Spain: The Land of our Ancestors?

---

---

The Conley family is 100 percent Irish; all of my immediate ancestors emigrated from Ireland to Chicago. (Angie's family, by contrast, has been tainted by some Czech and Scottish blood.) Nonetheless, I recently sent a DNA sample to the National Geographic Genographic project. They analyzed my Y-chromosome, the one that is passed directly from father to son, and identified specific mutations that make it possible to trace my ancestors’ wanderings after leaving Africa some 45,000 years ago. I just received the results last week. Imagine my surprise upon learning, on the eve of our trip to Spain, that my ancestors probably came to Ireland from Spain.

The report from National Geographic indicates that I am a member of haplogroup R1b. This is the most common genetic marker in Western Europe; in parts of Spain and Ireland, more than 90 percent of the men belong to this haplogroup. Available evidence suggests that my earliest ancestors moved from Northeast Africa to the Middle East about 45,000 years ago; from there, as drought cut off the gateway back to Africa, they most probably followed the great herds of buffalo, antelope, wooly mammoths and other game animals through what is now Iran to the grassy steppes of Central Asia. They continued moving east until they were blocked by the Hindu Kush and the Himalayas, about where modern day Tajikistan is. From there, some returned back west to Central Asia, others headed south towards Pakistan and India. My ancestors headed west.

By 35,000 years ago, they were back in Central Asia, hunting in what is now Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and southern Siberia. As the glaciers moved south, that area grew drier, and the people followed the animals north and learned to adapt to colder climates. They built portable animal-skin shelters and developed improved hunting techniques. They also used bone needles for sewing animal-skin clothing. By hunting reindeers and mammoth, they survived the last ice age in Siberia, a region where no other humans survived.

At some point about 30,000 years ago a group of these peoples from Central Asia headed west towards Europe. Once there, they replaced the Neanderthals, an earlier humanoid species, successfully competing against them for scarce resources with better communication skills, weapons and resourcefulness. They brought with them the Aurignacian culture, which is marked by more and better tools, and used stone, bone, ivory, antlers and shells. They also developed a more complex society; for instance, they created the cave paintings in Lascaux and other parts of Southern France, and wore woven clothing made out of plants.

When the Ice Age returned about 20,000 years ago, my ancestors most likely moved south into Spain. It was shortly after this that the cave paintings at Altamira near Santillana del Mar in northern Cantabria were created. As Picasso said, “Despues Altamira, todo es decadencia.” (After Altamira, everything is decadent.)

When the glaciers retreated about 4,000 years later, my ancestors, who by now probably spoke a language related to Basque (which is not related to Spanish), also migrated northwards along the Atlantic coast. Because there were land bridges across the English Channel and the Irish Sea, they were able to walk to what is now Britain and Ireland, which had recently been covered by glaciers and were therefore unpopulated. These people were hunter gatherers. Agriculture did not arrive until about 6,000 years ago, or 4000 B.C., most likely introduced by the Celts.

The Spanish influence on Ireland was first identified in 2004 by two geneticists at Trinity College, Dublin. By comparing DNA samples, they found that the Irish samples matched those from around Britain and the Pyrenees in Spain, and concluded that ‘the Irish’ genetic makeup stems from the ice age that forced early man south into the Mediterranean region, not from a massive Celtic invasion as previously thought.

How appropriate, then, that we are heading to Spain, the land from which my ancestors came. Unfortunately, I should probably be trying to learn Basque, not Castilian.

---

Comments

[Tom Nelson]

Genetic Predispositions
Les Mes Amis - How about moving out of the Teilhardian Paleontological Window for a moment and consider something a little more proximate with regard to the genome revelations: the sinking of the Spanish Armada off the west coast of Ireland in the 16th century CE. The Basque's are among the coastal people in France and Spain (Vincent De Paul was a Basque peasant from what is now called the Gasconne Region of France; and I live with a Vincentian who was born in the Basque Region:Prudencio Rodriguez de Yurre. He claims DIRECT genetic connection with Vincent, whose genographic evidence was extricated from his wax encased bones at La Maison-Mere, our Motherhouse in Paris.) What I am trying to figure out why anyone with genetic and historic connection in Paris would ever leave? It sounds like a great adventure. Only you and Angie could have come up with it. What a great time in your lives to take this opportunity; and in the lives of the children to experience it. We know from our life experiences how formed and informed we were at a young age. We/I still live out of them. Don't you need a 'chaplain' on this sabbatical? Christofo Columbus took one with him. I know one I can recommend. I am very glad that you are taking this time to be formed together on our lives journey. You are very dear to me. Vaya con Dios! Peace is every step. Love and prayers, Tom