Hi X,

There is too large a concentration of power within Reich Lab’s huge backlog of samples, which is why I ask you: is there any plan to test elite samples from the Los Millares culture in SE Spain (or any of the other fortified settlements in Southern Iberia during the Chalcolithic)? Despite the clear link between the arrival of R1b-L51 and the arrival of Steppe autosomal DNA in Europe, there are many important questions that cannot be explained by the current Danubian-Yamnaya hypothesis of R1b-L51’s entry into Western and Central Europe (mainly, amongst other things, where did it come from? All evidence points to Danubian Yamnaya samples belonging to R1b-Z2103, even as far as Vučedol, and indeed it is only R1b-Z2103 that has left a significant trace in the region meant to have been carved out by Yamnaya in its quest for the West).

Los Millares is a great candidate for a landing ground of R1b-L51 in another hypothesis (the maritime hypothesis) - it is one of the most important Chalcolithic sites in all of Europe (and R1b-L23 in general was obviously associated with the spread of Copper metallurgy), shows clear Eastern influences (as seen with their beehive tombs) consistent with an immigration of R1b-L51 from that general direction, and exhibits signs of being an extremely caste-like and war-like society (which is the behaviour we’d have to expect from R1b-L51). Moreover, a lot of the earliest subclades of R1b-L51 are to be found in the Western Mediterranean islands, which adds to the strength of the maritime hypothesis of these bringers of Copper from, presumably, somewhere in the Eastern Mediterranean (probably the Balkans, maybe Anatolia), or potentially (though unlikely) from Syria or even the West Caucasus. Also, and yes skulls forms are outdated (but certainly not invalid - patterns exist, so there must be logic behind those patterns, and this logic seems to be genetic), the physical type of these Chalcolithic newcomers to Iberia seems to be Balkano-Asian too. Certainly, it is completely out of place with the more archaic dolichocephaly of the Steppe, and there has so far been no solid evidence of skull deformation or cradling.

The incidence of Steppe admixture with the presence of carriers of R1b-L51 can easily be explained WITHOUT a Steppe hypothesis like that of Yamnaya, as Steppe admixture has been present in the Balkans for a very long time (way before Yamnaya - a few examples are that of a Greek Neolithic sample clustering with Corded Ware individuals from Northern Europe(!), and that of the Varna outlier, who also had heaps of Steppe ancestry). Given R1b-L23 can easily be associated with the spread of metallurgy (swastikas being the real giveaway though, but my god is that a touchy topic (and I’m ethnically Jewish, so no, not a neo-Nazi!)), it makes sense to trace its origin back to the Balkans, where the earliest Copper metallurgy finds are found (and incidentally some of the earliest swastikas). Indeed, I see the Balkans as the most probable breeding ground of R1b1, and R1b-V88 was recently found there too.

So, according to this hypothesis:

R1b-L23 is associated with the spread of metallurgy at its earliest stages, spreading from the Balkans to Upper Mesopotamia. At some point, two branches split - one, that would become R1b-L51, travelled Westwards across the Mediterranean, eventually reaching Iberia; and another, that would become R1b-Z2103, continued moving through West Asia, either splitting into a group that travelled down Mesopotamia and into another group that navigated the surrounding highland regions of the South Caucasus and Zagros, or just following the highland route. Eventually, the highland R1b-Z2103 would have moved up into the Steppe for their flocks (I haven’t mentioned it yet, but again, R1b-L23 can obviously be associated with pastoralism), providing the source of CHG* and forming the Yamnaya culture. The Yamnaya culture then expanded down the Danube, spreading R1b-Z2103 across the Balkans. R1b-L51 would presumably have made its way to somewhere in France (where there is an extreme paucity in aDNA studies), until it would begin to fan out, with R1b-U106 leaving early to go to East-Central Europe (later forming the Unetice culture, and mixing with remnants of the Corded Ware culture (hence why Frisians are blonde and the Irish are not)), and R1b-P312 splitting into its main subclades (R1b-L21, R1b-DF27 and R1b-U152) based on which region was migrated to.

*(from its time blending with the local women - the influence of this mixing (which seemed to have mainly been through sharing women) can also be seen in a variety of ways: firstly, as one example, red hair, pale skin and blue eyes was found among a Chalcolithic Armenian belonging to Y DNA L1a in the Areni-1 cave (the origin of Ashkenazic red hair is ultimately of this source through Kura-Araxes, not through admixture with modern Europeans, most of which Ashkenazim trump in terms of redheadedness anyway). The swastika would later appear in cultures unrelated to R1b, such as the Minoan and Harappan civilisations, which can instead be associated with the Kura-Araxes expansion - not with magical Aryans creating civilisation wherever they go.)

I hope, even if you decide to reject this request, as I am a forum-pleb after all, you find it interesting, and at least consider that other hypotheses than that of Yamnaya could be correct.

Many thanks if you made it this far,

Y