alan
02-26-2015, 11:04 AM
R1a hunters found north of the steppe do seem to support the notion than before farmers entered Europe there was R1a and R1b among the ANE carrying hunters in Mesolithic Europe east of a line from Denmark to Moldova and IMO probably represented archaeologically by the appearance of pressure flaking -and perhaps another wave by pre-farming pottery-in that zone in the Mesolithic. It seems to have swept in on a broad front from the most northerly inhabitable areas to the Black Sea in the early Mesolithic.
Actually when you look at the pressure microblade carrying cultures in Mesolithic Europe it is pretty clear that the European dates are earlier in the NW of Russia -earliest of all in Butovo culture-than in the western steppe zone which is suggestive of two or more waves. I personally believe the ANE/pressure microblade thing was across such a wide zone of eastern Europe that R1a, R1b and N could have been linked to this in different places. It looks clear enough now that R1a must have been in the northern wing of this and to date no evidence of R1b. Tiny sample but suggestive.
The southern wave of pressure microblades in the European steppes seems to be significantly later albeit still within the early Mesolithic. Both the R1s could have been involved in the southern wave. I wouldnt oversimplify this by saying R1a was northern and R1b southern in eastern European terms even though that impression could exist.
So, why were the more southerly mesolithic microblade cultures on the dry steppe later. I have a suspicion that P297 lineages may have adapted to the drier zones like the east end of the European steppe and the southernmost fringes of the steppe further west - all areas that were drier as rainfall reduced both to the east and to the south within this region.
The origin of the initial patterning of R1b and R1a could be that P297 lines adapted to and developed hunting strategies that could work in arid areas which were not attractive to people already occupying less arid areas who would have a different hunting-gathering strategy. So on that basis you would expect R1b in eastern Europe to be located in the far east and far south end of the European steppes on the dry environments with R1a perhaps dominant in less arid areas just to the north -perhaps on the same river valleys. I am not an expert on this but the dry steppe hunting does seem to have included chasing Equids. At present the ancient DNA seems to fit and certainly does no contradict this model.
Aridity oscillated with the dry steppe and the forest steppe zone moving up and downstream depending on climate with the people adapted to each environment moving to follow their prefered environment but in a few cases ending up mixing to form hybrid cultures. Another clue that P297 was a line that adapted to horrible levels of aridity is M73.
So just to summarise, it is possible that the first Mesolithic wave into eastern Europe was much more R1a than b associated and settled in most places but not the driest steppes. It may be then that P297 settled in the latter less occupied areas as for some reason to do with origin or simply adaptation through lack of choice meant they specialised in a dry steppe/arid zone sort of hunting - chasing Equids etc. Those kind of variation in subsistence strategy would have led to nuance in the distribution of lineages.
As a consequence I suspect pre-Yamnaya P297, primarily M269 derived, may have had a distinctive pattern where it may have gone fairly far north at the east end of the European steppe ie. Samara etc but to the west it would have been confined to progressively more southerly areas until by areas like the Dniester it was likely only at the lower stretches of the river and the Black Sea shore. From what I understand the southern area between Azov and the Don are very arid so that is another area where a dry adapted lineage may have been able to settle. Climate of course oscillated a lot so it was a dynamic situation where ecological zones moved and the people moved to follow them. PIE could have arisen at an interface area between R1b people in the more arid areas and R1a groups elsewhere - to explain how both lineages were so important to IE its is pretty necessary to see PIE as developing at an interface between them or of course in a group who were mixed.
Actually when you look at the pressure microblade carrying cultures in Mesolithic Europe it is pretty clear that the European dates are earlier in the NW of Russia -earliest of all in Butovo culture-than in the western steppe zone which is suggestive of two or more waves. I personally believe the ANE/pressure microblade thing was across such a wide zone of eastern Europe that R1a, R1b and N could have been linked to this in different places. It looks clear enough now that R1a must have been in the northern wing of this and to date no evidence of R1b. Tiny sample but suggestive.
The southern wave of pressure microblades in the European steppes seems to be significantly later albeit still within the early Mesolithic. Both the R1s could have been involved in the southern wave. I wouldnt oversimplify this by saying R1a was northern and R1b southern in eastern European terms even though that impression could exist.
So, why were the more southerly mesolithic microblade cultures on the dry steppe later. I have a suspicion that P297 lineages may have adapted to the drier zones like the east end of the European steppe and the southernmost fringes of the steppe further west - all areas that were drier as rainfall reduced both to the east and to the south within this region.
The origin of the initial patterning of R1b and R1a could be that P297 lines adapted to and developed hunting strategies that could work in arid areas which were not attractive to people already occupying less arid areas who would have a different hunting-gathering strategy. So on that basis you would expect R1b in eastern Europe to be located in the far east and far south end of the European steppes on the dry environments with R1a perhaps dominant in less arid areas just to the north -perhaps on the same river valleys. I am not an expert on this but the dry steppe hunting does seem to have included chasing Equids. At present the ancient DNA seems to fit and certainly does no contradict this model.
Aridity oscillated with the dry steppe and the forest steppe zone moving up and downstream depending on climate with the people adapted to each environment moving to follow their prefered environment but in a few cases ending up mixing to form hybrid cultures. Another clue that P297 was a line that adapted to horrible levels of aridity is M73.
So just to summarise, it is possible that the first Mesolithic wave into eastern Europe was much more R1a than b associated and settled in most places but not the driest steppes. It may be then that P297 settled in the latter less occupied areas as for some reason to do with origin or simply adaptation through lack of choice meant they specialised in a dry steppe/arid zone sort of hunting - chasing Equids etc. Those kind of variation in subsistence strategy would have led to nuance in the distribution of lineages.
As a consequence I suspect pre-Yamnaya P297, primarily M269 derived, may have had a distinctive pattern where it may have gone fairly far north at the east end of the European steppe ie. Samara etc but to the west it would have been confined to progressively more southerly areas until by areas like the Dniester it was likely only at the lower stretches of the river and the Black Sea shore. From what I understand the southern area between Azov and the Don are very arid so that is another area where a dry adapted lineage may have been able to settle. Climate of course oscillated a lot so it was a dynamic situation where ecological zones moved and the people moved to follow them. PIE could have arisen at an interface area between R1b people in the more arid areas and R1a groups elsewhere - to explain how both lineages were so important to IE its is pretty necessary to see PIE as developing at an interface between them or of course in a group who were mixed.