Fertile African Crescent

Much of what we call African civilization developed in Africa during the African Aqualithic. During this period in the Fertile African Crescent these folk have left beautiful drawings which illustrate their way of life in Tassilli n'Ajjer, and the northern foothills of the Hoggar massif.  I call the population that lived in the Fertile African Crescent: Proto-Saharans.



During the African Aqualithic, there was higher rainfall in Africa which made the rivers longer and more permanent. This caused rivers to swell and burst over there basins. The people used wavy line pottery. They also invented agriculture and domesticated many animals.

In ancient times a wonderful civilization existed in the Highland regions of Middle Africa. In this wonderful civilization 6000 years ago lived the ancestors of the Dravidians, Black Africans, Elamites and the Sumerians. Today we call this Proto-Saharan civilization the "Fertile African Crescent", because the highland regions in which the Proto-Saharans l lived formed a crescent shape across the Saharan region of middle Africa.



The historic gods of Africa and Asia were of Proto-Saharan origin.Concepts concerning these ancient gods or great ancestors were first developed around a gigantic lake that formerly existed in Middle Africa around 8000 years ago. This is supported by the fact that the Saharan cultures have resemblances to those of Nubia. This lake was known in ancient times as Lake Tritonis.




Lake Tritonis was situated in the Libyan desert. Here as early as 7000 B.C., there was a slow transition from hunting , to cattle pastoralism. The prehistoric appearance of a great lake in Libya has recently been supported by satellite pictures of the Eastern Desert which indicate that a lake was located in the Qattara depression of northwest Egypt.






Pastoralism and fishing preceded food production in the ancient Sahara. It appears that a hunter-fisher-gatherer group which clearly specialized in the hunting of animals (as evidenced by the arrowheads) became animal herders, since they were keenly aware of the habits of game and therefore made the shift from hunter-fisher-gatherer to animal husbandry rapidly once climatic conditions in the Sahara made it impossible to collect grains.



Moderate climatic conditions made it possible for the Proto-Saharans to engage in intensive plant domestication. Food surpluses led to the rise of towns and cities, complex political organization. social ranking of individuals in society, and craft specialization as certain clans and ethnic groups became more sedentary.



The linguistic evidence indicates that the Proto-Saharans practiced a form of intensive agriculture characterized by the use of the hoe, related water storage and irrigation techniques plus the application of fertilizers to the cultivated land.



The ability to produce surplus food led to an increase in population, changes in social organization and class distinctions. Naturally, population increases forced the ancestors of the Proto-Saharans to spill over into more marginal areas. This population pressure probably forced many Proto-Saharan clans to domesticate plants and animals to preserve traditional levels of food production.


AGRICULTURAL DOMESTICATION



Agriculture has long been practiced in Nubia. The most ancient grasses collected in Africa were found in Nubia. Here barley and sorghum was collected. As early as 17,000 B.C., barley was being cultivated at Tushka. These farmers were probably the Anu.



One of the most ancient sites for agricultural domestication in Nubia or the Central Sudan, was discovered at Es Shaheinab dating to 4000 B.C. Here riverine folk bred goats and sheep. They also engaged in fishing and collected grasses.



Kadero is another ancient site of agriculture in Sudan. Here as early as 3310 B.C., sorghum and millet were being cultivated/ collected.



Other African grasses domesticated outside of the Nile area include guinea corn, bulrush millet and fonio. The earliest evidence of bulrush millet dates to 1200 B.C., and comes from Mauritania. By 3000 B.C. rice was being cultivated.



Formerly it was believed that the Niger Valley was a center of plant domestication. The earliest northwest African sites for agriculture include Dar Tichitt Daima ,Kurrasakata and Karkarchinkat which date to around 2000 B.C. Today archaeological research indicates that much of the Niger area was thick forest until quite recently. (Winters 1986) It would appear that the present inhabitants of West Africa came from the North and the Nile Valley.





The Proto-Saharans claimed descent from the Maa or Fish Confederation. The Maa Confederation includes the Egyptians, Elamites, Dravidians, Manding and Sumerians. In honor of the great ancestor: Maa, they worshipped a god called: Amun, Amon, or Amma. In honor of this great ancestor the descendants of the Proto-Saharans use the term Ma, to denote greatness or highness, e.g., Manding " Maga" and Dravidian Ma. Other Proto-Saharan tribes claimed direct descent from the great Maa, founder of the Fish Confederation. For example, the Manding call themselves Ma-nde: children of Ma, while the Sumerians were called Ma-Gar-ri (exalted God's children).



The Proto-Saharans share place names. Evidence for shared place names has been discovered by Dr. Vamos-Toth Bator. Dr. Vamos-Toth Bator, calls this ancient civilization ---root culture-- Tamana. The term Tamana can be interpreted in the Manding and Dravidian language as "Strongplace","Stronghold" or "Original Settlement". The term Tamana is one of over 1,000,000 place names Dr. Vamos-Toth has found which link Africa, Asia, and Europe.



The term Tamana, was a popular place name for the Proto-Saharans, as they expanded out of the nuclear Proto-Saharan region, to signify a colonial city or trade center established among hostile alien tribes.



The Proto-Saharans also had their own writing system. This writing system was used by the Dravidians in the Indus Valley, the Manding in the Western Sahara, and the Egyptians.



The ancient Proto-Saharan script was a logo syllabic system. The words used to write this script were monosyllabic.  The first script used by the Proto-Saharans in the Fertile African Crescent was Thinite.


Religion

Around 10000 years ago pluvial conditions existed in the Sahara which led to the creation of numerous river beds now buried under tons of sand. Due to the abundance of streams, rivers and lakes in Proto-Saharan Africa men who were powerful, were men who could harness the powerful water of the numerous streams and rivers. Such men as these were recognized as demigods or great ancestors. For example in Sumer and Egypt gods and demigods were described as "reed-boat navigators". In Egypt some of these great men that became gods include Thoth, and Osiris.



According to the Olympian Creation Myth the earliest groups to appear on earth were the Libyco-Thracians. The Libyans were Proto-Saharans, as were the original Thracians, who were descendants of the Kushite and Egyptian troops established at Trace , by Sesostris (Thutmose III or Ramses II),when he conquered Asia and Europe.




Apollonius Rhodius tells us that the goddess Athene was born beside Lake Tritonis in Libya. The goddess Athene, was called Neith by the Egyptians and Nia, by the Manding and Eteo-Cretans of Minoan civilization.



The early gods of these Proto-Saharans included a serpent, the sun: Hercules, Amon/Aman/Amma, and Kush or Khons. In Egypt and Kush, both Amon and Khons were depicted as coal-black in accordance with tradition. The Kushites also worshipped a "lord of the mountains", which is analogous to Murugan, a Dravidian god in India. In India, Khrisna, Mal ,Vishnu, and Kali were usually depicted as black in color. Kali, was held to be a form of Paravati, consort of Siva. In addition the Dravidian god of the pastoral region:Mullai, was the black god Mayan, who was beloved by the milkmaids and cattle herders.



The earliest gods associated with the great hidden all powerful god were associated with the Sky. They believed in an unseen universal force called "Ko " or " Ka". As a result the Proto-Saharans offered prayers to "Ka", e.g., Egyptian Ka 'vital force', Dravidian Ka-n, Manding Kani, and Magyar/Hungarian kaan. This Ka, is also often associated with snakes,rain and the sky.



THE GOD MAA



Many of the Proto-Saharan beliefs originated during the wet African Aqualithic period. As a result their gods, who had once been great ancestors were referred to as "Fish" or "reed-boat navigators". This common god was called Maa , the man fish (of Eridu) in Mesopotamia and Syria and the ithyphallic forms, the prototype of Amon/Aman in Egypt ; and the goddess Minaksi, of Madura in South India the goddess of the fish eyes, the Malabar fish bearer of Mana and the sacred fishes of the Mapilla of the west coast of the Dekkan. In the languages of the Manding Maa, is used to refer to the ancient inhabitants of the African continent, and the invisible spirit who inhabits the water courses.In Egypt Maat, meant divine truth and justice.



Among the Proto-Saharans the name Maa, for their great ancestor/god was joined to many ethnonyms. The descendants of the Maa clan, claim descent from Maa, as evident in the name Mande, for the parent group of the Manding of West Africa. Mande means, Ma-nde or "children of Ma". Some Dravidians of South India were also members of the Mande Superclan, as illustrated in the Kannada, Telugu and Tulu, Dravidian tribes that use the terms Mande or Mandi to denote "people or persons". The Sumerians called themselves Mah-Gar-ri "God's exalted children".



The Proto-Saharans in honor of great Maa, use the term "ma", to denote greatness, for example Manding: Maga; Sumerian: Mag; and Dravidian: Ma.The ma, element was also used in the names for their rulers e.g., Menes of Egypt; the Mannan of the Dravidians; and the Mansa of the Manding.



The Mal, of the Dravidians is just another form of Ma. Mal, is the Fish. He was the prototype of the Fish god among the Pandyan-Tamils. Ama, Uma, Ammon, Amon, and etc. seems to either refer to Mal's consort.



This goddess Amon is most ancient among the Proto-Saharans.This goddess has many names including Athene or Neith, daughter of Poseidon god of the Sea (again reference to the great Fish-man); and Demeter, the mare headed patroness.



The Mother goddess Amma/Amon of Libya had her cult center at the Oasis of Siwa. In ancient Egypt Amon was depicted as a ram with spheres. The god Amon was taken to Egypt during the New Kingdom.










The Proto-Saharans early used the oxen with sun disc between the horns as the symbol of their God, long before the Egyptians worshipped Hathor. This god represented Amon/Amma of the Dravidians, Egyptians and Manding speaking people.



Engravings in the Sahara, dating back to Neolithic times show the solar disk with "uraei", which was associated with the worship of Ra/Re in Egypt, when worn by the ram it represented Amon of Thebes. There are depictions of this god from the Saharan sites such as Bou Alam and Zenoga. Archaeologists believe that these engravings date back to 4000 BC. This use of a ram god, with different names among the various groups indicate that the Proto-Saharans worshipped the same religion.For example among the Dogon of West Africa, the god Amma is a ram. In Yoruba Amon, means concealed the same as in Egyptian."






This worship of the ram may have resulted from the important part goat/sheep played in the Sahara as a source of food when the Sahara increasingly became more arid.



It is interesting to note that Siwa (> Siva?), was recognized as the cult center of Amon/Amma, because in the Siwa depression archaeologists have found numerous conical and pyramidal sand encrusted hills that resemble the monuments of ancient Egypt, including a sphinx which resembles a gigantic ram. Although most scholars believe these monuments in the Siwa and Farafra Oasis are natural erosional formations called yardangs, they may really be the remains of monuments built by the Proto-Saharans now encrusted with sand harden by the wind.



The mother goddess was either identified as Amon or Athene. Amon or Amen of the Egyptians was primarily a Theban god whose shrine was rebuilt around 2500 BC, when the Theban Kings defeated their northern foes. Amon became an important god in Egypt beginning with the 12th Dynasty . The priests of Amon, called their god "the King of Gods". The Egyptians recognized Amon as a primeval god. Amon is identified with the ithyphalli god Men( Maa ?)



Amon was recognized as an unseen god, because he could travel. He was also seen as an imperial god. Sesostris I, is credited with building the Temple of Amon at Karnak, near Thebes. Sesostris I, is also credited with conquering the whole sea coast of India, beyond the Ganges to the Eastern Ocean, he also conquered Europe as far as Thrace.



It is clear that Amon or Amen, was the ancient god of the Kushites/Proto-Saharans because Ammenemes I or Ameny I of the 11th Dynasty was from the southern state of Ta-Seti, the first Nome (city/state) of Egypt. Ammenemes means "Amon is in front".










Sesostris I (Thutmose I), probably helped establish Amon worship in Europe and Asia , because as he expanded his Empire he left colonies in all the lands he conquered. Sesostrasen Osiritasen of the 12th Dynasty, is suppose to have established colonies along the Danube river and the Black Sea. Strabo (Bk.3), said that Sesostris I, is suppose to have conquered Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, Armenia, Iberia and Colchis.










Before the Egyptians conquered Greece the worship of Amon had already been established in the region. It was the Garamante Manding speaking tribe who took Amon worship to Greece. In Appollonius Rhodius iv.1310, we discover that the goddess Athene was born beside Lake Tritonis in Libya. Plato, identified Athene of Athens with the Libyan god Neith. Athene was worshipped by the Manding and other Western Saharans including the Linear A people of Minoan Crete. Athene is always associated with the god Amon. Moreover the Manding concept of N'ama as a dynamic spirit among the other Mande tribes point to an earlier worship of Amon, before the Mande accepted Islam. The Bambara call their ancestral god Gnia or Nia, this has affinity to the Greek term for the Libyan god called Neith. It is interesting to note that in the Linear A inscriptions we find mention of the goddess Nia= Neith. Moreover, some South Indian worship Amma = Amon. The priest of this cult are called Chom or Khonrini, the Greeks called them Gymnosophists. This Chom, of the Dravidians has affinity to Khon, the leading Kushite god.



The goddess Neith or Athene was known by many names. Some names related to Athene include Anaitis, Nanaia > Tanit of the Phoenicians; Nama in Albania; and the Sumero-Dravidian Ninni-Istar "the wild cow".



The Proto-Dravidians and Sumerians had common religions. For example in the Sumer pantheon the emblem for Inanna, was the date palm, while Ninsun, Dumuzi, Anu and Ishkur were associated with bulls. The Dravidian equivalent to Anu, or bull worship was Anu-Rupa or Siva. The name of this clan in India was called Anu. Many of these Dravidians were also established in Armenia.



In India we find the "men with horns". This term was given to Dravidian dignitaries who had crowns made of animal horns. This type of horned figure appear on many Harappan seals, as do serpents. The wearing of animal horns on crowns may date back to the time of Sesostris, because many Egyptian headdresses included horns.



In ancient Sumer, the goddess of the marriage rites was Ur. The goddess Ur, has analogies to the Dravidian cult of the goddess Paravati, in Siva temples.



The Sumerian god Dumuzi, may be a great ancestor of the Tamil. Prof. Muttarayan has suggested that the word Tamil, may be an evolute of Dumuzi, the name for the Sumerian moon-god. Originally Tammuz/Damuzi was supposedly a king of Uruk. According to Sumerian tradition Dumuzi lived in the neither world.

Olmec Racial types identified by Wiercinski

Olmec Skeleton
Dr. Wiercinski (1972) claims that the some of the Olmecs were of African origin. He supports this claim with skeletal evidence from several Olmec sites where he found skeletons that were analogous to the West African type black. Wiercinski discovered that 13.5 percent of the skeletons from Tlatilco and 4.5 percent of the skeletons from Cerro de las Mesas were Africoid (Rensberger,1988; Wiercinski, 1972; Wiercinski & Jairazbhoy 1975).



Diehl and Coe (1995, 12) of Harvard University have made it clear that until a skeleton of an African is found on an Olmec site he will not accept the art evidence that the were Africans among the Olmecs. This is rather surprising because Constance Irwin and Dr. Wiercinski (1972) have both reported that skeletal remains of Africans have been found in Mexico. Constance Irwin, in Fair Gods and Stone Faces, says that anthropologist see "distinct signs of Negroid ancestry in many a New World skull...."



Dr. Wiercinski (1972) claims that some of the Olmecs were of African origin. He supports this claim with skeletal evidence from several Olmec sites where he found skeletons that were analogous to the West African type black. Many Olmec skulls show cranial deformations (Pailles, 1980), yet Wiercinski (1972b) was able to determine the ethnic origins of the Olmecs. Marquez (1956, 179-80) made it clear that a common trait of the African skulls found in Mexico include marked prognathousness ,prominent cheek bones are also mentioned. Fronto-occipital deformation among the Olmec is not surprising because cranial deformations was common among the Mande speaking people until fairly recently (Desplanges, 1906).





To determine the racial heritage of the ancient Olmecs, Dr. Wiercinski (1972b) used classic diagnostic traits determined by craniometric and cranioscopic methods. These measurements were then compared to a series of three crania sets from Poland, Mongolia and Uganda to represent the three racial categories of mankind.



In Table 1, we have the racial composition of the Olmec skulls. The only European type recorded in this table is the Alpine group which represents only 1.9 percent of the crania from Tlatilco.



The other alleged "white" crania from Wiercinski's typology of Olmec crania, represent the Dongolan (19.2 percent), Armenoid (7.7 percent), Armenoid-Bushman (3.9 percent) and Anatolian (3.9 percent). The Dongolan, Anatolian and Armenoid terms are euphemisms for the so-called "Brown Race" "Dynastic Race", "Hamitic Race",and etc., which racist Europeans claimed were the founders of civilization in Africa.









In Table 2, we record the racial composition of the Olmec according to the Wiercinski (1972b) study. The races recorded in this table are based on the Polish Comparative-Morphological School (PCMS). The PCMS terms are misleading. As mentioned earlier the Dongolan , Armenoid, and Equatorial groups refer to African people with varying facial features which are all Blacks. This is obvious when we look at the iconographic and sculptural evidence used by Wiercinski (1972b) to support his conclusions. Below is the Equatorial type’







Wiercinski (1972b) compared the physiognomy of the Olmecs to corresponding examples of Olmec sculptures and bas-reliefs on the stelas. For example, Wiercinski (1972b, p.160) makes it clear that the clossal Olmec heads represent the Dongolan type. It is interesting to note that the emperical frequencies of the Dongolan type at Tlatilco is .231, this was more than twice as high as Wiercinski's theorectical figure of .101, for the presence of Dongolans at Tlatilco. Below find the Dongolan type.



The other possible African type found at Tlatilco and Cerro were the Laponoid group. The Laponoid group represents the Austroloid-Melanesian type of (Negro) Pacific Islander, not the Mongolian type. If we add together the following percent of the Olmecs represented in Table 2, by the Laponoid (21.2%), Equatorial (13.5), and Armenoid (18.3) groups we can assume that at least 53 percent of the Olmecs at Tlatilco were Africans or Blacks. Using the same figures recorded in Table 2 for Cerro,we observe that 40.8 percent of these Olmecs would have been classified as Black if they lived in contemporary America. Below is the Laponoid.







Rossum (1996) has criticied the work of Wiercinski because he found that not only blacks, but whites were also present in ancient America. To support this view he (1) claims that Wiercinski was wrong because he found that Negro/Black people lived in Shang China, and 2) that he compared ancient skeletons to modern Old World people.



First, it was not surprising that Wiercinski found affinities between African and ancient Chinese populations, because everyone knows that many Negro/African /Oceanic skeletons (referred to as Loponoid by the Polish school) have been found in ancient China see: Kwang-chih Chang The Archaeology of ancient China (1976,1977, p.76,1987, pp.64,68). These Blacks were spread throughout Kwangsi, Kwantung, Szechwan, Yunnan and Pearl River delta.



Skeletons from Liu-Chiang and Dawenkou, early Neolithic sites found in China, were also Negro. Moreover, the Dawenkou skeletons show skull deformation and extraction of teeth customs, analogous to customs among Blacks in Polynesia and Africa.



Secondly, Rossum argues that Wiercinski was wrong about Blacks in ancient America because a comparison of modern native American skeletal material and the ancient Olmec skeletal material indicate no admixture. The study of Vargas and Rossum are flawed. They are flawed because the skeletal reference collection they used in their comparison of Olmec skeletal remains and modern Amerindian propulations because the Mexicans have been mixing with African and European populations since the 1500's. This has left many components of these Old World people within and among Mexican Amerindians.



The iconography of the classic Olmec and Mayan civilization show no correspondence in facial features. But many contemporary Maya and other Amerind groups show African characteristics and DNA. Underhill, et al (1996) found that the Mayan people have an African Y chromosome. This would explain the "puffy" faces of contemporary Amerinds, which are incongruent with the Mayan type associated with classic Mayan sculptures and stelas.



Wiercinski on the otherhand, compared his SRC to an unmixed European and African sample. This comparison avoided the use of skeletal material that is clearly mixed with Africans and Europeans, in much the same way as the Afro-American people he discussed in his essay who have acquired "white" features since mixing with whites due to the slave trade.



A. von Wuthenau (1980), and Wiercinski (1972b) highlight the numerous art pieces depicting the African or Black variety which made up the Olmec people. This re-anlysis of the Olmec skeletal meterial from Tlatilco and Cerro, which correctly identifies Armenoid, Dongolan and Loponoid as euphmisms for "Negro" make it clear that a substantial number of the Olmecs were Blacks support the art evidence and writing which point to an African origin for Olmec civilization. Below is an Armenoid





In conclusion, the Olmec people were called Xi. They did not speak a Mixe-Zoque language they spoke a Mande language, which is the substratum language for many Mexican languages.



The Olmec came from Saharan Africa 3200 years ago.They came in boats which are depicted in the Izapa Stela no.5, in twelve migratory waves. These Proto-Olmecs belonged to seven clans which served as the base for the Olmec people.



Physical anthropologist use many terms to refer to the African type represented by Olmec skeletal remains including Armenoid, Dongolan, Loponoid and Equatorial. The evidence of African skeletons found at many Olmec sites, and their trading partners from the Old World found by Dr. Andrzej Wiercinski prove the cosmopolitan nature of Olmec society. This skeletal evidence explains the discovery of many African tribes in Mexico and Central America when Columbus discovered the Americas (de Quatrefages, 1836).



The skeletal material from Tlatilco and Cerro de las Mesas and evidence that the Olmecs used an African writing to inscribe their monuments and artifacts, make it clear that Africans were a predominant part of the Olmec population. These Olmecs constructed complex pyramids and large sculptured monuments weighing tons. The Maya during the Pre-Classic period built pyramids over the Olmec pyramids to disguise the Olmec origin of these pyramids.

Haplogroup L3(M,N) Expanded before the Out of Africa Exit

L3(M,N) probably spread across Africa before the Out of Africa event that led to the dispersal of anatomically modern humans to Eurasia. Sores et al (2012) admit that the several branches of L3 probably expanded soon after the emergence of L3, they fail to comprehend the full extent of this finding. If we are using the Toba super-eruptiobn of 73.5ka as a baseline blocking any OoA event of amh (Oppenheimer,2012; Sores et al, 2012), L(M,N) must have spread across Africa before the OoA event.

Sores et al (2012) believes that mtDNA haplogroups M and N originated in Eurasia. Sores et al (2012) founded this conclusion on Olivieri et al (2006) who maintained that around 50kya, M1 entered Africa as a result of a bacxk migration from Eurasia; and a sample limited to Sudanese, Ethiopians and Somalis.

Sores et al (2012) argues that L3(M,N and R) originated in Eurasia, based on Olivieri et al (2006). Olivieri et al (2006) suggest that haplogroup M1 probably did not originate in Africa before the out of Africa exit . They opine that M1 probably represents a back-migration into Ethiopia . Olivieri et al base this conclusion on :

1) the absence of any distinguishing M1 root mutations in Asian M haplogroups ;

2) the presence of M1 only in East Africa and North Africa; and

3) the lack of any Asian specific clades within M1

Olivieri et al (2006) argue that M1 was probably spread from the Levant back into Africa by the Aurignacian culture. The craniofacial and molecular evidence does not support this conclusion (Winters, 2007,2008b).

Gonzalez et al (2007) and Olivieri et al (2006) have assumed that haplogroup L3(M,N), was probably carried to western Eurasia via the Levant. But the archaeological and craniometric eveidence indicates that the Levant was still occupied by Neanderthal man until 32kya. The archaeological evidence indicates that Around 40kya Europe was still occupied mainly by Neanderthals.

The archaeological record informs us that Cro-Magnon people belonging to the Aurignacian culture carried hg N (Caramelli et al , 2003). They replaced the Neanderthal population of the Levant, at Ksar Akil around 32, 000 years ago (Gilead, 2005; Steven, 2001). This was 10k after Cro-Magnon people had settled Iberia.

Anatomically modern humans replaced in Europe around 32,000 by the CroMagnon people at Les Eyzies in France. It is also evident that archaic humans were replaced in much of the Levant by the Levantine Aurignacian culture bearers by a local variant of this technology at Ksar Akil Xlll-Vll 32kya , not 60-50kya. The archaeological evidence makes a back migration from the Levant.

Oppenheimer (2012) makes it clear that amh colonization of the Levant failed; and by60kya Neanderthal populations dominated the Levant.

Clearly, the dates for L3(M,N) in western Eurasian are incongruent to TMRCA of the populations carrying the L3(M,N) lineages into eastern Eurasia which probably date to 60-65kya. This incongruence in relation to the dates for this haplogroup in eastern Eurasia, and its complete absence in much of western Eurasia today suggest that the population carrying this gene into Eurasia may not have entered Eurasian during the recognized Africa exit event.

There is considerable evidence that M1 is found in Asia. Researchers have found the M1 haplogroup in the Caucasus ( Bermisheva et al, 2004; Tambets et al, 2000), Central Asia, and East Asia (Comas et al, 1998; Fucharoen et al, 2001). In addition, the Russian haplotype 16183c-16189 ,16249, 16311 match the M1 HVSI sequence (Malyarchuk et al, 2004).

Even though Olivieri et al (2007) claim that East African M1 root mutations are absent in Eurasian M sister clades is not supported by the evidence. For example researchers have found that the Tanzanian M1 haplogroup cluster with people from Oceania (Gonder et al, 2006). And, as mentioned earlier the M1 mutations 16129,16189,16249 and 16311 are found in many southeast and East Asian haplogroups (Fucharoen et al, 2001; Yao et al, 2002).

It is also not true that HG M1 is absent in India. Kivisild et al noted that 26 of the subjects in their study belonged to the M1 haplogroup.(7) These researchers reported sub-cluster M1 was found mainly in Kerala and Karnataka high caste individuals.(7)

It is clear that the molecular evidence does not support Olivieri et al (2006) hypothesis that M1 is probably the result of a back migration. This evidence on the other hand confirms the hypothesis of Quintana-Murci et al (1999) that M1 was probably already present in East Africa when the out of Africa exit/ event took place.

The molecular evidence makes it clear that haplogroup M1 is not confined solely to Ethiopia as maintained by Olivieri et al (2006). This haplogroup along with HGs N and M*, are also found in Tanzania, Uganda, Egypt and the Senegambian region (Gonzalez et al, 2006; Gonder et al, 2006; Winters, 2007). In Tanzania the predominate M1 clades are M1 , M1a1 and M1a5. In Senegal the predominate M1 lineage is M1c1.

In addition to M1 in Africa, we also find haplogroups M*, M23, M3 positions 482 and 16126; M30 positions 195A and 15431; and M33 position 2361. It is interesting to note that the presence of these genes, which are normally found in India are also found in Africa, is interesting given the presence of M1 in India and the existence of these genes among populations stretching from Africa into Yemen on into India along a path associated with the spread of the Tihama culture (Winters, 2008) .

In addition to haplogroups M1, M* and N in Sub-Saharan Africa we also find among the Senegambians hapotype AF24 (DQ112852) , which is delineated by a DdeI site at 10394 and AluI site of np 10397. The AF-24 haplotype is a branch of the African subhaplogroup L3 (Chen, 2000). This is the same delineation of haplogroup M*. It is clear from the molecular evidence that the M1, M and N haplogroups are found not only in Northeast Africa, but across Africa from East to West (Winters, 2007).



Haplogroup LOd is found at the root of human mtDNA. Gonder et al (2006) maintains that LOd is “the most basal branch of the gene tree”. The TMRCA for LOd is 106kya. This makes haplotype AF-24 much older than L3a and probably explains why this haplotype is found among the Khwe/Khoisan (Chen et al,2000).

The TMRCA of LOd dates to 106kya. As a result, anatomically modern humans (amh) had plenty of time to spread this haplogroup to Senegal. In West Africa the presence of amh date to the Upper Palaeolithic (Giresse,2008). The archaeological evidence makes it clear that amh had ample opportunity to spread LOd and L3(M,N) which has an affinity to AF-24 (Chen,2000), to West Africa during this early period of demic diffusion of amh in Africa.

The earliest evidence of human activity in West Africa is typified by the Sangoan industry (Phillipson,2005). The amh associated with the Sangoan culture may have deposited Hg LOd and haplotype AF-24 in Senegal thousands of years before the exit of amh from Africa. This is because it was not until 65kya that the TMRCA of non-African L3(M,N) exited Africa (Kivisild et al, 2006).

Anatomically modern humans arrived in Senegal during the Sangoan period. Sangoan artifacts spread from East Africa to West Africa between 100-80kya. In Senegal Sangoan material has been found near Cap Manuel (Giresse, 2008), Gambia River in Senegal (Davies,1967; Wai-Ogussu,1973); and Cap Vert (Phillipson,2005).

In conclusion, because the Neanderthal dominated the Levant when the imagined back migration of M1 occurred 50kya ,we must reject the contention of Gonzalez et al. (2007) and Olivieri et al. (2007) and Sores et al (2012) that M1 originated in Asia because 1) the possible Senegalese origin of the M1c subclade; 2) the absence of the AF-24 haplotype of haplogroup LOd in Asia; and 3) the African origin of the Dravidian speakers of India (2007,2008)who carry the most diverse M haplogroups.

Moreover, the existence of the L3a(M) motif in the Senegambia characterized by the DdeI site np 10394 and AluI site np 10397 in haplotype AF24 (DQ112852) make a ‘back migration of M1 to Africa highly unlikely, because of the ancientness of this haplotype. The first amh to reach Senegal belonged to the Sangoan culture which spread from East Africa to West Africa probably between 100-80kya.

The presence of the AF-24 is a haplotype of haplogroup LOd makes it clear that this haplotype is not only an ancient human genome. It is also evidence that AF-24 probably did not originate in Asia, since AF-24 was found among the Senegalese and Khoisan.

This reflects an early migration from East Africa to West Africa. The presence of basal nucleotides characteristic of macrohaplogroup L3(M) in West Africa and the reality that M1 does not descend from an Asian M macrohaplogroup because of the absence of AF24 in Asia (Sun et al, 2005) and its presence among the Khoisan and Senegalese suggest that expansion of M1 was probably from Africa to Eurasia. The existence of haplotype AF-24 and basal L3(M) lineage in East and West Africa suggest the probable existence of the Proto-M1 lineage in Africa, not Eurasia before haplogroup L3(M,N) carriers exited Africa.







References:

Bermisheva MA, Kutuev IA, Korshunova TY, Dubova NA, Villems R, Khusnutdinova E. (2004). Phylogeographic analysis of mitochondrial DNA in the Nogays: A strong mixture of maternal lineages from eastern and western Eurasia. Molec Biol , 38:516-523.

Chen YS, Olckers A, Schurr TG, Kogelnik AM, Huroponen K, Wallace DC. (2000). mtDNA variation in the South African Kung and Khwe—and Their genetic relationships to other African populations. Am J Hum Genet, 66(4): 1362-1383.

Comas D, Calafell F, Mateu E, Pérez-Lezaun A, Bosch E, Martínez-Arias R, Clarimon J, Facchini F, Fiori G, Luiselli D, Pettener D, Bertranpetit J (1998). Trading genes along the silk road: mtDNA sequences and the origin of Central Asian populations. Am J Hum Genet , 63:1824-1838.

Davies,O. (1967). West Africa before the Europeans. London.

Fucharoen G, Fucharoen S, Horai S.(2001). Mitochondrial DNA polymorphism in Thailand. J Hum Genet , 46:115-125.

Giresse,P. (2008). Tropical and sub-Tropical West Africa—marine and Continental changes during the late Quaternary. Volume 10. Elsevier Science.

Gonder MK, Mortensen HM, Reed FA, de Sousa A, Tishkoff SA.(2006).: Whole mtDNA Genome Sequence Analysis of Ancient African Lineages. Mol Biol Evol., 24(3):757-768.

González, A. M., V. M. Cabrera, J. M. Larruga, A. Tounkara, G. Noumsi, B. N.Thomas and J. M. Mould(2006). Mitochondrial DNA Variation in Mauritania and Mali and their Genetic Relationship to Other Western Africa Populations. Ann of Hum Genet , 70,5. http://www.blackwell-ynergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1469-1809.2006.00259.x?cookieSet=1&journalCode=ahg

Gonzalez , A. Jose M Larruga , Khaled K Abu-Amero , Yufei Shi , Jose Pestano and Vicente M Cabrera. (2007).Mitochondrial lineage M1 traces an early human backflow to Africa, BMC Genomics , 8:223 doi:10.1186/1471-2164-8-223. Retrieved on 9/15/2010 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2164/8/223

Holiday, T. (2000). Evolution at the Crossroads:Modern Human Emergence in Western Asia. American Anthropologist , 102(1) : 54-68.

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Olivieri A, Achilli A, Pala M, Battaglia V, Fornarino S Al-Zahery N, Scozzari R, Cruciani F, Behar DM, Dugoujon JM, Coudray C, Santachiara-Benerecetti AS, Semino O, Bandelt HJ, Torroni A.(2006). The mtDNA legacy of the Levantine early Upper Palaeolithic in Africa. Science , 314:1767-1770.

Oppenheimer, S. 2012. Out-of-Africa, the peopling of continents and islands: tracing uniparental gene trees across the map. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 19 March 2012 vol. 367 no. 1590 770-784 . http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/367/1590/770.long

Phillipson, D.W.(2005). African Archaeology. 3rd Edition. Cambridge University Press.

Quintana-Murci L, Semino O, Bandelt H-J, Passarino G, McElreavey K, Santachiara-Benerecetti AS. (1999) Genetic evidence of an early exit of Homo sapiens sapiens from Africa through eastern Africa.Nat Genet 1999, 23(4):437-441.

Sun, Chang, Qing-Peng Kong, Malliya Gounder Palanichamy, Suraksha Agrawal, Hans Jurgen Bandelt, Yong-Gang Yao, Faisal Khan, Chun-Ling Zhu, Tapas Kumar Chaudhuri, and Ya-Ping Zhang.(2005). Molecular Biology and Evolution:

Soare P, Farida Alshamali, Joana B. Pereira, Verónica Fernandes, Nuno M. Silva, Carla Afonso, Marta D. Costa, Eliska Musilová, Vincent Macaulay, Martin B. Richards, Viktor Černý, and Luísa Pereira.2012.The Expansion of mtDNA Haplogroup L3 within and out of Africa .Mol Biol Evol (2012) 29(3): 915-927 first published online November 16, 2011 doi:10.1093/molbev/msr245

Wai-Ogusu,A.(1973). Was there a Sangoan industry in West Africa, West African Jour of Arcaheo,3:191-96.

Winters, C.(2007). Did the Dravidian Speakers Originate in Africa? BioEssays,27(5):497-498.

Winters,C(2008) .Origin and Spread of Dravidian Speakers, Int. J. Hum Genet., 8(4):325-329. http://www.krepublishers.com/02-Journals/IJHG/IJHG-08-0-000-000-2008-Web/IJHG-08-4-317-368-2008-Abst-PDF/IJHG-08-4-325-08-362-Winder-C/IJHG-08-4-325-08-362-Winder-C-Tt.pdf

Winters, C. 2008b.Aurignacian Culture:Evidence of Western Exit for Anatomically Modern Humans, South Asian Antropologist, (2008) 8(1) pp.79-81.

Yao YG, Kong QP, Bandelt HJ, Kivisild T, Zhang YP.(2002). Phylogeographic differentiation of mitochondrial DNA in Han chinese. Am J Hum Genet , 70:635-651.

Response by Oppenheimer to Winters'(2012) Haplogroup L3(M,N) probably spread across Africa before the Out of Africa Event

Dr. Oppenheimer (2012b) implies that L3(M,N) originated in Asia. This is false. We know that L3 originated long before the OoA event. He does not present any evidence falsifying my conclusion. His entire argument is that M1 is ‘rare’ in Asia.


Haplotypes with HVSI transitions defining 16129-16223-16249-16278-16311-16362; and 16129-16223-16234-16249-16211-16362 have been found in Thailand and among the Han Chinese (Fucharoen et al., 2001; Yao et al., 2002) and these were originally thought to be members of Haplogroup M1. However, on the basis of currently available FGS sequences, carriers of these markers have been found to be in the D4a branch of Haplogroup D, the most widespread branch of M 1 in East Asia (Fucharoen et al., 2001; Yao et al., 2002). The transitions 16129, 16189, 16249 and 16311 are known to be recurrent in various branches of Haplogroup M, especially M1 and D4.



Dr. Oppenheimer (2012b)claims that there are a string of mistakes and misquotes in my response to his article which are not substantiated by the literature. For example, Dr. Oppenheimer claims that LOd is not the TMRC for AMH. This is false. I claim that LOd is older than L3, this is not contradicted by Soares.

Atkinson et al (2009) makes it clear that L3 is the youngest African haplogroup and LO is the oldest. As a result, when Dr. Oppenheimer claims that LOd is not the TMRC of AMH, he is false. LO is the oldest haplogroup, since LOd is dated to 106kya and one of the LO clades it. Atkinson et al (2009) observed that “Haplogroups L0 and L1 (figure 2b,c, respectively) show slow constant growth over the last 100–200 kyr (TMRCAs: L0, 124–172 kyr ago; L1, 87–139 kyr ago; L0 and L1 combined, 156–213 kyr ago; 95% HPDs)”. This makes it clear that haplogroup LO is the oldest mtDNA haplogroup in Africa.

Dr. Oppenheimer also claims that haplotype AF-24 is “ poorly resolved”. This is false, Chen et al make it clear that” The samples included complete haplotypes of 62 Senegalese (AF01–AF24, AF26–AF36, AF45–AF59, AF64–AF65, and AF70–AF79)”. As a result, how can he make the claim AF-24 is poorly resolved when Chen et al (2002) make it clear that he used “complete haplotypes of 62 Senegalese” samples that include AF-24.

Chen et al makes it clear that AF-24 could be of either Asian or African origin”Similarly, L3a was found to have a close affinity to haplotype AF24, a mtDNA that has the DdeI np-10394 and AluI np-10397 site gains characteristic of Asian macrohaplogroup M (figs.(figs.22 andand3).3). Therefore, it is possible that subhaplogroup L3a was the progenitor of Asian mtDNAs belonging to M. Although the age of subhaplogroup L3a is somewhat less than our estimate for the age of Asian haplogroup M (Torroni et al. 1994b; Chen et al. 1995), the differences could be due to the limited number of L3a mtDNAs in our African sample. Alternatively, AF24 may have been introduced from Asia into Africa more recently.” The fact that Atkinson et al (2009) makes it clear that AF-24 is a haplotype of LO, make it unlikely that AF-24 originated in Asia, since it was already in existence prior to the OoA event.

Finally, Oppenheimer claims that you can not infer population movements relating to the expansion of the ancient tool kits. This is a false statement since the demic expansion of LO(d) and L3 from East Africa to West Africa is cross referenced with specific founding lineage which is assumed to have originated in the East. This assumption is just as valid as Oppenheimer’s view relating to the Tonga event’s impact on the OoA.



In summary, it is obvious that Dr. Oppenheimer has little knowledge of the expansion of haplogroups in Africa. I am surprised the he didn’t know that the GenBank Accession number for Haplotype AF-24 is DQ112852, this suggest that he is not keeping up with the literature. Moreover, the earliest examples of L3(N) come from Iberia, not East Asia. Since this area was first occupied by Neanderthals until the expansion of the Aurignacian culture which had to have crossed the Straits of Gibraltar from Africa (Winters,2012). No where in Dr. Oppenhiemer’s response dose he present textual evidence supporting his conclusions. He only provides his opinions—not evidence.

References:

Atkinson Q D, Gray R D, Drummond A J. 2009. Bayesian coalescent inference of major human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup expansions in Africa. http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/276/1655/367.full

Chen Y-S., Olckers A., Schurr T.G., Kogelnik A.M., Huoponen K., Wallace D.C. 2000 mtDNA variation in the South African Kung and Khwe - and their genetic relationships to other African populations. Am. J. Hum. Genet., 66, 1362-1383

Fucharoen, G., S. Fucharoen and S. Horai, 2001. Mitochondrial DNA polymorphism in Thailand. J.Hum. Genet., 46: 115-125.

Gonder M.K., Mortensen H.M., Reed F.A., de Sousa A., Tishkoff S.A. 2007 Whole mtDNA genome sequence analysis of ancient African lineages. Mol. Biol. Evol., 24, 757-768. (doi: 10.1093/molbev/msl209).

Oppenheimer S. 2012 Out-of-Africa, the peopling of continents and islands: tracing uniparental gene trees across the map. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B, 367, 770-784. (doi: 10.1098/rstb.2011.0306

Oppenheimer, S. 2012b .Response to Winters (2012) 'Haplogroup L3 (M,N) probably spread across Africa before the Out of Africa event'. http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/367/1590/770.full/reply#royptb_el_319

Soares P., Ermini L., Thomson, N., Mormina M., Rito T., Rohl A., Salas A., Oppenheimer S., Macaulay V., Richards M.B. 2009 Correcting for purifying selection: an improved human mitochondrial molecular clock. Am. J. Hum. Genet., 84, 740-759. (doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2009.05.001)



Winters C. The Gibraltar Out of Africa Exit for Anatomically Modern Humans . WebmedCentral BIOLOGY 2011;2(10):WMC002319. http://www.webmedcentral.com/article_view/2319



Yao, Y.G., Q.P. Kong, H.J. Bandelt, T. Kivisild and Y.P.Zhang, 2002. Phylogeographic differentiation of mitochondrial DNA in Han chinese. Am. J. Hum.Genet., 70: 635-651.