Researching the Ancient Mothers
Where does one's matriarchal line originate? Such a question one may be faced with, looking at letters, numbers, like a mathematical equation that doesn't interpret into human social reality. All is a new and developing science, statistics are still gathered, and many people samples are taken from are in new worlds much divorced from where their ancestors were. Tribes were massacred, displaced, enslaved. How much can we really understand? This is the situation I had found myself in since receiving matriarchal DNA results. Very little can be solidly and assuredly established, other than of course that we came out of Africa, all of us; at least we can be sure of that.
As we have learnt, in the mitochondria of every person is a dna coding, only passed along by women, like some treasure deep within, which has the potential to tell us of our ancestresses. I had my own mtDNA tested, thinking here will be revealed something so British and commonplace, as I knew my near roots, and as far back as I could see my mothers mothers were Londoners. Spoken word in the family reached back to a Maria Harrison of Greenwich, born in 1860, small in height at only 5ft 2, and described as having jet black wavy hair, beautiful features, twinkling eyes and alabaster skin. Maria married a red haired man of Irish descent, who was a waterman on the Thames, and they had many children, mostly sons.
With genealogy a certain trust is there, that historical records really do reflect family realities, for instance that a woman who claimed her husband was the father of her child indeed was so, or that an adoption had not secretly been made to cover a younger family members illicit pregnancy. With the new researches in DNA we are told we have a definite link to people of a certain time and place, long back in history. And when I received my results I was quite stunned. Because the sequence of those numbers and letters was so rare in Europe that it was considered not to even be European.
I'd been given the mtDNA sequence of N1b 129A 145A 176G 223T 390A 519C. And what was I to make of all that?
This DNA, as I read, was found far from my home in distant lands such as Egypt and the Levant, but even then only in minimal amounts. As if really my ancient clan had died out, been annihilated, as a forgotten tribe, on the verge of extinction. And so rare that even none of the scientists were studying us.
I'd been given the mtDNA sequence of N1b 129A 145A 176G 223T 390A 519C. And what was I to make of all that?
This DNA, as I read, was found far from my home in distant lands such as Egypt and the Levant, but even then only in minimal amounts. As if really my ancient clan had died out, been annihilated, as a forgotten tribe, on the verge of extinction. And so rare that even none of the scientists were studying us.
Some 65,000 years the broader N group came out of Africa into the Middle East, and at some point they had carried on, via the plains and hills of Anatolia, up into the mountains of the Caucasus, across central Asia and into the Altai mountains. This may be said because the variety of N1b types of Asia are more varied than anywhere else, which suggests a source region for the development of various subclades, of tribal types. From there would have been some travels back down into the middle eastern hills and lowlands. There is much random scattering across such lands and as yet no exactly definable homeland, and still, although they definately traversed through the Levant, it is only 1% of Middle Eastern women who have this N1b haplogroup. We know that some of the N1b women had long back been taken as wives by Jewish men, though of a lineage whose 176G had altered into 176A which marks a distinctive difference from the source group. The 176A is found in Ashkenazi women, 10% of whom share the coding, and this group is being looked at by scientists. But not much at all is studied so far of the rare 176b's.
I was given another more refined classification, a subclade as such, letters and numbering added since that original test and now I was apparently more specifically to be defined as N1b1a2a. Again, rare. And then even more recently a more refined subclade was given, of N1b1a2a1a4. N1b1a2a is now known to have association with the Altai mountains, so that this is considered one place where my ancestors spent time. And N1b1a2a1a4 is to be found across Central Asia from the Caucasus to the Altai, generally along the old Silk Road.
A friend, Satshanti, who is a fellow N1b in America, pointed out to me that an N1b sample has been extracted from the ancient remains of a two or three year old boy child, making him a very far back relative, at between 11,000 and 9,000 BC. This is at a cave still being excavated in northern Israel, the Rakefet cave on Mount Carmel. As this is such a rare DNA it is all the more amazing that this ancient body should be found to have this and not some other more common type. I was quite excited by this and it was something I had long awaited. This cave and the bodies within it have been identified as of the Natufian culture who were the first Paleolithic peoples to abandon nomadism to make permanent homes, and this was before the emergence of farming. They gathered almonds and pistachios, hunted gazelles, carved adornments and sacred figurines, of both humans and animals, from the local limestone, and lived in round semi-subterranean dwellings where they slept healthily on bedding of herbs and sedge grass.
A friend, Satshanti, who is a fellow N1b in America, pointed out to me that an N1b sample has been extracted from the ancient remains of a two or three year old boy child, making him a very far back relative, at between 11,000 and 9,000 BC. This is at a cave still being excavated in northern Israel, the Rakefet cave on Mount Carmel. As this is such a rare DNA it is all the more amazing that this ancient body should be found to have this and not some other more common type. I was quite excited by this and it was something I had long awaited. This cave and the bodies within it have been identified as of the Natufian culture who were the first Paleolithic peoples to abandon nomadism to make permanent homes, and this was before the emergence of farming. They gathered almonds and pistachios, hunted gazelles, carved adornments and sacred figurines, of both humans and animals, from the local limestone, and lived in round semi-subterranean dwellings where they slept healthily on bedding of herbs and sedge grass.
All these disparate clues add much to the mystery, like if these people really were early settlers of the Middle East why did they become so rare? I have long been entertaining theories. We know from Old Testament and early Jewish scripture that the original peoples were ousted out, annihilated and replaced by tribal worshippers of one consolidated God, as such, coming in from other lands. Theirs was the older way, to see the sacred in all life, in nature, in the stars, in many deities and animal forms, in both gods and goddesses, much as Hinduism is today. In Scripture the original peoples were said to have mountain altars, asherah poles and holy cows of gold. Mount Carmel was especially known to be sacred back in ancient times and had both a high altar and oracle. Pythagoras stated it to be the most holy of all mountains and was inspired to travel there.
Such old and timeless ways were not acceptable to incoming dynasties. That they would have been largely annihilated as any distinct group, is reflected by the rarity of the DNA today. Naturally a few survived, or there would be no trace now, some I imagine as desirable consorts, saved on the strength of attractiveness, and others as slaves. Some fled to the mountains. Caucasian women, it is known, were historically traded by their families for their beauty back down into the harems of the Middle East. In Roman times minimal N1b's would have been brought to Italy. Crusader times may have seen foreign lovers being brought back to England. But never many, never many anywhere.
But maybe even long before my Levantine relatives were being persecuted, my specific ancestors were already traversing Central Asia, still living a nomadic lifestyle. After all the Natufians had become settled peoples. As the tribes of Central Asia, where my people are now known to have roamed, with their horses and other animals, birthed the Indo-European languages and seeded the later development of Aryan religion in India, this could be why I have found myself so attracted to the spirituality of Hinduism.
So it is that even more refined recent research has defined the Altai mountains as a place where my ancestors would long have dwelled, as well as Central Asia, and again, as was my own earlier research, the Caucasus. Basically my matriarchal people would have been nomadic tribes travelling long distances along what is known as the Silk Road, people such as the Scythians, the Saka and the Tokarians, who were originally hunter gatherer types and early Indo-Europeans, roaming from Ukraine, and Bulgaria even, along the Pontic steppes, over the Black Sea and Caspian Sea, right to the Altai mountains where is the meeting place of Kazakhstan, Siberia, China and Mongolia.
Lately I have heard it has been discovered that ancient N1b ancestors have been discovered in both the Caucasus and the Altai mountains, way older than the Raqefet boy even, being from as much as 24,000 years ago, although I await the shared news of this to be totally certain. What is seen now though is that Australian aboriginals carry the N maternal haplogroup, and that being that even they reached Australia 50,000 years back, making them very ancient relatives. It has been summised that our shared ancestors did not cross the Horn of Africa as some Africans would have done, but that they went through the Sinai peninsula to the north, through Egypt, and took a middle eastern and then central Asian route or even further north and then down through south east Asia (deduced for there being no evidence of this N haplogroup passing through India). As far as 64,000 years back, according to a study looking at the possible journeying of Australian aboriginal ancestors, there has been an N1 sample found in Samarkand in Uzbekistan (the old Silk Road being referenced extremely early for my matriarchal dna). This would therefore be my oldest known N haplogroup relative, who would already have to have come up through the Levant to arrive in Central Asia. The route to reach central Asia is still posed to have been up through the Caucasus mountains and eastwards above the Caspian Sea into Central Asia. Indeed there is a Scythian burial in the Altai region from 2,500 years back which has been found to have the haplogroup N1a (my type though is N1b so this would have diverged separately from our shared original N1). It is around 70,000 years ago that these N ancestors left Africa.
Such old and timeless ways were not acceptable to incoming dynasties. That they would have been largely annihilated as any distinct group, is reflected by the rarity of the DNA today. Naturally a few survived, or there would be no trace now, some I imagine as desirable consorts, saved on the strength of attractiveness, and others as slaves. Some fled to the mountains. Caucasian women, it is known, were historically traded by their families for their beauty back down into the harems of the Middle East. In Roman times minimal N1b's would have been brought to Italy. Crusader times may have seen foreign lovers being brought back to England. But never many, never many anywhere.
But maybe even long before my Levantine relatives were being persecuted, my specific ancestors were already traversing Central Asia, still living a nomadic lifestyle. After all the Natufians had become settled peoples. As the tribes of Central Asia, where my people are now known to have roamed, with their horses and other animals, birthed the Indo-European languages and seeded the later development of Aryan religion in India, this could be why I have found myself so attracted to the spirituality of Hinduism.
So it is that even more refined recent research has defined the Altai mountains as a place where my ancestors would long have dwelled, as well as Central Asia, and again, as was my own earlier research, the Caucasus. Basically my matriarchal people would have been nomadic tribes travelling long distances along what is known as the Silk Road, people such as the Scythians, the Saka and the Tokarians, who were originally hunter gatherer types and early Indo-Europeans, roaming from Ukraine, and Bulgaria even, along the Pontic steppes, over the Black Sea and Caspian Sea, right to the Altai mountains where is the meeting place of Kazakhstan, Siberia, China and Mongolia.
Lately I have heard it has been discovered that ancient N1b ancestors have been discovered in both the Caucasus and the Altai mountains, way older than the Raqefet boy even, being from as much as 24,000 years ago, although I await the shared news of this to be totally certain. What is seen now though is that Australian aboriginals carry the N maternal haplogroup, and that being that even they reached Australia 50,000 years back, making them very ancient relatives. It has been summised that our shared ancestors did not cross the Horn of Africa as some Africans would have done, but that they went through the Sinai peninsula to the north, through Egypt, and took a middle eastern and then central Asian route or even further north and then down through south east Asia (deduced for there being no evidence of this N haplogroup passing through India). As far as 64,000 years back, according to a study looking at the possible journeying of Australian aboriginal ancestors, there has been an N1 sample found in Samarkand in Uzbekistan (the old Silk Road being referenced extremely early for my matriarchal dna). This would therefore be my oldest known N haplogroup relative, who would already have to have come up through the Levant to arrive in Central Asia. The route to reach central Asia is still posed to have been up through the Caucasus mountains and eastwards above the Caspian Sea into Central Asia. Indeed there is a Scythian burial in the Altai region from 2,500 years back which has been found to have the haplogroup N1a (my type though is N1b so this would have diverged separately from our shared original N1). It is around 70,000 years ago that these N ancestors left Africa.
All this needs to be further researched, and until then remains a mystery, one to follow the scientific unravelling of. All we can know is that these people, whatever their ancient identity, no longer exist as a definable entity. They are lost in time, or as one may more accurately say, they are nearly lost. It seems that at least through me and my daughters whispers of this ancient past still quietly remain.
By Susie Harrison