There were numerous out of Africa exits into Iberia. The
African migrants introduced into Europe, the Aurignacian, Solutrean, Bell
Beaker/Corded ware and Moorish cultures between 44,000 BC and 1492 AD. These
Sub-Saharan populations belonged to the Black Variety.
The Bell Beaker culture spread from Iberia to the rest of
Europe (Haak et al., 2015). The eastern Corded Ware and even earlier Yamnaya
ceramic decorations are characteristic of the African “Maritime Beaker complex”
that was carried from Morocco to Iberia (Turek, 2012; Winters, 2017). Because
the Bell Beaker cultural complex was also present in North Africa, makes it
clear Africans took R-V88 and R-M269 to Iberia and across Europe.
There were many Africans in Neolithic Iberia (Dominguez,
2005). African mtDNA haplogroups have been found at Tres Montes Bronze Age Navarra,
they were found in many ancient Iberian skeletons. Tres Montes Navarra was a
center of Bell Beaker culture. As late as 2130 BCE we find haplogroup L2 in
Iberia (Dominguez, 2005). In addition, as early 10kya we find carriers of M1 in
Andalusia (Hernández et al., 2015). Haplogroup M1, is recognized as an African
clade (Winters, 2016). In Iberia, seventy percent of the mtDNA in Tres Montes
Navarra was of Sub-Saharan African origin (Dominguez, 2005). The African mtDNA haplogroups belonged to the L, L2 and L3 clades. Haplogroups L2 and L1b, are
concentrated in western-central Africa, particularly along the coastal areas.
Dominguez (2005), noted that much of the ancient mtDNA found in Iberia has no
relationship to the people presently living in Iberia. Dominguez (2005) found
that the lineages recovered from ancient Iberian skeletons are the African
lineages L1b, L2 and L3. Almost 50% of the lineages from the Abauntz
Chalcolithic deposits and Tres Montes, in Navarre are the Sub-Saharan lineages
L1b, L2 and L3 dating back to 2130 BCE. The appearance of phylogenetically
related sequences of hg L3 present in many ancient Iberian skeletons suggest
that this haplogroup may have a long history in Iberia. This would support the
presence of West Africans in Iberia during the Neolithic period.
Between 3200-2900 BC, African culture and people began to
migrate into Iberia and introduced megaliths and the Bell Beaker culture
(Lahovary, 1963). Spanish researchers accepted the reality that the Iberia
Peninsula owed the major parts of Neolithic Iberia to African immigrants
(Lahovary, 1963; Macwhite, 1947). MacWhite (1947) claims there was a close
relationship between Iberia and Britain. These researchers admit that Portugal
and Brittany were settled by Megalithic Africans who founded respectively the
Mugem and Teviec sepultures (Lahovary, 1963; MacWhite, 1947). Olalde et al.,
(2017) discuss the spread of Bell Beaker culture across Europe 27 kya.
These
researchers found limited genetic affinity between individuals from Iberian and
central Europeans. Olalde et al., (2017) concludes that migration probably
played an insignificant mechanism in the spread of Y-Chromosome R1 within the two areas. The
Neolithic British farmers were genetically similar to Neolithic Iberians dating
between 3900–1200 BCE (Olalde et al., 2017; MacWhite, 1947; Mathieson et al.,
2017). The British farmers were replaced by farmers of the Beaker culture
(Olalde et al., 2017). Eighty-four percent of the Beaker Bell Steppe migrants
carried R1b (Olalde et al., 2017). Bell Beaker appeared in Iberia around 2700
BCE (Cardoso, 2014; Olalde et al., 2017; Müller and van Willigen, 2001). It is
interesting to note that while most people in the Iberian Beaker complex carried
the G2 and I2a2 haplogroups (Olalde et al., 2017; Mathieson et al., 2017).
Iberians during this period also carried R-V88 (Kivisild, 2017; Mathieson et
al., 2017). In summary Late Neolithic Bell Beaker tradition expanded from the
Taqua region of Iberia to Ireland and Scandinavia between 2800-2700 BC.
Haak et al., (2015) reported carriers of R1b1 (R-L278) at Samara and in Spain.
There is a large body of archaeological literature that
situates the origin of the stamp beaker decorations in Morocco, not the Steppes
or Central Asia. This would point to Africa as the origin of the people who
practiced this cultural tradition. Kivisild (2017), situates relatives of V88
in ancient Europe during Beaker and Yamnaya times. Haak et al., (2015)
illustrated that the oldest R1 clade associated with the European
hunter-gatherers in Europe carried R1b1.The discovery of relatives of V88 at
Bell Beaker and Yamnaya sites should not be surprising because the Bell Beaker
culture began in Morocco, and the Kushites migrated into Europe from the East.
R1 and the African Bell Beaker and Yamnaya Complexes
The
African Sahara and Morocco was a major source for the Bell Beaker and Corded Ware
cultural complex. The Proto-Beaker pottery dates back to 4500 BC in the Sahara
(Daugas et al., 1989).
The Beaker Complex made a rapid expansion across western
Europe into central Europe from Iberia (Bailey and Salanova, 1999; Harrison and
Heyd, 2007; Lemercier, 2004). The Beaker Bell cultures overlaps the Corded Ware
Complex (Fokker and Nicolis, 2012; Prieto-Martinez, 2011). Olalde et al.,
(2017) found that the Beaker Bell people in their sample carried R1b-S116/P312.
Agro-Pastoral people cultivated crops and herded cattle.
Elements of the Agro-Pastoral members of the Bell Beaker and Corded Ware
complexes appear first in the African Sahara. Here, we see rock engravings of
cattle herders and hunters using similar bow and arrows. The Yamnaya archers'
wrist-guard and bows may have had their origin in the Sahara where we see
similar wrist-guards (Le Quellec, 2011). Daugas et al., (1989) provides a
number of radio carbon dates for the Bell Beaker complex in North Africa. We
find Beaker Bell ware dating to 3700 BC in Morocco. By 2700 BC we see the
expansion of Beaker complex into Iberia (Daugas et al., 1989). The Iberian Bell
Beaker complex is associated with the “Maritime tradition” (Mathieson et al.,
2017; Turek, 2012). There are numerous Bell Beaker sites in the Sahara and
Morocco. A center of the Moroccan Beaker complex ceramics and arrowheads come
from Hassi Ouenzga and in the cave of Ifri Ouberrid. Artifacts found at these
sites are similar to Iberian Beaker complex forms (Nekkal and Mikdad, 2014).
The interesting fact about the discovery of these artifacts is that they were
widespread across the Middle Atlas mountains at sites such as El-Kiffen,
Skhirat – de Rouazi, Kehf, That el Gher and Ifri Ouberrid (Guilaine, 1976;
Mikdad, 1998; Nekka and Mikdad, 2014). This finding matches Turek (2012); which
explains the spread of typically beaker style stamped decoration Bell Beaker
culture pottery from Morocco into Iberia, and thence the rest of Europe.
In conclusion, there is a global distribution of Y-Chromosome
R-M343 subclades across the African continent. The major subclades are R-M269
and R-V88. The V88 subclade is the oldest clade to separate from R-M343.The V88
sub-clade, had relatives in Early Neolithic samples from across a wide
geographic area from Iberia, eastward to Germany and Samara. This would place
carriers of relatives of V88 among the Yamnaya and Bell Beaker people. Given
the wide distribution of V88 and M269 in Africa and Neolithic Europe suggest
that, the Bell Beaker and Yamnaya people were Africans, not Indo-Europeans,
because these cultural complexes and the people who practiced these
cultures originated in Africa. References found in this article:
