Posted on 06/22/2004 9:49:06 AM PDT by blam
Genghis Khan: Father to Millions?
By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20040621/gallery/genghis_goto.jpg>
Statue of the Mongol Emperor
June 22, 2004 —Genghis Khan left a legacy shared by 16 million people alive today, according to a book by a Oxford geneticist who identified the Mongol emperor as the most successful alpha male in human history.
Regarded by the Mongolians as the father of their nation, Genghis Khan was born around 1162. A military and political genius, he united the tribes of Mongolia and conquered half of the known world with a cavalry riding on grass-fed ponies.
By the time Genghis died in 1227, his empire stretched from the Pacific coast of China to the Caspian Sea.
Bryan Sykes, professor of human genetics at Oxford University and author of "Adam's Curse," a study of the Y chromosome, believes Genghis's "super Y" chromosome survived and proliferated as far as the British Isles. He has just begun to check it at Oxford Ancestors, a leading provider of DNA-based services for use in personal ancestry research.
"We will offer British men genetic tests to see if they are Genghis's descendants. It is possible that the Mongol emperor's Y chromosome spread as far as the U.K. through gradual immigration from further East over the centuries," Sykes told Discovery News.
The genetic testing follows another Oxford study, which involved a survey of the Y chromosome — which is passed unchanged from father to son — from all over Central Asia.
The researchers found one Y chromosome fingerprint that was identical in eight percent of the male population.
"This was highly unusual and suggested that they may all have descended from one man living in the fairly recent past. By seeing what small changes had occurred, it was possible to estimate the time at which this common ancestor lived, and it was consistent with an origin in the 12th or 13th century," Sykes said.
Matching that evidence with the overlap between where the chromosome was abundant and the geographical extent of the Mongol empire established by Genghis Khan in the 12th century, the researchers concluded it was Genghis' chromosome.
The Mongol emperor's habit of killing the men and inseminating the women when his army conquered a new territory, coupled with handing the Empire and other wealth to his sons, and their sons, would explain how the chromosome came to such prevalence today, said Sykes.
The final piece of evidence came from the Hazara, a hill tribe in Pakistan who had a strong oral history of being descended from Genghis Khan.
"The Y chromosome was present in the Hazara, but not in the surrounding tribes, who did not have this oral history. Though the evidence is circumstantial, it is, I believe, very strong," Sykes said.
Finding Genghis Khan's tomb, one of the great secrets of all time, could provide the definitive evidence, leading to a direct comparison of Genghis' Y chromosome with those of modern men.
Sykes' hypothesis seems to be consistent with history, according to David Morgan, a Mongol history specialist at the University of Wisconsin.
"There's no reason to doubt that Genghis Khan fathered a good crop of children, if one is to believe the testimony of contemporaries," Morgan told Discovery News.
LOL. I'm still trying to figure out what is wrong with the word Oriental and why Asian is preferred. Anybody?
George W. Bush will be reelected by a margin of at least ten per cent
Wanna guess how many descendents of flaming Nero are roaming around?
Nada.
He loses.
THe Russian view on this? There must be quite a few Russians decended from the greatest conqueror that ever lived.
That sounds exactly like what Conan the Barbarian says: True joy is to defeat your enemies, to drive them ....
BS. Our military has done a marvelous job in its fights during the Bush administration.
Genghis left little of value for history though his destruction and killing was on a scale comparable to Hitler and Stalin. I suppose you would call for them as well.
RATmedia attempts to convince the sheeple we have lost in Iraq apparently has worked too well on you. What a shame.
Maybe NOT such a good idea. Tamerlane, another Mongol conqueror had a known curse on his tomb in Samarkand where Uzbekistan is today located. Here was the inscribed curse: "Whoever disturbs My tomb will have their home invaded by an even greater monster than I."
Well, back when Uzbekistan was a Soviet Republic, the communists scoffed at such "silly" curses. Even though the locals respected this curse of Tamerlane, the communists went ahead and opened his tomb. The date---June 22, 1941. And a few hours after the tomb was opened word came that the Nazis has invaded Russia that very day.
Timur e Lang really was a monster -- he sacked northern India and indulged in a long feast of destruction, ravaging, the lot.
"RATmedia attempts to convince the sheeple we have lost in Iraq apparently has worked too well on you. What a shame."
Hardly.
"Genghis left little of value for history though his destruction and killing was on a scale comparable to Hitler and Stalin. I suppose you would call for them as well."
Read the book.
You are correct. The Pope did send such an envoy.
But one of Kublai's predecessor's and Genghis' successor's did send an envoy to another Pope as a Mongol army was moving into the Middle East.
Yup...I posted a map on them the other day.
Yup. I saw that on one of the TV documentaries titled The Barbarians, it covered all these guys.
No coincidence there. The screenwriters apparently did a little barbarian research, and had Conan paraphrasing Ghengis. The link below has an audio of Arnold doing that line (just go to the site and it plays in the background):
I have read others. Nothing to refute what I have said.
I just guess we have a different perspective on this.
As if that is a question that is of need to be asked.
Even more AMAZING is that since Uzbekistan is several time zones East of the Russian frontier with occupied Poland back then, the scientists entered the tomb in the late morning at EXACTLY the same moment that the Germans invaded Russia in the early AM.
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