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FTDNA MyOrigins (New Population Finder)
FTDNA is updating population finder, I am looking forward to this update. I have seen a few results and it is a MAJOR improvement from the last one... Post your results here when they start coming in.
Click on the spoiler for the new population descriptions for those who have not seen them.
Spoiler!European Northlands
The European Northlands centers on the people of Scandinavia. They thought of their homeland as an island because it is relatively isolated from the rest of the world by the Baltic and other seas. This isolation and later association with the Finnic peoples, however, have changed them in ways that are genetically clear. A sister cluster to European Coastal Plain and European Coastal Islands, the European Northland has developed in moderate seclusion, influenced by the arctic heritage it shares with those from the North Circumpolar cluster.
Its history is rooted in the original hunters of Europe and the late arrival of farmers only about 5,000 years ago. Members of this cluster are kin to other Europeans of the north. The migrations of the Norse spread the European Northlands west and east. As the Vikings expanded from the south of Scandinavia, European Northlands absorbed Lapps and other people who were exemplars of North Circumpolar. An expansion over the past 2,000 years has brought this heritage from the nearer shores of continental and Atlantic Europe, all the way to the plains of the Dakotas in the United States.
European Coastal Plain
The European Coastal Plain combines nearly all of the threads of European genetic history into one. This cluster goes from the Bay of Biscay near Spain, toward the Pripet Marshes of western Russia, to the coastal plain of Northern Europe. The hunter-gatherer, farmer, and intruder from the steppes were forged together as one people. The French and the German were created by the intersection between the civilized and the barbarian during antiquity. With this diverse ancestry across the uniform plain, a relatively unified cluster was born.
European Coastal Plain represents the diverse groups brought together over the past 5,000 years, as Germans, Celts, and Slavs have moved in with their cattle, and the Romans brought their mills and cities. This cluster is common among many populations with Northern European heritage. Germanic migrations after the fall of Rome guaranteed its presence in the south. The people on the European Coastal Plain are at the heart of recent history. Being the engines behind the Great Powers of the age, they became the dominant actors in colonization of the world.
European Coastal Islands
European Coastal Islands is typical to the British Isles, especially Ireland. Its reach includes all European Islands from the far north and down south to the Azores Islands off the coast of Spain. The continuous mixing of European populations means that this group is also present in lesser amounts on the mainland. Genetically close to European Coastal Plain and European Northlands, European Coastal Islands has had an impact on the demography of the world because of the explosion of population in the Anglosphere over the past few centuries.
The farmers came to Britain late, but when they came they brought great change. The hunters were assimilated by the farmer. This admixture caused the European Coastal Islands as we know it to become a hybrid of farmer and hunter. Perhaps due to its isolation and strategic placement, the major powers in the world and throughout history have wanted to rule the islands. From Caesar to the Irish king Niall of the Nine Hostages, we see the wide variety of genetic influence from the Celts, Picts, Vikings, Normans and French.
North Circumpolar
The world is not such a wide place at the top and the bottom. The North Circumpolar cluster began around the arctic as hunter-gatherer peoples. They have carried their genes down to the modern era. The North Circumpolar stretches from Lappland east to Greenland. Though genetically diverse, the root of many of these populations is a genetic signature found most often in Finnic peoples.
These are the descendants of hunter-gatherers who withstood the push of the farmers. They adapted, and flourished, in a new age. Like the Bering Expansion, this cluster goes beyond conventional divisions, and has clear connections with both east and west. Even the New World is connected to North Circumpolar due to their shared kinship with ancient Siberia.
Humans pushed into the deep north only within the last 30,000 years, going where no Neanderthal had dared. With connections to populations in the south, the northerners maintained long term lateral connections and developed a coherence as the ice retreated. North Circumpolar has its roots with Saami hunters and fishers, as well as Uralic, Russian, Swedish, and even Scandinavian ancestries.
North Mediterranean
The North Mediterranean cluster is a distinct European cluster. It is situated in the southwest of Europe from Spain to Greece. Its people are a mix of the first hunter-gatherers to reach Europe and later migrations from Western Eurasia. There were two waves into the area: first the farmers of the Middle East and later the Roman Empire.
A long history of traveling merchants and seafarers shaped this group. The great empires of Rome and Greece brought it to distant lands. They also brought a second wave of Western Eurasian influence into the cluster. Its modern geography speaks to the history of those who moved, either willingly or in chains, under the Roman Empire. Because of this, the cluster's signature is strongest in the western part of the Mediterranean. It is particularly strong on the isolated island of Sardinia. It reaches upwards to the British Islands, as well as east into modern Turkey.
They have the same genetic origin as those who reached north to what is now Sweden. While the culture survived there, the genetic signature was largely replaced by later migrations.
Trans-Ural Peneplain
The Trans-Ural Peneplain is the dominant group between the tundra and the steppe in Eurasia’s northwest. They come from the area where the North European Coastal Plain joins the forests of Central Siberia. This ancestry is seen across many Eurasian groups. It is most often associated with Slavic and Baltic cultures. It has deep connections with the migrations of nomads from the steppes in Iran, who also carried evidence of the Eurasian Heartland. It is fundamentally European as it faces east, and expands outward from there.
Trans-Ural Peneplain are mostly the same hunter-gatherers who moved north and became the North Circumpolar people. Their ancestors married and had families with the farmers who pushed out of the Near East, and associated with the Anatolian Crossroads cluster. The Trans-Ural Peneplain is a combination of Middle Eastern farmer, Western European hunter, and Siberian nomad.
Recorded history tells us that many cultures have a part in this cluster, such as the Slavs, Germans, Polish, Bohemians, Bulgarians, Russians, Scandinavians, and Finnish.
Jewish Diaspora
The Jewish Diaspora cluster has been scattered around the world because of the demands of history. Their ancestry is rooted in the ancient Near East, but the Jewish Diaspora has combined during its history with a European heritage.
While Judaism is a religion, the Jewish people are also a nation. Modern Jews have diversified into numerous branches, such as the Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Mizrahi, as well as odds and ends such as the Bene and Beta Israel. Unifying many of these populations are genetic commonalities, likely resulting from a common Middle Eastern ancestry. This combination of Middle Eastern and European is found in other groups, and many of them exhibit signatures of Jewish Diaspora, but it is not common descent.
The Jewish Diaspora puts a particular focus on the Ashkenazi Jews, who are the majority of the world’s Jewish population today. Derived from populations located within Central Europe, these Jews are now scattered across the world, with the largest concentrations in Israel and the United States.
Eurasian Heartland
Eurasian Heartland can be found across a large band in the center of the Eurasian continent. It travels from the north of Europe south toward the narrow base of the Indian subcontinent. Within South Asia, it is the partner to the Indian Tectonic cluster. Across the center of Eurasia, it highlights the ancient influence of the Iranian nomads, Scythians, Sarmatians, and Cimmerians.
As early farmers moved west out of the hills of the Levant nearly 10,000 years ago, they mostly went into Europe and North Africa. The ancestors of the Eurasian Heartland, however, cautiously explored their possibilities to the east. They came into the light of history as the Persians, Sogdians, and Afghans, and have always had a hand on the turning points of history between the west and the east.
With the movement of millions from the Indian subcontinent, Eurasian Heartland has appeared in the Pacific, the New World, and Southeast Asia. Millions of displaced Afghans have also brought it west into Iran, and reinforced it in Pakistan.
East Asian Coastal Islands
The great rice cultures from Shanghai south to the islands of Indonesia are the center of East Asian Coastal Islands. This cluster belongs to the Burmans, Thai, Khmer, and Vietnamese, who live in the bottomlands of mainland Southeast Asia. They have moved south, east, and west out of Taiwan and into Oceania, Madagascar, and even as far as Easter Island. This cluster may also be found along the edges of South Asia, and north among the peoples of the Yellow River Plain because of the migrations of the Han Chinese.
Close to Asian Northeast, East Asian Coastal Islands is the result of the arrival of farmers to Southeast Asia and brave sailors to the Indian and Pacific Oceans. In China, it is a substantial presence found alongside Asian Northeast. East Asian Coastal Islands defines a north-south axis of ancestry and kinship. The cluster absorbed its genetic ancestry from the indigenous populations and is a close sister to Asian Northeast. As the refugees of the Chinese Diaspora escape the chaos of Southeast Asia, this cluster continues to spread into the rest of the world.
Asian Northeast
Asian Northeast has a deep ancestry and is home to the first settlers of Eastern Eurasia. This is a widespread population, found in China, Japan, Korea, Siberia, and even in New World Amerindian populations. This cluster characterizes people from a wide variety of backgrounds, including grain farmers nestled against the shores of the East China Sea and warriors who survived the cold deserts of Mongolia. It flows south with the journeys of the Han and the Tibetans, and west with the gallop of the horses of the Turks.
History tells us that this cluster was isolated and developed by itself, beginning about 40,000 years ago. The primary populations were hunters, herders, and later, farmers. Connections to the populations from the West are only in the last 5,000 years. This means the genetic signature of Asian Northeast is distinctive. We can see influences from the early rice farmers of Korea, the Tungusic hunters, the Han of China, the mountaineers and lowlanders of Tibet, and the Japanese. With the rise of trade and globalization, this cluster has spread to Southeast Asia and the New World, bringing Asian Northeast to new corners of the world.
Anatolian Crossroads
Anatolian Crossroads is present from South Asia, across Turkey, and along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. It was home to early hunter-gatherers and farmers. It has a deep history and connects to many lineages. It is the mark of those who moved east to west, and back again, along what would become the Silk Road. The Anatolian Crossroads are connected to the oldest groups of modern humans. As early humans left Africa, they settled in this area. The hunter-gatherers were eventually replaced by the first farmers.
Early recorded history confirms several cultures lived in this area and left their mark, such as the Phrygian, the Hurrian, the Hittite, the Hatti, and the Armenians. Later, the Turks swept down from Asia and brought people from the Asian Northeast group. Likewise, the Arab expansion brought members of the Eastern Afroasiatic group to the southern borders of the Anatolian Crossroads. We find that it is the strongest in Turks and Arab Muslims from the Fertile Crescent. Closed social groups, such as the Druze and Assyrians, also have clear signatures of Anatolian Crossroads, suggesting that their genes are native to the region.
North African Coastlands
The North African Coastlands are rooted in the nations of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. It is one of the most ancient and distinct populations in the world. Its influence goes south into Sub-Saharan Africa and east toward the Middle East, because of Afro-Asiatic connections. To the North, the Moorish and Roman connections have brought pieces of the cluster into the Mediterranean. Though geographically constrained, this cluster has been at the heart of events in the history of the Western world.
This group grows out of ancient hunter-gatherers, farmers from the Middle East, and refugees from the Green Sahara. Exemplified by the Berber, the people of the North African Coastlands have given rise to great empires which push toward the Pyrenees, south to Timbuktu, and east back to the heart of the world of Islam. Its influence can be stamped upon the Sephardic Jews who have come from the cities of Morocco. Though birthed along the shores of the Roman sea, the sailors of the great bleak Sahara have brought North African Coastlands to the lush African shores.
Eastern Afroasiatic
The peoples of Eastern Afroasiatic ancestry are at the roots of civilization. They developed in the Persian Gulf north toward the Zagros Mountains. They gave rise to the Arabs, and were essential to the emergence of Iran. Their reach extends toward Africa and Asia due to trade routes around the Indian Ocean. This is a cluster at the center of history, and quite often the driver of events.
Eastern Afroasiatic has its beginnings in the cultural revolution caused by agriculture. Its second act came with the camel, which opened up the desolation of the desert to easier travel. This ease of travel allowed the message of Muhammad to spread, which sent a thousand tribes streaming in all directions. This cluster has seen the genetic influence of many groups, such as the Babylonians, the Assyrians, and finally the Persians. The connections between the nations around the Gulf remains despite divisions over language and religion. The shared ties are deep and extend out toward a diaspora which is the echo of historical events long forgotten. It is a sister to the Anatolian Crossroads.
Niger-Congo Genesis
Dominated by West African and Bantu populations, Niger-Congo Genesis is deeply rooted in Africa, reaching more than 100,000 years in the past. It takes up most of Sub-Saharan Africa. This is due to expansions that took place as part of a shift to farming. It is also found in African Diaspora groups, such as African Americans. There have been subtle indications that some of these populations have been affected by back-to-Africa migration, unlike their hunter-gatherer neighbors. The split between this cluster and the hunter-gatherers of the deep forests and open deserts dates back to the “Out of Africa” event.
For the Niger-Congo Genesis cluster, farming began in eastern Nigeria. It quickly swept east, south, and then southeast. Within the last 2,000 years, Bantu farmers spread to the southern tip of Africa. The migrations reshaped the genetic landscape of most of Africa in the process. There was admixture with resident populations. This, along with Arab slavery in the Middle Ages and New World slavery in more recent history, has caused the Niger-Congo Genesis to spread around the world.
East Africa Pastoralist
The East African Pastoralists are an ancient cluster which emerged in the north eastern part of Sub-Saharan Africa. The distinctive feature of this cluster is its close association with herding that allowed the pastoralists to exist in harmony with their Bantu farmer neighbors.
Stretching from Sudan and south toward Tanzania, these people arrived as herders over the past few thousand years. They coexisted with, and were often politically dominant, over the Bantus. On the northern edge of the Sudan, they seem to be indigenous. The also have connections to Eurasian populations who expanded out of the Middle East.
Most of the ancestors of the East African Pastoralists never left Africa. No doubt their forebears fled south from the Green Sahara. Populations descended from Middle Eastern farmers were absorbed, and eventually the original hunter-gatherers of East Africa gave way to the pastoralists on the one hand, and the Bantu farmers on the other. Others moved east into the Horn of Africa, and co-mingled with Semitic peoples from the Arabian Peninsula. Over time, this admixture gave rise to the populations of Ethiopia and Somalia.
Indian Tectonic Plate
The Indian Tectonic cluster reflects the deep rooted population of the Indian peninsula. Located primarily in the Indian subcontinent, it tapers off rapidly as to the west and east, reflecting its distinct historical heritage. It consists of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and Afghanistan. The Indian Tectonic heritage is a hybrid one, derived from a mixture of deep-rooted indigenous populations, which go back to the arrival of modern humans from Africa roughly 50,000 years ago. It includes later peoples coming from the north and west, including the Indo-Aryans most recently. The origins of the Indian caste system likely date to the last 4,000 years, as this blend became the closed cultural groups we see today. There is a wide variation in ancestral division north to south, east to west, and high caste to low caste with Indian Tectonic. The ancient South and West Eurasian heritage is what unites South Asians and is found nowhere else in the world.
Bering Expansion
The Bering Expansion is a distinct and compact cluster which developed at the end of the Pleistocene at Siberia. Like so many clusters, it is a hybrid. Located from the Canadian Yukon and south to Patagonia, the people of the New World are a unique expression of human genetic variation. They are the farthest edge of human migrations out of Africa. The Bering Expansion is closest to the clusters of East Asia, but has deep connections to the peoples in Europe, as well. This cluster exprerienced isolation in the New World and had a small originating population. This isolation and small founding population allowed them to remain similar genetically distinct until the arrival of European settlers and the African slave trade.
Kalahari Basin
The most distinctive and separated of clusters, Kalahari Basin is one we can suggest never left its homeland. It occupies humankind’s ancient stomping grounds. Kalahari Basin is a thin substrate across much of Sub-Saharan Africa, peaking in the southern regions where agricultural presence is minimal. It is the oldest of the old and includes the heritage of the most ancient of lineages. Kalahari Basin are the earliest human hunter-gatherers and is seen today primarily in the Mbuti Pygmies of the Congo. Limited to Africa, its recent history has been one of decline and assimilation.
It is cliché to say the Bushmen are the most ancient of human lineages. More accurate is the reality that they are the first branch off from all others. Where in other locales one might argue the arrival of modern humans at a particular time, here we are faced by a case where they were always there. Though rarely dominant in any individual, Kalahari Basin’s widespread distribution indicates how pervasive it was until recently.
Here are some photos of peoples results. (IF you are a project manager you can get them now)
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Originally Posted by Bruce Lee
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