WHG and EHG mtDNA Haplogroups/Lineages

[J Man]

When it comes to the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic hunter-gatherer populations of Europe (excluding far South/Southeast Europe) here are the mtDNA haplogroups/lineages that I think were present among them originally before Neolithic farmers spread out from Anatolia and the Balkans. Feel free to chime in with your thoughts.


WHG (West European Hunter-Gatherers): U5b, U5a (some certain subclades) and possibly some certain subclades of H.

EHG (East European Hunter-Gatherers): U5a (some certain subclades), U2 (mostly U2e), U4 and possibly some certain subclades of U5b and H.

[Krefter]

Hunter Gatherer mtDNA. I'll add more data from Karelia and Siberia(with lots of EHG influence) later.

It's good to have a thread to discuss European hunter gatherer mtDNA in. A lot will be learned in the future with modern and ancient mtDNA.

The list you give is what ancient mtDNA suggests a large majority of Central, Northern, and Eastern hunter gatherers belonged to. Although there haven't been many any recent studies with hunter gatherer mtDNA from France, Iberia(except for 19,000YBP H), British isles, Italy, and Balkans. Those are huge gaps in data. There are dozens of possible minority lineages that may have existed in Central/North/East European hunter gatherers and other lineages that may have been popular in other regions.

We have confirmed mtDNA R1b1 in Hungary and H in Karelia. There's lots of reported R/H/HV/R0 from Iberia and France, including 19,000YBP H from Spain. Three fully sequenced mtDNAs from EpiPalaeolithic Italy are really interesting, one is U5b2b1*, one is U2'3'4'6'7'8'9*(obviously extinct lineage, like U-MA1), and one is H1*. The H1* though has evidence of contamination.

EDIT: Forgot to mention mtDNA HV1 in Sicily.

[Lirio100]

It's actually a little amazing to look at. My mtDNA is a U5b subclade, and my dad's Y DNA is an R1b subclade. Looking at what a long journey those people took to get to where my recent ancestors are from is a bit staggering.