Wednesday, September 1, 2021

ARCHAEOLOGY: Through the Georgian Caucasus Mountains

Therefore is the name of it called Babel
because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: 
and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
Genesis 11:9
 
What we have here are apparently some females buried/and or died 
in a cave with their wolves (likely used as dogs--possible early domestication of canines--since dogs stem from wolves via a loss of genetic information) and possibly bison used for meat. They were apparently following the receding ice sheets post flood still lingering beyond Babel....interesting find....It is also possible---since in Shinar they built more than just one city at the time of Babel (
And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. Genesis 10:10)---that a small group may have broken off from the mountains of Ararat in the Caucasus region and headed north.

"Here, we report results from shotgun sequencing and genomic analysis of a sediment sample from the Upper Paleolithic site of Satsurblia Cave, southern Caucasus, dating to the Last Glacial Maximum. In most of the Caucasus, and particularly in western Georgia, karst systems hold low and stable year-round temperatures and low acidity (no guano deposits in most systems). The sediment sample yielded up to several million sequence reads from human, wolf (Canis lupus), and bison (Bison bonasus), corresponding to genome-wide data comparable to low-coverage sequencing obtained from skeletal remains.
 
Through targeted capture we recovered 3,447 human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) reads, which when aligned to rCRS resulted in a 10-fold coverage of the human mtDNA
We similarly recovered 5,809 Canis mtDNA reads, yielding a 13-fold coverage of the C. lupus mitochondrial genome
Capture of cattle mtDNA also proved successful, but the recovered sequences showed high similarly to bison mitochondria, suggesting that the DNA identified as deriving from Bos in the metagenomic screening in fact derived from Bison sp. (that was not included in the metagenomic reference set). We recovered 2,448 reads providing an 8-fold coverage of the B. bonasus mitochondrial genome.
 
All human reads support haplogroup N, suggesting any minority sources would not be from haplogroup M and derivatives. Finally, we examined the sex of the human, canid, and bison genomic data. When comparing the amount of reads mapping to the X chromosome relative to the autosomes, we find that the human data are consistent with deriving from a female individual, or multiple female individuals. In contrast, the wolf and bison X chromosome read fractions are intermediate between those expected for male and female karyotypes, suggesting it may derive from individuals of both sexes.
 
The SAT29 sequence is positioned within the diversity of haplogroup N, close to the Dzudzuana-3 (25.5 kya) genome from Dzudzuana cave and basal to the modern samples enclosed in haplogroups N, X, and W. Haplogroup N originated outside of Africa from haplogroup L3 is common among present day Near Eastern populations but rare among present-day European populations.
 
We used outgroup f3-statistics to quantify the amount of shared genetic drift between SAT29 and other ancient genomes. SAT29 shares more drift with Villabruna (Italy, 12,140 ± 70 bp) and Dzudzuana2 than with other ancient individuals including the post-LGM individuals from the Caucasus (Satsurblia and Kotias). Among present-day Eurasian populations, SAT29 shows higher genetic affinity to Northern and Western Europeans rather than Central and South Asians . Our results for the SAT29 human autosomal data are thus consistent with the results reported by Lazaridis et al., revealing a previously undocumented pre-LGM human ancestry from the Caucasus that contributed to various later Eurasian populations. 
 
We analyzed the 2,378,237 Canis reads using a set of variants among 722 modern wolves, dogs, and other canid species. We randomly sampled one SAT29 read at each position, resulting in a genotype call at 439,426 transversion variants. In ADMIXTURE analyses the SAT29 sample clusters with Eurasian wolves, and using f4-statistics, we found that it clearly shares genetic drift with wolves and dogs, to the exclusion of coyotes, golden jackals, and other canids (Z >30 for all species). It does not, however, display stronger affinity to wolves over dogs or vice versa.
 
We compiled a number of Bovine genomes,identified 1.4 million heterozygous transversion sites in a gaur genome, and assigned genotypes to all individuals at these sites by randomly sampling one read per position. This resulted in a genotype call at 27,724 transversion variants for the SAT29 bovid sample. SAT29 is closer to these historical European individuals, as well as to modern European bison, than to a North American bison (|Z| > 6), implying that the divergence between European and American populations predates the age of SAT29." CurrentBiology
 

What is a Haplogroup?

"If you think of humanity as a giant, towering family tree, a haplogroup is a major branch. 
Everyone sitting on that branch has a common ancestor from long
ago. 
 
The smaller branches (even down to twig size) are subgroups known as subclades. 
You can also think of a haplogroup as a clan or kinship group, based on ancestors from thousands of years ago.

There are haplogroups for paternal family lineage and separate haplogroups for maternal lineage. Each haplogroup is associated with specific times and places, as early humans spread across the globe. Studying haplogroups provides clues to a person’s ancient origins.

This is what is referred to as “deep ancestry.

Maternal haplogroups (also called mitochondrial haplogroups) are based on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) that is passed down mostly unchanged from a mother to her daughter. Mitochondria, which are found outside the nucleus of a cell, convert food into energy the cell can use for fuel. They are the power plants for our cells. Mitochondrial DNA is a small, circular piece of DNA with more than 16,500 base pairs.

Females and males receive mtDNA from their mothers, but only females can pass it on to their descendants. Thus, mtDNA is a study of the unbroken maternal lineage. 
The mtDNA passed from one generation to the next often contain small “typos” in the DNA code (sometimes called variants or mutations). 
Over long stretches of time, these variants form unique patterns that can be studied and classified. Scientists call these variants single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). By analyzing variants in mtDNA, researchers have been able to separate them into haplogroups, labeled with letters and numbers. Haplogroups were named in the order they were discovered, starting with one (and occasionally two) of the letters A to Z.
 
Paternal haplogroups are based on information found on the Y sex chromosome, which is passed down virtually unchanged from fathers to their sons. 
 
Just like the “Mitochondrial Eve” linked to mtDNA, scientists believe all humans are tied back to a common male ancestor, “Y-Chromosomal Adam.” BestOnlineReviews/J.Henneman