Monday, October 6, 2008

WESTERN EUROPEAN GENETIC REMNANTS IN EGYPT

WESTERN EUROPEAN GENETIC REMNANTS IN EGYPT

The historical record shows that the Ancient White Egyptians were finally overwhelmed by Black Nubian and Semitic invaders circa 800 BC. Additional non-White influences were further added with the Muslim invasion of Egypt after 700 AD, creating the heavily mixed population of modern Egypt.

As a result, it comes as no surprise that recent genetic testing in Egypt shows an overwhelming non-White footprint. In spite of the thousands of years of racial mixing, however, a 'WESTERN EUROPEAN' strain was still detected - along with a marked north-south cline in genetic patterns in Egypt, consistent with Black Nubian influence spreading from the south.

Note: the authors of this study attribute the Western European haplotype XV to "Near East, Greek, and Roman influences" - a conclusion that is obviously incorrect as they themselves point out that the haplotype XV is most common in Western Europe, and NOT the 'Near East'.

Original Roman and Macedonian types were of course similar to modern day Western Europeans, but it is unlikely that they ever occupied the region in sufficient numbers to make a statistically detectable impact upon the genetic make-up of Egypt. Obviously, the authors never considered the possibility of ancient racial elements in Egypt which were similar to present day Western Europeans.

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/103020851/ABSTRACT

American Journal of Physical Anthropology

Volume 121, Issue 1 , Pages 63 - 66

Y-chromosome haplotypes in Egypt

G. Lucotte *, G. Mercier

International Institute of Anthropology, Paris, France

*Correspondence to G. Lucotte, Centre de Neurogénétique Moléculaire, 44 rue Monge, 75005 Paris, France

Abstract

We analyzed Y-chromosome haplotypes in the Nile River Valley in Egypt in 274 unrelated males, using the p49a,f TaqI polymorphism. These individuals were born in three regions along the river: in Alexandria (the Delta and Lower Egypt), in Upper Egypt, and in Lower Nubia. Fifteen different p49a,f TaqI haplotypes are present in Egypt, the three most common being haplotype V (39.4%), haplotype XI (18.9%), and haplotype IV (13.9%). Haplotype V is a characteristic Arab haplotype, with a northern geographic distribution in Egypt in the Nile River Valley. Haplotype IV, characteristic of sub-Saharan populations, shows a southern geographic distribution in Egypt.

As for mtDNA (Krings et al., [1999]), the present study on the Y-chromosome haplotype shows that there are northern and southern Y-haplotypes in Egypt. The main Y-haplotype V is a northern haplotype, with a significantly different frequency in the north compared to the south of the country: frequencies of haplotype V are 51.9% in the Delta (location A), 24.2% in Upper Egypt (location B), and 17.4% in Lower Nubia (location C). On the other hand, haplotype IV is a typical southern haplotype, being almost absent in A (1.2%), and preponderant in B (27.3%) and C (39.1%). Haplotype XI also shows a preponderance in the south (in C, 30.4%; B, 28.8%) compared to the north (11.7% in A) of the country. In mtDNA, sequences of the first hypervariable HpaI site at position 3592 allowed Krings et al. ([1999]) to designate each mtDNA as being of northern or southern affiliation, and proportions of northern and southern mtDNA differed significantly between Egypt, Nubia, and the Southern Sudan.

It is interesting to relate this peculiar north/south differentiation, a pattern of genetic variation deriving from the two uniparentally inherited genetic systems (mtDNA and Y chromosome), to specific historic events. Since the beginning of Egyptian history (3200-3100 B.C.), the legendary king Menes united Upper and Lower Egypt. Migration from north to south may coincide with the Pharaonic colonization of Nubia, which occurred initially during the Middle Kingdom (12th Dynasty, 1991-1785 B.C.), and more permanently during the New Kingdom, from the reign of Thotmosis III (1490-1437 B.C.). The main migration from south to north may coincide with the 25th Dynasty (730-655 B.C.), when kings from Napata (in Nubia) conquered Egypt.

Concerning less frequent Y-haplotypes in Egypt, haplotype VIII is characteristic of Semitic populations, originating in the Near East (Lucotte et al., [1993]). For example (Lucotte et al., [1996]), the frequency of haplotype VIII is 26.2% among North African Jews (where it represents the majority haplotype) and 77.5% among Jews from the island of Djerba (Tunisia), reaching 85.1% among Oriental (from Iraq, Iran, and Syria) Jews. Similarly, haplotype VII had a general geographical distribution fairly identical to that of haplotype VIII (which it often accompanies as a secondary haplotype); haplotype VII distinguishes itself by increased preponderance north of the Mediterranean and in Eastern Europe (Lucotte et al., [1996]). Haplotype XV is the most widespread Y-haplotype in Western Europe (Lucotte and Hazout, [1996]), where its frequency decreases from west to east (Semino et al., [1996]; Lucotte and Loirat, [1999]). Haplotypes VIII, VII, and XV are less common haplotypes in Egypt (7.3%, 6.6%, and 5.5%, respectively), and tend to be located in the north of the country, near the Mediterranean coast. Possibly haplotypes VIII, VII, and XV represent, respectively, Near East, Greek, and Roman influences.

6 comments:

New Jersey Immigration Policy Network said...

To the author: I find much of your work very insightful and truthful but I disagree with your conclusion on the genetic makeup of the Ancient Egyptians. There is currently lots of proof that ancient Egyptians are not genetically linked to the Europeans, Only after the Greeks invaded and the Romans were there any Europeans. If you observe their hydrogliphics u will take notice that they were colored. They were not as black as the nubians, but were a prodominantely mixed people, mostly African. Europeans have for centuries tryed to portray a white Cleopatra and white Egyptian pharoahs. They have tried to include themselves in the original makeup and history of such a great civilization, you've had many great civilizations but truthfully Egypt is not one of them.

New Jersey Immigration Policy Network said...

To the author: I find much of your work very insightful and truthful but I disagree with your conclusion on the genetic makeup of the Ancient Egyptians. There is currently an abundance of proof that ancient Egyptians are not genetically linked to the Europeans, Only after the Greeks invaded and the Romans were there any Europeans. If you observe their hydrogliphics you will take notice that they were colored, They were not as black as the nubians, but were a prodominantely mixed people, mostly African. Europeans have for centuries tryed to portray a white Cleopatra and white Egyptian pharoahs. They have tried to include themselves in the original makeup and history of such a great civilization, you've had many great civilizations but truthfully Egypt is not one of them.

Anonymous said...

In the genetic smorgasbord of Egypt it's hard to say who's who anymore, but let's look at the ancient Egyptians themselves. In their writings they always, clearly diferenciated themselves from "the vile Nubians," and described them as an alien race.
The worshippers of Seth were described as redheads. They are the founders of the great Rameseed dynasty - hence the redhead pharaos. The aristocracy of the late epoch was supplied by the "blue-eyed Lybians." Let's don't forget ocasional blonds in Egypian art, in particular those who were not portrayed as conquered slaves but rather as fellow Egyptians. Also when looking at Egyptian artifacts please remember that they were very ritualized. The pigment of almost all men was red and women yellowish, thus using these colors to speculate about race would not be a good idea. By the same token brown hair in Egyptian art would be black, and the convention would be broken only for the light blond.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your nice post, Anonymous (May 7, 2009 2:13 AM)

Hector, first of all, don't get all desparate it's not cool. And unless you can write on or with water, there's no such things as HYDRO-gliphics... It's "hIERoglYphics". I guess you're black, because you typically disregard mummies hair, eg. Tiye who had flowing red hair.

I guess by now you've heard how those genetic markers were leaked on Discovery channel and when they were entered into a haplogroup predictor, it turned out it was Western European DNA after all!

If they were predominantly (not "prodominantely") mixed, then what did they mix with in the 1st place to make them lighter?

Also, it has been shown that there was some inbreeding within royal lines (which turned out to be Western European), which was probably be to keep the lines pure.

Also, there was this statement by Dr Zahi Hawass:

Tutankhamun was not black: Egypt antiquities chief

AFP. Cairo - Egyptian antiquities supremo Zahi Hawass insisted Tuesday that Tutankhamun was not black despite calls by US black activists to recognise the boy king's dark skin colour.

"TUTANKHAMUN WAS NOT BLACK, AND THE PORTRAYAL OF ANCIENT EGYPTIAN CIVILISATION AS BLACK HAS NO ELEMENT OF TRUTH TO IT," Hawass told reporters.

"EGYPTIANS are not Arabs and ARE NOT AFRICANS despite the fact that Egypt is in Africa," he said, quoted by the official MENA news agency.

Hawass said he was responding to several demonstrations in Philadelphia after a lecture he gave there on September 6 where he defended his theory.

Protestors also claimed images of King Tut were altered to show him with lighter skin at the "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" exhibit which leaves Philadelphia for London on September 30.

The exhibition sparked an uproar when it kicked off in Los Angeles in June 2005 when black activists demanded that a bust of the boy king be removed because the statue portrays him as white.

The face of the legendary pharaoh, who died around 3,300 years ago at the age of just 19, was reconstructed in 2005 through images collected through CAT scans of his mummy.

The boy king's intact tomb caused an international sensation when it was discovered by Briton Howard Carter in 1922 near Luxor in southern Egypt.

Anonymous said...

Oops I meant "despErate".

Anonymous (May 7, 2009 2:13 AM) you mentioned some interesting things and I'll definitely follow up. Didn't know about the "vile Nubians" and "blue-eyed Lybians" stuff. Thanks.

Perhaps I could also just add to what you said regarding the pigments, slaves were usually depicted in a much much darker color in artworks.

Unknown said...

The vast majority of African aDNA studies have been conducted on Ancient Egyptian human mummies, including the second report of extracted and analyzedancient DNA (Pääbo 1985). This is due to the initial assumption that exceptionalmacroscopic preservation is indicative of improved molecular preservation (Pääbo1985). Using aDNA, researchers have examined familial relationships betweenmummies (
e
.
g
., Hawass
et al
. 2010, 2012), population structures of Egyptian and Nubian populations (Krings
et al
. 1999; Lalueza Fox 1997), and the prevalence of infectious diseases including malaria (Hawass
et al
. 2010) and tuberculosis (Crubézy
et al
. 1998; Nerlich
et al
. 1997; Zink
et al
. 2001, 2003a, 2003b, 2004). Although thisresearch continues to the present (
e
.
g
., Hawass
et al
. 2010, 2012), the mummy resultsare controversial given the low likelihood of long-term DNA preservation inEgyptian tombs under current DNA degradation models, which predict that DNAwill degrade faster in warmer climes (
e
.
g
., Gilbert
et al
. 2005b; Krings
et al
. 1999;Lorenzen and Willerslev 2010; Willerslev and Cooper 2005). Moreover, the effects of artificial mummification on DNA preservation remain unknown