Cavemen and their relatives in the same village after 3,000 years

timesonline.co.uk ^ | 7/15/08

[martin_fierro]

Cavemen and their relatives in the same village after 3,000 years

Uwe Lange meets a recreation of one of his Bronze Age ancestors

Roger Boyes in Berlin

The good news for two villagers in the Söse valley of Germany yesterday was that they have discovered their great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents — give or take a generation or two.

The bad news is that their long-lost ancestors may have grilled and eaten other members of their clan.

Every family has its skeletons in the cave, though, so Manfred Hucht-hausen, 58, a teacher, and 48-year-old surveyor Uwe Lange remained in celebratory mood. Thanks to DNA testing of remarkably well-preserved Bronze Age bones, they can claim to have the longest proven family tree in the world. “I can trace my family back by name to 1550,” Mr Lange said. “Now I can go back 120 generations.”

Mr Lange comes from the village of Nienstedt, in Lower Saxony, in the foothills of the Harz mountain range. “We used to play in these caves as kids. If I’d known that there were 3,000-year-old relatives buried there I wouldn’t have set foot in the place.”

The cave, the Lichtensteinhöhle, is made up of five interlocked natural chambers. It stayed hidden from view until 1980 and was not researched properly until 1993. The archaeologist Stefan Flindt found 40 skeletons along with what appeared to be cult objects. It was a mystery: Bronze Age man was usually buried in a field. Different theories were considered. Perhaps some of the bodies had been offered as human sacrifice, or one generation had been eaten by another.

< -- SNIP -- >

[martin_fierro]

h/t to sunkenciv

[martin_fierro]

	Genetic Genealogy
Send FReepmail if you want on/off GGP list Marty = Paternal Haplogroup O(2?)(M175) Maternal Haplogroup H
GG LINKS: African Ancestry DNAPrint Genomics FamilyTree DNA mitosearch Nat'l Geographic Genographic Project Oxford Ancestors RelativeGenetics Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation Trace Genetics ybase ysearch
The List of Ping Lists

[Conspiracy Guy]

Are the cavemen still dead?

[martin_fierro]

"No. Next time do a little research, OK?"

[autumnraine]

I have been considering going through the ancestry.com DNA profile for family tree testing. I’ve been researching my family tree there for years. Do you consider it worth it? As a female, my expense would be double since I would have to not only have my mitrochrondrial DNA tested, but also have my father’s DNA tested. With gas as it is, it is cutting into our ‘extra’ fund and my husband thinks it is a silly waste of time and money. After all, what knowledge could be gained other than just ‘knowing’. I tried to explain if enough people are on this list, it might could help in marrow donations or something like that. He doesn’t know and I don’t either.

Thanks for you information. I figure with a ping list, you might know a little something about it.

[alarm rider]

I’ll have the roast chicken with the mango salsa...

[Conspiracy Guy]

Research requires reading and comprehension, I was lucky to not have either in my DNA.

[martin_fierro]

I figure with a ping list, you might know a little something about it.

* snort * AS IF. < |:)~

My sister (X DNA) & I (Y DNA) did ours through the Nat'l Geographic "Genographic" project. I think it was worth it (about $100 each).

[Rick.Donaldson]

I’ll have the roast chicken with the mango salsa...

ROTFLMAO!

[TC Rider]

Daddy?

[tioga]

paging Neocaveman

[DieHard the Hunter]

> I tried to explain if enough people are on this list, it might could help in marrow donations or something like that. He doesn’t know and I don’t either.

I don’t know about DNA being useful for unrelated bone marrow donations, but I would encourage you and your husband to volunteer for the unrelated bone marrow donation list anyway.

It is usually tested in two steps: the first set of tests are relatively easy and inexpensive for the health services to do. And they provide enough info for them to screen “close matches”.

The second set of tests they do is quite a bit more expensive for them, so they only tend to do it when they have found a close match. They will be looking for some very precise attributes in the sample.

Only if you are a close enough match from both lot of tests will you be called upon to donate, which usually requires an overnight stay in hospital, plus a fairly safe procedure under general anesthetic. All costs are usually picked up for the donor.

You can pull out of donating anytime; however, they prefer you not to beyond a go-nogo point, as your recipient will undergo chemotherapy to kill off all his/her existing diseased marrow. Beyond that point it is too late for them if you do pull out: they will die without your donation.

Once donated, your marrow is given to the recipient by way of ordinary IV drip, where it magically finds its way to the long bones and regenerates.

Anyrate, that’s just a short plug for a thoroughly worthwhile cause. If enough people registered, leukemia and other marrow diseases would be much easier and cheaper to treat, with a much higher survival rate than presently possible.

(Yes, I’m registered.)

[NeoCaveman]

Looks like someone got up on the wrong side of the rock

:)

[wildbill]

Did anyone see the National Geo. special on the guy who is taking DNA samples in Asia and other spots around the world?

He found a little girl and a man in central Asia whose DNA traced back to a sample from way the hell back.

[autumnraine]

Oh, that’s much cheaper!

I will check into that. Thank you!

[oh8eleven]

I used Family Tree DNA about six months ago and have no complaints. I opted for a 25 marker test (options were 12, 25 and 37 at the time) and because I was able to join an existing surname project, the price was reduced to $150 IIRC.

Is it worth the money? Depends if you have it to spend and also what your goals are. Personally, after paying for my kids' college, spending $150 was nothing.

Why DNA? I was in the middle of a genealogy project and while I did discover who my GG-grandparents were who emigrated from Ireland, I don't think I'm going to be able to trace them back to their original town or village. So, ultimately, my goal is to find a living relative in Ireland.

Interesting side note: the DNA test produced an exact 25 marker match with another guy who lives in Texas. We do not have the same surname and my family has no known connection to Texas. Very interesting...

[tbw2]

The blonde girl in China whose ancestors are still nomadic, traced back to the mitrochondria of a supposed Amazon tribe near the black sea/greece.
Boy did her ancestors literally cross a continent.

[autumnraine]

I have a feeling the DNA testing will show alot of adoptions over the years.

[Quix]

Thanks.

[allmendream]

DNA testing has shown that about 10% of us are not born to the man who mom said was dad. This found when geneticists track down family trees. About 30% of people who actually go out to test their paternity find they are not the father.

But as far as genetics go, human beings were a very mobile lot, and when mobile, liked to interbreed with the local population as much as possible. We are all very closely related.