly more recent than L3i, with an age similar to that of the N and R explosions in further Asia.
• I'm wondering if L3w is just another name for L3k. It does not exist in PhyloTree but the distribution (Algeria, Ethiopia) is reminiscent of the one reported for L3k elsewhere.

There's no mention to L6 and L4b, both of which are also candidates for participation in the OOA flow to South Arabia.

In brief: it seems that the preconceptions of the authors are preventing them to reach to rational conclusions. The paper has some interest but this lays mostly on the illustrations (maps). Hopefully, as it happened with the similarly confused Balaresque paper, someone else (Morelli in this case) will take the bull by the horns and do something better with all that data.

Related posts:

• The early expansion of H. sapiens in Africa (mtDNA)
• Are we overlooking the signature of the Out of Africa?
• Reviewing the mtDNA lineages (notes): L0, L1, L2 and L5, L3'4'6
  

Origin of Aterian

Julien Riel-Salvatore writes today on new research on the Moroccan site of Dar es-Soltan (near Rabat), which has yielded dates of c. 110,000 BP for one of the oldest cultures of our species: Aterian, defined by its characteristically tanged points and the clear evidence of symbolic behavior in form of perforated shells, extended through North Africa.

He mentions that the same Germano-Moroccan team has been working in other sites dated to as early as 175,000 BP, what is really bordering the very origins of our species as such (oldest skulls are dated to 190,000 BP in Ethiopia and 160,000 in both Ethiopia and Morocco).

He also points to a very promising site at Ifri n'Amar (at the Rif) with a depth of 6.3 meters which seems to include also recent layers of this culture. No final dates are given anywhere but the fact that the tanged peculiarity persisted through Upper Paleolithic (Oranian, Capsian) makes me think of some sort of continuity even through change.

Ref. Press release of the Moroccan Ministry of Culture (in French and Arabic).

Are we overlooking the signature of the Out of Africa?

In my recent review of mtDNA L(xM,N), following mostly Behar 2008, I noticed that some of those lineages have distributions that either partly or totally do not seem to correspond with Africa South of the Sahara, but clearly penetrate since old times into West Asia, North Africa or both.

So I wonder: aren't some of them remnants of the migration Out of Africa, which never really made it to South Asia?

Let's see. The mutation count between "mitochondrial Eve" and the L3 node is of 23 (coding region only), to M is of 26 and to N of 28. This is roughly the "time frame" of the Out of Africa. By the "time" of 30 CR mutations the backflow of Eurasian mtDNA to West Asia was already beginning (mostly in form of R derivatives but also M1 and N1, and later some other N subclades too) and this became a clearly dominant flow. Also since M1 specially, scattered into East Africa, it's possible that there was a second flow from Africa in that period of colonization of West Asia that was, no doubt, coincident with the early Mousterian Puvial, when the region became less arid.

I find that the following lineages, normally tagged as "African", should have been involved in the Out of Africa episode:

L4b: at 24 mutations appears to have almost the same age as L3. It has two basal lineages: L4b1, which is only found in Yemen, and L4b2, typical of the Hadza and Sandawe, and found also among Ethiopians (with offshoots in Southern Africa and Arabia) and the Lisango of DR Congo and/or CAR.

L0f2: at 24 CR mutations looks only slightly younger than L3 and surely older than M. One of its sublineages (L0f2a) is only found at Oman, while the other is at Ethiopia (L0f2b).

L0a1b: at 26 CR mutations should have the same age as M. One of its sublineages is only found in Arabia Peninsula (L0a1b2), while the other is shared between Morocco and Southern Africa (L0a1b1).

L5c: at 28 CR mutations appears to be as old as N. One of its sublineages is found at Egypt (L5c2) and the other at Ethiopia (L5c1).

L3e2: at 29 CR mutations appears of the same age as R. L3e2a is shared by West and North Africa, while L3e2b has two lineages that are only found in Jordan (one of the L3e2b*) and Oman and Egypt (L3e2b2).

L6 shows 38 mutations, however the root of its very long stem is necessarily older than L3 (as it's the oldest branch of L3'4'6). Today it looks like Yemen harbors the highest diversity, with offshoots at Ethiopia and Egypt.

There are others but seem younger than the 30 mutations that I decided as limit and may represent other flows, maybe related to the arrival of M1 to East Africa.

It's quite striking, to say the least, that these lineages have been overlooked, they really appear to my eyes as participants of the OoA at a more modest scale, never reaching South Asia or beyond.

Also notice that Yemen and Oman appear insistently in this list. All mentioned lineages, except L5c and possibly L3e2 should represent local fixation processes when people took the coastal route via southern Arabia.


Update (Mar 14): corrected error re. L0f2 (nomenclature and mutation count).

I'd like also to add L3i to the list. It looks to me as centered at coastal Yemen and of similar age (slightly younger, 2 mutations downstream from L3, 25 from "Eve") as M.


Update (Mar 21): Browsing through the East Asian mtDNA data at Tanaka 2004, I just spotted 1/20 (5%) L2 among the Sakai (Semang Negritos) of southern Thailand (Trang province). Not sure what to think but it is odd indeed. Another unlikely survival?

Update (May 5): Map of a plausible Abbassia Pluvial (120-90,000 years ago) Out of Africa migration with the candidate mtDNA lineages to have participated in it (red: L3, purple: other):

Phoenicians don't seem to have practiced ritual infanticide often

This research seems to largely contradict the propaganda by Jews and Romans, their historical enemies.

Jefferey H. Schwartz et al. Skeletal Remains from Punic Carthage Do Not Support Systematic Sacrifice of Infants. PLoS ONE 2010. Open access.


Abstract

Two types of cemeteries occur at Punic Carthage and other Carthaginian settlements: one centrally situated housing the remains of older children through adults, and another at the periphery of the settlement (the “Tophet”) yielding small urns containing the cremated skeletal remains of very young animals and humans, sometimes comingled. Although the absence of the youngest humans at the primary cemeteries is unusual and worthy of discussion, debate has focused on the significance of Tophets, especially at Carthage, as burial grounds for the young. One interpretation, based on two supposed eye-witness reports of large-scale Carthaginian infant sacrifice [Kleitarchos (3rd c. BCE) and Diodorus Siculus (1st c. BCE)], a particular translation of inscriptions on some burial monuments, and the argument that if the animals had been sacrificed so too were the humans, is that Tophets represent burial grounds reserved for sacrificial victims. An alternative hypothesis acknowledges that while the Carthaginians may have occasionally sacrificed humans, as did their contemporaries, the extreme youth of Tophet individuals suggests these cemeteries were not only for the sacrificed, but also for the very young, however they died. Here we present the first rigorous analysis of the largest sample of cremated human skeletal remains (348 burial urns, N = 540 individuals) from the Carthaginian Tophet based on tooth formation, enamel histology, cranial and postcranial metrics, and the potential effects of heat-induced bone shrinkage. Most of the sample fell within the period prenatal to 5-to-6 postnatal months, with a significant presence of prenates. Rather than indicating sacrifice as the agent of death, this age distribution is consistent with modern-day data on perinatal mortality, which at Carthage would also have been exacerbated by numerous diseases common in other major cities, such as Rome and Pompeii. Our diverse approaches to analyzing the cremated human remains from Carthage strongly support the conclusion that Tophets were cemeteries for those who died shortly before or after birth, regardless of the cause.

Sahrawis could face death penalty

Seven Sahrawi citizens are being subject in Morocco to military trials for "treason". Their crime, to meet with the refugees at the Tindouf camps in Algeria and therefore having contact with the Polisario Front.

They were originally kidnapped by the occupation forces upon their return to West Sahara. Other five people were similary kidnapped but abandoned then in the desert.

The seven activists are jailed in the infamous high security prison of Salé, near Rabat. They are being accused of "attack against territorial integrity, against national security and meeting the enemy, and could even face the death penalty.

Morocco is an authoritarian regime where the monarch's power is absolute. It is, together with Swaziland, the last monarchy of Africa. In the 1970s, Morocco annexed unilaterally the former Spanish colony of West Sahara against the will of the people, sparking the continuity of the anti-colonialist guerrilla. The annexation is not recognized internationally and Morocco is in fact an occupying power.

Source: Rebelión.
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Ancient Guanche Y-DNA

Via Dienekes I have just come to know of a fascinating new research on ancient Y-DNA from the Canary Islands. It is most precious information, as it informs us not only of the patrilineal genetics of the aboriginal Guanches (the matrilineages had already been researched previously) but also, by extension, about the pre-Arabic Y-DNA of North Africa to some extent.

Rosa Fregel et al., Demographic history of Canary Islands male gene-pool:
replacement of native lineages by European. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 2009 (provisional PDF - open access).

The authors managed to extract Y-DNA from 30 individuals, most of them from La Palma, from the pre-colonial period. Additionally 42 individuals from the period of Castilian conquest were also sampled succefully.

The aboriginal Guanches (n=30) had the following haplogroups (sorted by numerical importance):

E1b1b1b (M81) - 8 - 26.7%
E1b1b1a (M78) - 7 - 23.3%
J1 (M267) - 5 - 16.7%
R1b1b2 (M269) - 3 - 10%
K(xP) (M9) - 3 - 10%
I (M170) - 2 - 6.7%
E1a (M33) - 1 - 3.3%
P(xR1) - 1 - 3.3%

Notes:
1. K* may be T. But notice that there are important amounts of K(xP,T) in modern Cape Verde, probably some odd founder effect and that the Canary Islands were briefly Portuguese at the very beginning of the colonial period. I'm wondering if it is some novel K sublineage, not yet described, specific of Canary Islands or rather North Africa.
2. P* is what? Could be R2, R(xR1,R2), Q or P(xQ,R) but all them are nearly unheard of so far west in the Old World.

In contrast, the Canarians of the conquest period were already in the process of Iberization: K*, I and P* were not identified anymore (this is admittedly odd for the case of I), the dominant "North African" lineages E1b1b1b, E1b1b1a and J1 show some clear reduction in their importance, R1b1b2 (very common in Iberia) increased massively up to 42.9% and R1a and E1b1a appeared for the first time (the latter probably as result of the African slave trade). This impact of colonization is much more marked than the one detected for mtDNA, emphasizing what we already knew that the colonization was largely a process carried on by men, as in Latin America.

What most interests me anyhow are these revelations:

1. J1 is pre-Arabic in North Africa. The same that the ancient Guanche mtDNA results showed that at least 50% of L(xM,N) pre-dates the slave trade, both in the Canary Islands and, by extension, mainland North Africa, this research shows that most of the North African J1 pre-dates the Muslim/Arabic conquest of the 7th century. It was something I already suspected (too common, clustered mostly in a distinct haplotype branch) so I am glad to see this suspicion confirmed.

2. "European" lineages R1b and I existed in North Africa prior to the Modern Age and probably prior to historical times altogether. Origins? If you're ready to challenge the TRMCA cult, maybe as old as Oranian (like their mtDNA counterparts H and V), if you're not, then blame Neolithic sailors maybe. The apportion detected 16.6% (5/30) for the sum of both lineages is just too high to be just erratics in any case.

In general, thank to these "fossil" records, we get a clear impresion that the modern DNA of North Africans is much like it used to be in the deep past and has been only minimally altered in the historical period.
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Haplogroup E1b1b1 and Afroasiatic languages

Originally found at Dienekes.

Andrew Lancaster, Y Haplogroups, Archaeological Cultures and Language Families: A Review of the Possibility of Multidisciplinary Comparisons Using the Case of Haplogroup E-M35. Journal of Genetic Genealogy, 2009. (PDF).

The paper is a very nice and interesting meditation on the state of the art of our knowledge on the important haplogroup E1b1b or its main component E1b1b1, spread through North and NE Africa, West Asia and Europe. As a related issue, the extent and possible history of Afroasiatic languages is also explored in depth.

A must read for anyone interested in West Eurasian and African human genetics.
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Brief review of recent mtDNA H info

Haplogroup H (mtDNA) has been popping up at Dienekes' and Mathilda's blogs several times as of late. In order to keep a clear reference, here is the list of the papers:

1. V. Alvarez-Iglesias, A. Mosquera-Miguel et al. New Population and Phylogenetic Features of the Internal Variation within Mitochondrial DNA Macro-Haplogroup R0. PLoS-ONE, 2009. (open access)
2. H. Ennafaa, V. M Cabrera et al. Mitochondrial DNA haplogroup H structure in North Africa. BioMed Central Genetics 2009. (open access)
3. L. Cherni et al. Post-last glacial maximum expansion from Iberia to North Africa revealed by fine characterization of mtDNA H haplogroup in Tunisia. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 2008. (abstract only - full paper behind paywall)
4. D. Caramelli et al. A 28,000 Years Old Cro-Magnon mtDNA Sequence Differs from All Potentially Contaminating Modern Sequences. PLoS-ONE, 2008. (open access)
5. H. Chandler, B. Sykes and J. Zilhao. Using ancient DNA to examine genetic continuity at the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in Portugal. Actas del III Congreso del Neolítico en la Península Ibérica, 2005. (PDF - freely accessible)

Fig. 3 from paper #1
H subclades' distribution in Europe, West and Central Asia

(1) and (2) are just out of the oven and it is really nice that such important papers are open access. (1) covers Europe, West Asia and Central Asia, while (2) focuses in North Africa (with context references for West Asia and Iberia), being the perfect complement of (1), illustrating how West European H1 and H3 comprise the largest part of North African H (which in turn is 25% of all regional mtDNA). (3) is sadly behind a paywall but the main conclusion visible in the abstract: Although no signs of local expansion were detected, which would allow a clear dating of their introduction, the younger and less diverse Tunisian H1 and H3 lineages indicate Iberia as the radiating centre.

(4) is a most important research that has found CRS haplotype in the HVR-I (most likely H) in a 28,000 years old individual from Paglicci Cave, Puglia, Italy. This discovery clashes directly with he usual MCH hunches that make this subclade much recent and document that haplogroup H and at least some of its subclades were already common in the early Gravettian and are no modern developement at all. (5) is an older yet relevant paper that shows that haplogroup H was strongly dominant in both Epipaleolithic and Neolithic Portuguese, along with some U and less important clades.

Overall it seems reasonably clear that H expansion dates at least from Gravettian times (no other cultural group has been so pan-European ever) and that its expansion into North Africa suggest that Iberomaurusian (Oranian) culture was with all likehood derived from Southern Iberian Gravetto-Solutrean. It also seems very clear that the DNA "molecular clock" does not seem to be ticking at the usually speculated rythms at all.

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Update: Another paper on aDNA, including H, that I had forgotten is R. Kèfi et al. Diversité mitochondriale de la population de Taforalt (12.000 ans bp - maroc): une approche génétique a l’étude du peuplement de l’afrique du nord. Anthropologie 2005. Reviewed and translated in its essentials by Mathilda several months ago [note: previous link has gone broken but I found a Power Point direct download from Pasteur Institut].

The HVS-I haplotype sequencing of 23 bone remains from Taforalt cave, Morocco, yielded the following results:

· H or U (CRS, most likely all H): 11 (47.8%)
· H (not CRS): 4 (17.4%)
· JT: 3 (13%)
· U6: 2 (8.7%)
· V: 2 (8.7%)
· L3, M or N: 1 (4.3%)

JT means JT(xJ,xT), a very rare finding, exclusive nowadays of North Africa and Italy. The authors mention that this same mtDNA pool is the one found among modern Notheren Moroccan Berbers who live in that same area.
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North African mtDNA derived from Iberian one

Found at Dienekes' Anthropology Blog, original paper at DOI: 10.1353 (paywall).

MtDNA H lineages from Tunisia are less diverse and within the variability found in Iberia. Therefore they are most probably a derivate. This fits terribly well with what I have been pondering in the last months or even years about the early origins of North Africans and specifically of Oranian culture (also known as Iberomaurusian) , so I'm quite excited about it.

Let's reconsider all elements:

Genetics:

• North African mtDNA H derived from Iberian H (also notice the relatively high concentration haplogroup V in Tunisia and nearby areas, that must be of European origin as well)
• North African mtDNA U6 less diverse than Iberian one. The lack of U6 elswhere in Europe and the greater diversity of its derived subclade U6a in NE Africa, has led some scholars to think it arrived from West Asia. But overall Iberia has by large the highest diversity of this clade, followed by Morocco, including haplogroups U6b and U6c, that are not found in NE Africa. See my earlier post on U6 and the Maca-Meyer paper on the matter.
• Odd rather common R1b ill-studied clades in NE Africa (Sudan, Upper Egypt) and also in Northern Cameroon, where it's dominant among some groups. While in this case the diversity argument is not so clear (most Iberian and European R1b belongs to a single subclade - but not all), we can't forget that Y-DNA is potentially much more susceptible to drift and that, in Western Europe, was affected by the LGM bottleneck and the Epipaleolithic demographic movements after it may have spread into Africa. R1b is not dominant but it's still a somewhat important haplogroup in NW Africa (I understand that the Capsian/Afroasiatic countertide replaced it largely by E1b1). Most North African R1b haplotypes connect much better with European than with West Asian clades in fact (there is one exception though).

Archaeology:

• The curious synchretic SE Iberian Gravetto-Solutrean culture dates from c. 22,000 BP (late 20th century calibrations, today it'd be probably somewhat older, like 25,000 BP maybe). The Solutrean of Mallaetes and Parpalló is among the oldest ones (only surpassed by that of Dordogne) but, unlike what happened in the Franco-Cantabrian region, where it became dominant soon after, in SE Iberia, it suffered a Gravettizing reaction that created a unique techno-cultural complex. Some of their artifacts fit extremely well with the back-tipped style found in North Africa, that also follow the all-covering Solutrean style of retouch.
• The Oranian culture of North Africa, concentrated along the coasts, was early on called Iberomaurusian because the affinities with Iberian techno-complex appeared evident. Later, as doubts about its origin mounted up, it was renamed Oranian. In the last times it has been common to claim that Oranian arrived from Sudan or Egypt but that is not the least clear in fact. What does appear to have migrated from that area is the Epipaleolithic, maybe even Mesolithic (grain-gathering) Capsian culture, that has a more interior distributon and that was probably the one spreading Afroasiatic (Berber) language in the area. Oranian earliest dates are of c. 20,000 BP and its human remains are considered Crô-Magnon type, a type that was most common in Europe with the Gravettian culture (though in Mediterranean Iberia also within the "Solutrean").
  
• The Qurta rock art of Upper Egypt (right in the crossroads where later Capsian may have originated) is incredibly similar to European rock art, specially to that of Côa valley in Portugal (see previous post on this matter). This artwork is dated to c. 16,000 BP.
  

All these archaeological elements fit in a chronological sequence Iberia-NW Africa-NE Africa that would be partly reversed later on with the Capsian (which did not arrive to Iberia though). The rather good match with genetic identifiers also seems to support this scheme. Maybe some corners need to be polished but I am every day much more persuaded that the ultimate origin of North Africans is in Europe, specifically in Iberia, rather that West Asia - even if later waves from the Nile and West Asia itself may have obscured this correlation.
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Ancient major river found in Lybian desert

The waterway, that was active in the last interglacial period, when some humans crossed the Sahara, at least into Palesine and North Africa, offering an alternative route to the Nile and Arabian coasts for ancient humans reaching out to new lands, specially for North Africa in this case.

More details at BBC Science & Enviroment (could not find the original article at PNAS)

Map showing the now extinct river (blue)

Morocco: conscience prisioners nearing death after two months of hunger strike

Ignacio Ramonet, director of Le Monde Diplomatique, writes at Rebelión on the ongoing unrest in Morocco, the silence in European media and the many cases of most brutal torture.

Her name is Zahra Budkur, she is twenty years old, student at Marakech University. After taking part in a protest march, she was beaten by police, jailed along with hundred other protesters in the sinister police station of Jamaâ El Fna square (visited daily by thousand tourists) and brutally tortured. Policemen forced her to remain naked, while she was having her menstruaion, for days before her comrades. In order to protest against this abuse, she began a hunger strike and now is in state of comma. Her life hangs from a thread.

Has anybody in Europe heard of this young woman? Have our media even mentione the tragic situation of Zahra? Not a word. Not either on another student, Abdelkebir El Bahi, thrown by police from a third storey and now bound to a wheelchair for the rest of his life because of backbone fracture.

Zero information either on the other 18 sudents from Marakech, arrested with Zahra, who, in order to protest their arrest in Bulharez prision, are in hunger strike since June 11. Some cannot stand anymore, several vomit blood, others are losing their sight and yet others, in comma, had to be hospitalized.

All this among the general indifference and silence. Only their relatives have protested, what has been seen as sign of rebellion, and have been hatefully beaten for it.

All this happens not in any remote country like Tibet, Colombia or South Osetia but just 14 km from Europe, in a country visited every year by millions of Europeans and whose regime enjoys in our media and among our leaders of great tolerance and complacency.

Nevertheless, since last year, all around Morocco protests multiply: urban revolts against living costs and rural uprisings against abuses. The bloodiest mutiny happened last June 7th at Sidi Ifni when a peaceful demonstration against unemployement in that city was repressed with such brutality that caused a major uprising with street barricades, building burnings and attempts of lynching some authorities. In response police forces acted with unmeasured brutality. (...)

The article continues analyzing the silencing of press, the vanished hopes of democratization with the young king (tyrant) Mohammed VI, the feudal latifundist property (and power) structure of the country, the fast growing economy (thanks to the millions of emigrants and their money transfers). But he also comments on the strong dynamics of civil society and its growing political activities, organized both in secularist and islamist groups - the latter being most benefitted from state repression, while it is precisely the alleged threat of islamism what (among other reasons) justifies the blind eye of European authorities and media.

Source: Rebelión: El polvorín Marruecos

Related posts:
- More on the brutal repression in Sidi Ifni
- Morocco attacks Al Jazeera for reporting protests and deaths in Sidi Ifni

Discovered Upper Egyptian Late Paleolithic rock art

Via Tim (not yet at Remote Central due to technical issues but soon to come).

The 51st issue of the International Newsletter on Rock Art (PDF) reveals the impressive findings at Qurta, not far from Edfu, in Upper Egypt, described as the Côa of Africa.

The open-air art complex includes many engravings like the one above, mostly of bovids. Unlike later pre-Dynastic art, these images show a strong sense of naturalism and movement, they also tend to represent individuals rather than scenes, the figures can be pretty large (as much as 80 cm) and sometimes they integrate the irregularities of the wall in the drawing itself. Human figures (rare) are, unlike animal ones very schematic. In all this they resemble other late UP art of Europe and Anatolia.

The author, Dirk Huyge, suggests a date of 16-15,000 years BP, based on the C14 datations of the UP settlements found just under them and in nearby areas, belonging to the Ballanian-Silisian culture, whose members hunted precisely the animals represented in these murals.

Huyge ponders that the style similitudes with Western European art are impressive though the kind of influence that could have moved this style through such long distances is impossible to determine on light of the available evidence (scarce for North African Paleolithic). They says that only one expert has criticised this datation, Jean-Loïc Le Quellec, who claims instead an stylistic connection with the so-called Bubaline-Naturalistic art of the Saharan Neolithic. The author replies arguing that this style is not as naturalistic as its name suggest but rather somewhat caricaturesque of the criatures imaged and pondering the diferent kind of fauna depicted and archaeologically known to have existed in Upper Egypt in the different periods.

Another discovery mentioned is the increase in more of 500 items in the account of the rock art of the Yagour area of Moroccan Western High Atlas. The overall importance and diversity of the North African rock art is also considered in yet another article.

There is also an article on the very serious conservation issues at Lascaux cave (Aquitaine), plus another on the Interpretation Center of Candamo cave (Asturias), that has opened a replica of the original cave for visitors.

Kabylia demands autonomy

Kabylia is maybe the more self-conscious Berber region of Algeria and one that has suffered much, specially since Algerian independence, though its historical autonomy was supressed initially by the French. Now the Movement for the Autonomy of Kabylia (MAK) is officially calling for autonomy taking the opportunity of a period of relative calm.

The text of the declaration is too long to transcribe here but you can read it either at North of Africa or at Kabylia Info. It is an interesting read as it makes in relatively few lines a good abstract of the long troubled history of this country.

I really hope they get their political and cultural autonomy as soon as possible. It is time of decolonization in Western Europe as in North Africa. Berbers, as Basques, have been around since Prehistory but the cultural and political imperialism of other nations have put both on the verge of survival. It's time to change that. It is time for the rights of the native peoples of the Old World to be finally respected.

Kabyle-speaking area

Algeria: another fundamentalist NATO ally

You have to dig a bit to find info on Algeria these days. Sure a bomb now and then but little more. And what's happening meanwhile? Emergency rule. And what's happening under emergency rule? Here there is an example:

A journalist of Le Figaro has been arrested an put on trial. Why? For terrorism? For writing too critically of Bouteflika's regime? Nope. For allegedly converting to Christianity. And I say allegedly because the evidence is circumstantial: ownership of two bibles. Journalists at the trial had their booknotes removed.

The case is not about Christianity and Islam as I see it but about civil rights. Do Algerians have civil rights? Or is it actually a fundamentalist state like Saudi Arabia or Egypt? It seems the second. All these regimes, from Morocco to Oman are actively supported with western money, be it from the USA, France, Israel or whoever. The only goal of these regimes seems to create a barrier of fanatic ignorance between Europe and the rest of the world. If a country decides to go laicist, like Iraq, it's quickly invaded and trown to the kind of Al Sadr. Certainly there is no more freedom for women to go unveiled in US-occupied Iraq than under Saddam, whichever his faults.

The Algerian president also made signs of this further fundamentalization of Algeria recently, when he declared before a fundamentalist demonstration that "the koran is the constitution of Algerian society".

Source: The Middle East Media Research Institute (via Marjou at North Africa Forum)

Revision of Aterian, U6 and North African prehistory in general

Yesterday I let myself be carried away by the apparent antiquity of Aterian in North Africa. I was already persuaded that Aterian and the arrival of mitochondrial DNA U6 to North Africa was the same thing. True that I had arrived to such conclussions when I thought Aterian had much more recent dates... enfin.

Something I should have re-read before posting that is: N. Maca-Meyer's paper on the philogeny and possible spread scenarios of U6 in North Africa. True that they conclude that the arrival of U6 to North Africa originated in West Asia... but they also notice that the nucleotide diversity of the haplogroup is higher in Iberia than in Africa. The problem? That U6 is seldom seen elsewhere in Europe, so she thinks that the clade arrived to Spain via North Africa and not vice versa. Maca-Meyer thinks that U6 arrived from West Asia via East Africa, based only in the greatest diversity of one subclade U6a in East Africa.

The estimated age of U6 is of c. 66,000 BP (+/- 25,000 years), what certainly could make it coincident with the arrival of Aterian via East Africa (The Horn). Aterian seems indeed most closely related to African Middle Stone Age, like Indian Middle Paleolithic, with dates c. 60-73,000 BP but some reaching as early as 90,000 BP. So yes, in principle, Aterian and U6 correlate well.

Another possibility could be that U6 arrived to North Africa from Iberia with the Oranian (Iberomaurusian) culture, that is believed to be an offshot of Mediterranean Iberian Gravettian or later Gravettizing cultures. Nevertheless Oranian correlates more clearly with haplogroups H and V. If that was the case, it would not be the only case of a U clade that is as old as Aurignacian but is found only rarely in Europe, due to drift. The case of U8a can serve maybe as counter-example. If U6 was accidentally concentrated in Mediterranean Iberia due to founder effect, it could well have expanded to North Africa from there along H, V and possibly other smaller clades without ever migrating to continental Europe, at least in significative ammounts.

This can only be understood if one knows reasonably well the peculiarities of Mediterranean Iberian UP, always reciever and almost never exporter of culture (with the possible exception of some facies of Solutrean, restricted anyhow to the Iberian peninsula). In Aurignacian, Gravettian, Magdalenian and the epi-Paleolithic, Mediterranean Iberia is always at the recieving end, at least in what regards to Europe.

So personally I would not exclude the model of a European (Med. Iberian) origin of U6. If we are not going to push back the ages of the OOA event too much, then it looks the more plausible explanation. Occam's razor seems to favor it, really.

Still the late Paleolithic of North Africa is intriguing. The older ages of Aterian have been reviewed to as early as c. 90,000 BP (Cremaschi et al, 1998) and the end of this culture is uncertain, with dates wildly varying between 65,000 BP (Cremaschi, who contests older C14 dates) to 25,000 or even 15,000 BP (Thillet).

Then you have the Oranian (Iberomaurusian) with an older datation of c. 22,000 BP (source: J. Escola Pujol, on Uadi Kenta - in Catalan), making it coincident with the complex Gravettian-Solutrean transition in Mediterranean Iberia (that culminates with a Gravettizing Solutrean that could well be called a Solutreanized epi-Gravettian as well). The most recent dates could be of c. 7000 BP.

And then you have the more famous Capsian cuture that is clearly epi-Paleolithic, coexisting with Oranian c.10,000-6000 BP, that is of quite clear East African origin (Sudan, The Horn) and that is with all likehood related to the spread of Y-DNA E3b and Afroasiatic languages (Berber).

Aterian and the coastal migration model

It seems that Aterian, the North African paleolithic culture (attributable to Homo sapiens), occupies the whole range of dates between c. 85,000 BP to the Epipaleolithic, when new waves (Iberomaurusian, Capsian) may have arrived from Spain and Sudan.

Recently these findings have been confirmed by archaeological research at Taforalt, Morocco, that have yielded some of the oldest known ornaments, competing for that title with Skuhl cave (Palestine) and Oued Djebanna (Algeria).

Aterian tools

Fine so far. But there is a problem: the deepest genetic layer in North Africa seems to be mtDNA haplogroup U6, that is related with other U clades of West, Central and South Eurasia. This clade is believed to have arrived to North Africa with the earliest human colonists, much like its "sisters" U5 and U8a seem to have arrived to Europe too. But, while European early sapiens colonization may date to 48-40,000 BP, not being in contradiction with the mainstream model of colonization of Eurasia from a single out of Africa migration c. 75-60,000 BP, the Aterian very old C14 dates do.

And there is nothing between Aterian and the Epipaleolithic that can explain that.

So I am starting to question the coastal migration model too, or at least the dates attributed to it.

No hardcore conclussions yet but what if... the OOA event happened much earlier, maybe c. 120,000 BP, and had a westward branch via the Levant that ended up in North Africa? There are certainly H. sapiens remains in the Levant that are date c. 100,000 BP (though they are believed to have been replaced by Neanderthals, that are dated to c. 60,000 BP).

In South Asia (key area for Eurasian prehistory) archaeology can hardly differentiate between pre-sapiens and sapiens technologies. The divide between Middle and Upper UP is placed, somewhat arbitrarily, at c. 30,000 BP (much later than in Central and West Eurasia) and human or hominin remains are very scarce anyhow. But, like in West Asia, disconinued blade tools (preluding UP somewhat) are occasionally found with much older dates. In West Asia this was (more or less consistently) attributed to Neanderthals but it is very unlikely that the findings of India can be attributed to them too.

Check for instance Petraglia et al., 2007: Middle Paleolithic Assemblages from the Indian Subcontinent Before and After the Toba Super-Eruption:

We provide here firm chronological evidence that hominins were present in the Jurreru River valley, south India, immediately before and after the YTT eruption. Analyses of the archaeological industries recovered from the site indicate a strong element of technological continuity between the pre- and post-Toba assemblages. Together with the presence of faceted unidirectional and bidirectional bladelike core technology, these pre- and post-Toba industries suggest closer affinities to African Middle Stone Age traditions (such as Howieson's Poort) than to contemporaneous Eurasian Middle Paleolithic ones that are typically based on discoidal and Levallois techniques (Fig. 3). The coincidence of (i) evidence of hominins flexible enough to exhibit continuity through a major eruptive event, (ii) technology more similar to the Middle Stone Age than the Middle Paleolithic, and (iii) overlap of the Jwalapuram artifact ages with the earlier end of the most commonly cited genetic coalescence dates (21–23) may suggest the presence of modern humans in India at the time of the YTT event. This interpretation would be consistent with a southern route of dispersal of modern humans from the Horn of Africa (24); the latter, however, will remain speculative until other Middle Paleolithic sites in the Indian subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula (25) are excavated and dated.

Jwalapuram tools

And also:
- Modern Human Origins and the Evolution of Behavior in the Later Pleistocene Record of South Asia, by Hanna V.A. James and Michael D. Petraglia, 2005 (no link found).
- J.B. Harrod, Synopsis of the Paleolithic of India (PDF).

From this last paper (a list of Indian Paleolithic sites with brief descriptions), I specially noticed two sites from before the Toba event that show blade creation. One (Hokra 1-a and Gurha, Thar Desert, Rajasthan) is not dated but the other (Patpara, Middle Son Valley) has a C14 date of at least 100,000 BP. Blade based tools are also found after the Toba event in several sites that may be dated since c. 45,000 BP.

But even if the earlier blade industries are not really consolidated UP (like happens with Levantine Jabroudian, where stone blades were made long before UP apparently by Neanderthals without continuity), presence of anatomically modern humans does not need to be related to them anyhow (in fact that is the case in may other parts of the World). And the technoligical continuity in India an the very early dates of Sapiens-made Aterian in North Africa, strongly suggest an out-of-Africa event much earlier than Toba eruption. Maybe c. 100,000 BP. There was a warm peak (a more favorable climate probably) c. 105,000 BP that could account for such migration maybe.