Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Jewish Connection to Pre-Roman Iberian mtDNA?

Dienekes' Anthropology Blog recently posted a blurb about a new study of DNA taken in Spain from human bones that pre-date the roman conquest of ancient Iberia. Interestingly, two of the most commonly found mtDNA haplogroups were J and pre-HV. J is somewhat common among Jews, and pre-HV is generally associated with populations in Arabia and northeast Africa. (It also happens to be my haplogroup). Unfortunately, the full text of the article isn't available, just the abstract. That's a shame, because I always assumed that any traces of J or pre-HV in Spain would have been from the Moorish conquest of Spain hundreds of years after the Roman empire collapsed. Will have to dig deeper into this one.... -ac