Amazing! I just found an ancient cousin who lived 20,000+ years ago in the region near Lake Baikal in Siberia. We share the mitochondrial DNA haplogroup U that came down the maternal line.
Let me explain.
I have been learning about the ancient genome revolution that is providing revisions in human history, archaeology and more. I started with lectures on YouTube by Harvard professor David Reich. His lab researches ancient DNA from old skeletons, finding their full genomes.
Here is a good example of one of his recent lectures – Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past (March 3, 2021):
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoGmPJJS3X8
Then I bought his book “Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past.” I enjoy learning about history, archaeology, genealogy and more, so this was a natural for me. Here is the Wikipedia entry on the book:
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_We_Are_and_How_We_Got_Here
In Chapter 4, he discusses uncovering a population he calls Ancient North Eurasians – who remarkably influenced both European and Native American populations. Evidence for the population came from the genome of that young boy who lived long ago near Lake Baikal.
Curious, I looked online for the boy’s mitochondrial DNA haplogroup, mtDNA being passed from mothers to children. A New York Times article reported he had U haplogroup mtDNA — the oldest haplogroup in Europe. Here is the NYT article titled: “24,000-Year-Old Body Shows Kinship to Europeans and American Indians”
> https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/21/science/two-surprises-in-dna-of-boy-found-buried-in-siberia.html
An article from PLOS titled “The Peopling of Europe from the Mitochondrial Haplogroup U5 Perspective” provides background on U5a and U5b haplogroups, including their age:
> https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0010285
It turns out that I have the U haplogroup as well, actually a subgroup beginning U5b, as I learned through a Genographic Project DNA test I took some years ago. So the boy is a very ancient cousin!!
Interestingly, I had come across Mal’ta Boy and the Mal’ta- Buret’ archaeology site years ago when reading about early Siberian peoples and their dogs. Learn more about this culture, including its famous Venus figurines, here:
> https://www.donsmaps.com/malta.html
So learning came full circle!! Again, amazing!!
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Thank you! And good researching!
-o0o-
Relative Musings 