Semitic people and haplogroup J1
The earliest attestations of a Semitic language are in Akkadian, dating to ca. the 23rd century BC (see Sargon of Akkad) and Eblaite. Early inscriptions in the (pre-) Proto-Canaanite alphabet, presumably by speakers of a Semitic language, date to ca. 1800 BC. The specific appearance of the donkey (an African animal) in proto Semitic but total absence of any reference to wheeled vehicles rather narrowly dates proto Semitic to between 4,800 BP and 4,500 BP.
Homeland
(Since Semitic is a branch of Afro-Asiatic, the question of the Proto-Afro-Asiatic homeland is a related debate)
The Semitic Urheimat is suggested by some to be in the Middle East; more specifically, Kienast (2001) advocates the Arabian peninsula. The East and West Semitic branches spread to Mesopotamia and the Levant during the Bronze Age, while South Semitic speakers migrated to Africa before the 8th century BC. via the Yemen gap. This is also supported by the presence of nouns in proto Semitic that seemingly make an African orign for the language impossible – ice, oak, horse and camel.The camel and horse did not arrive in Africa until nearly two thousand years after Semitic languages were being written in the Mesopotamia area.
Other people suggest Syria/Mesopotamia as the homeland for proto Semitic, due to the flora and fauna described by it, which include oak, pistachio and almond trees and the horse. The presence of ice and four different words for hill also suggest a colder more mountainous area than Arabia. Eblaite, one of the oldest Semitic languages, when deciphered had almost no non Afro Asiatic nouns in its lexicon, suggesting a very long presence in the Syria area. Bitumen and Naptha were also well known and have root words, and these are resources not found in Africa or Arabia, but commonly in the Northern parts of the Levant.
Yet others believe that the first prehistoric speakers of the ancestral Proto-Semitic language came from Africa. In historic times, the Semitic languages spread throughout the region via migrations from Arabia that displaced and subjugated the local populations. This alternative scenario makes Ethiopia the Proto-Semitic homeland.
More recently, Juris Zarins has suggested that the development of a Circum-Arabian Nomadic Pastoral Complex of cultures developed in the period of the 6,200 BCE climatic crisis, stretching from Southern Palestine down the Red Sea shoreline, and northeastward into Syria and Iraq, spread Proto-Semitic languages through the region.
This complex may have developed from the fusion of Harifian and Pre-Pottery Neolithic B cultures in Southern Palestine. As Harifian used the Outacha retouch point technique found earlier in the Fayyum, it has been suggested that Proto-Semitic may have come from Egypt across the Sinai. Given the fact that Semitic is most closely related to the Ancient Egyptian language of all the Afro-Asiatic languages, this origin is also distinctly possible.
However, regarding resemblances among language subgroups, recent “research into the lexicon would seem to suggest a closer relationship between Chadic and ancient Egyptian”. More recent study using techniques in bayesian phylogenetic analysis, identifies a place of origin in the Levant, giving rise to the most basal of Semitic languages in Akkadian.
Haplogroup J1
Haplogroup J1 is a Middle Eastern haplogroup, which probably originated in the Armenian Highland, near Lake Van. This region being the region where goats, sheep and cattle were first domesticated in the Southwest Asia, haplogroup J1 is almost certainly linked to the expansion of pastoralist lifestyle throughout this region and Europe.
Surpisingly, even in the Caucasus and in Anatolia, the region where this haplogroup is thought to have originated, there are wide discrepancies between regions. For example, the Kubachi and Dargins from Dagestan in the Northeast Caucasus have over 80% of J1 lineages, while in their Ingush neighbours, 200 km to the north, it barely reaches 3%. The Armenian Highland around Lake Van sees over 30% of J1, whereas Southwest Anatolia has only 2%. Even within Kurdistan frequencies vary greatly. The small sample sizes for each region is surely to blame.
ISOGG states that J-M267 originated in the Southwest Asia. It is found in parts of the Near East, Anatolia and North Africa, with a much sparser distribution in the southern Mediterranean flank of Europe, and in Ethiopia. But not all studies agree on the point of origin. The Levant has been proposed but a 2010 study concluded that the haplogroup had a more northern origin, possibly Asia Minor.
The origin of the J-P58 subclade is likely in the more northerly populations and then spreads southward into the Arabian Peninsula. The high Y-STR variance of J-P58 in ethnic groups in Turkey, as well as northern regions in Syria and Iraq, supports the inference of an origin of J-P58 in nearby eastern Anatolia. Moreover, the network analysis of J-P58 haplotypes shows that some of the populations with low diversity, such as Bedouins from Israel, Qatar, Sudan and UAE, are tightly clustered near high-frequency haplotypes suggesting founder effects with star burst expansion into the Arabian Desert (Chiaroni 2010).
Since the discovery of haplogroup J-P209 it has generally been recognized that it shows signs of having originated in or near West Asia. The frequency and diversity of both its major branches, J-M267 and J-M172, in that region makes them candidates as genetic markers of the spread of farming technology during the Neolithic, which is proposed to have had a major impact upon human populations.
The area including eastern Turkey and the Zagros and Taurus mountains, has been identified as a likely area of ancient J-M267 diversity. Both J-P58 and other types of J-M267 are present, sometimes with similar frequencies. The Caucasus has areas of both high and low J-M267 frequency. The J-M267 in the Caucasus is also notable because most of it is not within the J-P58 subclade.
Like haplogroup G, J1 might have been of the principal lineages to bring domesticated animals to Europe. Both G and J1 reach their maximal frequencies in the Caucasus, some ethnic groups being almost exclusively J1 (Kubachis, Kaitaks, Dargins, Avars), while others have extremely high levels of G (Shapsugs, North Ossetians).
Most of the ethnic groups in the North Caucasus have between 20 and 40% of each haplogroup, which are by far their two dominant haplogroups. In the South Caucasus (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan), haplogroup J2 comes into the admixture and is in fact slightly higher than either J1 or G.
J1 can be divided in two main groups: the very large J1-P58 subclade, and the other branches of J1. Most of the Caucasian J1 is at present J1*, meaning that at present no common SNP has been identified that could form a new subclade. Armenia stands out of the lot by having a substantial J1c3d minority (at least one third of all J1, i.e. roughly 4% of the population).
J1-P58 (J1b2 on the ISOGG tree, formerly known as J1c3) is by far the most widespread subclade of J1. It is a typically Semitic haplogroup, making up most of the population of the Arabian peninsula, where it accounts for approximately 40% to 75% of male lineages. The dominant lineage in the Arabian peninsula is J1-L147.1. The numerous subclades downstream of L858 represent the tremendous expansion of J1 lineages linked to the propagation of Islam and the Arabic language from Saudi Arabia from the 7th century CE.
It is proposed that J-P58 might have first dispersed during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period from a geographical zone, including northeast Syria, northern Iraq and eastern Turkey toward Mediterranean Anatolia, southern Syria, Jordan, Palestine and northern Egypt.
It is proposed that the Zarzian material culture may be ancestral, and that this movement of people may also be linked to the dispersal by caucasian hunter-herders, who moved into arid areas during periods known to have had low rainfall. Thus, while other haplogroups including J-M172 moved out of the area with agriculturalists who followed the rainfall, populations carrying J-M267 remained with their flocks.
According to this scenario, after the initial neolithic expansion, a more recent dispersal occurred during the Chalcolithic or Early Bronze Age (approximately 3000–5000 BCE). The authors propose that this involved a spread of some J-P58 from the direction of Syria towards Arab populations of the Arabian Peninsula and Negev.
On the other hand, the authors agree that later waves of dispersion in and around this area have also had complex effects upon the distributions of some types of J-P58 in some regions. They list three regions which are particularly important to their proposal:
The Levant (Syria, Jordan, Israel and Palestine). In this area, Chiaroni 2009 note a “patchy distribution of J1e frequency” which is difficult to interpret, and which “may reflect the complex demographic dynamics of religion and ethnicity in the region”.
The northern area of eastern Anatolia, northern Iraq and northwest Iran. In this area, Chiaroni 2009 recognize signs that J-M267 might have an older presence, and on balance they accept the evidence but note that it could be in error.
The southern area of Oman, Yemen and Ethiopia. In this area, Chiaroni 2009 recognize similar signs, but reject it as possible a result of “either sampling variability and/or demographic complexity associated with multiple founders and multiple migrations.”
Not only is the J-P58 group itself very dominant in many areas where J-M267 is common, but J-P58 in turn contains a large cluster which had been recognized before the discovery of P58, and is still a subject of research.
This relatively young cluster, compared to J-M267 overall, was identified by STR markers haplotypes – specifically YCAII as 22-22, and DYS388 having unusual repeat values of 15 or higher, instead of more typical 13 (Chiaroni 2011). This cluster was found to be relevant in some well-publicized studies of Jewish and Palestinian populations (Nebel 2000 and Hammer 2009).
More generally, since then this cluster has been found to be frequent among men in the Middle East and North Africa, but less frequent in areas of Ethiopia and Europe where J-M267 is nevertheless common. The pattern is therefore similar to the pattern of J-P58 generally, described above, and may be caused by the same movements of people (Chiaroni 2009).
Tofanelli 2009 refers to this overall cluster with YCAII=22-22 and high DYS388 values as an “Arabic” as opposed to a “Eurasian” type of J-M267. This Arabic type includes Arabic speakers from Maghreb, Sudan, Iraq and Qatar, and it is a relatively homogeneous group, implying that it might have dispersed relatively recently compared to J-M267 generally. The more diverse “Eurasian” group includes Europeans, Kurds, Iranians and Ethiopians (despite Ethiopia being outside of Eurasia), and is much more diverse.
The authors also say that “Omanis show a mix of Eurasian pool-like and typical Arabic haplotypes as expected, considering the role of corridor played at different times by the Gulf of Oman in the dispersal of Asian and East African genes.” Chiaroni 2009 also noted the anomalously high apparent age of Omani J-M267 when looking more generally at J-P58 and J-M267 more generally.
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