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R1a-L664, its distribution and phylogeny
http://y-haplogroup.blogspot.com/201...ern-r1a-l.html
R1a is an extraordinarily widespread haplogroup, stretching from Britain in the west to China in the east and from the Volga and the Don river valleys in Russia and Ukraine (where it apparently originated before the LGM) through Iran and Northern India to Arabia. In Europe it has two of the five founder haplogroups of the early Bronze. It is the primary haplogroup of the Slavic peoples of Eastern Europe, spread with the Corded Ware culture, which centred in the southern Baltic.
This paper deals with the most Western subclade of R1a, the rather mysterious R-L664 or R1a1a1a1, which has a coalescent time (TMRCA) around 2700 BC and which is largely found around coastal areas of northern Europe. L664 is a somewhat earlier branch of R1a than the main Nordic, Slavic and Eurasian branches. Despite its greater age, Figure 1 shows that L664 has a very low incidence in different countries, no more than residual. The highest incidence of about 1% is in Norway and Sweden. One might think that it found its way to Scandinavia (which is only readily accessible by sea) and developed a limited presence there in isolation; from whence it was eventually carried by Scandinavian raiders or settlers over its current spread - and this does seem to be the case.
Within R1a, L664 shows its highest relative incidence in places where R1a is sparse – the Isles and the Low Countries. More than a quarter of the men in the small R1a populations of the Isles and the Low Countries are L664. Like many Isles haplogroups, this relative incidence falls heading east and south away rom Britain, though there is still a small amount of L664 in ‘R1a Headquarters’ in the south Baltic.
L664 is found mostly in maritime locations– around the Baltic and North Sea and all over the Isles, particularly the southern counties of England. It is also found along the Danube in small quantities, though it has generally bypassed inland Europe. L664 gives the impression of being associated with northern seafarers more than any other Germanic haplogroup, most of which spread much further inland. Unlike R1b-U106 in particular, which it resembles in distribution, it did not expand far south in the post-Roman collapse of order and was probably still restricted to Scandinavia at the time.
The presence of L664 all around the North Sea horizon of the Bronze Age traders appears to be coincidental, since most of the cases in the Isles appear to be relatively recent. For example, a number of the Irish examples are YP543, which has a TMRCA in the Viking period, and is probably a result of Viking settlement around Dublin. The general evidence suggests that like I1, L664 was largely brought to the Isles from Scandinavia during the Viking period (making it a limited ‘Viking marker’), though it does not have the strong association of I1 with the Danelaw.
As the haplotree in Figure 4 shows, L664 has three main branches: S2857 (Continental, Isles), S3479 (Low Countries/ Isles) and S2894 (Scandinavia, Isles), and one small branch YP5527, found mostly in the Low Countries. All of these subclades were formed about 2000 BC in the early Bronze. The three branches are present in Britain and Ireland in modest quantities, though the time and manner of their arrival is likely to have been different. Many are of recent Viking descent, though like I1, some may be Continental German. Only one recent branch of R1a is known in Cornwall and Devon, associated with the Drake family: R1a>>L664>S2894>YP285>YP282.
The R- S2857 branch is mostly Isles with a few continental representatives. The earliest side branches are again in Scotland and Ireland. Not a lot of testing has been undertaken yet at the subclade level, but the following pertains.
· S2852 and YP943 are found in men of a few surnames scattered around the Isles. There are several Germans and one Swedish representative.
· YP358 is the largest line, dating to 250AD and fairly clearly associated with interchange between the Isles and the North Atlantic coast. It contains several English and Irish surnames (including a large number of TUCKERs in the USA) and men in the Netherlands and southern Jutland. A single member of a side branch has been found in Poland.
Conclusions
R1a -L664 is the westernmost branch of R1a, the domininant Y-haplogroup of north-Eastern Europe, the steppe and Central Asia. L664 is quite small and largely restricted to fluvial locations mostly on thw North Sea and Atlantic, suggesting a dispersal by seafarers.
L664 is more common around the North Sea in places where the incidence of R1a is very low. It takes up more than a quarter of R1a in the Isles and in the Low Countries, though different branches of L664 are involved in each suggesting several different founder events – such as the Danelaw or the Jutes in Britain on one hand and the Norman settlement of France on the other.
A Y-phylogenetic analysis strongly suggests, in line with the assumptions of other researchers, that like I1, L664 was spread quite recently in Britain. Despite the antiquity and spread of L664, there is no real indication that any lines in Britain predate even the Christian era.
In fact, almost all the R1a so far found in Cornwall and Devon is of only two fairly recent subclades, both of which can be reasonably attributed to Norse from the sub-Roman period. This is yet another indication that Western R1b populations in Bronze Age Britain had little connection with NE European R1a populations of the Corded Ware period around 2500 BC. Otherwise, we would expect to see a much wider variety of R1a in Britain, some of it dating from the Early Bronze Age.
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Originally Posted by Norb
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