Some interesting news in #archaeology & #genetic research this week
Earliest evidence of horseback riding found in ‘eastern cowboys’ AAAS https://www.science.org/content/article/earliest-evidence-horseback-riding-found-eastern-cowboys?utm_source=sfmc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DailyLatestNews&utm_content=alert&et_rid=316259804&et_cid=4623482
The importance of the Yamnaya in the domestication of #horses is well known, & the latest evidence for the dating comes from skeletal form rather than #DNA, but I find it frustrating when a report refers to genetic evidence without mentioning a single haplogroup. Why? (Hoping to be more accessible to gneral reader?)
#archaeology 1/n
Ancient #DNA Analysis Reconstructs Legacy of the #Biblical #Levites https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-evolution-human-origins/levites-dna-0018037
The absence of mention of #DNA haplogroups is even stranger in this piece, as
1) It notes limits of early work on the so-called Cohen Modal Haplotype, which involves Y-DNA
2) Whereas #Ashkenazic & #Sephardic Cohanim share similar #genetic traits, over half of Ashkenazic Levites display an unusual haplotype (formerly R1a1a, now called R1a-Y2619). So haplotypes are central to this genetic quest
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The connection between the Levite and Yamnya histories is that the dominant ancestral haplogroups among the Yamnaya were R1a and R1b.
https://www.eupedia.com/genetics/yamna_culture.shtml
The seemingly anomalous Ashkenazic Levite #DNA was also a variant of R1a: R is commonly associated with Slavs, Vikings, and some populations of Iran and the Indian subcontinent.
Thus, some geneticists hypothesized that the source was converts from the #medieval #Khazar Khaganate.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1274378/
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A much more sweeping theory posited a #Khazar origin for the core #Ashkenazi population as a whole. A century ago, it was at least plausible to the extent that, like Ptolemaic astronomy, it accounted for appearances. However, modern #genetics and #history alike have rejected this view, which is today essentially the province of cranks & #antisemites.
And that brings us back to the present article
Ancient DNA Analysis Reconstructs Legacy of the Biblical Levites |https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-evolution-human-origins/levites-dna-0018037
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The author of the article is Eran Elhaik who, a decade ago, revived the #Khazar thesis of #Ashkenazi origins
The missing link of Jewish European ancestry: contrasting the Rhineland & the Khazarian hypotheses https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23241444/
Scholars rejected it:
Phylogenetic applications of whole Y-chromosome sequences and the Near Eastern origin of Ashkenazi #Levites https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms3928
Scholars Blast New Study Tracing Ashkenazi Jews to Khazars of Ancient Turkey https://forward.com/news/breakingnews/339910/scholars-blast-new-study-tracing-ashkenazi-jews-to-khazars-of-ancient-turke/
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It is therefore intriguing (ironic) that, having rejected the widely accepted Middle Eastern & biblical origins of #Ashkenazi #Jews, Elhaik claims to be able to determine precisely the biblical and #IronAge origins of #Levites, once again based on a novel methodology (here using autosomal #dna
I will be interested to see the reaction in scientific publications
#genetics
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