Echoes from the past (Aug 29) - various interesting news

Follow here a series of links and comments on issues that are of some prehistoric or genetic interest (plus a well fed section of astronomy news this time), which I have got no time to deal with so far... or do not come with enough info to merit a separate entry... or are not of great interest to me.

Neanderthal trowel at Abric Romaní (Catalonia)

Print and reconstruction of the trowel

The almost hollow print of what once was a trowel (or similar) has been found at the important Paleolithic cave of Abric Romaní (Capellanes, Catalonia). The print came with some residues which indicate that the instrument was left at the fire when it was already off, so it did only burn superficially, later being deprived of oxygen by water and moss. 

The artifact's length is of 32 cm, with a maximum width of 8 cm and may have been used to manage the fire. It is dated to 56,000 years ago.

··> El Mundo[es], Neanderfollia[cat].

More mammoth petroglyphs in North America

I recently mentioned a mammoth engraving from Florida, which should be from c. 13,000 BP. Another place where such engravings seem to exist is San Juan River, near Bluff (Utah).

That is what Ekkehart Malotki and Henry D. Wallace argue in a paper published at Stone Pages, which includes many images of petroglyphs, only a few of which look like mammoths, one of them very clearly so.

The mammoth (left, eroded) has a bison partially superimposed (right)

··> PDF at Stone Pages.

Opium ritual and medicinal use in Iberian Neolithic

Ritual use was some times associated to these idols

The opium poppy grows spontaneously in most of Europe, specially in the Mediterranean. I was knowledgeable that Western Danubian farmers had grown and used this narcotic in Germany and nearby areas but this is the first explicit reference I know of its use in the Mediterranean basin or the Iberian peninsula.

Sadly this material is in Spanish language and I don't have room nor time here to deal with it properly. Hopefully later on.

The evidence of use of this drug is analyzed in several sites, most of them in Andalusia but also from Catalonia...

··> B. Gavilán Ceballos, USO RITUAL Y MEDICINAL DE LA PAPAVER SOMNIFERUM EN EL NEOLITICO DE LA PENINSULA IBERICA (UNED, 2007). Found at Pileta de Prehistoria[es].

Paleolithic findings from Triacastela, Galicia

Pileta de Prehistoria[es] also tells us of research in a relatively ill-documented region: Galicia. The findings at Triacastela are from the Middle Paleolithic (Neanderthals) and Upper Paleolithic (H. sapiens). From this last period a decorated dart has been found:

Documentary on destroyed archaeological site

The last bit I want to highlight from Pileta is a documentary (in Spanish) on the destruction by private businesspeople of the archaeological patrimony of the cave of Chaves (Aragon). I already mentioned this crime against humankind in 2010 at my old blog.

··> Chaves la Memoria expoliada (video at Pileta de Prehistoria, in Spanish, 55 mins).

Archaic immune introgression?

I mentioned in June some speculation on HLA (immune system) introgression from Neanderthals or other archaic Homo in Asia. The corresponding paper has been published with more data but is pay per view (supp. material is accessible however). Back in the day I thought it looked at least partly unlikely (as the corresponding haplotypes are in some cases found in Africa).

Przewalski horses at the origin of domesticated horse Y-DNA

While horse mtDNA is most diverse and suggests many origins, all known Y-DNA comes from a single lineage... which happens to be related to that of the Przewalski wild horses of Mongolia via an ancient intermediate lineage located at Tuva Republic.

Ancient wild horses from Siberia and Alaska however had much greater Y-DNA diversity.

··> Science Daily, Nature (PPV).

Tunisian lineages

Dienekes mentions two new papers on Tunisian Y-DNA (and one of them also on mtDNA), yet they are both pay per view and the announced results seem not really novel. Anyhow, for the reference, they are:

• Karima Fadhlaoui-Zid et al., Genetic structure of Tunisian ethnic groups revealed by paternal lineages. AJPA 2011.
  
• H. Enafaa et al., Mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosome microstructure in Tunisia. Nature 2011.

Snow White and the red apple

Artistic rendering of Snow White

Unnamed Dwarf Planet (Snow White 2007 OR10) gives us some new information on itself and the Kuiper Belt. To begin with Snow White happens to be red in fact, what requires some explanation. 

Mike Brown, the man who demoted Pluto and discovered Eris, Sedna and a host of other Transneptunian objects, explains it in detail in three successive entries at his blog: The redemption of Snow White (part 1, part 2 and part 3).

Also news story at Science Daily.

Panspermia? Yes but from Earth outwards

Panspermia is the theory that proposes that life (in its primitive forms) may have arrived to Earth from outer space. Modeling of meteorite impacts however suggest that the opposite may also be true. These impacts could well have ejected materials with terrestrial life such as bacteria or even those hardy water bugs known as tardigrades, which can withstand almost anything.

So 'earthling' life may already exist on Mars, Venus or other planets, moons or asteroids of the Solar System... and there was no need for human-made spacecrafts for them to make such journeys. 

Direct evidence will have to wait however: it is just a model.

··> BBC.

Diamond planet

Extremely compressed carbon seems to be what a planet, once a white dwarf star, is made of. That is like saying that the whole planet is the largest known diamond ever. 

Sadly for those thinking about mining it, it lays at 4000 light-years of distance, 1/8 of the path from here to the Galactic Center.

··> SD.

R1b-M269 debate: new paper vindicates my stand

A must read:

George B.J. Busby et al., The peopling of Europe and the cautionary tale of Y chromosome lineage R-M269. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 2011. Open access. [doi: 10.1098/rspb.2011.1044]

This paper is an almost total vindication of what I have been saying, specially in the last year since the infamous Balaresque paper was published and got all that undeserved media and blogs' clout.

What I said back then can be found at my old blog Leherensuge:

• R1b1b2a1 [now R1b1a2a1]: Neolithic or what?! (on the infamous Balaresque 2010). 
• Again on Neolithic and European Y-DNA (my own digression on why a Neolithic demographic replacement is nonsense).
• Finally some good research on R1b1b2a1 [now R1b1a2a1]! (on Morelli 2010).
• R1b1b2a1 [now R1b1a2a1] is almost unique of West Europe (on Myres 2010).

Actually Busby et al. make reference to all these three papers once and again, however they seem to side almost totally with Morelli (whose research I applauded as well) and disagree profoundly with Balaresque. No wonder.

Sample

They used the Myres sample, enlarged specially for better coverage of Western Europe (fig. S2). Sadly the demographic center of Paleolithic Europe is clearly undersampled (excepted Provence, well covered by Myres and dot in what are probably Toulouse and Santander respectively): not a single sample was taken in Perigord (Dordogne), Gascony or the Basque Country in what is probably a major shortcoming.

Molecular clock 'not credible'

They also make reference to what is usually known as the molecular clock, with a quite negative remark of the methods used at present:

... we conclude that at the present time it is not possible to make any credible estimate of divergence time based on the sets of Y-STRs used in recent studies. Furthermore, we show that it is the properties of Y-STRs, not the number used per se, that appear to control the accuracy of divergence time estimates, attributes which are rarely, if ever, considered in practise. 

In the discussion section they mention again this issue:

Dating of Y chromosome lineages is notoriously controversial [25,41–44], the major issue being that the choice of STR mutation rate can lead to age estimates that differ by a factor of three (i.e. the evolutionary [25] versus observed (genealogical) mutation rates [33,45]). Interestingly, despite the fact that Myres et al. and Balaresque used different STR mutation rates and dating approaches, their TMRCA estimates overlap: 8590–11 950 years using a mutation rate of 6.9 × 10⁻⁴ per generation, and 4577–9063 years using an average mutation rate of 2.3 × 10⁻³, respectively. Separately, Morelli calculated the TMRCA based only on Sardinian and Anatolian chromosomes, and estimated the R-M269 lineage to have originated 25 000–80 700 years ago) [22], based on the same evolutionary mutation rate [25,41] as Myres et al.

Leaves any casual (and even knowledgeable) observer quite perplex, right? The conclusion of the authors is clear: the molecular clock can't be trusted.

Even Dienekes admits it, saying that this paper could well be titled An epitaph for Y-STR.

Diversity 

Busby and colleagues followed the same methods as Balaresque but instead of considering R1b1a2 as a single amorphous haplogroup, they consider the various clades downstream of it as distinct entities:

We next calculated STR diversity for each population for the whole R-M269 lineage, and for the R-S127 and R-M269(xS127) sub-haplogroups, and investigated the relationship between average STR variance and longitude and latitude in exactly the same fashion as Balaresque. (...) We normalized latitude and longitude, and performed a linear regression between these values and the median microsatellite variance for the three R-M269 sub-haplogroups. We found no correlation with latitude (data not shown) and, contrary to Balaresque, we did not find any significant correlation between longitude and variance for any haplogroup.

The results are apparent in fig. 2 (left frequency, right variance in relation to longitude):

If anything the result is the opposite, showing a mild tendency for greater variance towards the West.

They explain the differences with Balaresque as follows:

The Balaresque dataset presents genotype data only to the resolution of SNP R-M269. Our results show that the vast majority of R-M269 samples in Anatolia, approximately 90 per cent, belong to the R-M269(xS127) sub-haplogroup. Removing these Turkish populations from the Balaresque data and repeating the regression removes the significant correlation (R² = 0.23, p = 0.09; details in the electronic supplementary material and figure S2). These populations are therefore intrinsic to the significant correlation.

This is something I already noticed back in the day: that Balaresque's bias blinded her to the subtleties of the downstream structure of the haplogroup, making a blank slate of all the clade.

Probably the apparent greater diversity observed in Turks and Armenians is caused by the addition of (1) great diversity of R1b1a2(xR1b1a2a1) plus (2) an also diverse (but clearly derived, even in Balaresque's own data) backflow of European R1b1a2a1.

This backflow must be pre-Neolithic as far as I can discern, because since Neolithic the flow of people has been almost exclusively from East to West.

Another serious criticism they make about Balaresque is the use of an Y-search dataset representing Ireland (surprisingly amateurish!) When compared with actual samples (Y-search relies on the good will of online reporters) the low diversity that Balaresque found for Ireland vanished.

A 'West Asian' sublineage of R1b1a2?

This paper falls short of finding the defining SNP for such speculated sub-haplogroup but it does confirm the finding of Morelli 2010 of the Eastern or Anatolian bloc making up an STR-defined distinct clade of its own. My annotations on Morelli's work:

What is most intriguing in my opinion is that, if this second haplogroup is confirmed, then R1b1a2 may have ultimately expanded from the Balcans, where most carriers of the core node seem to live today.

This could be consistent with the finding by Busby now of greatest frequency of R1b1a2* in Bulgaria and Romania (Morelli's 'Balcans' are actually Serbia, where the lineage is rare).

Distribution of some sublineages

This paper also expands a bit our knowledge of the distribution of the most common (and best studied) sublineages under R1b1a2a1 (fig. 3):

(a) R1b1a1a1a (S21), (b) R1b1a1a1b4 (S145), (c) R1b1a1a1b3 (S28)

It must be said here that the major known sublineages of R1b1a1a1b (P312/S116) are as follow (update: corrected Mar 15 2012):

• R1b1a2a1a1b2 (Z196) ··> most basally diverse among Basques and Gascons but also common among Catalans and other East Iberians and found as well among "French", Bavarians and (it seems now) some Scandinavians (see comments)
• R1b1a2a1a1b3 (S28/U152) ··> see map (c) above
• R1b1a2a1a1b4 (L21/M529/S145, L459) ··> see map (b) above

In addition most R1b1a1a1b* (not yet classified as any sublineage) exists in SW Europe: in France and Iberia, where often makes up the majority of the Y-DNA pool.  I have therefore argued that this lineage probably coalesced within the Franco-Cantabrian region, around which all sublineages fan out. However it is admittedly hard to explain the penetration into North Italy - but I cannot think of any better explanation because neither Italy nor Central Europe seem to host enough basal diversity to be considered potential homelands for R1b1a2a1a1b. 

I have also argued that the "brother" haplogroup R1b1a2a1a (M405/S21/U106), shown in map (a) above, may be related to the somewhat distinct Hamburgian-Ahresnburgian-Maglemösean techno-cultural complex of Northern Europe. The people of this cultural group surely saw their expansion favored by the end of the Ice Age.

New research questions the notion of greater Eastern diversity of R1b1a2-M269

[Update: the paper is open access and I have commented it in some length in a separate post].

R1b1a2 is the former R1b1b2a, which for some odd reason was renamed earlier this year at the reference site YSOGG. As most readers will know this is the dominant haplogroup in Western Europe, having also important presence in the Balcans and West Asia (being instead rare in East Europe, except among Bashkirs). The lineage is particularly concentrated among those peoples that accumulate high frequencies other European-specific markers like blood group Rh-: Basques and Celtic-speaking peoples of the Atlantic fringe. For that and other reasons the lineage has been considered a plausible lineage of Paleolithic origin, as opposed to other genetic markers that may have arrived since the Neolithic onwards. 

At the moment all I know is from this BBC article, because the paper is embargoed (and it is unlikely to be published open access - though I hope so). The authors are Cristian Capelli and George Busby. Capelli already dealt in the past with the British Y-DNA landscape producing a work that is quite good quality and a reference that time has not eroded almost at all.

According to the BBC explanation the authors argue that the molecular clock hypothesis is useless and that there is a systematic bias for recent dates in most papers. 

But we knew that already, at least I did (I have been arguing that for the last many years). More interesting surely is that their research of a sample of 4500 people shows no difference in diversity within this lineage between West Europe and West Asia. 

This is important because the main argument for the Neolithic expansion hypothesis was that there was greater diversity in Anatolia than in Western or Central Europe. To reach such conclusion they had to ignore the internal structure of R1b1a2 and treat all the haplogroup as a single amorphous item, what is extremely questionable, but, if even in such artificial conditions, there is no such greater diversity in West Asia, then we have a very different situation and the controversial lineage may well have expanded from the Balcans, as the recent study by Laura Morelli could suggest.

My annottations on Morelli's structure of R1b1a2 (then R1b1b2), which could suggest a Balcanic origin

Another interesting recent paper on this West Eurasian lineage was that of Myres, which explored in some detail the downstream diversity of the haplogroup. These maps may serve as reference, because not everything is the same under R1b1a2:

I can't say much more until I get my eyes on the Capelli paper. I am quite sure however that the paper has some elements of interest because the record of Capelli on population genetics is maybe short but impeccable.

See also for background (from more recent to older, from my now closed blog Leherensuge):

• R1b1b2a1 [now R1b1a2a1] is almost unique of West Europe (on Myres 2010).
• Finally some good research on R1b1b2a1 [now R1b1a2a1]! (on Morelli 2010).
• Again on Neolithic and European Y-DNA (my own digression on why a Neolithic demographic replacement is nonsense).
• R1b1b2a1 [now R1b1a2a1]: Neolithic or what?! (on the infamous Balaresque 2010).

More diverse news

Victor Grauer's research on the Prehistory of Music, Sounding the Depths, is printed and available for those interested ··> Music 000001.

All the rest is archaeology, from Middle Paleolithic to Iron Age:

Another Heidelbergensis bone in Atapuerca ··> video at Pileta de Prehistoria[es].

A 170,000 years old forehead (left) found in Occitania (Lazaret cave) ··> Pileta de Prehistoria[es/fr].

Another Denisovan bone ··> New Scientist.

10,000 years old village unearthed in British Columbia, Canada ··>  The Vancouver Sun, The Globe and Mail.

8000 years old canoe, oldest preserved in Africa, to be displayed at museum in Maiduguri (Nigeria) ··> All Africa.

6000 year old cemetery in California in danger ··> TN.

Sunflower domesticated in USA, not Mexico ··> SD.

Bronze Age cist found in Scotland ··> Scotsman, ITV.

Planned Iron Age town found near Reading, England ··> The Heritage Journal.

Iron Age enclosures found in Devon, England ··> BBC, This is Exeter.

Iron Age wooden road found in England ··> BBC.

Basque People: kicking imperialist ass since at least 1233 years ago

Battle of Roncevaux monument

Like every year I like to commemorate August the 15th, the day our ancestors defeated the largest army in their time, being the only major defeat suffered by Emperor Charles of the Franks, known to history as Charlemagne.

The conflict happened after the Carolingians had converged with the Ummayads in order to destroy which was surely the most important Basque state ever: the Duchy of Vasconia. After capturing the Visigothic kingdom, the Muslim armies managed to take Pamplona and cross the Pyrenees northwards, eventually cornering the Vasco-Aquitanian forces, who had to ask for help to the conspirator Steward of the Frankish Kingdom, Charles Martel. The joint forces of both realms defeated the Ummayad forces at Tours or Poitiers but this was then used by Charles to weaken the Vasco-Aquitanian Duchy and force it again to submission and eventually dismembering.

Medieval Pyrenean warrior (almogavar)

Martel's son, Charlemagne, never before defeated in battle, was offered the city of Zaragoza by a traitor governor. In order to consolidate its capture, Charles marched south with all the Frankish army, crossing Basque territory, but found that the plot had been discovered and the governor deposed. While retreating, Charles committed his lifetime's error: he destroyed the walls of Pamplona, maybe fearing that they could serve as a core for Basque rebellion or who knows. That was the stroke that broke the camel's back and when the army went through the mountains somewhere near Roncevaux (probably further East, near Urkuilu mountain, where there is an ideal pass for an ambush that the old "Roman" road crossed), the rearguard of that huge army, made up by some of the most important noblemen of the Franks, notably Charles' brother in law and Marquis of Brittany, Roland, were ambushed and exterminated.

The victors were surely lightly armed militiamen, much as Roman era irregulars or later almogavars (from Arabic al-mughawwar: brawler or raider), who would plunder Constantinople and other cities signaling, together with Welsh logbowmen, the end of the medieval heavy knight. Per the descriptions we have of the fighting methods of the almogavars, these were usually mounted infantry with high mobility but who fought against knights by first killing their horses, forcing them to fight on foot, where the heavy armor was only a burden. They were so feared that, later in Greece, full armies run away when they showed up.

Basque forests: warm refuge for friends, eerie trap for foes

Probably these same tactics were used at Roncevaux. Speculating: volley of arrows or other projectile is followed by direct attack, not against the knights but their horses; then the knights were slaughtered, the baggage plundered and the attackers vanished in the nearby forests. When Charlemagne went back he could only pick up corpses.

It'd be just a historical anecdote but considering that the struggle against the post-Roman invaders continues even today, it is actually a reminder of a long ongoing fight for freedom. It should be our national day.

Evidence of human beachcombing in South Africa: 164-120,000 years ago

Pinnacle Point caves

Evidence researched by Curtis Marean seems to prove that people living at Pinnacle Point, some time between 165 and 120 thousand years ago, were able to understand tides well enough as to gather seafood that was only available a few days each month. 

In any case, at the very least this site shows that people were exploiting coastal habitats very early in human prehistory, roughly when we have the first clear evidence of expansion of our species to other corners of Africa, such as Morocco.

Full story at Science News, found via Stone Pages' Archeo News.

Related: Coastal exploitation in Eritrea 125,000 years ago (ref.  R.C. Walter et al. Early human occupation of the Red Sea coast of Eritrea during the last interglacial. Nature 2000. PPV but tables and figures are free).

Basque autosomal genetics

A somewhat interesting paper on Basque genetics in a pan-European and Mediterranean perspective:

Kristin L. Young et al., Autosomal short tandem repeat genetic variation of the Basques in Spain. Croatian Medical Journal, 2011. Freely available at PubMed Central.

The authors studied allele frequencies for 9 autosomal STR loci (D3S1358, D5S818, D7S820, D8S1179, D13S317, D18S51, D21S11, FGA, and vWA) in Basques and other populations of Europe, West Asia and North Africa. 

The formal conclusions are that individual Basque provincial subpopulations have low heterozygosity (genetic diversity) for European standards and that there is no relevant genetic connection between Basques and either Caucasus or North African peoples that could justify the corresponding linguistic hypothesis. 

This is not new but at the very least it does say that genetics does not support at all the Vasco-Caucasian linguistic hypothesis, at least if this one is understood as Neolithic genetic and linguistic flow from the Caucasus (or anywhere nearby). 

Of some interest is fig. 2:

Multidimensional Scaling plot of genetic distance between 27 populations (click to expand)

Which I decided to annotate a bit:

click to expand

Comments on the notes:

PC1 is described mostly by the red horizontal axis between Navarre and Scotland and seems to define internal European variation (what is logical because most populations are Europeans). The axis has a Basque vs Scottish distinction and I think it points to pre-Neolithic differences.

PC2 is described by the two blue vertical axes and it seems to indicate an opposition of the like of European vs Transmediterranean (West Asian or North African, which are dumped together by a negative definition). It is notable however that Turks are outside this group and cluster instead with those Europeans (Greeks, Tuscans) who show a greater tendency (admixture) towards the Transmediterranean zone. In the opposite pole of barely diluted Europeanness stand Catalans, most Basques (except those from Araba/Alava), Scots, Polish and, curiously enough Murcians. 

The position of Murcians is interesting and I think that easy to explain from the viewpoint that Murcia shows no Cardium Pottery settlement, as far as I know. Not even geometric Epipaleolithic (second Epipaleolithic wave, from "France", related to Tardenoisian/Azilian) and this is why I annotated Azilian zone over there. I was going to write Pyrenean zone when I saw Murcia right there and thought again.

Murcians also seem to stand out as relatively "Northern-looking" in the context of Southern Iberia, at least according to what Heraus and I discussed some time ago at his blog, this may be for relative lack of Transmediterranean admixture (compare in the chart above with their Valencian and Andalusian neighbors), which is in agreement with what I think I know of Murcian deep origins. 

Cantabrians in comparison stand as Basque-like but also with marked Transmediterranean admixture (low in the vertical axis). This may have to do with the high presence among them of Transmediterranean Y-DNA lineages like E1b or J. At the moment (recent findings) it seems that there is a much older Neolithic arrival to Cantabria (and Enkarterriak) than to most of the Basque Country, what may be an explanation.

Why are Catalans so strong in the axis of Europeanness? Were not they affected by Cardium Pottery colonization. In fact Catalonia was probably more colonized than Murcia: there was one single known colony (as far as I know) at Cova de Montserrat. All the rest are assimilated natives. Later Catalonia has a quite autonomous prehistory of their own until mainland European influences arrive with Urnfield culture (Celts?) and later Goths and Franks. Still there may be an element of fluke in the sample, whose quality I could not ponder because it is referred to an older pay-per-view study.

Scots are also quite a curiosity. A lot of ink has been wasted trying to relate Scots and Irish with Basques and what not. This is because of commonality of European Paleolithic persistence in the blood of all these peoples but otherwise there is no particular relation. Even recently Steven Oppenheimer was in a gig through the Basque Country sowing confusion on this matter and claiming happily that the Irish are some sort of Basques. 

This and other studies clearly indicate otherwise: when the samples allow, Basques and Scots (or Welsh or Irish too) can even describe the main axis of difference at pan-European levels. Both populations show strong index of Europeanness (vertical axis) but are otheriwse different (horizontal axis). 

Not wanting to go into any depth with the label, I described them as the Nordic Pole (toying of course with the concept of North Pole). The late Paleolithic or Epipaleolithic origins of this pole are to be surely found, at least partly in the Hamburgian-Ahrensburgian-Maglemosean cultural sequence. And it is indeed true that the first Scots were of Ahrsensburgian culture. However there should be another Neolithic component from Brittany and West France, originally related surely to the Tardenoisian-Sauveterrean side of Epi-Magdalenian, proper of Northern France and the Rhine-Danube province. To much of a complexity to ponder here, where the data does not allow for more.

A brief mention of the Tuscans is almost obligatory (or I will suffer the ires of some readers no doubt). They are high in Transmediterranean influence (as expected) but they are also high in Nordicness, more than any other population except Scots themselves. It is difficult to judge here but I suspect this has to do with the high frequency of similar looking people between North Italy and Britain (not just any Nordic area, specifically Great Britain but also those more classically Nordic in this island). This connection is tenuous, elusive and hard to explain but since I have dabbled with human anthropometry I have once and again found this connection where some (not all) North Italians look, not like Austrians, Sud-Slavs or even French, but rather like Brits. I say this with all kind of doubts but I feel I must open my heart in this matter anyhow.

See also the preliminary discussion at the previous post's comment section, an old post on Achilli 2008, where the mtDNA PCA had some similarities with this one, and Bauchet 2007, where again there are some similitudes (but also some differences ) with how the data behaves in this study.


Update: it may be interesting to compare with Nelis et al. 2009 (open access) which also address European autosomal genetics from a particular ethno-geographic perspective, that of Estonians. There are differences and elements of similitude, notably that the overall European structure that we are more or less used to see in more generalist papers is in these two cases perceived from certain perspective and therefore somewhat distorted (sample size rules).

This is not a bad thing at all, it is a feature and not any bug: these kind of locally focused studies on the wider continental region, add unique complementary perspectives but also help us to understand better how relatively minor changes on the emphasis of the samples can alter very much the results. And that is why one study on Europeans will emphasize N/S differences while other emphasizes E/W ones instead for example. And that's why certain study (for example all those with focus on the Jewish genetic place in the World) can put all Europe quite linearly in dependence of, say, West Asia (where there is diversity barely indicated here) and then another one put all Europe as a function of the Pyrenees and little more.

The funny thing is that both are right and that a more holistic perspective and great care on the weight given to each population for reason of the samples used are needed to see the whole picture properly.


Update (Aug 12): Dienekes just mentions another paper focused on a single population (Armenians in this case) within their wider West Eurasian context. It is particularly comparable with this one because the methods (a handful of STR sites) are very similar.

However, the results are very different: where Basques are extreme, Armenians (black dots) are in the middle:

This attends to geography, genetic isolation and history/prehistory. Similarly in the previous counter-example of Estonians, these are somewhat extreme but only because their Finnish relatives are even more extreme than they are.

Comments closed since Sep-20-2011.

Lots of news

Stories of interest are accumulating at my "to do" folder these days. While I may later on deal with some of them in detail, here there is a synthesis:


Prehistory & archaeology:

Unusual hanging decorative/utilitarian retouching stone (left) found at Irikaitz (Zestoa, Gipuzkoa, Basque Country). The item has been dated to c. 25,000 years ago, what may well make it Aurignacian (Gravettian is of very late arrival to the area).

Hanging objects of stone are rare and most belong to later periods (cf. Praileaitz of Magdalenian era).

··> Pileta de Prehistoria[es], video at EiTB[es].

Neanderfollia[cat] mentions that life expectancy seems to have increased dramatically in the Upper Paleolithic. ··> Daily Mail, also discussed at GNXP.

Bronze Age pottery at Hala Sultan Tekke (Larnaca, Cyprus),  indicates mayor contacts with Mycenaean Greece, including import of pottery. Also goddess figurine found, which may be local. ··> Cyprus Mail.

Claims of grave goods indicating when old men became powerful in Traisen Valley (Austria). The study compared burials of the 2200-1800 BCE period (Late Chalcolithic) with the 1900-1600 BCE one (Early Bronze Age). Both elderly women and men gained burial goods  in the later period but men elder were buried with copper axes (quite useless but surely a prestige item), which appears more valuable than the regular axes of young and adult men. ··> Live Science.



Genetics:

A new paper on autsomal variation of Basques in comparison with other populations (by Kristin L. Young, freely accessible at PubMed) is something I want to dedicate some more time when I have it. By the moment:

Fig.2 - Multidimensional Scaling plot of genetic distance (click to expand) - Basques: black dots

Neanderfollia[cat] also mentions a research on several full human genomes that estimates that Humankind may have shrank suddenly c. 100,000 years ago, at the same time that the various populations scattered through the world. They also claim that genetic exchange however continued (with Bushmen too) until c. 20 Ka ago. It raises my eyebrows so high that they have melted with my other hair but must mention anyhow. ··> Daily Mail.


Dienekes mentions a couple of somewhat interesting open access papers:

• A study on genotypes  and surnames in the UK (which I have not read yet)
• A study on Przewalski horse genetics that finds that they are not ancestors of domestic horse but a parallel branch

Bigger heads (and eye sockets) meant  to process dimmer light, not to increase intelligence, research claims. ··> SD.

Jaw bones shaped mostly by diet, not genes. Narrow jaws indicate soft cooked diet, broad ones a harder type of food. Researched on two isolated Native American populations but IMO lacks controls and it could be argued that the differential evolution is genetically programmed in each population regardless of diet. ··> SD.

IQ-specific genes too diluted to be found ··> Medical Press.

Math ability is inborn (but don't count on the genes to be found anytime soon) ··> SD.

Endurance gene found. A gene exists that makes us non-Olympic or marathon-level quality meat. ··> SD.

Chimpanzees are spontaneously generous and don't like demanding friends ··> SD.

More Swedish autosomal genetics

There is a new free access paper on Swedish genetic structure:

K. Humphreys et al. The Genetic Structure of the Swedish Population. PLoS ONE, 2011. Open access.

Swedes are not too heterogeneous so this exercise is a bit of applying a microscope. Yet I'd love to see much lower resolution analysis of comparable quality on many other populations of Europe or elsewhere. 

Interestingly, the authors took some pains to, first of all, prevent that Finnish ancestry may have distorted the results because:

It may be argued that Finnish ancestry may be responsible for a large portion of the genetic stratification detectable in a Swedish sample but we chose to exclude them as the studies we combined had different inclusion criteria with respect to foreign ancestry. 

Fig S1 - shows the 'uncut' Swedish PC and how the cut was done

 The result of this surgery of sorts is this PCA:

Fig S3 - PCs by county

It is very apparent that the Norther Swedish lands, previously detected already as 'different' define PC1, while the isolated mountain county of Dalarna defines PC2. 

The impact of these two PCs in the Swedish sample is mapped in fig. 2:

Fig. 2 - color scale from dark brown to yellow

It is interesting to notice that the extremes of these two PC polarities may be caused more by their own genetic isolation than anything else, as it's apparent in fig. 5:

Fig. 5 - Homozygosity (base is Stockholm county)

Both Finnish and Norwegian samples applied to these two PCs produced negative values (supp. materials), what reinforces this idea that they are a creation of genetic isolation in Sweden and not external influences.

Further PCs (up to PC10) are mapped in fig S7 but I do not see them as very informative, excepting maybe PC6, which shows a pole near the Southern Norwegian border.

See also in this blog: Swedish autosomal genetics.

Many more interesting short news

Earliest known dog

A lot of them, but not all, come via Stone Pages' Archaeo News.

Just to get you interested: oldest dog ever, oldest people in America... and the Bubbliverse!

(Not drooling yet?! You're reading the wrong blog then).

Europe

Spain: Andalusian caves were explored with bee wax lamps (candles) and not animal wax ones (which would have been cumbersome). Exposition on this matter on Aug. 10 in Puente Viesgo, Cantabria. ··> Pileta de Prehistoria[es].

Wales: Tests confirm age of Wales rock art. (Direct communication of Prof. Nash to Stone Pages' ArchaeoNews).

Scotland: Sainbury site was sort of Epipaleolithic rest stop. ··> BBC.

Bulgaria: Chalcolithic burial found in Pomorie ··> The Sofia Echo.

Sardinia: 300 menhirs (standing stones) found. ··> L'Uninone Sarda[it], Sardegna 24[it].

Italy: early Etruscan holy site, dated c. 1000 BCE, found near Viterbo. ··> ANSA, UPI.

Asia

Siberia: Earliest dog skull found in Altai, dated to 33,000 years ago. It has short snout like dogs but long fangs like wolves. ··> BBC, Daily Mail, PLoS ONE (I may write more later on this).

Japan: Chinese style tools were introduced to Japan c. 25-20,000 years ago. ··> Xinhua.

Jordan: Ancient city of Tell Qarqur could withstand massive drought c. 2000 BCE. ··> Live Science.

India: Sebalpani rock paintings may be from historical period. ··> DNA India.

America

USA: Oldest evidence of human presence in all North America  found near Salado, Texas. The site has been dated to c. 15,500 BP and has yielded some 16,000 artifacts already. ··> WFAA.

Canada: Evidence of human presence c. 10,000 years ago, near Penfield, New Brunswick. A highway's design has been changed to preserve the site. ··> CBC.

Mexico: Olmec relief 2800 years old found in Chalcatzingo, Morelos ··> Latin American Herald Tribune.

Africa / human evolution

Australopithecus sediba proposed missing link between australopithecines and humans. ··> National Geographic.

Genetics & biology

Alternative splicing to explain mammal brain capabilities. Genes alone cannot account for the improved mammal neural complexity. ··> Science Daily.

Astronomy & cosmology

Multiverse confirmed: our Universe just a bubble among many. Identification in the gamma radiation background by objective computer program adds weight to the idea that other bubble-universes have left their marks on ours. ··> Science Daily.

Welcome to the Bubbliverse, earthlings!

Did Homo sapiens outnumber Neanderthals 9 to 1?

That is what a recent paper suggests:

Paul Mellars and Jennifer C. French, Tenfold Population Increase in Western Europe at the Neandertal–to–Modern Human Transition. Science 2011. Pay per view. 

I got a copy and lots of complementary information and interesting debate (in Spanish) at Mundo Neandertal.

Contextualizing

Mellars and French deal specifically with the transition between Chatelperronian and Aurignacian cultures in the context of the Franco-Cantabrian region.  It is generally accepted that Chatelperronian was a Neanderthal culture and Aurignacian instead was mad by Homo sapiens, our species.

The study estimates population sizes based on an archaeological record that is assumed to be quite complete (something only available for Europe probably). 

All this brings us to an obligated earlier reference:

Jean-Pierre Bocquet-Appel et al. Estimates of Upper Palaeolithic meta-population size in Europe from archaeological data. Journal of Archaeological Sciences 2005. (PDF).

Which was previously discussed by me here.

To get us fully in situation, I must mention that Bocquet-Appel estimates the following population for Aurignacian Europe:

average: 4424 

(min.: 1738 - max.: 28,359)

And suggests the following geographical distribution:

Aurignacian population est. (Bocquet-Appel 2005)

Even though the demographic preeminence of the Franco-Cantabrian region in Upper Paleolithic Europe becomes more clear later,  with the Last Glacial Maximum, already in the Aurignacian period (c. 41-28 Ka ago) it was the most populated area of Europe without doubt, holding surely 1/3 of all Europeans (later it becomes at least 2/3). 

This makes all of the estimates by Mellars & French 2011 more than quite relevant: what happened in the Franco-Cantabrian Region affected to most Europeans back then, Neanderthal, Sapiens or whatever else.

Nine Sapiens for each Neanderthal (9:1)

Bocquet-Appel found only minor differences in population density between Aurignacian and Solutrean, i.e. for most of the Upper Paleolithic generally accepted to have been made by Homo sapiens, only noticing a clear (and quite brutal) increase in population with the Late Upper Paleolithic, notably in Magdalenian contexts.

Based on genetic estimates, I thought that there would be roughly the same number of Neanderthals as early Homo sapiens in Europe, that some 5000 people (1800-28,000) was the number that Europe could support in such technological conditions and that it did not matter if these were Neanderthals or Sapiens. 

Fig. 1. Site densities. Left: Chatelperronian, right: Aurignacian

But Mellars and French challenge this idea. They compared the densities of Chatelperronian and Aurignacian sites in a rectangle centered in Perigord (the Paleolithic metropolis of Europe) and found that Aurignacian sites are more common than Chatelperronian, after adjusting for time, some 2.5 times.

Fig. 2A

That means 2.5 more Sapiens settlements than Neanderthal ones. But more: they find that the density of use of the sites is also much greater for the Aurignacian ones, reaching a ratio of 9 to 1.

Fig. 4

Is this for real?

Assuming that the average figure proposed by Bocquet-Appel for the Aurignacian population of Europe (4424) would be correct, then there would be only 491 Neanderthals in all the continent. I do not think this is a credible figure. 

Let's assume then that the correct figure of BA is the maximum (he may well have been too conservative in his estimates, I guess): 28,359 people. This implies 3151 Neanderthals. It is a more credible figure but still a bit too low. 

Remember that the Neanderthal Genome Project estimated 1500-3500 fertile Neanderthal women at any given time (in Europe only), what means at least three times actual people (i.e. 4500-10,500 min.) 

Of course there may be an error here and it is another different way of estimating populations, not directly comparable and much more uncertain than estimates based on factual archaeological data. Still, I have the strong impression that the archaeology-based estimates are too low, that the actual populations are being underestimated. 

Magdalenian harpoons

For example, if the lowest genetic estimates would be correct, then European Neanderthals would be c. 5000. Following Mellars & French, the earliest (Aurignacian) Sapiens population could be then 45,000 (almost double than the maximum figure estimated by Bocquet-Appel), what in turn would make the Late Upper Paleolithic (Magdalenian and Epigravettian) population of Europe (6.5 times that of Aurignacian) roughly of 292,500 people (200,000 or so in the Franco-Cantabrian region). 

It could well be double too. Half a million hunter-gatherers roaming Europe upon the arrival of the first farmers? Does this make any sense? I'm not sure but it's not totally impossible, specially if we consider that sea resources (seals, fish, mollusks and crustaceans, whales maybe) had become very important by then.

Of course, fine tuning of the figures available may also be recommended. Anyone?


Update: comparing with the Aleuts

A very interesting observation is made by Joy in the comments section: the Aleut people, whose technology and way of life can well be compared with that of Late UP or Epipaleolithic  Europeans, numbered 25,000 people upon contact with modern Europeans (now they are only 15,000 however).

This is a quite sizable population for a relatively small and cold territory. I have calculated that the traditional Aleut territory has some 30,000 km², what is just 5.3% of the territory of modern France (552,000 km², excluding overseas dependencies) and just 0.3% of all Europe. Extrapolating only to "France", we'd get some 500,000 people. Sure that "France" is not all coast, as the Aleut territory was but it's neither so far North and cold (the Aleut lands' climate and geography is more comparable to Norway in fact).

In any case, what I find with this comparison is that the figures mentioned above of 300,000 or more people in late UP Europe are perfectly plausible, even maybe a bit shy and low.