whoa are the modern day iberians descended from??

[brennus dux gallorum]

Two non Indo-European tribes unrelated to each other, Ancient iberians, aquitanians and one Indo-European, celts of Atlantic celtic subgroup, related to gauls and Britons, not related to celts of central-eastern Europe

[Bosniensis]

Visigoths ?

[greasycaveman]

neolithic

[Hruodberht]

Visigoths ?

The Visigoths were barely 10% of the total population, although many Spaniards still retain Germanic surnames ....

[Tietar]

40% of Spanish and Portuguese men have a 4,500 year old common ancestor


Francesc Calafell, principal investigator at IBE, has led the research, and its results have been published in Scientific Reports

It only contains 1% of the male genome, but it is responsible for men being anatomically men. The Y chromosome, which avoids the formation of the ovaries in the foetus and allows the development of the testicles, is only transmitted from fathers to male progenies. Such a feature makes it easer, from the evolutionary point of view, to trace the existing variants of the Y chromosome. Actually, the origin, dispersion and geographic distribution of most of these have already been identified. A team of researchers from the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) and the University of the Basque Country led by Francesc Calafell (IBE, CSIC – UPF) have studied the R1b-DF27 variant of the chromosome Y. This variant is known to be very frequent in the Iberian Peninsula.

In the research led by Calafell, the analysis of 3,000 samples of DNA of Spanish, Portuguese and French men has revealed that the R1b-DF27 variant of the chromosome Y is found in 40% of Iberian men and in 70% of Basque men, whereas only in 10% of French men. As Calafell explains, “the evolutionary history of the chromosome Y seems to have happened in waves, that is to say, certain DNA variants have become more frequent following cultural changes or technological innovations”. Regarding the R1b-DF27 variant, the authors of the study state it was originated 4,000 or 4,500 years ago, and most probably in the northeast of Spain.

“Despite being nowadays highly frequent in the Basque Country, the internal measures of diversity and age of this variant of DNA in Basque men are lower than in any other population group, so this is not likely to be the region where it sprang”. Yet, a local Iberian origin seems therefore the most plausible hypothesis given that the R1b-DF27 variant is more diverse and antique in the Iberian Peninsula. Such results fit in with the migration that took place in the Iberian Peninsula during the Bronze Age –the non Indo-European Iberians settled in the Mediterranean coast and in the inland because the central and Western Iberian Peninsula were occupied by the Celtics.




Genetics, a useful tool not only for historians

Studying the R1b-DF27 allows tracing the migrations of Spanish and Portuguese men throughout history. A clear example of this can be found in Latin-America, where this DNA variant is found in 40% men in Colombia, in 36% in Puerto Rico, and only in 10% in Mexico and in 8% in Peru. The latter can be explained by the fact that the indigenous presence is stronger in these two countries. It can be therefore inferred that Mexicans and Peruvians mingled less with the Iberian colons in the past than Colombians and Puerto Ricans.

Even in Europe, frequencies of the chromosome Y subgroups have been used to detect short-term migrations. For example, the medieval expansion of the Kingdom of Aragon towards the Mediterranean in the XIV and XV centuries or the Castilian occupation of the Flanders in the XVI century have been tracked thanks to the R1b-DF27.

Chromosomal variations such as the R1b-DF27, which is quite frequent in Iberian populations and rare in other regions, can be useful in forensic genetics, too. Its presence in a crime scene can help to identify the geographical origin of the owner of the biological sample from which it has been obtained.

Finally, the chromosome Y is also quite often used in studies related to family names. By analysing the subgroups of the chromosome Y, and taking into account their similarities among men sharing the same surname, a common genealogical origin can be determined.

Reference article: Neus Solé-Morata, Patricia Villaescusa, Carla García-Fernández, Neus Font-Porterias, María José Illescas, Laura Valverde, Francesca Tassi, Silvia Ghirotto, Claude Férec, Karen Rouault, Susana Jiménez-Moreno, Begoña Martínez-Jarreta, Maria Fátima Pinheiro, María T. Zarrabeitia, Ángel Carracedo, Marian M. de Pancorbo & Francesc Calafell. https://www.ibe.upf-csic.es/home/-/a...d#.WoSEFXxG2t9 Scientific Reports, agost 2017.

[Kelmendasi]

Romanized Celt-Iberian

[StonyArabia]

Celt-Iberian with some Germanic elements, and probably small Afro-Asiatic admixture from the Moors

[Cristiano viejo]

Celt-Iberian with some Germanic elements, and probably small Afro-Asiatic admixture from the Moors

Nor Germanic elements, nor Afro-Asiatic admixture. Just Celtiberians.

[Predator]

Iberians descend mostly from indo european celtic tribes like celtiberians , pre indo european iberian tribes like tartassians or turdetanians , and basque people who are said to be the most ancient proto europeans ever and even linked to ancient neanderthals according to some recent studies on their DNA and looks . When the romans conquered the iberian peninsula , they brought their latin language and influenced all the tribes living there at the time , who were mostly celtics belonging to the indo european groups or non indo european iberian tribes , who acquired a romance language and developed their own vernacular languages , which nowadays are spoken in spain . Later on after the roman empire fall , several germanic tribes like the visigoths and suevians settled there and founded their own kingdoms who lasted for many years to come , thus also contributing to spanish and iberian dna. The moors didn't influence spanish dna at all , there isn't found much moorish dna in spain according to genetic studies . The moors in spain were mostly military invaders , not large groups of people settling. The few they have found is mostly in south spain like andalusia and south portugal however mostly irrelevant since it doesn't score more than 2% of frequency on average .

[Sean-Jobst]

Iberians, both Spaniards and Portuguese, are largely the descendants of the indigenous peoples of the Iberian Peninsula - the Iberians (Spaniards) and Lusitanians (Portuguese) -mixed with the Celtic tribes that migrated from either Gaul or across the Bay of Biscay. This created the people called the Celtiberians (among my own ancestors), and often why it was hard for Romans to tell the difference between Iberians and Lusitanians from the Celtic tribes there.

The Iberians and Lusitanians were among the pre-Indo-European native peoples of Europe, much like other peoples such as the Ligurians in northern Italy, the Illyrians in the Balkans, etc.. Incidentally, they were very much what we'd call "white" Europeans, so Indo-European here is the linguistic category and the tribes that later migrated in Europe and include the Germanic, Celtic, Slavic, etc.. Nevertheless, the latter often absorbed the previous peoples of Europe so that the modern European is a mixture of both in varying degrees according to region.

Some regions of the Iberian Peninsula have more of a certain admixture than others. For example, the Celts had very little influence in the easternmost region Catalonia, while it was strongest in Galitza, northern Portugal, Cantabria and Asturias. Similarly, the Greeks and Carthaginians established some colonies in coastal regions in Andalusia, Murcia and Valencia, but I don't know how lasting the admixture was.

As for the other peoples who conquered the Iberian Peninsula, I would say their genetic influx was much less or lasting, especially as time went by: The Romans left more of an admixture than the Germanic Suebi and Visigoth, while the later Moorish admixture was far less than either. In fact, with the Moors I would say its the opposite: They absorbed much native Spanish or Portuguese blood, so that many of the later Andalusian caliphs were described as more Iberian than Arab or North African in appearance. Through their Islam, they kept apart from the native Iberian majority, so the genetic influx was one-way and not the other.