R1b, R1a, and IE with a special focus on China!

The distributions of m269 and m73 are very interesting in that each of them lies near the periphery of the Indo-European (IE) world. Stretching across a vast expanse of Eurasia we find m269, concentrated in Western Europe, and m73 primarily found in Central Asia, whereby both regions have historically been inhabited by Indo-Europeans. What is especially peculiar about their distribution is the extreme lack of geographic continuity between the two haplogroups. There exists an ocean of steppe land, and a bit more, separating the bulk of m269 and the bulk of m73. But given how closely related the two haplogroups are, they, or their intermediate forms, must have formed a geographic continuum at some point in the not so distant past. This leads us to some basic questions concerning  the history of this pair. Where and when did they form a geographic continuum? What caused them to move from that location (at least one of them had to move, and it was likely both). Finally, what caused the gaping discontinuity between the two leaving little trail in terms of haplogroup frequencies? Fortunately, given the (likely) timing of each haplogroups' genesis, and the midway point between their modern day distributions, the Pontic-Caspian (PC) steppes are a natural candidate, but by no means the only! Broadly speaking, the PC steppes offer high mobility which can be useful in explaining the spread of the haplogroups and also their disappearances or absorbtions. Relating back to m269 and m73, the PC steppes could have been the location where the two haplogroups started to quickly spread away from each other, with the center of gravity for m269 moving westward, and the center of gravity for m73 moving eastward. Lastly, the PC steppes are a prime location for the geographic continuity between two haplogroups to be broken by other invading nomads, or a simple exodus. Now I will give a more detailed account of how m269 and m73 could have spread out, and away from each other, along with showing some evidence that supports my model. For starters it is important to bare in mind that both haplogroups are associated with IE, and perhaps just as important, both haplogroups are associated with the peripheral of the IE world. Prior to the more rapid spread of m269 and m73 away from each other, I propose that there existed a partial continuum, or nearly so, of the two haplogroups on the Western Eurasian steppes sometime around the VI and early III millennium bce. Around that time said region was part of a greater steppe world described by Chernykh. "The stock-breeding cultures of the Eurasian "steppe belt" covered approximately 7-8 million square km2 from the Lower Danube in the West to Manchuria in the East (a distance of more than 8000km). [1]. Chernykh then goes on to succinctly describe the genesis and maturation of this broad steppe (cultural) belt. "The initial formation of the "steppe belt' cultures coincided with the flourishing of the Carpatho-Balkan metallurgical province (V millennium BC). These cultures developed during the span of the Circumpontic metallurgical province (IV-III millennium BC). Their maturation coincided with the activity of various centers of the giant Eurasian and East-Asian metallurgical provinces (II millennium BC)." [1]. The essential information relevant to my model is that there was an early flow of metal production and influence moving from the West Eurasian steppes to the East Eurasian steppes, ultimately leading to the development of important metallurgical centers in East Asia II millennium BC. I strongly suspect that m73, along with some m269, was carried east alongside these cultural influences that spread from the Western steppes to the Eastern steppes. In order to understand the impact of m269 and m73 on East Asia, I will compare the occurrences of m73 plus m269, to that of haplogroup m17 (another important West Eurasian marker which is associated with IE), in the Chinese people. The results come from a 2010 study with lead author, Hua Zhong. [2]. I have categorized the results for the above haplogroups (m269+m73, m17) into sub-regions of China as follows: Northwest China [populations 104-109, 113] (8, 61); Tibet [populations 115, 116] (0, 3); South-Southeast China [populations 1-75] (0, 2); South-Central-Eastern China [populations 76-79, 84] (1, 9); Central China [populations 85-91, 112, 117] (4, 5); North-Central-Eastern China [populations 80-83] (2, 2); Manchuria [populations 92-97, 99-101, 103, 110, 111] (2, 1); Inner-Mongolia [populations 98, 102] (0, 2). Observations and Analysis: China occupies the eastern end of the Eurasian "steppe belt", as described by Chernykh. [1]. Based on the results represented above, we can see that, m17 is relatively spread out in China, apart from a very high concentration in Northwest China. On the other hand, the r1b pair is concentrated along the "steppe belt" from Nothwest China through Central C., Northern-Central-Eastern C., and finally Manchuria. To be more specific, the r1b pair is concentrated near to where the Chinese (East Eurasian) steppe and the more settled agricultural lands meet. I think this intermediate steppe zone was crucial in preserving early remnants of a west to east migration that moved along with eastern expansion of the "steppe belt" cultural influence that Chernykh talked about. In other words I think that m269 and m73 were a part of an early wave of migrants bringing western steppe influences eastwards, and participating in the formation, or early history, of the eastern extension of the "steppe belt". An early wave of m73 makes sense as paper [2] (p 723) notes that the m73 found in China is relatively old and that most the individuals belong to the tail end of the m73 network. Finally, due to the intermittent nature of the regions where m269 and m73 are found in concentration, sometimes more steppe influenced, sometimes more agriculturally influenced, the r1bs were better shielded from an exodus or absorbtion by latter steppe migrations, typically containing more m17. In fact, Chernykh says that "It is probable just at this time [XIII to XI centuries BC] that active opposition between the most ancient Chinese civilizations and the steppe world begins." [1] p 90. This active opposition to the steppe world should have helped to limit the introgression of later steppe haplogroups, likely to be richer in forms of m17. This concludes the main point of my paper. Now ill will propose a more detailed model with a fuller picture of the demic history. As I have already argued, I think that m269 and m73 was associated with the early spread of western steppe peoples (EWSP- relating to the early "Steppe Belt" formation/expansion as described by Chernykh) movement eastward; I don't see evidence in support of a similarly significant spread of m17 eastward in the earliest EWSP groups. The trail I propose for this early eastward migration is, initially, EWSP to the Afansasievo culture of the Altay region, in which newly arrived m269 and m73 would collect. The language of this culture is likely to have been a predecessor, or nearly so, to the latter documented tocharian. At a similar time EWSP tribes leaving the western end of the PC steppes (or very near to it) would eventually carry large amounts of m269 to Western Europe. I won't argue the details as Jean M. could do it much better than I. They also spoke a Centum language, thus relating r1b and Centum to early migrations out of the PC steppes. The r1b that had settled in the Altay region during the earliest EWSP forays to the area had surely migrated to various regions of China which correspond the areas where m269 and m73 are, relatively speaking, concentrated. The bulk of this probably occured during what has been called the "Karasuk penetration", 14/13 - 8 cent. BCE, by Chernykh. In reference to this "penetration", "It is obvious enough that the chain of Karasuk objects (or objects similar to Karasuk prototypes) stretched almost 3500km to the East: from the Sayan-Altay region, through Xingjang, Mongolia, Northern China (including Inner Mongolia) to the basin of Liao He and nearly to the Liaodong gulf. The other line of distribution of the steppe forms has a more southern or southeastern direction. Similar products are known to us from semi-desert and desert foothills of the Altun-Shan and Shanxi-Shanxi Plateau (Fig. 16). They approach right up to the territory on the Yellow River ruled by Shanghai governors." [1] p 91. The regions described above show a clear correspondence to the regions where m269 and m73 are "concentrated" in China, with the exception of Inner Mongolia and perhaps Northwest China. Though, as I said before, this is easily explained by replacement with latter steppe people higher in m17. Highly relevant is that a relatively large pool of m269 and m73 has been found in Siberia, possibly the descendants of the earliest EWSP tribes pushing eastward towards the Altay. "R1b1b2-M269 that is frequent in Europe is rarely observed in diverse set of Siberian populations: Evenks (2.4%), Buryats (0.7%), Mongols (4.3%) and Tofalars (6.7%). However, more interesting fact is the presence of haplogroup R1b1b1-M73 in the whole series of Turkic-speaking populations -- Shors (13.2%), Teleuts (11.4%), Khakassians (3.2%), Tuvinians (1.9%), Altaians (1.1%), as well as in Mongolic-speaking Kalmyks (2.2%)." [3] p 585. Paper [3] goes on to say that there are two main clusters of M73 in Siberia, ages 4.4 +/- 1.5 and 5.6 +/- 4.0Ka, which fits rather nicely with a model of the early EWSP migrations eastward. This part of Asia might just be another example of a region that was more shielded from later stage steppe migrations carrying high frequencies of m17. The barrier in this case might be the extreme latitude and cold temperatures. To tac on another story in the chain of events I have envisaged, the Karasuk push into Central China might very well have been related to Yuezhi, whom many consider to be the bearers of tocharian. The Yuezhi are documented to have left Central China and migrate into the Tarim Basin not too long before Tocharian A and B are documented to have occurred in the Tarim Basin. After that, some have loosely connected their descendants to a southern migration that included Northern Pakistan as a final destination. Northern Pakistan is known to harbor significant quantities of m73 amongst an ocean of R1a and other haplogroups. Though, I find the chain of events just described as highly speculative and not crucially important to the larger ideas expressed in the title. Finally, I suspect that m17, primarily of form m417, came to dominate large sections of the Eurasian steppe by a series of expansions probably originating around the Corded Ware (CW) Culture. I think m417 migrated into most of the PC steppe (VIA Catacomb Culture?), which previously had a strong presence of r1b. Andronovo carried m417 further east, which included the Tarim mummies found to be m417 themselves. These eastward migrations of m417 originating in CW, likely spoke forms of Satem, the younger counter to Centum! Note that despite the connection many people make between the Tarim mummies the Afansasievo culture and the Tocharians; the Tarim mummies lacked U (likely high in the Afansasievo culture) in their admittedly small number of West Eurasian mtDNA samples. For more detailed accounts on m417's spread eastward, it would be better to listen to Polako or Alan Trowel Hands so I won't bother detailing some of those migrations. Thus concludes my explanation of the current data on the story of m269, m73, m17/m417, and Indo European. Citations: [1] The "Steppe Belt" of stockbreeding cultures in Eurasia during the Early Metal Age. Evgeny Chernykh, 2008. [2] Mol Biol Evol (2010) doi: 10.1093/molbev/msq247 Extended Y-chromosome investigation suggests post-Glacial migrations of modern humans into East Asia via the northern route [3] J Hum Genet. 2011 Jun 16. doi: 10.1038/jhg.2011.64. [Epub ahead of print] Ancient links between Siberians and Native Americans revealed by subtyping the Y chromosome haplogroup Q1a. Malyarchuk B, Derenko M, Denisova G, Maksimov A, Wozniak M, Grzybowski T, Dambueva I, Zakharov I. Hua Zhong et al. PS: I already posted this paper here, http://www.worldfamilies.net/forum/index.php?topic=11747.0 I did, however, correct one of the dates given in paragraph 4, from "XI" to "VI". (I meant to say the 6th millennium bce in the original "paper" but messed up on the symbol). I don't mean to exclude an earlier continuum between the two haplogroups; I only wanted to make the more bold claim, which is that there existed a partial continuum, or nearly so, between the two haplogroups from the 6th to 3rd millennium bce. The other change I made is replacing "yamnaya" with the broader term, "Early Western Steppe People (EWSP)", in order to assure that the demic population matches the dispersals and consequences ("Steppe Belt" and Afanasevo culture) of said people. In short, the "actors" I have described might involve pre-yamnaya people (Sredny Stog related?).