Just last month the FamilyTreeDNA Ancient Connections feature, which allows Big Y customers to match their haplogroup results to those from thousands of ancient men, reached the landmark number of 5,000 individuals.
Yes, every Big Y customer can now match their own results to those of 5,000 people who lived across the world over the last 50,000 years. Now that’s a lot of ancestors to try and match, and a lot of new “great great” prefixes to add as you grow your own personal family tree.
45,000 Year Old Ancient Connections
Among the oldest ancient connections in our database are three individuals who lived some 45,000 years ago in what is today Bacho Kiro, Bulgaria, in southeastern Europe. Bulgaria would see millions of migrants come and go for the following tens of millennia, yet these men serve as both a relic of a time when humans coexisted with Neanderthals in Europe, and a time stamp on our phylogenetic Y chromosome tree.
We can say with certainty where the haplogroup was at a specific time. The Bacho Kiro men happen to be ancient forms of haplogroups C and F, which were among the first to either leave Africa or evolve in the Middle East once humans first left Africa some 55,000 years ago.
The Ancient Ancestors of Haplogroups K, P, and R in Siberia
Another rare, yet crucial, evolutionary haplogroup common in our Paleolithic ancestors was haplogroup K. We first see the haplogroup in Central Asia 42,000 years ago in a man from the Ust-Ishim district of southern Siberia.
Haplogroup K eventually gave rise to haplogroup P, another rare lineage among living men. Yet P is the direct phylogenetic ancestor to haplogroup R, which, in contrast, is the most common haplogroup in Europe, the Americas, and in the FamilyTreeDNA database.
Haplogroup P was first seen in Yana, Siberia, further north, and much later, some 30,000 years ago. The oldest haplogroup R individual is the Mal’ta boy, also from northern Siberia, who lived there 22,000 years ago.
The Ancient Ancestors of Haplogroups I and E in Southern Europe and North Africa
A few other highlights to come from the 5,000 ancient connections available for matching, are the Gravettian twins from Central Europe, which belong to an ancient form of Haplogroup I. The haplogroup is another high frequency haplogroup among our Big Y family. Known as the Krems twins, these identical newborns were discovered in modern day Austria and belonged to a version of I that no longer exists today.
Across the Mediterranean are the oldest members of haplogroup E ever found, at 13,000 years old, at a site called Grotte des Pigeons in Northern Morocco. Haplogroup E is still common today in north Africa and across southern Europe. Haplogroup E can also be linked to the historical Carthaginian invasion of Iberia and Italy by the infamous Hannibal and his army of war elephants. For comparison, Hora 19529 from Malawi belongs to haplogroup B and, at 14,000 years old, is the oldest sample sequenced from sub-Saharan Africa.
The Ancient Ancestors of Haplogroup Q in the Americas
Across the pond in the Americas, the boy known today as Anzick 1, who lived 11,000 years ago, is the oldest member of haplogroup Q in all of the new world. Los Rieles 11974 from Chile is also from Haplogroup Q and, at 9,000 years old, is the oldest man sequenced from South America.
Ancient Connections From Every Corner of the World
Geographically speaking, also in the Americas and among the 5,000 ancient connections, is Saatut 126, the most northern individual in the database. Saatut 126 lived 900 years ago on Baffin Island in Canada. Caleta Falsa 12360, from Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, is the most southern individual currently in our database. Both of these ancient Americans also belonged to the geographically-dispersed haplogroup Q.
Ancient Haplogroups Through Time
For a more historical perspective of the database, we can look at what haplogroups were most common during major moments in human history.
Haplogroup E 12,000 years ago
For instance, haplogroup E was most common in the Levant region of the Middle East, while humans first became farmers by domesticating wheat some 12,000 years ago.
Haplogroups C, G, and J 8,000 years ago
Just north of there, in the famous Turkish site of Çatalhöyük, where some of the earliest known settlements formed 8,000 years ago, haplogroups C, G, and J were among the most commonly found among ancient villagers.
Haplogroups I, N, and R in the Viking Age
Fast forward to the Viking age, and we see a rapid dominance and spread of haplogroups I1, R1a, R1b, and N1a from Scandinavia to all regions of northern, central, and even eastern Europe.
Haplogroups E, G, J, and R
By 1492, as Columbus sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, haplogroups E, G, J, and once again R1b accounted for the demographic majority of late medieval Iberian men. Those haplogroups are now found in their eventual descendants across much of Latin America.
Who Is Your Ancient Connection?
Having analyzed 5,000 ancient individuals allows for an unprecedented breadth of genealogical and historical knowledge, spanning tens of thousands of years and nearly every continent in the world. We can finally pinpoint historical migrations and accurately trace human migration. We can now know exactly where and when these 5,000 men lived and died and where they fit in the human family tree.
We can then use that information to better understand human history. Which of these 5,000 ancient men do you most closely match? Is it Ötzi or Cheddar Man? And who knows—maybe that individual was your ancestor, and that great-grandaddy may have also played an important role in our human history.
I find this topic fascinating. I’m coming from a business and technology background, but have a strong interest in the convergences happening in Archaeology, Genetics, Cultural Heritage and Migrations, and impacts on understanding of human history. In particular, I’d love to know more about your process for obtaining these Ancient DNA samples. Do you have a systemized process, and are you able to obtain any archaeological insights from the excavation data in the immediate and surrounding excavation. For example, I show a relationship to “Yuya”, the Mummy who was described by the author Osman in the book “Stranger in the Valley of Kings” as being “Semitic” and different than other typical Mummies identified during this time. Is there any other relevant Archaeological data, Hieroglyphic inscriptions, grave goods, etc. found in association with this Ancient DNA sample that might provide additional insights. I know that I would find value in this, and additionally I think many others would as well for their particular Ancient DNA sample matches.
Don’t forget Haplogroup E is found in a small proportion of blue-eyed Scots like me who presumably are descended from North Africans who travelled from Carthaginia, through Iberia, via Roman army mercenaries into Britain.