Year: 2011

G2a Jews

It’s Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and I’m thinking about Jews in Haplogroup G2a3b1 (P303). I’m specifically  thinking about the theory that G2a3b1 might have entered Europe, at least in part, with the Jewish Diaspora. Ray Banks, the Project Administrator for Family Tree DNA’s Haplogroup G Project has been flirting with this theory for some time now. And, I sometimes think there is no end to the number of people who contact me privately about it.

There are plenty of Jews among our distant cousins. Haplogroup G probably originated in the Middle East, perhaps in the area of Lake Van, south of the Caucasus Mountains, so it’s not surprising that Jews (and many other Middle Eastern ethnic groups) are represented. Men from Haplogroup G might have been among the founding populations of ancient Hebrews, or might have been assimilated through conversion and conquest at many later dates.

Most Jews in Haplogroup G are G2c. Approximately 7% of Ashkenazi Jews belong this group (Behar et al., 2004). G2c might (or might not) be a marker for paternal ancestry among the Khazars, a Turkic tribe that converted en masse to Judaism in the 8th century. There are also small clusters of Jews scattered throughout G1 and G2a. Probably most of them descend from converts during the Roman Empire. (See, e.g., Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Jewish People (2010)).

There is no mystery with any of these groups.

I’m thinking about a a different group — G2a3b1, the overwhelming majority of Haplogroup G in Europe.

Ray Banks recently advanced the theory that G2a spread through Europe, at least in part, with the Radhanites, Jewish merchants who plied the trade routes between the Muslim East and the Christian West about 500 to 1000 CE. A few years ago Ray’s Banks’ Banks DNA Project website speculated that his’ ancestor (in Haplogroup I-P109) might have lived about 600 BCE in Persia (now Iran). I suspect this theory influenced Ray’s later thinking.

The Radhanite theory is a modern incarnation of an older theory that members of Haplogroup G are descended from Jews deported from Judaea as slaves in 135 CE, who ended up in the slave markets of Rome and spread from there.

Why the Jews? A number of reasons. First, Haplogroup G apparently came to Europe from the Middle East. It is somewhat common among Jews, but is relatively rare in Europe. That’s the initial hook.

Second, some of the major European subgroups of G apparently date to about 600 BCE. The date is comfortably close to 538/7 BCE, when Cyrus the Great of Persia ended the Babylonian Captivity and allowed Jews to return to Judah. So we can imagine, if we choose, that our distant ancestors might have been Persian men with Jewish wives, who joined the Return.

Third, there seem to be slightly higher levels of G in the Rhine river valley, in Cologne and Mainz. Those are cities known to have Jewish populations from an early date.

Fourth, the highest concentration of Haplogroup G might be on the Spanish island of Ibiza, which is famous for being a center for the crypto-Jews of Spain.

But the Ibiza Jews are poorly typed, and it seems likely that they might descend from the unusually high number of Jewish converts in Roman Spain. Anecdotal evidence

Today, we find Haplogroup G at higher frequencies in those same areas, but a causal connection would be forced. The Radhanites, for example, are explicitly mentioned primarily in connection with the Rhône River valley, while G2 researchers have suggested a concentration in this Rhine River valley.

Dating by STR mutation rates is rapidly falling out of favor, but it has given us a framework of dates that will be hard to replace. P303, the mutation that defines G2a3b1, is thought to be about 5,000 years old. Coincidentally, that’s roughly the same age (5,000 to 6,100 years) as the Neolithic G2a skeletons found in Europe. This group is found in smaller numbers outside Europe, and might have originated somewhere in the Middle East.

L497 and L42, two significant subgroups of P303, are thought to be about 2,500 years old, which takes us (again) to 500 BCE. These groups almost certainly originated in Europe, judging from the rarity of samples from other areas.

Note: None of these older theories proved out. It’s now (2020) clear European G2a represents a population settled in European since Neolithic times–just as the academics said all along.

Edited to fix broken link.

Rhaetian Possibilities

Interesting news from Ray Banks, the administrator of Family Tree DNA’s Haplogroup G Project. He thinks the concentration of G in the area that was anciently called Rhaetia might be due to the Rhaetians.

The announcement comes seven years, almost to the day, after I first suggested it to him. I’ve renewed the conversation several times since then. Each time he has objected. He hears dozens of theories every week, he says; no reason to think the Rhaetians are anything worth looking at.

Let’s look at them anyway.

Etruscans

Haplogroup G is rare in Europe. Its distribution follows a gradient from south to north. Maybe 2-3% of the population in the south, and less than 1% in the north. Looking at the area where it appears with the greatest diversity, we can guess that Haplogroup G originated somewhere in southwestern Asia, perhaps south of the Caucasus Mountains. If so, it must have been introduced into Europe at some unknown date in pre-history, perhaps through migrations from what is now Turkey.

As it turns out, there is a notable population said to have come into Europe from Turkey – the Etruscans. The Etruscans were a pre-Roman culture concentrated in what is now the Tuscan area of Italy. They seem to have emerged out of the Villanovan Culture about 700 BCE. From about 620 BCE to 500 BCE they controlled most Italy north of Campania, including Rome itself.

Etruscan origins have been debated for centuries. The Greek historian Herodotus (5th century BCE) claimed the Etruscans came to Italy from Lydia, in what is now Turkey. Four hundred years later, another Greek historian, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, thought Herodotus was wrong. Dionysius thought the Etruscans were indigenous to Italy. Italian historians are inclined to side with Dionysius: it just doesn’t look right for Rome’s illustrious predecessors to come from somewhere else.

Outside Italy, historians take a more balanced view. According to the Roman poet Virgil the Etruscans were descended from the Trojans. Many modern historians believe that Virgil’s story of Aeneas’ flight to Italy after the Fall of Troy might be a dim memory of an early migration.

Rhaetians

Rhaetian origins are less contentious. The Rhaetians were a tribe that lived north of the Alps, in what is now Austria, Switzerland and southern Germany. Their language was related to Etruscan. Roman historians reported the Rhaetians as descendants of Etruscans who had fled north during the Celtic invasion of Italy in the 4th century BCE. Livy says, “The Alpine tribes are undoubtedly of the same [Etruscan] stock, especially the Raetii, who had through the nature of their country become so uncivilised that they retained no trace of their original condition except their language, and even this was not free from corruption.” (The Migrations of the Gauls into Italy, Book V, Chapter 33.)

Modern historians accept the connection between the Etruscans and the Rhaetians, but aren’t so sure of the date. Both the Etruscans and the Rhaetians might have been related more distantly; perhaps through a common descent from the neolithic population on both sides of the Alps.

Where does this leave us?

Genetic studies haven’t solved the question of Etruscan origins, but preliminary studies suggest that some component of the Etruscan population did indeed come from southwestern Asia, and probably from Turkey. And, there is little doubt that the Rhaetians were linguistically connected to the Etruscans, so perhaps genetically connected as well.

We are a long way from being able to prove that the concentration of Haplogroup G the area north of the Alps is due to the Rhaetians and Etruscans, but it makes a good working hypothesis.

Thanks

My thanks to Jon Hildreth. A friendly debate in January 2005 led me to suggest that our Haplogroup G ancestor was more likely to have to been a Roman soldier retired near the Swiss frontier in the 1st century than a barbarian invader in the 4th cenutry.