DNA Deciphers Roots of Modern Europeans

New York Times ^ | June 10, 2015 | By Carl Zimmer

[minnesota_bound]

I thought we all came from Africa.....
Isn’t that south of there?

[Lurking Libertarian]

There’s a lot of guessin goin on

That's going to be the case in any historical (and therefore, not directly observable) science-- archaeology, paleontology, forensics. But with techniques like DNA analysis, the guesses are becoming much more educated.

[Lurking Libertarian]

It is amazing what one can come up with when one leaves out 2500 years of history.

The study is about the first people to come to Europe-- between 45,000 and 4,000 years ago-- way before the historical eras you are talking about (i.e., this study is about where the ancestors of all those peoples you mention came from).

[john mirse]

Finally, a group of nomadic sheepherders from western Russia called the Yamnaya arrived about 4,500 years ago.

******

Does this mean that we should all be speaking Russian now? (just joking, I think)

Cousin Putin? Does this mean that we are all related to Russian leader Putin somehow? God forbid.

Vodka: I have always wanted to know why I have this strange craving to drink vodka. Now I know why!

[john mirse]

The first were hunter-gatherers who arrived some 45,000 years ago in Europe. Then came farmers who arrived from the Near East about 8,000 years ago.

Finally, a group of nomadic sheepherders from western Russia called the Yamnaya arrived about 4,500 years ago.

******

Adam and Eve: And where does the biblical story about Adam and Eve fit into all this mess?

[Natufian]

All the different cultures in the era referenced had a story to explain their origins. Adam and Eve is one of those stories.

[Rudder]

"The first were hunter-gatherers who arrived some 45,000 years ago in Europe."

And they came from...where?

[john mirse]

"The first were hunter-gatherers who arrived some 45,000 years ago in Europe." And they came from...where?

*****

Illegal aliens: I think they were illegal aliens from Latin America.

[Brad from Tennessee]

WIKIPEDIA:

Cro-Magnon are considered the first anatomically modern humans in Europe. They entered Eurasia by the Zagros Mountains around 50,000 years ago, with one group rapidly settling coastal areas around the Indian Ocean and one group migrating north to steppes of Central Asia.[15] Modern human remains dating to 43-45,000 years ago have been discovered in Italy[39] and in Britain.[40]

A mitochondrial DNA sequence of two Cro-Magnons from the Paglicci Cave in Italy, dated to 23,000 and 24,000 years old (Paglicci 52 and 12), identified the mtDNA as Haplogroup N, typical of the latter group.[41] The inland group is the founder of both North- and East Asians, Caucasoids and large sections of the Middle East population. Migration from the Black Sea area into Europe started some around 45,000 years ago, probably across the Bosphorus and along the Danubian corridor. By 20,000 years ago, the whole of Continental Europe had been settled.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_human_migrations#Europe

[Brad from Tennessee]

[”The first were hunter-gatherers who arrived some 45,000 years ago in Europe.” And they came from...where?]

This article may shed more light on where they came from:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3301181/posts