mtDNA U5

[The Exiled King]

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.

[Peyrol]

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.

Is this haplogrup northern-northeastern euros?
In this case could be a normannic heritage.

[Sikeliot]

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.

[Peyrol]

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.

I didn't know this.

Very helpful post, Clementina.

[Anthropologique]

U5 peaks in Finland (18%), according to Eupedia. I believe the site is a reliable source of sorts. However, their genetic maps are iffy.

Mtdna U5 apparently has some common link with U6, found substantially in Berbers. The U5 Berber clade has been detected reasonably in the Sammi, suggesting a common ancient ancestry between the two groups. The original Berbers were likely Eurasian (maybe 15% direct descendants remain today) so the Sammi connection makes some sense.

[Viljuska]

Mitochondrial DNA of prehistoric Europeans

The testing of ancient DNA helped understand how long each haplogroup has been in Europe. Only a few such tests have been successfully conducted so far. Mitochondrial DNA was extracted from the skeleton of a 28,000 year-old Cro-Magnon from southern Italy, and the haplogroup was determined as HV or pre-HV. Still preceding the Neolithic expansion from the Middle East, the 9,000 year-old Cheddar Man was found to belong to haplogroup U5a.

Autochtonous (Cro-Magnoid) Europeans must have therefore belonged at least to haplogroups HV (and its offspring H and V) as well as U5a, which also happen to be the most common mitochndrial haplogroup everywhere in Europe. It has been speculated that over half of the matrilineal lineages in Europe descend directly from Paleolithic Europeans. Their male counterpart are Y-DNA haplogroup I.

[Sikeliot]

The original Berbers were likely Eurasian (maybe 15% direct descendants remain today) so the Sammi connection makes some sense.

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

[Pallantides]

Most of the Sami belong to the subclade U5b1b1

U5b1b1 have a frequency of 56.8% among Norwegian Sami and 26.5% in Swedish Sami.

[safinator]

MTDNA K might have been paleolithic too.

[The Exiled King]

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.

That is extremely possible. I know for a fact the high amount of R1b in Sicily is not from the Normans but from the Italic people that settled there first.