mtDNA U5

[jerney]

My father is U5a1b (used to be U5a1 I think, but I guess they changed it) and his mother is from Sweden.

Here's what 23andme says about it:

U5a1

Haplogroup U5a1 originated in Europe during the Ice Age, about 20,000 years ago. At the time people were confined to small refuges in the southern part of the continent. When the glaciers began receding about 15,000 years ago people began migrating northward, carrying U5a1 and other haplogroups with them. Today U5a1 is most commonly found in places such as Norway and northern Germany.

Other members of the U5a1 haplogroup moved south into the Near East, perhaps in search of a warmer, more hospitable climate than the dry, glaciated tundra of Ice Age Europe. Today their maternal descendants can be found at low levels (less than 2%) in Turkey, Iran, and Syria.

[Anthropologique]

So then who makes up the rest of the population? I doubt Arabs settled that densely.

A mix of Berber and Arab plus SS African. You also have descendants of Mozarabs (native Iberian converts to Islam) who were expelled from Spain and Portugal.

True Berbers stand out from the general North African population. They have been essentially endogamous throughout their history. The Kaybel are an example.

[Peyrol]

A mix of Berber and Arab plus SS African. You also have descendants of Mozarabs (native Iberian converts to Islam) who were expelled from Spain and Portugal.

True Berbers stand out from the general North African population. They have been essentially endogamous throughout their history. The Kaybel are an example.

Plus, phoenicians (Carthago foederation was very extended in North Africa), greek colonists, roman colonists, etc.

[Jackson]

Some more information on my U5a1b. The earliest person on the direct maternal line i can find was born in Ashford in Kent, England in 1814, by the name (surname) of Joy. I came across some pictures of two other relatives who should also be U5a1b, although can't post them here (they don't belong to me).

Ashford is quite a good communication/travel hub for that part of Kent, so i have no idea if her family have deep roots in Ashford yet, or whether her family ultimately came from somewhere else in Kent. Although that part of my family is all from the same part of Kent so probably no surprises.

[Mani]

My mtDNA is u5b1b1a. Maternal line is from Iraq. I think that this haplogroup is found at its highest in Scandinavia , especially among Sami people.

[Fire Haired]

My mtDNA is u5b1b1a. Maternal line is from Iraq. I think that this haplogroup is found at its highest in Scandinavia , especially among Sami people.

How in the world is your maternal line from Iraq but you have typical Finnish-Sami mtDNA U5b1b1a. That haplogroup is estimated to be only 4,000 years old and without doubt originated in northern Europe and quickly arrived in Scandinavia. I think there might be some type of mistake maybe whatever company you took a mtDNA test from had someone else's DNA. I know that most haplogroups especially in west Eurasia are very spread out for whatever reasons but U5b1b1a in Iraq sounds nuts. If you really have U5b1b1a than my best guess is maybe it was bounced around Indo European copper age Yamna and Corded ware cultures through trade and ended up in Iraq at some point. Maybe it arrived with Indo Iranian languages in that region. There are many possibilities your great times whatever grandmother could have been a slave in Rome and brought from outside the northern borders of the empire all the way to the near east.

[Fire Haired]

I am in mtDNA U5a1, this is from my direct maternal line from Sicily. Whats confusing is how did it end up there? My guess is either from Slavic slaves brought there by the "Saracens" or Arabs, the Varangian guard, or maybe the Normans? Whats interesting is mtDNA U5a1 is found at it's highest frequency in Finland (especially the Saami, Lapps, Volga-Finnic people), Estonia, Russia, Ukraine, Norway, etc.

It comes from the Andronovo culture. Is it an Indo-European mtDNA Haplogroup? Does it correlate with the Haplogroup R1a?

This thread is basically for discussion on mtDNA U5.

U5a1 is extremely ancient it is estimated to be 20,000 years old that is 10,000 years before most of Scandinavia was first settled by humans. It shouldn't be a surprise if U5a1 is found anywhere in Europe since it has been there for so long and existed in so many different ethnicities. mtDNA U5, U2e, and U4 dominated mtDNA of pre historic European hunter gatherers. There are two 31,155 year old U samples from Czech republic that had two of the five defining mutations of modern U5 which means it was ancestral to modern U5 and that this lineage has been in Europe for over 30,000 years.

[Caismeachd]

Isn't U5b2 even much older than u5a1?

[Äijä]

How in the world is your maternal line from Iraq but you have typical Finnish-Sami mtDNA U5b1b1a. That haplogroup is estimated to be only 4,000 years old and without doubt originated in northern Europe and quickly arrived in Scandinavia. I think there might be some type of mistake maybe whatever company you took a mtDNA test from had someone else's DNA. I know that most haplogroups especially in west Eurasia are very spread out for whatever reasons but U5b1b1a in Iraq sounds nuts. If you really have U5b1b1a than my best guess is maybe it was bounced around Indo European copper age Yamna and Corded ware cultures through trade and ended up in Iraq at some point. Maybe it arrived with Indo Iranian languages in that region. There are many possibilities your great times whatever grandmother could have been a slave in Rome and brought from outside the northern borders of the empire all the way to the near east.

I bet Viking Age or even more recent times, Russians took civilians to slavery in wars as a rule up in the 18th century, they sold them to Persia often.

[Anglojew]

Mtdna U5 is one of the oldest Paleolithic haplogroups in Europe. Likely it has existed in Sicily since pre-Neolithic times, thus represents the very old European population that existed there before Neolithic settlers arrived.

Exactly.