Tukuler
multidisciplinary Black Scholar
Member # 19944
posted
Below are some musings I had before joining ES. Please critique it heavily -- it is rather chauvinistic.
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Semitic speakers partially originated from African people. They didn't originate soley in "Asia" as imagined by old school historians, anthropologists, and linguists, or as new wave Nostratists postulate.
Southern Arabia was Kushite Arabia and was in the Arab mind foremost 'Arab ul-'Aribah. 'Arab ul-Muta'aribah and 'Arab ul-Musta'ribah are acknowledged as northerners mixing with the Kushites or as unmixeds who merely adopted Arab culture.
The eastern Mediterranean is a nexus of three continents. It and the Arabian Peninsula were peopled by other migrant invaders who didn't originally speak in Afrisian. Semitic speakers were among the first but weren't the only inhabitants of the region. Chadic and/or Nilo-Saharan speakers likely preceded them. Indo-Europeans, Caucasics, Altaics, etc., came after them probably via Daryal Gorge through the Caucasus.
From this can be gathered, if anything, that "Semites" are partially North East Africans who migrated into the Arabian peninsula and moved northward (as far as up to Turkey) where they met and mingled with and were maybe blocked from further spread by southward invading Eurasian peoples (Altaic and Indo-European speakers) in pre-historic times. Upon the eclipse of the southerners the hybrids and assimilated settlers (beginning circa -1800 with the maryannu caste) became heir to the names and languages of the original people they married into and whose culture they emulated and lexicon enriched.
Mainstream linguistics reveals Semitic as just an Afrisian language and proto-Afrisian dates to origins of 12KYA somewhere in the vicinity of the border between present day Sudan and Ethiopia or perhaps the Kordofanian area. Semitic along with Tamazight are thought to be the last families to diverge from a parent stock hardly allowing either to be older than Cushitic or Egyptian.
Unless Gurage is oldest and they entered the Arabian peninsula via Bab el Mandel then the pre-Semitic speakers worked their way up from the Sinai peninsula crossing over from the Nile Valley to the Arabian peninsula and from there moved northward ending their trek at the foot of the mountains of Turkey. If anything, Caucasic, Altaic, and Indo-European speakers moving southbound across the Caucasus met and mingled with the Semitic speakers giving then a much lighter color than their southern ancestors had and some still have today.
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Is the idea that the Fulani had Judaeo-Syrian origins is dubious? I tend not to believe it because their language is most closely related to Serer and Wolof. They did however have cattle mythology. Bull worship was common in many cultures but that is exactly what the Hebrew tradition rejected. However there was a time the Israelites themselves were worshipping it according to the bible.
In the centuries preceding the appearance of the Biblical Hebrews, parts of Canaan and southwestern Syria became tributary to the Egyptian Pharaohs with sporadic domination by the Egyptians. Thus not surprising that the Semitic shows some similarities with Egyptian language and beyond loan .
quote:Originally posted by Clyde Winters: The Semites probably originated in Africa and migrated into these areas.
posted
Phoenician is a Semitic language of the Canaanite subgroup; its closest living relative is Hebrew, to which it is very similar; then Aramaic, then Arabic. The area where Phoenician was spoken includes modern-day Lebanon, coastal Syria, Palestine, northern Israel (as well as parts of Cyprus – along with Greek – and, at least as a prestige language, in some adjacent areas of Anatolia. It was also spoken in the area of Phoenician colonization along the coasts of the South-Western Mediterranean, including, notably, those of modern Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria, as well as Malta, the west of Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica and southernmost Spain.
The significantly divergent later-form of the language that was spoken in the Tyrian Phoenician colony of Carthage is known as Punic; it remained in use there for considerably longer than Phoenician did in Phoenicia itself, arguably surviving into Augustine's time. It may have even survived the Arabic conquest of North Africa: the geographer al-Bakrī describes a people speaking a language that was not Berber, Latin or Coptic in the city of Sirte in northern Libya, a region where spoken Punic survived well past written use. However it is likely that Arabization of the Punics was facilitated by their language belonging to the same group (the Semitic languages group) as that of the conquerors, and thus having many grammatical and lexical similarities.
The ancient Lybico-Berber alphabet still in irregular use by modern Berber groups such as the Tuareg is known by the native name tifinaġ, possibly a derived form of a cognate of the name "Punic". Still, a direct derivation from the Phoenician-Punic script is debated and far from established, since both writing systems are very different. As far as language (not the script) is concerned, some borrowings from Punic appear in modern Berber dialects: one interesting example is agadir "wall" from Punic gader.
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Canaanite, Phoenician, Hebrew(maybe Gaelic),Aramaic, Arabic according to a Moorish writer from Spain are connected languages that come from Mudar a language spoken in the Moab region(Jordan).Mudar is the abreviation for Medu Neter.
Another theory is the Hebrew language and alphabet name ABR was the language and script of the Egyptian priest while QBT was the language of the Egyptian masses.
Some Ibo scholar claim that the Ibo language is similar to Canaanite, Hebrew and Celt-Gaelic.
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^ I think you're confusing script with actual language. The Hebrew and Aramaic script is derived from Phoenician which in turn is derived from proto-Canaanite script that is derived from Sinaitic which is a form of Egyptian script. This was explained many times in multiple threads including here. However in terms of actual language, the Phoenician, Hebrew, and Aramaic are all descended from proto-northwest Semitic which is just one branch of the Semitic subfamily of languages.
quote:Originally posted by the lioness,: Is the idea that the Fulani had Judaeo-Syrian origins is dubious? I tend not to believe it because their language is most closely related to Serer and Wolof. They did however have cattle mythology. Bull worship was common in many cultures but that is exactly what the Hebrew tradition rejected. However there was a time the Israelites themselves were worshipping it according to the bible.
In the centuries preceding the appearance of the Biblical Hebrews, parts of Canaan and southwestern Syria became tributary to the Egyptian Pharaohs with sporadic domination by the Egyptians. Thus not surprising that the Semitic shows some similarities with Egyptian language and beyond loan .
quote:Originally posted by Clyde Winters: The Semites probably originated in Africa and migrated into these areas.
I don't know what Fulani have to do with Semites. Their language is not even Semitic. As for traditions about coming from the east. Many African groups in West Africa have the same traditions. The original tradition was that they came from the east, though this belief over time was altered to Syria/Palestine or Arabia for obvious politico-religious reasons. As for cattle cults and cattle worship such a custom is found throughout Africa during the mesolithic which dates either at or right before the conception of proto-Semitic.
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^^^ you'll see him do this sometimes, he rephrases what you say and pretends it's an original remark
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^ Who is "he" and why not address the actual material instead of criticizing what you think a poster is doing? Dumb twit. Posts: 26285 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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Andrew Kitchen 1,*, Christopher Ehret 2, Shiferaw Assefa 2 and Connie J. Mulligan1
A recent study of genomewide autosomal microsatellite markers reports that Middle Eastern and African samples share the highest number of alleles that are also absent in other non-African samples, consistent with bidirectional gene flow (1). In addition, a recent study of domestic goat mtDNA and NRY variation reports similar findings as well as evidence of trade along the Strait of Gibraltar (39). The combined archaeological, linguistic, and genetic data, therefore, suggest bidirectional migration of peoples between northern Africa and the Levant for at least the past ~14 ky.
Neolithic in Northern Africa. Approximately 14 kya, climatic changes associated with the end of the Last Glacial Maximum resulted in regions around the world becoming more favorable to human exploitation. Northern Africa is one such region, and ~13 kya, novel technologies (“Natufian”) thought to be the immediate precursor to agricultural technologies emerged and were associated with semisedentary subsistence and population expansions in northeastern Africa (35). Moreover, before the emergence of the Natufian styled artifacts, the archaeological record includes two artifact styles, the “Geometric Kebaran” and the “Mushabian” associated with Middle Eastern and Northern African populations, respectively (35). The archaeological evidence suggests the peoples using these assemblages interacted for well over 1,000 years, and linguistic evidence suggests that the peoples using these assemblages may have spoken some form of proto-Afroasiatic (35, 36). Although the origins of the Afroasiatic language family remain contentious, linguistic data generally support a model in which the Afroasiatic language family arose in Northern Africa >10 kya (36).
Traditionally there are 4 branches of Semitic-- Northwest Semitic which includes Phoenician, Aramaic and extent Hebrew, Northeast Semitic which includes Akkadian and Eblaite all whose descendants are extinct, Central Semitic which included a variety of languages but whose only surviving representative is Classic Arabic, and lastly South Semitic which includes surviving South Arabian languages as well as Ethio-Semitic languages.
However Tukuler pointed out in another thread that among the Ethio-Semitic languages, Gurage has a tenuous position.
quote:Originally posted by alTakruri: Presenting exerpts from Blench's 2010 paper. Any underscoring for emphasis is from myself.
Based on locations of old extinct Semitic and the apparent birthplace of spoken surviving Semitic languages, Blench sees the sub-phyla originating in the Levant or inland therefrom.
But he does so with a caveat overlooked by most others, Gurage in Ethiopia, which is otherwise unrelated to EthioSemitic and is more diverse and older than it.
The position of Gurage makes it impossible to dismiss Ethiopian origins for the very earliest forms of Semitic. Gurage enables a plausible scenario of bi-directional movement of the earliest forms of Semitic both up Nile to Ethiopia and down Nile on over to Sinai.
Probably the biggest booster for Ethiopian origins for all Semitic branches is Grover Hudson but Blench does not draw on Hudson's works for anything in this article.
quote:Originally posted by alTakruri:
The South Semitic languages consist of three branches, Modern South Arabian (MSA), Epigraphic South Arabian (ESA) and Ethiosemitic. The MSA languages are a set of six languages, confined to a small area of the extreme south, along the coast of the Hadramaut, in Oman and on Socotra.
...
The ESA languages are the so-called ‘Sabaean’ languages which are generally considered ancestral to modern South Semitic (Höfner 1943; Beeston 1984; Kogan & Korotayev 1997; Nebes & Stein 2004). These include Sabaean, Minaean and Qatabanian inscriptions and are generally dated to between the eighth century BC and the sixth century AD (Ricks 1982; Versteegh 2000).
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Tukuler
multidisciplinary Black Scholar
Member # 19944
posted
wow
this topic gets bantered around in many other threads
posted
Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of Semitic languages identifies an Early Bronze Age origin of Semitic in the Near East
Andrew Kitchen 1,*, Christopher Ehret 2, Shiferaw Assefa 2 and Connie J. Mulligan1
A recent study of genomewide autosomal microsatellite markers reports that Middle Eastern and African samples share the highest number of alleles that are also absent in other non-African samples, consistent with bidirectional gene flow (1). In addition, a recent study of domestic goat mtDNA and NRY variation reports similar findings as well as evidence of trade along the Strait of Gibraltar (39). The combined archaeological, linguistic, and genetic data, therefore, suggest bidirectional migration of peoples between northern Africa and the Levant for at least the past ~14 ky.
(b) Semitic language divergence dates In addition to delineating the relationship between different Semitic languages, our phylogenetic analysis provides dates for the divergences of the investigated languages. The mean estimates of all language divergence times, with associated 95 per cent HPDs, are depicted in years on the phylogeny in figure 2. Our phylogeny indicates the most basal divergence within Semitic occurred at 5750 YBP (HPD: 4400–7400 YBP), suggesting an origin of Semitic during the Early Bronze Age (Ehrich 1992). This result implies that a hypothetical ancestral language was extant during this period and gave rise to all of the Semitic languages investigated in this study. The deepest four branches of the phylogeny indicate the divergences of East (root), West (node A), South (node E) and Central (node B) Semitic; these divergences are nearly coincident with largely overlapping HPDs (3300–7400 YBP), suggesting that Semitic underwent a period of rapid diversification upon its origin.
So Semitic is said to originate in Asia, specifically the Levant during the early Bronze Age. It was the further development of a branch or language of proto-Afrasian which originated in Africa. So how did the original speakers of proto-Semitic look like? We know that since proto-Afrasian began in Africa the original proto-Semites were therefore African immigrants yet are there any clues as to how they looked??
Well here are the remains of a couple found in Bab edh-Dhra, Jordan dating to the Bronze Age. During the Bronze Age, Jordan comprised the southern area of Canaan and Bab edh-Dhra was non other than the city of Sodom of Sodom and Gomorrah infamy in the Bible.
Here is a reconstruction made of the heads of the couple.
We know that superficial features like lips, nose tip, hair, and skin color cannot be determined from the skull and are but presumptions made by the forensic artist. But take note of the other features. They remind me of certain Lower Egyptians like Ramses II except more prognathous.
The difference between late XVII and XVIII dynasty royal mummies and contemporary Nubians is slight. During the XVIV and XX dynasties we see possibly some mixing between a Nubian element that is more similar to Mesolithic Nubians (low vaults, sloping frontal bone, etc.), with an orthognathous population. Since the Ramessides were of northern extraction, this could represent miscegenation with modern Mediterraneans of Levantine type. The projecting zygomatic arches of Seti I suggest remnants of the old Natufian/Tasian types of the Holocene period...
In summation, the New Kingdom Pharaohs and Queens whose mummies have been recovered bear strong similarity to either contemporary Nubians, as with the XVII and XVIII dynasties, or with Mesolithic-Holocene Nubians, as with the XVIV and XX dynasties. The former dynasties seem to have a strong southern affinity, while the latter possessed evidence of mixing with modern Mediterranean types and also, possibly, with remnants of the old Tasian and Natufian populations. From the few sample available from the XXI Dynasty, there may have been a new infusion from the south at this period.
So the only difference between Delta Egyptian skulls like Ramses and Bronze Age Canaanite couple from Sodom is that the Egyptians are more orthognathous while the Sodomites were more prognathous.
And then we have this genetic study on the Jordanian population near the Dead Sea where Sodom was located.
Abstract A high-resolution, Y-chromosome analysis using 46 binary markers has been carried out in two Jordan populations, one from the metropolitan area of Amman and the other from the Dead Sea, an area geographically isolated. Comparisons with neighboring populations showed that whereas the sample from Amman did not significantly differ from their Levantine neighbors, the Dead Sea sample clearly behaved as a genetic outlier in the region. Its high R1*-M173 frequency (40%) has until now only been found in northern Cameroonian samples. This contrasts with the comparatively low presence of J representatives (9%), which is the modal clade in Middle Eastern populations, including Amman. The Dead Sea sample also showed a high presence of E3b3a-M34 lineages (31%), which is only comparable to that found in Ethiopians. Although ancient and recent ties with sub-Saharan and eastern Africans cannot be discarded, it seems that isolation, strong drift, and/or founder effects are responsible for the anomalous Y-chromosome pool of this population. These results demonstrate that, at a fine scale, the smooth, continental clines detected for several Y-chromosome markers are often disrupted by genetically divergent populations. --Carlos Flores et al 2005
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[gft] Extinct. South Blue Nile area. Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, South, Ethiopian, South, Outer, n-Group
Geez
(Still used in the orthodox church and in religious manuscripts) [gez] Extinct. Also spoken in Eritrea. Alternate names: Ancient Ethiopic, Ethiopic, Ge’ez, Giiz.
Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, South, Ethiopian, North
Mesmes
[mys] Extinct. Gurage, Hadiyya, Kambatta Region. Dialects: Related to West Gurage.
[amh] 17,372,913 in Ethiopia (1998 census). 14,743,556 monolinguals. Population total all countries: 17,417,913. Ethnic population: 16,007,933 (1998 census). North central Ethiopia, Amhara Region, and in Addis Ababa. Also spoken in Egypt, Israel, Sweden. Alternate names: Abyssinian, Ethiopian, Amarinya, Amarigna.
[agj] 10,860 (1998 census). 44,737 monolinguals. Population includes 47,285 in Amharic, 3,771 in Oromo, 541 in Tigrigna (1998 census). Ethnic population: 62,831 (1998 census). Fragmented areas along the Rift Valley in settlements like Yimlawo, Gusa, Shonke, Berket, Keramba, Mellajillo, Metehara, Shewa Robit, and surrounding rural villages. Dialects: Ankober, Shonke. It is reported that the ‘purest’ Argobba is spoken in Shonke and T’olaha. Lexical similarity 75% to 85% with Amharic.
[har] 21,283 (1998 census). 2,351 monolinguals. 20,000 in Addis Ababa, outside Harar city (Hetzron 1997:486). Ethnic population: 21,757 (1998 census). Homeland Eastern, traditionally within the walled city of Harar. Large communities in Addis Ababa, Nazareth, and Dire Dawa. Alternate names: Hararri, Adare, Adere, Aderinya, Adarinnya, Gey Sinan.
[ior] 280,000. Population includes 50,000 Endegeny. West Gurage Region, Innemor and Endegeny woredas. Alternate names: Ennemor. Dialects: Enegegny (Enner). Part of a Gurage cluster of languages.
[gru] 254,682 (1998 census). Ethnic population: 363,867 (1998 census) including 4,000 Gogot. Gurage, Kambaata, Hadiyya Region, just southwest of Addis Ababa. Alternate names: Soddo, Soddo Gurage, North Gurage. Dialects: Soddo (Aymallal, Aymellel, Kestane, Kistane), Dobi (Dobbi, Gogot, Goggot). Not intelligible with Silte or West Gurage. Dobi speakers’ comprehension of Soddo is 76%, and Soddo speakers’ comprehension of Dobi is 90%.
[sgw] 440,000. Population includes Chaha 130,000, Gura 20,000, Muher 90,000, Gyeto 80,000, Ezha 120,000. West Gurage Region, Chaha is spoken in and around Emdibir, Gura is spoken in and around Gura Megenase and Wirir, Muher is spoken in and around Ch’eza and in the mountains north of Chaha and Ezha, Gyeto is spoken south of Ark’it’ in K’abul and K’want’e, Ezha is spoken in Agenna. Alternate names: Central West Gurage, West Gurage, Guragie, Gouraghie, Gurague. Dialects: Chaha (Cheha), Ezha (Eza, Izha), Gumer (Gwemarra), Gura, Gyeto, Muher. A member of the Gurage cluster of languages.
[xst] 827,764 (1998 census). Ethnic population: 900,348 (1998 census). About 150 km south of Addis Ababa. Alternate names: East Gurage, Selti, Silti. Dialects: Enneqor (Inneqor), Ulbarag (Urbareg), Wolane (Walane). Not intelligible with West or North Gurage. 40% or less intelligible with Chaha (Central West Gurage).
[tir] 3,224,875 in Ethiopia (1998 census). 2,819,755 monolinguals. Population total all countries: 4,449,875. Ethnic population: 3,284,568 (1998 census). Tigray Province. Also spoken in Eritrea, Germany, Israel. Alternate names: Tigrinya, Tigray.
Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, South, Ethiopian, North
Gafat
[gft] Extinct. South Blue Nile area. Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, South, Ethiopian, South, Outer, n-Group
Geez (Still used in the orthodox church and in religious manuscripts) [gez] Extinct. Also spoken in Eritrea. Alternate names: Ancient Ethiopic, Ethiopic, Ge’ez, Giiz.
Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, South, Ethiopian, North
Zay
[zwa] 4,880 (1994 SIL). Ethnic population: 4,880. Shores of Lake Zway and eastern islands in Lake Zway. Alternate names: Zway, Lak’i, Laqi, Gelilla. Dialects: No dialect variations. Lexical similarity 61% with Harari, 70% with Silte (M. L. Bender 1971).
posted
^ Okay? And exactly what's the point of the above posts? I mean what do they have to do with Semitic??
Also, what do you think of the linguistic theories surrounding the people of Punt i.e. the people of King Perahu and Queen Ati whom Hatshepsut's men visited?? Some scholars say they may have been Ethio-Semitic speakers while others say Cushitic. The names of the King and Queen have etymologies that are too generalized and can be found within various branches of Afrisian including the Egyptian language, though I've read from several sources that the Egyptians called specific people of Perahu and Ati as 'Habashat' which corresponds to modern Habasha.
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^Some are part of the Semitic branch and some are believed to be part of the Semitic branch.
Yes, I know of which vid you speak. It was when I made that thread on him last year.
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As far as the intro post is concerned, I don't want to get into an elaborate critique at this moment, but I will say that I see nothing wrong with the understanding of an African origin for the ancestral (proto) language of Semitic, with the likely place of that origin being anywhere between Egypt and northern Ethiopia [edit: or I should say, what used to be Ethiopia, but now northern part of Eritrea, although I would zero in on the area further, with giving priority to a general area between Egypt and northern Sudan for a likely origin], or else in area closely surrounding that said general area.
One other thing: I would reckon an even greater time depth for proto-"Afro-Asiatic's" genesis than 12kya, as that date would correspond better with the spill-over of the "Afro-Asiatic" phylum onto the Levant and thereof.
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quote:Originally posted by the lioness,: They did however have cattle mythology. Bull worship was common in many cultures but that is exactly what the Hebrew tradition rejected. However there was a time the Israelites themselves were worshipping it according to the bible.
Actually there was a great period of time that the Hebrew traditionalist worshipped the bull. According to the scriptures if that is something that you want to believe in - when they left and created the golden calf - which was symbolic for being the child god of Het Hru/Hathor - this is an obvious act or tradition that they held in ancient Egypt. According to the story the moment they went into Egypt they were following the doctrine/teachings of the ancient Egypt. This can be found in the story of the burial of Jacob/Israel whom I believe was the Hyksos King Yaqub Hor (12 Dynasty King)as he was mummfied like other Egyptian kings. The same can be said of his son Joseph who was buried and mummfied as well. So from the interance into ancient Egypt until the supposed Mose/Moshe broke the tablets Bull worship aka worship of Hathor was a prominent factor to the supposed ancient Israelites.
quote:In the centuries preceding the appearance of the Biblical Hebrews, parts of Canaan and southwestern Syria became tributary to the Egyptian Pharaohs with sporadic domination by the Egyptians.
Well what is modernly called ancient Israel/Canaan was actually a territory ruled by the ancient Egyptian previous to Persian, Grecian, and Roman invasions.
quote:Thus not surprising that the Semitic shows some similarities with Egyptian language and beyond loan .
The Semetic language appears to perhaps originate from the ancient Ethiopian and Egyptians combine - creating their own characters.
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Lioness. Maybe you can help me understand what is being said in this paper? Since you got a thing for the Levant. Tell me really, what this paper is saying. Those African Saharans keep showing up in Arabia!!! In case you don’t get it Arabians(Yemenis) and Ethiopians are the same people. The question to be answered now is who originally occupied the Levant. Africans or Ottoman Turks.
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Genome-Wide Diversity in the Levant Reveals Recent Structuring by Culture(2013 hot off the press!!)
Soria-Hernanz9, R. Spencer Wells9, Jaume Bertranpetit1, Comas , Pierre A. Zalloua2,11.* et al
The Levant is a geographical area in the eastern Mediterranean region bounded by Anatolia, Egypt, and the Arabian Desert. It includes Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, and often Cyprus and historical Armenia.
A recent study by Moorjani et al. [8], estimated that Jewish admixture with African genes ended much earlier (,75 generations ago) than other Levantines (Muslims) (,32 generations ago). However, it is not known if this different admixture history is the result of out-migration from the region and the discontinued gene flow from neighboring populations or if it is a result of cultural isolation in a predominantly Christian (,100–650 CE) and later Muslim (,650 CE-present) environment. Would today’s Christians from the Levant also show older dates for cessation of African admixture than other Levantines, reflecting cultural/genetic isolation from their surrounding neighbors? By exploring the genetic isolation of populations like the Christians and Druze, it would then be possible to assess the pre- Islamic genetic structure of the Levantines and accurately construct the genetic relationships with neighboring populations. In this study we analyze newly-generated genome-wide data from Lebanon in addition to individuals from 48 published global populations [7,9]. We aim to assess the genome-wide genetic relationships of the Levantines and to resolve previous uncertainties about population structure in the Levant region
In 986 CE, the Druze faith developed as a movement within Islam, and from 1030 AD, a person could only be Druze if born Druze
These results are consistent with previous studies reporting higher European genome-wide admixture in Ashkenazi Jews compared with other Jews [11] and higher Y-chromosomal gene flow to Lebanese Muslims from the Arabian Peninsula compared with other Lebanese [5].
The population tree (Figure 3A) splits Levantine populations in two branches: one leading to Europeans and Central Asians that includes Lebanese, Armenians, Cypriots, Druze and Jews, as well as Turks, Iranians and Caucasian populations; and a second branch composed of Palestinians, Jordanians, Syrians, as well as North Africans, Ethiopians, Saudis, and Bedouins. The tree shows a correlation between religion and the population structures in the Levant: all
The predominantly Muslim populations of Syrians, Palestinians and Jordanians cluster on branches with other Muslim populations as distant as Morocco and Yemen. It should be noted here that the results depend SIGNIFICANTLY on populations included in the analysis as well as recent admixture events, and so should be treated as an approximate guide to similarity, rather than a full population history.
ChromoPainter’s coancestry matrix (Figure 3B, Figure S4) shows the haplotype chunks donated from the world populations to the Levantines and shows that Jordanians, Palestinians, and Syrians receive more chunks from sub-Saharan Africans and from Middle Easterners compared with other Levantines. We explored the sub-Saharan/Middle Eastern gene flow to the Levantines further by employing a previously developed method (ROLLOFF) [8] that estimates the time since admixture with sub-Saharan African genes using the rate of exponential decline of admixture LD. Previous simulations [8] showed that bias from ROLLOFF estimates is removed with increased sample size, so we used the entire Lebanese religious subgroups after carrying out a rigorous outlier removal based on PCA [17] and keeping the main core clusters (336 Christians, 85 Druze, 747 Muslims) (Text S1). We found that Christians have the oldest admixture dates (2,375-2,025 years ago, y.a) with bounds coinciding with the decline of Phoenicia and the control of the region by the Hellenistic rulers. The time since the observed Druze admixture (1,275-1,025 y.a) closely precedes the development of the Druze faith and their divergence from other Muslims. The Muslims appear to have maintained contact with populations carrying sub-Saharan genes until 675-625 y.a, [which overlaps with the rise of the Ottoman Empire and formation of a semi-autonomous state in Lebanon.
ADMIXTURE identifies at K= 10 an ancestral component (light green) with a geographically restricted distribution representing ,50% of the individual component in Ethiopians, Yemenis, Saudis, and Bedouins, decreasing towards the Levant, with higher frequency (,25%) in Syrians, Jordanians, and Palestinians, compared with other Levantines (4%–20%). The geographical distribution pattern of this component (Figure 4A, 4B) correlates with the pattern of the Islamic expansion, but its presence in Lebanese Christians, Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jews, Cypriots and Armenians might suggest that its spread to the Levant could also represent an earlier event. BESIDES THIS COMPONENT, the most frequent ancestral component (shown in dark blue) in the Levantines (42–68%) is also present, at lower frequencies, in Europe and Central Asia (Figure 4A, 4C). We found that this Levantine component is closer to the European component (dark green) (FST = 0.035) than to the Arabian Peninsula/East Africa component (light green) (FST = 0.046). Our estimates show that the Levantine and the Arabian Peninsula/East African components diverged ,23,700-15,500 y.a., while the Levantine and European components diverged ,15,900-9,100 y.a. We note here that our divergence time
-------------------- Without data you are just another person with an opinion - Deming Posts: 12143 | From: When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable | Registered: Jun 2007
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As my contribution, here's a little more genetic substance to the discussion, mainly recounting some interesting findings I had come across years ago.
To piggyback on an observation Pagani et al. (2012) made...
The non-African component was found to be more similar to populations inhabiting the Levant rather than the Arabian Peninsula
I recount noting as follows, with reference to observations around Kivisild et al. (2004):
"Given what the authors say about mtDNA like pre-HV markers, attempt at correlation here can only hint on possible entertainment of back-migration involving "Afro-Asiatic" groups from the "Near East" through the Sinai corridor as opposed to the south Arabian peninsula [note here, that invocation of the low incidence of E-M78 in Yemeni samples fit into that theme]" - Explorer
On the mtDNA front, years ago I had noted as follows, courtesy of Kivisild et al. (2004)...
This pattern (below) was observed quite frequently for hg N and its sub-clades in the Ethiopian maternal gene pool:
"AGAIN, northern Africa is implicated. One confronts a situation wherein Ethiopian examples fail to find matches with those in the "Near East" or southern Arabia, and again, there doesn't seem to any structuring along linguistic lines." - Explorer
Furthermore...
...A specific haplotype match in haplogroup (preHV)1—which is also widely spread in the Near East—between Ethiopian Jews and non-Jews is more problematic, because it is also possible that the non-Jews obtained the lineage from the Jews. This particular (preHV)1 haplotype, with a rare transversion at np 16305, (1) has not been detected, so far, among other Semitic populations of the Near East; whereas, (2) in Ethiopia, it occurs both among Cushitic and Semitic speakers;
But...
and, (3) in Ethiopian Jews, there are many sub-Saharan African lineages from haplogroups L0–L3. It is more likely, therefore, that the matching haplotype does not represent the incursion of Jewish maternal lineages into the Ethiopian gene pool but that this haplotype instead substantiates the extent of Ethiopian admixture in the Falasha population.
Taken together, the influx of the elements of the Hebraic culture in the first centuries a.d. probably did not have a major impact on the genetic pool of Ethiopians,
and the present-day Jews of Ethiopian descent probably assimilated genes from the local non-Jewish populations through conversion of the latter to Judaism.
Importantly...
The other two episodes of intrusion of Semitic influence, related to contacts with southern Arabia, are weakly supported by our data.
This is because, among the haplogroup N lineages present in high frequency in the Tigrais and other Ethiopian ethnic groups, only a few revealed close relationships with equivalent lineages present in southern Arabia.
The pattern you see above, surfaces quite frequently in Ethiopian so-called "Eurasian" gene pool.
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As one can probably sense, the so-called Ethiopian "Eurasian" mtDNA does not seem to expediently comply, as the ideologues would prefer, with their predetermined accounts of non-African genesis of Ethio-Semitism, and so, some have sought to fill that void with Ethiopian Y-DNA instead. Ethiopian J-M267 clades seem to have assumed the role as a popular "fall guy" for this purpose. However, therein one runs into another problem...much of the Ethiopian J clades appear much more ancient than their major counterparts in southern Arabia. And one can add to this, the diversity factor!
Recounting, on the Y-DNA front:
"What's interesting in the above, in their [Kivisild et al.] investigation into whether proto-Semitic speakers arrived with what they essentially tag as "Eurasian" mtDNA markers from the Near East through the Sinai corridor or whether the arrival of Ethio-Semitic speakers was an element of another demographic episode involving the tip of the south Arabian peninsula, is that Kivisild et el. sought to entertain the correlation with a bifurcation event around the E-M35 clade that they think could effectively parallel that concerning the mentioned J clades."- Explorer
"Whatever could they do with that information, one might ask. Although one cannot literally get into the authors' heads, it can allow for extrapolation of the arrival of E-M35 carrying proto-Ethiopic Semitic, in tandem with hg J bearers, as back-migration of Neolithic "Afro-Asiatic" speakers from the "Near East","
"and thereof, conveniently explain away the distinctive mosaic of unique and conventional "Eurasian" tagged mtDNA markers reported in Ethiopian samples, that just don't seem to square with arrival from the tip of the south Arabian peninsula." - Explorer
"This would place the south Arabian source hypothesis on the back burner."
"The inability to come up with such a parallel in the E-M35 clade, is what is described here as a "problem"."
"Never mind the fact that E-M35 is a marker of recent African ancestry, but the obvious goal here, was to speak of "returning" variants of this clade. To compensate for this, as an alternative, Kivisild et al. propose that the highly diverse Ethiopian gene pool of Hg J-M267 instead could have entered differently from the other markers investigated here, largely mtDNA markers." - Explorer
"Rather, J-M267 is proposed to have arrived from the tip of the south Arabian peninsula recently, coinciding with the arrival of proto-Ethiopic Semitic speakers, as described above not too long ago in this post."
"Just how recent is "recently" here? Because right before saying that the Semitic-speaking Amharas "arrived relatively recently", the authors note the genetic indications of an early Holocene arrival. Thus, the demographic events involving the arrival of a host of other markers discussed here were likely different from the arrival from proto-Ethiopic Semitic speakers, whose trail—according to Kivisild et al.'s proposal—is represented by Hg J-M267 as opposed to Hg E-M35, making it expedient to link them back to the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula." - Explorer
"To compensate for the stark differences between the Ethiopian mtDNA gene pools and those of the Yemeni counterparts, the authors simply theorize that the south Arabians "efficiently" contributed their male gene pool but not the maternally-transmitted one."
"Neither the context or dates of this phenomenon is specified to the reader, of course. Nor are any molecular specifics provided to justify this theory, other than the seeming linguistic-structuring of hg J prevalence amongst Ethiopic Semitic groups and the Cushitic groups, which is why we are simply told this:
Relevant data for other Ethiopian populations and Yemenis are desired for further exploration of this line of arguments." - Explorer
"It should be noted however, that while it's true that their hg J-M267 gene pool is quite diverse, Ethiopians also carry distinctive paraphyletic clades of their own, opening up the question of possible origin of certain sub-clades of this clade amongst Ethiopic groups." - Explorer
"This attests to the richness and perhaps antiquity of hg J-M267 in the African horn, one very likely predating contact with Sabean complex, which would have had fairly little, if any, genetic impact on Ethiopic populations outside the centers of immediate Sabean political outposts."
"It is also questionable, pending the presentation of information forth, that the patterns in Ethiopian examples will be replicated in south Arabian examples."
"According to Semino et al.'s report, there is microsatellite indication that much of Ethiopian hg J-M267 examples are of Neolithic provenance...
The majority of J-M267 Y chromosomes harbor the single-banded motif YCAIIa22-YCAIIb22 in the Middle East (>70%) and in North Africa (>90%), whereas this association is much less frequent in Ethiopia and only sporadically found in southern Europe."
"Considering the distribution of this YCAII single-banded pattern—which, besides the usual stepwise mutational mechanism, could be due to a stable mutational event (one locus deletion or a single-nucleotide mutation in the primer sequence)—we suggest that the motif YCAIIa22-YCAIIb22 potentially characterizes a monophyletic clade of J-M267..."
"According to this interpretation, the first migration, probably in Neolithic times, brought J-M267 to Ethiopia and Europe, whereas a second, more-recent migration diffused the clade harboring the microsatellite motif YCAIIa22-YCAIIb22 in the southern part of the Middle East and in North Africa."
"In this regard, it is worth noting that the median expansion time of the J-M267-YCAIIa22-YCAIIb22 clade was estimated to be 8.7–4.3 ky, by use of the TD approach (see fig. 4 legend), and that this clade includes the modal haplotype DYS19-14/DYS388-17/DYS390-23/DYS391-11/DYS392-11 of the Galilee (Nebel et al. 2000) and of Moroccan Arabs (Bosch et al. 2001)."
"If true, this would mean that any "Afro-Asiatic" hg J-M267 from southern Arabia would have had to have been acquainted with the farming subsistence from the Levantine areas, and as such, certain Neolithic social terms associated with such economy would have been available." - Explorer
"As noted here before, nothing comes to mind that suggest basic "Near Eastern" or "south Arabian" Neolithic-derived terms in Ethio-Semitic." - Explorer
"Kivisild et al. are essentially treating hg J1-M267 as the effective marker for proto-Semitic speakers in Ethiopic populations, as opposed to E-M78 or E-M35 clades, which is odd, because the primary agents of spreading proto-Semitic or proto-Afrisan languages into the "Near East" and the Arabian peninsula in the first place would have largely been E-M35 carriers, who originate from an area where preponderance of evidence—including both genetic particulars and language diversity—places the origin of proto-Afrisan language phylum."
"This therefore puts hg J carrying groups in the "Near East" and elsewhere on the receiving end of "Afro-Asiatic" language acculturation, not the primary agents of it." - Explorer
...
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With regards to diversity, again on the Y-DNA front:
"Cadenas et al.'s (2007) posting of internal-diversity of E3b1c1-M34 clades per region is consistent with previous data. Furthermore, the studies posted here all, and more, keep citing that singular Underhill et al.'s (2004) one study wherein E-M34 was not detected in a Sudanese sample, around which Cruciani et al. (2004) raise their "Near Eastern" origin plausibility, for Ethiopian chromosomes. In that same study, interestingly, no hg J clades were observed in the Sudanese sample either; How is that for a reality check?" - Explorer
"Yet, other studies have noted hg J markers in Sudanese samples. Semino et al. (2004) for their part, refrained from inferring the origin of Ethiopian E3b1c1-M34 clades, only noting that:
The network of E3b1a-M78 and that of E3b1c-M123 are in agreement with the hypothesis of their ancient presence in the Near East and their subsequent expansion into the southern Balkans. The divergence time (TD) (Zhivotovsky 2001) between the Near East and European lineages has been estimated to a range of 7–14 thousand years (ky) ago. Cinniog˘lu et al. (2004) found a high degree of variance of E3b1c-M123 in Turkey, which has been interpreted as being due to multiple founders rather than a single early dispersal event that has remained geographically circumscribed. - Semino et al. (2004)"
On the Cruciani et al. (2004) pitting of Ethiopian E3b-M123 gene pool against those of the so-called "Near East", I noted as follows:
"Ethiopian haplotypes are expected to show relatively shorter branches with respect to one another, because they are highly geographically-proximate populations of the same nation state, whereas those from the "Near East" were pooled from distinct geographical territories spanning the Asian Minor, the Levant all the way to the southern tip of Arabia." - Explorer
Whereas, from closer inspection...
"As we've just seen from above, the "Near East" expansions of E3b1c1-M34, likely first in the northward-oriented territories therein, and then from there towards the south, was marked by multiple "founder effect" situations accompanied by genetic drift—positive or negative, resulting in different subsets of E3b1c-M123 developing internally within respective distinct populations of the region." - Explorer
Obviously, if the Ethiopian E3b-M123 gene pool were just pitted against the individual Arabian nationalities' gene pool, the former would feature more diversity than the latter.
On quantifying diversity, we see that:
"Luis et al. (2004) posted an internal variance of .41 for the Egyptian sample vs. the just .05 internal variance for the Omani sample, as it pertains to the E3b1c-M123 clade."
"Likewise, the internal variation of Egyptian J clades—J-12f2(xJ2-M172) and J*-12f2(xJ2-M172)—was .45 and .31 respectively, while those reported for the Omani sample were .40 and .27 respectively. There is apparently greater disparity between the reported values for the two samples in the case of the E3b-M123 marker than the J clades, but the common element here is the relative greater internal variation in the Egyptian sample vs. the Omani."
"On the other hand, Cadenas et al. (2007) report the following internal variance values for the following groups respectively: For UAE the value was .25 [E3b1c-M123] and .15 [ J1-M267], while for Yemeni, the values were .14 [E3b1c-M123] and .20 [J1-M267]. Qatar did not report for any E3b1c clades, but did have a value of .14 for J1-M267."
It's worthwhile noting that Yemeni clades featured among the lowest diversity when pitted against other groups from the Arabian peninsula and the Levant, not only from the standpoint of E3b-M123 clades, but also J1-M267! The northern areas of the Arabian peninsula, where it is determined that J1 clades and E3b-M123 clades were relatively more diverse, in turn have generally reported lower variances when compared to samples from north-eastern Africa!
"The level of diversity demonstrated above in eastern African examples of E3b1c-M123 and J1-M267 markers, including those from Ethiopia, is inconsistent with a south Arabian origin." - Explorer
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Just read it. But also read a few others courtesy Beyoku's thread eg
1.Early Arabian pastoralism at Manayzah in Wadi Sana, Hadramawt
2.Manayzah, early to mid-Holocene occupations in Wadi Sana (Hadramawt, Yemen)
3.Reuse of tombs or cultural continuity? The case of tower-tombs in Shabwa governorate (Yemen)
and a few others.
Clearly East African people and technology has been penetrating Southern Arabia since the bronze age.
There are a few scholars who believe that the exist OOA was primarily through the Levant. The more I read about Arabian archeology the more I believe the Levant was the primary exit point and NOT the Horn.
quote:Originally posted by Troll Patrol:
quote:Originally posted by xyyman:
In case you haven't seen/ read this before.
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In fact from what I read both had acces points. The Levant and Horn-Yemen to Oman. But predominately it was through Yemen-Oman. Known as the Nubian-Complex.
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Past and present human impacts on the biodiversity of Socotra Island (Yemen): implications for future conservation
Kay Van Damme, Lisa Banfield
quote:Strong waves of immigration have not been extensive until now, and the largest area of the island has been managed by the indigenous population through most of its human history – a recent molecular study (CERNY et al. 2009) showed that the Socotrans are not a genetic mixture of immigrants and local people, as previously believed.
quote:The Soqotra archipelago is one of the most isolated landmasses in the world, situated at the mouth of the Gulf of Aden between the Horn of Africa and southern Arabia. The main island of Soqotra lies not far from the proposed southern migration route of anatomically modern humans out of Africa ∼60,000 years ago (kya), suggesting the island may harbor traces of that first dispersal. Nothing is known about the timing and origin of the first Soqotri settlers. The oldest historical visitors to the island in the 15th century reported only the presence of an ancient population. We collected samples throughout the island and analyzed mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosomal variation. We found little African influence among the indigenous people of the island. Although the island population likely experienced founder effects, links to the Arabian Peninsula or southwestern Asia can still be found. In comparison with datasets from neighboring regions, the Soqotri population shows evidence of long-term isolation and autochthonous evolution of several mitochondrial haplogroups. Specifically, we identified two high-frequency founder lineages that have not been detected in any other populations and classified them as a new R0a1a1 subclade. Recent expansion of the novel lineages is consistent with a Holocene settlement of the island ∼6 kya.
--Viktor Černý, Am J Phys Anthropol, 2009
Out of Arabia—The settlement of Island Soqotra as revealed by mitochondrial and Y chromosome genetic diversity
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