African Origin Bell Beaker Culture

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:

https://www.academia.edu/33990833/A_GENETIC_CHRONOLOGY_OF_AFRICAN_Y-CHROMOSOMES_R-V88_AND_R-M269_IN_AFRICA_AND_EURASIA