Post by aristonicus on Jan 10, 2020 10:39:08 GMT
Interesting, is this the factual basis of the Kebra Nagast? link
Full Article link
West Asian sources of the Eurasian component in Ethiopians: a reassessment
Abstract
The presence of genomic signatures of Eurasian origin in contemporary Ethiopians has been reported by several authors and estimated to have arrived in the area from 3000 years ago. Several studies reported plausible source populations for such a signature, using haplotype based methods on modern data or single-site methods on modern or ancient data. These studies did not reach a consensus and suggested an Anatolian or Sardinia-like proxy, broadly Levantine or Neolithic Levantine as possible sources. We demonstrate, however, that the deeply divergent, autochthonous African component which accounts for ~50% of most contemporary Ethiopian genomes, affects the overall allele frequency spectrum to an extent that makes it hard to control for it and, at once, to discern between subtly different, yet important, Eurasian sources (such as Anatolian or Levant Neolithic ones). Here we re-assess pattern of allele sharing between the Eurasian component of Ethiopians (here called “NAF” for Non African) and ancient and modern proxies. Our results unveil a genomic legacy that may connect the Eurasian genetic component of contemporary Ethiopians with Sea People and with population movements that affected the Mediterranean area and the Levant after the fall of the Minoan civilization.
Abstract
The presence of genomic signatures of Eurasian origin in contemporary Ethiopians has been reported by several authors and estimated to have arrived in the area from 3000 years ago. Several studies reported plausible source populations for such a signature, using haplotype based methods on modern data or single-site methods on modern or ancient data. These studies did not reach a consensus and suggested an Anatolian or Sardinia-like proxy, broadly Levantine or Neolithic Levantine as possible sources. We demonstrate, however, that the deeply divergent, autochthonous African component which accounts for ~50% of most contemporary Ethiopian genomes, affects the overall allele frequency spectrum to an extent that makes it hard to control for it and, at once, to discern between subtly different, yet important, Eurasian sources (such as Anatolian or Levant Neolithic ones). Here we re-assess pattern of allele sharing between the Eurasian component of Ethiopians (here called “NAF” for Non African) and ancient and modern proxies. Our results unveil a genomic legacy that may connect the Eurasian genetic component of contemporary Ethiopians with Sea People and with population movements that affected the Mediterranean area and the Levant after the fall of the Minoan civilization.
Discussion
Our analyses aimed at describing the non African component of Ethiopians as a combination of available ancient ones, and we stress our results should not be interpreted as involving a direct connection or descent line between Neolithic Anatolia and Ethiopia. Instead, these results can be seen as informative for shortlisting available ancient and modern populations which, following geographic and chronological considerations, may be suitable proxies for the groups that mediated the Eurasian gene flow to East Africa. Of the ones analyzed here, Minoans and Tunisian Jews seem to provide the two closest matches to NAF, adding on top of the genetic evidence a criteria of space/time compatibility. A tentative link between these three groups may be provided by the historical maritime trade routes connecting Crete (home to the Minoan culture) to the Levant and by the shuffling role played by a horde of nomads who navigated throughout the Mediterranean Sea 3 kya: the Sea People. These tribes are linked to Crete, Anatolia where they fought the Hittite Empire, Egypt and the Levant, and are told to have settled in the land of Canaan, known also as Palestine. Interestingly, the Sea People tribes that settled in Palestine included, among others, Denyen and Peleset according to the Egyptian inscriptions of Merneptah and Medinet Habu17. Although there are different theories around the origin of each of these tribes, there are suggestions that link the Denyen with the tribe of Dan, from which Jews from Ethiopia have been said to descend, and the Peleset to the Philistines from the Levant. The role of Sea People may therefore be crucial in explaining a temporary presence of a Minoan-like ancestry in the Levant, bringing Anatolian-like components to levels as high as 85%. A pulse of populations with Anatolian-rich ancestry has just been recently detected in Iron Age Levant, appearing and disappearing from the archaeological record within a range of few centuries, at the beginning of the 1st Millennium BCE. These Levant Iron Age samples can indeed be modelled as having at least 80% Anatolian Neolithic ancestry (~20% CHG and ~80% Anatolia_N, see Supplementary Table S6) and surrogate Ethiopian NAF in relevant f4 analyses (Supplementary Table S5). Notably Ethiopian NAF is still closer than Levant IA to Tunisian Jews (Supplementary Table S5). Ethiopian NAF therefore offers a solution to the disappearance of the Levant IA component from the population record of the area, where their signal may have become erased as a consequence of major warfare after 1000 BCE20 or 3 kya, displacing these genetic components towards Ethiopia (an allegory of which can be read in the mythological account of the meeting between King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba) and North Africa Jewish communities (where such a signature is still detectable after the major population movements following the Alhambra Decree after 1492 CE).
Our analyses aimed at describing the non African component of Ethiopians as a combination of available ancient ones, and we stress our results should not be interpreted as involving a direct connection or descent line between Neolithic Anatolia and Ethiopia. Instead, these results can be seen as informative for shortlisting available ancient and modern populations which, following geographic and chronological considerations, may be suitable proxies for the groups that mediated the Eurasian gene flow to East Africa. Of the ones analyzed here, Minoans and Tunisian Jews seem to provide the two closest matches to NAF, adding on top of the genetic evidence a criteria of space/time compatibility. A tentative link between these three groups may be provided by the historical maritime trade routes connecting Crete (home to the Minoan culture) to the Levant and by the shuffling role played by a horde of nomads who navigated throughout the Mediterranean Sea 3 kya: the Sea People. These tribes are linked to Crete, Anatolia where they fought the Hittite Empire, Egypt and the Levant, and are told to have settled in the land of Canaan, known also as Palestine. Interestingly, the Sea People tribes that settled in Palestine included, among others, Denyen and Peleset according to the Egyptian inscriptions of Merneptah and Medinet Habu17. Although there are different theories around the origin of each of these tribes, there are suggestions that link the Denyen with the tribe of Dan, from which Jews from Ethiopia have been said to descend, and the Peleset to the Philistines from the Levant. The role of Sea People may therefore be crucial in explaining a temporary presence of a Minoan-like ancestry in the Levant, bringing Anatolian-like components to levels as high as 85%. A pulse of populations with Anatolian-rich ancestry has just been recently detected in Iron Age Levant, appearing and disappearing from the archaeological record within a range of few centuries, at the beginning of the 1st Millennium BCE. These Levant Iron Age samples can indeed be modelled as having at least 80% Anatolian Neolithic ancestry (~20% CHG and ~80% Anatolia_N, see Supplementary Table S6) and surrogate Ethiopian NAF in relevant f4 analyses (Supplementary Table S5). Notably Ethiopian NAF is still closer than Levant IA to Tunisian Jews (Supplementary Table S5). Ethiopian NAF therefore offers a solution to the disappearance of the Levant IA component from the population record of the area, where their signal may have become erased as a consequence of major warfare after 1000 BCE20 or 3 kya, displacing these genetic components towards Ethiopia (an allegory of which can be read in the mythological account of the meeting between King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba) and North Africa Jewish communities (where such a signature is still detectable after the major population movements following the Alhambra Decree after 1492 CE).