Broad genetic variation on the Pontic-Caspian Steppe [Scythians]

EurekAlert! ^ | October 3, 2018 | Stockholm University

[SunkenCiv]

The genetic variation within the Scythian nomad group is so broad that it must be explained with the group assimilating people it came in contact with. This is shown in a new study on Bronze and Iron Age genetics of the Pontic-Caspian Steppe, situated in the Black Sea region...

This is likely the strategy needed for the group to have been able to grow as fast, expand as vast and to remain established for as long as they did. The findings emphasize the importance of assimilation to maintain Scythian dominance around the Black Sea region...

The vast area of the Pontic-Caspian Steppe region has worked as a motor for demographic events throughout Eurasia, especially in the western part of the meta-continent. Crucial events in European history and prehistory can be traced back to people of the Steppe. Including the invention of horseback riding, chariots, a new type of warfare and the spread of Indo-European languages...

An international research team, led from Stockholm University, have investigated genomic data from 35 individuals, spanning 2 200 years. The material mainly consists of human remains from the southern Urals and central Eurasian Steppe. The researchers have analyzed DNA from four different nomadic groups; Cimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians and Bronze Age Srubanya individuals.

Even though a couple of the groups had an early history somewhere else all the groups share genetic background and follow each other chronologically. The Cimmerians were displaced by the Scythians and those in return were followed by the Sarmatians.

[SunkenCiv]

This is an excavation of a Kazburun burial ground in Southern Urals. [Credit: Iia Shuteleva and Nikolai Shcherbakov.]

[SunkenCiv]

[Hugin]

Pretty common to kill the men and take the women back then. So of course the DNA would be a mixture of conqueror and conquered.

[SunkenCiv]

I wholeheartedly agree.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

I suspected as much.

One of my ancestors was a Hun who converted to Christianity and ended up founding a noble house in France which fled as French Hugonaughts.

The Hun’s conversion was when the Pope met Atilla and the mysterious sign led to peace.

[SunkenCiv]

Europe's probably the most invaded place in the world, or close to it -- although the pulse of natural climate has pushed whole peoples out of Central Asia and into all directions -- China, Europe, India, the Middle East -- since there have benen people, probably.

[RegulatorCountry]

Huguenot, pronounced HUE-guh-noh.

[SunkenCiv]

My DNA showed zero matches between my parents (based on half of the DNA of each, of course), but it turns out they had common ancestors 400 years ago. I guess we should keep better track from now on. ;^)

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Thanks for that.

You can tell how deeply my vanity runs.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

I HATE French spelling!

[RegulatorCountry]

You should try tracking down Huguenot ancestors in early colonial Virginia. The surname spelling often changes from one child to the next in the same generation, let alone from generation to generation. I’ve got some that ended up Ford, but came over as Faure. Intermediate alternate spellings were all over the map, Fore, Foree, Fauree, Fare, Farr. Talk about genealogical fun.

[Fedora]

Interesting! Josephus identified the Magogites of Genesis 10:2 as the ancestors of the Scythians, mentioning that the Greeks called Scythia "Magogia".

[RegulatorCountry]

Irish legend has them settling the Iberian Peninsula, then taking over Ireland, banishing the Tuatha de Danann, translated tribe of Dan.

[SunkenCiv]

I'm having the OS search the depths of the hard drive for an ancient file... ah, there it is: This is a dead link (server name changed to www.campbellsville.edu).

Zephaniah
by Robert Street

Exactly, who the Scythians were is uncertain. Zephaniah never uses the term to refer to the invaders from the north. Actually if you read Zephaniah you find very little direct information about this agent force of Yahweh which will strike the rebellious peoples of the Ancient Near East. As Simon De Vries says "One of the most vexing historical problems pertaining to this period is Herodotus' statement that the Scythians, wild and merciless marauders from the Asian interior, were sweeping over Western Asia as far South as Egypt ca. the year 626. Both the Medes and the Assyrians were having trouble with then in this period, and later (ca. 612) they played a role in Assyria's downfall. If they actually did approach Egypt, they must have passed through Palestine and Philistia, striking terror into the hearts of peoples living in their path. There is nothing to confirm Herodotus' statement, however, except an apparent preoccupation with an unnamed menace in the book of Zephaniah. and in Jeremiah's early prophecies (ch. 4-6)."(IOV, 498) The identification of the unnamed foe with the Scythians begs the question which they are used to answer. There are other identifications of the foe from the north proposed by other writers. Some actually date the book to the Maccabean period and see the enemy from the north as Antiochus IV. Others see Babylon as the foe from the North. Whether the Scythians are even mentioned usually depends on whether the commentator relies on Herodotus' tradition. To go further into the identification of the foe from the north means to examine the date of the book.

• Beth-Shan
• Beyond the Mountains of Darkness
• Gozan
• Introduction
• The Dark Age of Greece
• Mycenae and Scythia
• Summing Up

[SunkenCiv]

Rites of the Scythians
Archaeology | Monday, June 13, 2016 | Andrew Curry
Posted on 07/09/2016 3:17:30 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3447851/posts

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Thank you, FRiend, but just mentioned in passing.

No time at moment for geneology. Although I make time to re-watch ‘Bones’ DVDs.

[bert]

Then?

Eastern Europe circa 1945 forward

[Born to Conserve]

“...but it turns out they had common ancestors 400 years ago.”

Ewe, your parents were cousins?

[SunkenCiv]

Ew! We're all cousins on this Earth.