Most Britons descended from male farmers who left Iraq and Syria 10,000 years ago (and were seduced by the local hunter-gatherer women), a new study has shown. After studying the DNA of more than 2,000 men, researchers say they have compelling evidence that four out of five white Europeans can trace their roots to the Near East.
...The Leicester University study looked at a common genetic mutation on the Y chromosome, the DNA that is passed down from fathers to sons. They found that 80 per cent of European men shared the same Y
chromosone mutation and after analysing how the mutation was distributed across Europe, were able to retrace how Europe was colonised around 8,000BC...European farming began around 9,000 BC in the Fertile Crescent - a region extending from the eastern Mediterranean coast to the Persian Gulf and which includes modern day Iraq, Syria, Israel and southeast Turkey.
Professor Mark Jobling says the settlers [settlers?!] were more attractive to women because they could grow more food...Dr Patricia Balaresque, a co-author of the study, said: 'This means that more than 80 per cent of European Y chromosomes descend from incoming farmers.' In contrast, other studies have shown that DNA passed down from mothers to daughters can be traced by to hunter-gatherers in Europe, she said.
'To us, this suggests a reproductive advantage for farming males over indigenous hunter-gatherer males during the switch from hunting and gathering, to farming - maybe, back then, it was just sexier to be a farmer,' she said.
Interesting.
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3 comments:
Since the Jewish "settlers" are generally more productive farmers than the arabs, do you have trouble fighting off the local arab ladies?!
I mistrust anything coming out of UK "academia" since they made up all that global warming stuff at East Anglia!!
Another reason why Brits have got middle eastern fathers and European mothers: because our middle eastern fathers killed our European mothers' husbands and stole their wives?
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