mtDNA Haplogroup U Types Among Pre-Historic Eurasian Hunter-Gatherers

[Black Wolf]

It is now quite clear that mtDNA haplogroup U and namely it's subclades U5, U4 and U2 made up a very substantial part of the maternal lineages of Eurasian hunter-gatherers in pre-historic times and extended all the way from Iberia in the far west of Eurasia deep into Siberia in the far east where they mixed with East Asian (Mongoloid) type peoples at some points in the past. These ancient mtDNA haplogroup U peoples in Siberia were probably ancient Caucasoid Cro-Magnon types when it comes to phenotype. We know that U types mainly of the U5, U4 and U2 types made up the majority of maternal lineages among ancient European Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic hunter-gatherers and interestingly enough U types have appeared among Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic hunter-gatherers from much further east into Siberia. It would seem then that the presence of mtDNA haplogroup U in Eurasia then is extremely old. Some of the U subclades were probably present among the earliest farming peoples of the Near East as well such as the U3 and K (subclade of U8) subclades. In this thread though I am focusing on the U types that were present among the ancient hunter-gatherer peoples of Eurasia who adopted farming later on after it spread out of the Near East. It is probably pretty safe now to say that the original Cro-Magnons of Europe would have carried quite a bit of mtDNA haplogroup U among them. Actually some ancient results from Kostenki in Russia and Dolni Vestonice in Czech Rep. have shown that these Cro-Magnon type peoples did possess U types. These tables with ancient DNA results that I will link below shows how widespread U types were among Eurasian hunter-gatherers from the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic ages. It seems that after the Neolithic many of these U lineages were replaced especially in Europe by new haplogroups arriving mainly or at least expanding mainly with Neolithic farming communities carrying a whole new array of mtDNA haplogroups such as T, J, H, K (U subclade) and more.

http://www.ancestraljourneys.org/palaeolithicdna.shtml

http://www.ancestraljourneys.org/mesolithicdna.shtml

[The King, I am]

why is u6 (and u5) so popular among Berbers?

[Black Wolf]

why is u6 (and u5) so popular among Berbers?

U6 probably arrived in North Africa in Upper Paleolithic times.

[The King, I am]

U6 probably arrived in North Africa in Upper Paleolithic times.

wot about all the H1? and the maternal connection with the Saamis?

[Fire Haired]

U5, U4, U2(U2e, and probably U2d), U8, and U-MA1 have all been found in Ancient north Eurasians. They were all from the same source, i don't want to list all of the evidence. The most recent evidence comes from Polako at Eurogenes, he made two admixtures one with la Brana-1 as the mammoth steppe reference and one with MA-1 as the mammoth steppe reference. The distribution of La Brana-1 and MA-1 components are nearly identical(click here). They were dominated by mtDNA U and had a great variety of U subclades. I wonder if early members of mtDNA U in west Asia over 50,000 years ago were stuck together and only later mixed with other lineages. The diversity of Y DNA of ancient north eurasians is surprising: I, C1a2-V20, R, and probably F-96. C1a2-V20 and F-96 are very basal Eurasian so may be descended of some of the earliest north Eurasians, who settled there has far back as 50,000 years ago.

[Fire Haired]

A study from 2005 may have already found U6 in Morocco from 10,000BC. Two out of 23 samples had HVR1 mutation 16172C which is the only HVR1 mutation of U6 and exists in no other U subclades.

[SobieskisavedEurope]

why is u6 (and u5) so popular among Berbers?

Because Berbers have a high level of Eurasian genetics!

[Fire Haired]

why is u6 (and u5) so popular among Berbers?

U5b1b1 in berbers came from Europe(Iberia) at somepoint. U6 in Berbers is native to north Africa and may have originally come from the near east.

[Anglojew]

So both my haplogroups are Siberian? How weird.

[Fire Haired]

So both my haplogroups are Siberian? How weird.

No, U5 probably originated in or near Europe(two over 30,000 year old samples in Czech republic). Early U5 carriers had relatives in Siberia like MA-1 who were probably also dominated by mtDNA U.