According to Cruciani et al. (2002),
haplogroup A is the most common paternal lineage among Ethiopian Jews. The clade is carried by around 41% of Beta Israel males, and is primarily associated with
Nilo-Saharan and
Khoisan-speaking populations. However, the A branches carried by Ethiopians Jews are principally of the A-Y23865 variety, which formed about 10,000 years ago and is localized to the
Ethiopian highlands and the
Arabian peninsula. The difference with the Khoisan is 54,000 years.
Additionally, around 18% of Ethiopian Jews are bearers of
E-P2 (xM35, xM2); in Ethiopia, most of such lineages belong to
E-M329, which has been found in
ancient DNA isolated from a 4,500 year old Ethiopian fossil. Such haplotypes are frequent in
Southwestern Ethiopia, especially among
Omotic-speaking populations.
The rest of the Beta Israel mainly belong to haplotypes linked with the
E-M35 and
J-M267 haplogroups, which are more commonly associated with
Cushitic and
Semitic-speaking populations in Northeast Africa. Further analysis show that the
E-M35 carried by Ethiopian Jews is primarily indigenous to the
Horn of Africa rather than being of
Levantine origin. Altogether, this suggests that Ethiopian Jews have diverse patrilineages indicative of indigenous
Northeast African, not Middle Eastern, origin.
The Beta Israel are autosomally closer to other populations from the Horn of Africa than to any other Jewish population, including Yemenite Jews. A 2012 study by Ostrer et al. concluded that the Ethiopian Jewish community was founded about 2000 years ago probably by only a relatively small number of Jews from elsewhere with local people joining to the community, causing Beta Israel to become genetically distant from other Jewish groups.
Sources:
www.yfull.com
Little is known about the peopling of the Sahara during the Holocene climatic optimum, when the desert was replaced by a fertile environment. In order to investigate the role of the last Green Sahara in the peopling of Africa, we deep-sequence the ...
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