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Eulau Y-DNA markers

In the October 2008 an article called
Ancient DNA, Strontium isotopes, and osteological analyses shed light on social and kinship organization of the Later Stone Age.
by authors
Wolfgang Haak, Guido Brandt,Hylke N. de Jong, Christian Meyer, Robert Ganslmeier, Volker Heyd, Chris Hawkesworth, Alistair W. G. Pike, Harald Meller a Kurt W. Alt
was issued in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal.
PNAS 2008 105:18226-18231
Full text of this article in the pdf format is not free available.

In the article the STR markers values detected from three 4 600 years old (radiocarbon dating gave results 2631 - 2571 B.C.) male skeletal relics from a burial ground near Eulau were published. With some help of other genetic methods and tests it was found out that the remainders belong to a father and his two sons. A common haplotype contains altogether 16 indentified markers of a haplogroup R1a.
These values are compared here to Y-DNA profiles from Czech and Slovak YDNA databases. This represents the third (March 2009) Y-DNA markers' comparison of individuals deceased more than 3 000 years ago that we know of on the Genebáze.



Eulau is situated nearby Naumburg in Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany.

Acquired Y-STR haplotype


From three male individuals (father and sons) there were identified these markers as follows:

The table si taken from the quoted work above. The first column indicates individuals: Ind. 4 means a father, Ind. 2 and 3 sons.
The 2nd column, indicated as .Ex., determines an origin of a sample for a DNA test: A means a tooth.

What do the Eulau discoveries tell us ?



Until the recent time the genetics genealogy could use only the results acquired from living individuals to examine male lines (chromozome Y). Depending on how the particular haplogroups and their subgroups are geographically dislocated nowadays it can be presumed, where they occured before, where the migration routes lead and so on. However, DNA isolation methods improved so much in last few years that it enabled in several cases to determine Y-STR markers' values even of the individuals deceased a long time ago. THe Eulau burial ground remainders are immensely interesting for us since thet originate from the central Europe and give us data about a particular sample of a local population o 4 600 years ago. So what do the result tell us?

If some prospective descendants of the Eulau haplotype carries lived until today, theirs actual haplotype must have a difference of GD=2 - 4, for the regularities discovered until this time say that each haplotype begins to mutate in a certain number of generation. It means that people today being with such difference from the Eulau haplotype can deem themselves as prospective descendants or close relatives of the people burried in Eulau 4 600 years ago.

Haplotypes close to the Eulau haplotype up to a genetic distance 4 originate only from Norway, Great Britain, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia. Not untill the GD=5 the other European countries do occur.

This discovery represents another argument against the statement that each R1a haplogroup carrier living today in our country is of so called Slavic origin. It is already the second support of the fact that R1a haplogroup has occured in middle Europe since the Neolith. It is likely that the people with haplotypes close to those from Eulau were the first, or the ones of them, who brought the R1a haplogroup to middle Europe. The fact that the recent haplotypes closest to the one from Eulau ca be found in Norway, Great Britain, Czech Republic and Slovakia can point to a probable origin of R1a amongst Celts and Germans.



Individual profiles and theirs comparison, matches and genetic distances with users of Czech and Slovak Y-DNA database.



Significant matches haplotype Eulau

(Ysearch standards)
ID db dys19 dys389-1 dys389-2 dys390 dys391 dys392 dys393 dys385a dys385b dys437 dys438 dys439 dys448 dys456 dys458 Y-GATA dys635 Match Region Haplogroup genetic distance
Eulau 16 13 30 25 11 - 14 11 14 14 11 10 19 16 15 12 23 - D R1a (Hapest)
8EGCP Ysearch 16 13 30 25 11 11 14 11 14 14 11 10 19 16 15 13 23 15/16 ?PL R1a* 1
PFG37 Ysearch 16 13 30 25 11 11 13 11 14 14 11 10 19 15 15 12 23 14/16 Norway R1a* 2
6ZUSE Ysearch 15 13 30 25 11 11 15 11 14 14 11 10 19 16 15 12 23 14/16 ?GB R1a* 2
O1805 CZ 17 13 30 25 11 11 14 11 14 14 11 10 20 15 15 12 23 13/16 CZ R1a (Hapest) 3
JCC7T Ysearch 15 13 30 25 11 11 13 11 14 14 11 10 20 16 15 12 23 13/16 ?GB R1a* 3
WYDZB Ysearch 15 13 30 25 11 11 14 11 14 14 11 10 20 15 15 12 23 13/16 ?GB R1a* 3
JTCJQ Ysearch 16 13 30 24 11 11 13 11 14 14 11 10 20 16 15 12 23 13/16 Slovakia R1a* 3
GG5CH Ysearch 16 13 30 24 11 11 13 11 14 14 11 10 20 16 15 12 23 13/16 Norway R1a* 3
O1839 CZ 15 13 30 25 11 11 13 11 14 14 11 11 20 16 15 12 23 12/16 CZ R1a (Hapest) 4
NV9JB Ysearch 16 13 31 25 11 11 13 11 15 14 11 10 20 16 15 12 23 12/16 Slovenia R1a* 4
MAC7E Ysearch 16 13 30 25 10 11 13 11 14 14 11 10 20 16 15 11 23 12/16 Scotland R1a* 4
4DZF5 Ysearch 16 13 29 25 10 11 13 11 14 14 11 10 20 16 15 12 23 12/16 ?GB R1a* 4
EMZHJ Ysearch 16 13 30 25 11 11 13 11 13 14 11 10 20 16 15 13 23 12/16 GB, Kent R1a* 4
24MB4 Ysearch 15 13 30 25 11 11 13 11 14 14 11 10 20 16 15 12 - 12/15 - R1a1-Modal-G 3
ZFG4G Ysearch 16 13 30 25 11 11 13 11 14 14 11 10 20 16 16 12 - 12/15 - MESKb modal 3
R1a1 modal Ysearch K2SH3 15 13 30 25 10 11 13 11 14 14 11 10 20 16 15 11 - 10/15 - R1a1* modal 4

Comment
The Ysearch haplotype 8EGCP is indicated as "Neol", which may mean a theoretically created haplotype (may stand for neolithic?), not some haplotype of a particular individual.
Unforfunatelly, its contact person does not reply to our inquiries.

The last three haplotypes in the table (marked red) are theoretical modal haplotypes.

Processed 18.03.2008

Jiří Pavlíček, Ludvík Urban

Graph of haplogroup R1a made by use of Median Joining Network method for 17 markers show the position of Eulau haplotype among haplotypes of Czech and Slovak Y-DNA databases.

Added 10.06.2009
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