African Admixture in Iberia Predates the Moors

[Adamastor]

It was always very strange that precisely the regions with the least moorish occupation are the most African admixed.

In this paper, we can see that there was a geneflow between Sub-Saharan Africa and Iberia in ancient times, what is probably the cause of many Iberians scoring small amounts of African nowadays.

''Being at the western fringe of Europe, Iberia had a peculiar prehistory and a complex pattern of Neolithization. A few studies, all based on modern populations, reported the presence of DNA of likely African origin in this region, generally concluding it was the result of recent gene flow, probably during the Islamic period. Here, we provide evidence of much older gene flow from Africa to Iberia by sequencing whole genomes from four human remains from northern Portugal and southern Spain dated around 4000 years BP (from the Middle Neolithic to the Bronze Age). We found one of them to carry an unequivocal sub-Saharan mitogenome of most probably West or West-Central African origin, to our knowledge never reported before in prehistoric remains outside Africa. Our analyses of ancient nuclear genomes show small but significant levels of sub-Saharan African affinity in several ancient Iberian samples, which indicates that what we detected was not an occasional individual phenomenon, but an admixture event recognizable at the population level. We interpret this result as evidence of an early migration process from Africa into the Iberian Peninsula through a western route, possibly across the Strait of Gibraltar.''


https://www.academia.edu/38213848/Gonz%C3%A1les-Fortes_et_al._2019_._A_western_route_of_prehistori c_human_migration_from_Africa_into_the_Iberian_Pen insula.pdf?fbclid=IwAR0gmTZjq5bEL_IOHj-w_P2mZ9OfyN7gpZbuWzp9C5lYJHX-XVFUkkl6uhc

Before desertification of Sahara it's very probable that some geneflow happened between SSA and North Africa to Europe.

[SharpFork]

The question is then why is SSA so little in Iberia, it's at most 20% when comparing the most SSA admixed Iberians to the least SSA admixed Moroccans, it's incredible how little influence ultimately North Africans had on Iberia.

[Adamastor]

The question is then why is SSA so little in Iberia, it's at most 20% when comparing the most SSA admixed Iberians to the least SSA admixed Moroccans, it's incredible how little influence ultimately North Africans had on Iberia.

Probably because Iberia was far away from the possible Sub-Saharan sources of this type of DNA. Even the least SSA admixed Moroccans are considerably more SSA admixed than the most SSA admixed Iberians.

I was thinking that a big problem we have now to understand this pattern is that African populations are understudied when compared to Europeans and Near Easterners, so we may have some surprises when their genomes start to be as studied as the West Eurasian ones. Actually I think there isn't even sense of talking about ''sub-saharans'' before saharan desertification.

[Calpurnius]

It's probably both, but yeah I always thought there was more to it than just the moors, and the appearance of individuals with African/north African related ancestry in some outliers from the Olalde paper was indicative of it, as well as the resemblance of the gradient of north African related ancestry to the megalithic culture extent in Iberia.

[Adamastor]

It's probably both, but yeah I always thought there was more to it than just the moors, and the appearance of individuals with African/north African related ancestry in some outliers from the Olalde paper was indicative of it, as well as the resemblance of the gradient of north African related ancestry to the megalithic culture extent in Iberia.

Do you think this could have some relation with the African admixed outlier Etruscan sample? It seems this Iberian connection could explain the existence of that sample.

[Calpurnius]

Do you think this could have some relation with the African admixed outlier Etruscan sample? It seems this Iberian connection could explain the existence of that sample.
Not sure tbh, I tried modeling that sample and it does seem like the African outlier from central Iberia, I4246, works better than Morocco_LN. But this may just represent a generic north African from the pre Roman period.

[CostaRicaBall]

Thats obvious, people of Old Carthage pass across Hispania before moors.

[SharpFork]

Thats obvious, people of Old Carthage pass across Hispania before moors.

But Carthaginian influence has literally no correlation with SSA input, heck areas like Northern Portugal and Galicia which have considerable amount of SSA relative to areas like Catalonia or Valencia were not ruled by Carthage.

[CostaRicaBall]

But Carthaginian influence has literally no correlation with SSA input, heck areas like Northern Portugal and Galicia which have considerable amount of SSA relative to areas like Catalonia or Valencia were not ruled by Carthage.

Portugal brough tons of blacks.

[Adamastor]

Portugal brough tons of blacks.

It has no relation with slavery, it's a kind of ancestry already present in individuals in the neolithic period and it's also present in similar amounts in Galicians and Asturians, so it completely rules out recent SSA input.

[Calpurnius]

Unfortunately many of the samples that are known from studies by the western coast do not seem to be on G25 either, like the ones circled and perhaps others.
https://i.imgur.com/AyDNvLE.png

[ÁGUIA]

I never took interest in genetics, but the theory that all the African admixture in Iberians derives from Islamic Conquest of the Peninsula feels far fetched, many loose strings in the light of what we know.
Like you mentioned Northern most areas of Iberia with scarce time of occupation score the most amount of NA genomes, as far as I learn.
Usually more often then not, what people see people tell, where people settle in, people will leave traces behind. The possibility of a internal country/peninsula South to North migration after the reconquest can be hypothesized. But in that speculated scenario, why that migratory movement is unheard of? Why they didn't left palpable vestiges of their presence that can substantiate their genetic impact in those Northern most parts of Iberia?
During the Reconquista though, there were episodes of Christians Iberians sequestrating muslims indeed, to use them as servs, but those were more punctual situations then rule. It's known they were closely scrutinized and records were kept of who they were. As a matter of fact, after the Reconquista the majority were forced to live in small closed profiled communes, the most Northern one known in Portugal if I stand correct was in Leiria (which didn't last long).
We can trace a parallel and make a comparison with Jews. Jews were and are even today recognized in the places where they established themselves. Even in a remote place like Carção in Bragança.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPfLDxIgzNo,

What people see people eventually talk about, especially in a presecutory context.

[Pedro Ruben]

Interesting ÁGUIA. The Sephardic communities of Trás-os-Montes are in fact numerous. There are numerous places with population of Sephardic origin (Bragança, Miranda do Douro, Vimioso, Mogadouro etc). They were not expelled because they remained crypto-Jews (practicing Judaism in secret). There are genetic studies of these communities.

[Samnium]

Interesting ÁGUIA. The Sephardic communities of Trás-os-Montes are in fact numerous. There are numerous places with population of Sephardic origin (Bragança, Miranda do Douro, Vimioso, Mogadouro etc). They were not expelled because they remained crypto-Jews (practicing Judaism in secret). There are genetic studies of these communities.

Crypto-Jewish communities existed also in S.Italy.

[Samnium]

double