Posted on 12/09/2022 5:53:00 PM PST by SunkenCiv
The Jewish cemetery at Erfurt served its medieval population from the late 11th century until 1454, when Jews were expelled from the city. Erfurt had been home to a thriving Jewish community(opens in new tab) until that time, although a brutal massacre in 1349 killed more than 100 Jews in the city, possibly because they were incorrectly accused of being responsible for the Black Death.
After the 1454 expulsion, a barn and a granary were built on the site of the Jewish cemetery. Centuries later, in 2013, archaeologists unearthed 47 Jewish graves during an archaeological excavation ahead of the site's redevelopment into a multistory parking garage, Carmi said. In 2021, the remains of these individuals were reburied in a 19th-century cemetery used by the local Jewish community, according to the study.
The granary built on top of the medieval Jewish cemetery was redeveloped in 2013 into a multistory car garage; the graves were unearthed by an archaeological rescue excavation before construction went ahead.
Before the reburial, the researchers obtained ancient DNA from the teeth of 33 people interred in the graves, and the study shows these individuals had very similar genetic makeups to modern Ashkenazi Jews living in Europe and the United States.
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
The archaeological excavations at the site of the mediaeval Jewish cemetery in the German city of Erfurt unearthed 47 graves; ancient DNA was recovered from the teeth of 33 individuals.Image credit: Thuringian State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology/Ronny Krause
What Fingerprints Tell Us About Jerusalem’s Ancient Artisans
In an unusual collaboration, archaeologists in Israel are working with police to analyze prints left on fifth- or sixth-century pottery shards
Hillel Kuttler
December 9, 2022 9:12 a.m.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-fingerprints-tell-us-about-jerusalems-ancient-artisans-180981238/
My Paternal Great- Grandparents were 1st Cousins. There was a lot of that.
Yup. Way more of 2nd cousin marriages though.
I have always heard that Jews from the Ashkenazi tribe are among the most intelligent people walking the earth, or they have been so. I think I recall radio talker Michael Savage saying he is descended from that lineage.
I would find that easy to believe. He’s vain and grouchy, but nevertheless, he’s very bright.
The name merely means “German Jews” — the roots go back to ancient Israel, a consequence of the “Lost Tribes” exiled to the frontiers of the Assyrian Empire.
Constant pogroms killed off the slower members of “the tribe”
For 95% of human history our ancestors lived in small kin-bound nomadic bands. Siblings and parents were generally off limits but cousins and second cousins were about the only options, for all humans for most all of our existence.
One explanation for increased genetic variation might be the horrible reality that small Jewish communities of that era might be more subject to assault and rape.
you might want to get your genes tested..besides the issue of 1st cousins. That Jewish line has some specific abnormalities. I know when I had the BRCA test Ashkenazi Jews got to skip some of the requirements for free testing. So did Ovarian cancer which is the big red flag..more so than breast cancer.
Nebula will do a whole genome test on all your genes. It has been helpful for me. They give you tools to help you decipher the data.
Prof. Henry Abramson has a 15 minute video tracing the genetic history of Ashkenaz Jews, noting a Founder Event and a Genetic Bottleneck, based on the Erfurt study.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=89D2RDgzLLE
Well, gee, wasn’t there something going on in 1933-45 that wound up killing more than half the Jews in Europe?
That wouldn’t have a bearing on today’s genes, now would it?
From https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/remaining-jewish-population-of-europe-in-1945
Quote:
Jewish Population of Europe
Approximately 9.5 million Jews lived in Europe in 1933, the year Hitler came to power. This number represented 1.7% of Europe’s total population and more than 60 percent of the world’s Jewish population. By 1945, most European Jews—2 out of every 3—had been killed.
The Jewish communities of eastern Europe were devastated. In 1933, Poland had the largest Jewish population in Europe, numbering over three million. By 1950, the Jewish population of Poland was reduced to about 45,000. The Soviet Union had the largest remaining Jewish population, with some two million Jews. Romania’s Jewish population was nearly 757,000 in 1930 and fell to approximately 280,000 (1950). Most of these demographic losses were due to the Holocaust, the rest to postwar emigration from Europe.
The Jewish population of central Europe was also devastated. Germany had a Jewish population of 525,000 in 1933 and just 37,000 in 1950. Hungary had 445,000 in 1933 and 190,000 in 1950. Czechoslovakia’s Jewish population was reduced from about 357,000 in 1933 to 17,000 in 1950 and Austria’s from about 191,000 to just 18,000.
In western Europe, the largest Jewish communities remained in Great Britain, with approximately 450,000 Jews (300,000 in 1933) and France, with 235,000 (250,000 in 1933). In southern Europe, the Jewish population fell dramatically: in Greece from about 73,000 in 1933 to just 7,000 in 1950; in Yugoslavia from about 70,000 to 3,500; in Italy from about 48,000 to 35,000; and in Bulgaria from 50,000 in 1933 to just 6,500 in 1950 (the reduction in the Bulgarian Jewish population resulted from postwar emigration). The demographic focus of European Jewry thus shifted from eastern to western Europe.
Correct sir, except they are not of the tribe of Judah. So technically not Jews. They do have common ancestors but so do Arabs too. The descendants of Abram/Abraham. One by a concubine who was chased off, and one by his wife. His offspring with his Wife led to Jacob, I can’t remember who the next gen of his other “wife” was. He was also blessed, but less so.
Yes, the 10 exiled tribes were not of Judah, but their descendants practice Judaism, which now means they’re Jews.
‘Jews’ is a nickname. In Esther Chapter 2 for example, Mordecai the ‘Jew’ is a Benjaminite. Judah (Judea) was the name of the southern kingdom, known to include remnants of other tribes, as well as more than its share of the tribe of Levi, which included Kohanim.
Technically, the proper term is B’nai Yisrael or B’nai Ya’akov.
I like technicalities. I think it is offensive for definitions to be thrown around, when they are the ones who chose the name of Israel instead of Judah.I have seen not real efforts to find and identify other members of the sons of Jacobs descendants. It is always about the Jews.
Those who historically professed allegiance to the Teachings of Moses and Temple in Jerusalem in the Kingdom of Judea are called Jews. Even if they are converts with no DNA from Jacob. And there are Ethiopians who connect themselves to the tribe of Dan (and who count Levites and Kohanim among them), and B’nei Menashe of India..
I know, that is cool. How to the current Israelis react to the Ethiopians?
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