That map is a bit old now. Now the generally held theory is that the ancestors of R1a and R1b were still part of haplogroup R during the last Ice Age. Haplogroup R probably arose somewhere in Asia during the Last Glacial Maximum ("Ice Age") and then R1a and R1b seem to have broke off as it was ending. R1a would have been from people moving into the European steppes and R1b probably came about around the Southern Caucasus or Anatolia.Quote:
Originally Posted by Terror Romanorum
So R1a would have been north of the Black Sea and spread into Eastern Europe whereas R1b was south of it and spread through Southern Europe and then reached the west where it went in all directions and gradually became the majority.
http://jowsey.com/genealogy/genetic/R1b-migration.png
R1b map
The area the ancestral R people lived in would have either temperate desert (an area with stable, mid-range temperatures like Britain or France - but lacking in rain) or a grassland. Most of the extinct megafauna of Eurasia would have been found on grasslands.
R1a seems to have spread into Eastern Europe with the Corded Ware, R1b in Western Europe with the Bell Beaker. R1b probably followed similar routes that the earlier megalithic and first farmer peoples had.
