Brit-Am Anthropology and DNA Update (30 July, 2013, Av 23, 5773)
Contents:
1. Black Couple Have White Baby
2. Ancient Minoans (Crete-Philistines) are close to Neolithic samples from Scandinavia and France.
3. Did Ancestors of Present-Day Irish Commit Genocide?
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1. Black Couple Have White Baby
"Wow, Is He Really Mine?" - Another African Man Is Shocked In The hospital Delivery Ward
http://www.jewsnews.co.il/2013/07/29/wow-is-he-really-mine-another-african-man-is-shocked-in-the-hospital-delivery-ward/
Extract:
"We are all of us genetic mixtures to some extent, and occasionally you'll have a convergence of the pale versions of these genes in African-Americans and African-Caribbeans who have a mixed black and white ancestry," Bryan Sykes, professor of human genetics at the University of Oxford, told the BBC.
Another expert, Professor Ian Jackson, an expert in melanocytes - cells that produce pigment - at the British Medical Research Council's Human Genetics Unit, points out that there are four types of albinism, all of which allow different levels of colouring to develop in the skin, hair and eyes.
"In type 2 cases, we see creamy skin and yellow or light brown hair, which sometimes darkens with age," he told AOL News.
Jackson added: "Albinism is more common in West Africa than the rest of the world".
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2. Ancient Minoans (Crete-Philistines) are close to Neolithic samples from Scandinavia and France.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22527821
Extracts:
Europe's first advanced civilisation was local in origin and not imported from elsewhere, a study says.
Analysis of DNA from ancient remains on the Greek island of Crete suggests the Minoans were indigenous Europeans, shedding new light on a debate over the provenance of this ancient culture.
Scholars have variously argued the Bronze Age civilisation arrived from Africa, Anatolia or the Middle East.
Details appear in Nature Communications journal.
The concept of the Minoan civilisation was first developed by Sir Arthur Evans, the British archaeologist who unearthed the Bronze Age palace of Knossos on Crete.
Evans named the people who built these cities after the legendary King Minos who, according to tradition, ordered the construction of a labyrinth on Crete to hold the mythical half-man, half-bull creature known as the minotaur.
Evans was of the opinion that the real-life Bronze Age culture on Crete must have its origins elsewhere.
And so, he suggested that the Minoans were refugees from Egypt's Nile delta, fleeing the region's conquest by a southern king some 5,000 years ago.
He was surprised to find this advanced civilisation on Crete, said co-author George Stamatoyannopoulos, from the University of Washington in Seattle, US.
The evidence for this idea included apparent similarities between Egyptian and Minoan art and resemblances between circular tombs built by the early inhabitants of southern Crete and those built by ancient Libyans.
But other archaeologists have argued for origins in Palestine, Syria, or Anatolia.
In this study, Prof Stamatoyannopoulos and colleagues analysed the DNA of 37 individuals buried in a cave on the Lassithi plateau in the island's east. The majority of the burials are thought to date to the middle of the Minoan period - around 3,700 years ago.
The analysis focused on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) extracted from the teeth of the skeletons, This type of DNA is stored in the cells "batteries" and is passed down, more or less unchanged, from mother to child.
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The ancient Minoan DNA was most similar to populations from western and northern Europe. The population showed particular genetic affinities with Bronze Age populations from Sardinia and Iberia and Neolithic samples from Scandinavia and France.
"The Minoans are Europeans and are also related to present-day Cretans - on the maternal side."
 "There is evidence of cultural influence from Egypt to the Minoans and going the other way."
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3. Did Ancestors of Present-Day Irish Commit Genocide?
Is distinctive DNA marker proof of ancient genocide? by John Holden
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/science/is-distinctive-dna-marker-proof-of-ancient-genocide-1.1426197
Extracts:
A controversial theory holds invaders from Iberia may have massacred much of Ireland's male population
Did you know Ireland has the highest concentration of men with the R1b DNA marker? No fewer than 84 per cent of all Irish men carry this on their Y chromosome.
While this marker is also high on male Y chromosomes in parts of Britain, particularly Wales, according to commercial ancestry testing company IrelandsDNA, the high prevalence here may indicate the arrival of a lot of people at a broadly similar time who weren't prepared to peacefully co exist with the settlers here.
"The high prevalence rates have always perplexed Irish geneticists and historians," says Alastair Moffat of IrelandsDNA. The firm's research proposes a new hypothesis. There is already established evidence suggesting that the first farmers, (carrying the Y chromosome lineage of "G", which can be found across Europe) arrived in Kerry about 4,350BC.
According to IrelandsDNA, the so called "G-Men" may have established farming in Ireland "but their successful culture was almost obliterated by what amounted to an invasion, even a genocide, some time around 2,500BC" (the frequency of G in Ireland is now only 1.5 per cent). "There's a cemetery in Treille [France], where ancient DNA testing has been carried out and almost all men carry the "G" marker but the women don't," says Moffat. They carry native/indigenous markers. This strongly suggests incoming groups of men. Because the R1b marker is still so prevalent in Ireland and is also frequently found in places like France and northern Spain we believed that around 2,500 BC, the R1b marker arrived in Ireland from the south."
Moffat admits it is just a hypothesis but cites connections which lead to this theory. "The first signs of farming in Ireland were found on the Dingle peninsula in Kerry, which suggests people coming from the south," he says. "If you look at Lebor Gabala Eirenn or The Book of the Taking of Ireland [a Middle Irish collection recounting mythical origins of life in Ireland dating from the 11th century] most of the invasions come from the south."
The southern migrants referred to by Moffat were the Beaker people, originating from Iberia. It has also been suggested that it was they who may have brought Celtic languages up the Atlantic coast.
Moffat cites archaeological evidence, from the Copper Age, to suggest this movement. "Evidence for the beginning of the Copper Age in Ireland is also found in the south, particularly Ross Island in Killarney, where a tremendous complex system of prehistoric mines exists. It's clear that the copper was exported.
"How did these new people impose themselves in such a big way," he asks. "It has to have been through conflict. The early people were farmers so they invested generations of effort in improving the land. When these new people show up they must have used violence to shift the 'G-Men'. The frequency of  'G-Men' is tiny in Ireland. Compare the statistics: 1 per cent versus 84 percent."
Not everyone is convinced, however. "What they [IrelandsDNA] are suggesting is based on a very strong interpretation of a small piece of a genetic pattern," says Prof Dan Bradley from the Smurfit Institute of Genetics. "There's no real scientific evidence to warrant the use of terms like 'genocide'. You can't link modern genetic variation securely through archaeological strata without ancient DNA testing also. You can certainly have conjecture and there are indeed ways of looking at the time and depth of these things. But they have very wide margins for error. The reality is I don't think we can securely place any of these DNA marker patterns in time without ancient DNA testing."
Ancient DNA testing has been ongoing in Ireland for the last two years by Bradley in Trinity and Prof Ron Pinhasi in the UCD School of Archaeology, who is involved with a large project of ancient DNA testing throughout Europe.
"I don't know of any time in history where a culture came in and completely wiped out another," says Pinhasi. "You don't see total wipeouts, unless there is reason for a population to become extinct, like massive climate change. But we have no reason to believe Bronze Age farmers became extinct this way.
"Sure there were a lot of population movements and mixing going on at this time. That's why modern people don't look like neolithic people, genetically speaking, but it would have had minimal impact on the gene pool" he says. "You're not going to have hundreds of thousands of people suddenly coming from Spain but you would definitely have had smaller groups coming in boats. Plus there's no archeological proof of any massive warfare or battles here at that time."Â