From Generation to Generation: The Genetics of Jewish Populations
"Genetics and the Archaeology of Ancient Israel" 10/25/12
Aaron Brody PhD, Bade Museum of Biblical Archaeology, Pacific School of Religion Roy King MD, PhD: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University
Caveats to DNA studies of Ancient Israel
Little or no data on ancient DNA (single mtDNA study of Chalcolithic cave in Israel)
The Southern Levant is a liminal zone—in terms of climate, ecozones and history (confluence of Egyptian, Mesopotamian and Aegean polities)
Modern DNA studies of Levantine populations suffer from founder effects, population replacement, migration, conversion.
Prehistoric/Historic Models Braudel’s Annales School-‐La Longue Durée
(temporal and spatial) scales are broad. Geographic net—Circum-‐Mediterranean/Black
Sea; the shore and 100 km inland. The sea is readily traversed for easy commerce and
migration. Island biogeography models apply. Temporal net—8000 BCE to 1000 BCE-‐Neolithic
through Iron Age I
Autosomal Studies 500K Illumina Chips
Recent large scale studies of 500K SNPs confirm Braudel’s thesis that the Mediterranean constitutes a geographic and genetic domain.
There are likely bidirectional flows across the Mediterranean both from east to west and west to east.
Haplogroup studies: Y and mtDNA may afford better temporal and spatial resolution of migration patterns.
Ecological Diversity in the Southern Levant
(Danin, 1995)—High Species Diversity of Flora Israel—9.06 species/100 sq km California—3.66 species/100 sq km Greece—3.17 species/100 sq km Italy—1.86 species/100 sq km Sinai—1.45 species/100 sq km
Ecological Diversity in the Southern Levant
Three Vegetation Zones—Mediterranean, Desert, Steppe
Rift Valley—Sudanese/Zambesian vegetation, many springs, oases, refugium during the last Ice Age (LGM) for flora, fauna and humans (Y chromosome DNA connection with Ethiopia/Kenya/Sudan in modern populations)
Levant and the Rift Valley
Climate and Genes in the Southern Levant
A major co-determinate of human population genetics in the Near East is climate, specifically rainfall distribution patterns
Non-irrigation farming of wheat and barley require > 250 mm rainfall per year
Middle East Rainfall
Dry Farming or Rainfed (>250 mm annual precipitation) vs Arid Irrigable & Arid Non-irrigable Zones
Archaeology and Genetics: Y Chromosome
The Human Y Chromosome is a rich haploid system with over 500 Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) discovered
Each male inherits from his father each SNP and rarely develops through mutations new SNPs
We can construct therefore trees of relationships among the total set of SNPs
Haplogroup J is the most frequent haplogroup in Anatolia and the Near East and dates to 32 kbp
J2a and J1 frequencies are strongly associated with rainfall distribution patterns in the Near East (Chiaroni, King and Underhill, Antiquity, 2008)
J2a-M410 J1-M267
Annual Precipitation (mm) Y chromosome tree
B E D C F J1-M267
I G H K L M N O P R QA
J2
J2a-M410 J2b-M12
J
Cubic Regressions of J2a and J1 Frequencies in Middle East vs. Annual Rainfall
Y chromosome hgs J1 & J2a correlate with rainfall in an inverse manner J2a coincides when arable ≥ 400 mm rain & J1with semi-aridity (≤ 250 mm)
gene history: time & space present
past
Semitic Language Tree
Pig Egypt
Pig Prohibition/Sacredness
Qur’an 6.145: “I find nothing forbidden for people to eat except for carrion, flowing blood, pig’s meat—it is loathsome.”
Lev. 11.7: “The pig, for even though it has divided hoofs and is cleft-footed, it does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you”
Pigs were sacred to Demeter and sacrificed in the autumnal Thesmophoria. Also sacrificed in Hittite rituals.
Pigs are taboo among Ge’ez speaking Ethiopian Copts but not among Egyptian Copts
Models of Ethnicity
Ethnicity as a social construct constituting a relationship between two or more groups
Barth/Eriksen (cultural anthropologists)--two ethnic groups may share virtually all cultural traits yet maintain their distinctiveness
Douglas (cultural anthropologist)--Boundaries are often perceived as dangerous and disorder promoting and thus need to be regulated (ex. dietary rules): pigs are anomalous and hence threatening
Marvin Harris (1974): Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches: The Riddles of Culture proposed that because pigs have high water requirement and poor heat tolerance they compete with humans for ecologically scarce resources in the desert/steppe
Rainfall/Pig Correlations in the Negev
Pig Prohibition/Sacredness
From the Chalcolithic to the Iron Age pigs become increasingly rare in the Southern Levant.
Coastal Philistine (Iron Age I period) sites are an exception to the above pattern; however, Philistines are thought to have immigrated from the Aegean.
Conclusion: People carry their pigs or their absence of pigs with them
Origin of Agro-Pastoralism in Near East
At the beginning of the Holocene (after the last ice age) (10,000 BCE) hunter-forager communities began to form in the Southern Levant, Middles Euphrates, and Southeast Anatolia
Domestication of wheat, barley, cattle, sheep/goats, pigs over next 2000 years (DNA studies point to SE Anatolia as origin)
Spread of agro-pastoral package to Southern Levant, Cyprus, Central Anatolia, Crete, Greece, Balkans and Italy
Middle PPNB Sites
PPNC Sites
Neolithic from Nea Nikomedeia in Northern Greece
Theocharis, Demetrios. Neolithic Greece. Athens:
National Bank of Greece, 1973. Fig. 18.
Neolithic from Tsangli in Thessaly, Greece
Theocharis, Demetrios. Neolithic Greece. Athens: National Bank of Greece, 1973. Fig. 31.
Neolithic ceramics & their distribution
ANTIQUITY (2002) 76:707-‐714
ANTIQUITY (2002) 76:707-714
Circum-Mediterranean Y chromosome haplotype frequency distributions
Spatial Frequency distribution of Y chromosome hg J2a-M410
82 pops. N=6724
AJHG (2006) 78:202-221
J2a
J1
Crete
Bronze Age Collapse 1200 BCE
?Immigration of Philistines to southern coastal Israel
Movement of “proto-Israelites” to Central Hills from desert-steppe—possibly traced via J1e
What Y chromosomes could reflect Philistine migration?
Phylogeography of hg E-M78 & its sub-haplogroups
Cruciani et al 2007 Mol Biol Evol
G2a-M527 Contour Frequency Plot
Co-migration of V13 & M527 in Greek and Aegean Colonies (Jordan, Syria, Turkey & Lebanon have no M527)
Region %V13 %M527
Lerna/Franchthi 36 1.8
Nea Nikomedeia 14 1.8
Phocaea 19 3.2
Rhodes 18 5
Crete 7 0.6
Provence 4 0.5
Ukraine 8 0.7
Palestinians 4 1.1
Druze 11 1.0
Bulgaria 17 0.1
Bosnia 20 0.0
Stirrup vase with octopus decor, Rhodes, Late Helladic III C1,
ca 1200-1100 BC (Louvre).
Sea Peoples
Co-migration of V13 & M527 in Greek and Aegean Colonies (Jordan, Syria, Turkey & Lebanon have no M527)
Region %V13 %M527
Lerna/Franchthi 36 1.8
Nea Nikomedeia 14 1.8
Phocaea 19 3.2
Rhodes 18 5
Crete 7 0.6
Provence 4 0.5
Ukraine 8 0.7
Palestinians 4 1.1
Druze 11 1.0
Bulgaria 17 0.1
Bosnia 20 0.0
M527, V13, J2a
J1
J1
Conclusions
500K autosomal markers show affinities of Kos, Sicily, Crete and Cyprus with Near Eastern Populations. Less affinity with mainland Greece, France, or North Italy
Y chromosome J2a lineages show an origin in the Levant and/or Central/Mediterranean Anatolia. These lineages may track the spread of the Neolithic to the Aegean and Central Mediterranean
A back migration from the Aegean to the coastal Southern Levant using E-V13 and G-M527. ? Late Bronze Age collapse; Philistines and Tel Dor.
Future studies should focus on ancient DNA from the Southern Levant