Image copyright Reuters DNA analysis of the remains of ancient man, apparently, helped solve the mystery of one of the most mysterious people of Europe – the Basque.
The specific language and different from the other Europeans the genome of the people living in northern Spain and southern France, for decades haunted anthropologists, puzzle over mystery of origin of the Basques.
One of the theories suggest that Basques – descendants who lived in these places of ancient hunters, for whatever reasons, do not mix with other groups.
The study, published in the journal PNAS, suggest that in fact Basques descended from the ancient farmers, who mixed with the local hunter-gatherers and then for thousands of years lived in isolation.
The Basques are different so-called isolated languages, and some unique customs, which are not found in other European nations. Basque language (called Basque Euskara), according to experts, has no related languages in the world.
Genome Basque
Basques also inherent genetic features different from their neighbors in France and Spain.
It would be logical to assume that they are the descendants of the local population for a more ancient period, but how far leave their roots, it was not clear.
Scientist Swedish University of Uppsala Mattias Jakobsson studied gene found in the north of Spain, eight human skeletons belonging to the Stone Age.
These people have lived about 3.5 – 5,5 thousand years ago, after the south-west of Europe was an early transition to agriculture.
Research has shown that early Iberian farmers are the ancestors of the Basques.
Migration to the West
Compared to other ancient European farmers indicate that agriculture was born in Northern and Central Europe the same groups Workers who have come from the Middle East to the European continent for about seven thousand years ago, when came the Neolithic period.
When the farmers have settled on these lands, they mixed with the local hunter-gatherers, descendants of those who lived in Europe ever since the last ice age.
Genome found in northern Spain skeletons indicates that these people were more closely related ancient hunters than the ancient farmers, who lived a few thousand years earlier in the territory of present-day Germany, Hungary and Spain .
This study explains some of the differences between the Basques and their neighbors.
After the initial mixing of ancient farmers and hunters ancestors Basque became isolated – perhaps for geographical and cultural reasons.
“It’s hard to make any guesses, but we worked with the Basque historians and of historical records it is clear that this region has been very difficult to win,” – told BBC BBC Professor Jakobsson.
This means that the region of residence of the Basque was virtually unaffected by subsequent migration processes, identify genetic pattern in Europe.
Isolation and migration
The migration processes, in particular, were noted in the Bronze Age, when the western part of Europe en masse move pastoralists from the eastern periphery of the continent.
These migration flows may have led to the spread are Indo-European languages, affecting the northern and central regions of Europe more than South.
Genome French and Spanish is clearly evidenced by these migration, but these gene Basque migration flows are not affected in any way.
Another wave of migration, more department Basques from their neighbors, began in 711 BC when the army invaded Muslims from North Africa to the Iberian Peninsula that ended with the conquest of Muslim Spain, which lasted more than 700 years.
Once again, despite the fact that the genome of the Spanish testament to their certain kinship with the people of North Africa and the areas south of the Sahara, the Basques, this related line is virtually absent.
The proportion of European genes of ancient hunter-gatherers, the presence of the Basques, is different in different nations of Europe. Above others she Estonians and Lithuanians (30%), but the “purebred” descendants of the original Europeans in Europe have long gone.
Apparently, they were assimilated migrants Neolithic, which were, perhaps, more numerous than the “root” of the Europeans.
No comments:
Post a Comment