Comments on: The Neolithic transitions

By: Sandgroper

Sandgroper — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 17:14:30 +0000

Paul – my great grandmother was from Kerry. She was olive skinned, and had very dark eyes and straight dark hair. I can’t tell her hair colour very well because I only have old black and white photos, and by the time I knew her, she was well into her 90s and her hair was white. She died when she was 97.

By: bioIgnoramus

bioIgnoramus — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 16:16:37 +0000

pc, in “The Origins of the British – A Genetic Detective Story” (which covers Ireland too), Stephen Oppenheimer tells of the small town in North Wales, Abergele, where there is clear genetic evidence of early Bronze Age settlement from Iberia, and nice Copper Mine archaeology to back it up. I don’t remember anything about Greek settlement in the British Isles though.

By: Matt McIntosh

Matt McIntosh — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 15:24:34 +0000

"I'll [let] you digest this"

ARGH!! The punishment!

By: Mr. Singularity

Mr. Singularity — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 12:19:00 +0000

The Black Irish.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Irish

By: pconroy

pconroy — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 09:19:45 +0000

Further, Raz states:
... long distance colonies from southern Europe might have brought both a new lifestyle and new genes.

A few years ago I asked Dienekes if he was aware of any Greek colonies in Ireland or myths about them - as the Irish have such myths - he said that he had never come across any evidence to support this.

The reason I asked was that in the extreme SouthWest of the country, County Kerry to be precise, I have long noticed that the people there are somewhat olive skinned and prone to thick, curly dark brown hair, and brown eyes - unlike much of the rest of the country.

Recently, I noticed that there was a Y-DNA project for McCarthy - the traditional chieftains of Kerry - and lo and behold, some of them are E3b1, which is usually seen as a Greek marker.

Like the Etruscan story, there are also distinctive breeds of Cattle and Dogs in the area - the Kerry cattle and the Kerry Blue terrier. Maybe these could be tested for Mediterranean DNA...

By: pconroy

pconroy — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 08:58:29 +0000

Also, I wish the author had elaborated on the cluster of 5 mtDNA results, from the Hunter-Gatherer population, that had never been published before – could these be a Neanderthal remnant??

By: pconroy

pconroy — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 08:52:00 +0000

Something I noticed was that agriculture was introduced to Sweden 6,200 yo, and by 5,500 yo – just 700 years, 50% of the farmers were Lactase Persistent – is that time enough for the allele to appear and spread so much, or did the farmers arrive with the allele already. Alternatively did the allele introgress from the 10% of hunter-fathers who had it, or was that a result of it introgressing into the HG population from the farmers.

It also states that Neolithic farmers were close genetically to the modern population, which seems to contradict other studies where there is a proposed demic expansion of agriculture in the Mediterranean, and a cultural expansion of agriculture in Northern Europe.