Mushabian culture

The Mushabian culture (alternately, Mushabi or Mushabaean) is suggested to have originated along the Nile Valley prior to migrating to the Levant, due to similar industries demonstrated among archaeological sites in both regions but with the Nile valley sites predating those found in the Sinai regions of the Levant.^[1]

Accordingly Bar-Yosef posits, "The population overflow from Northeast Africa played a definite role in the establishment of the Natufian adaptation, which in turn led to the emergence of agriculture as a new subsistence system."^[1]

Early migrations

The migration of farmers from the Middle East into Europe is believed to have significantly influenced the genetic profile of contemporary Europeans. The Natufian culture which existed about 12,000 years ago in the Levant, has been the subject of various archeological investigations as the Natufian culture is generally believed to be the source of the European and North African Neolithic.

The Mediterranean Sea and the Sahara Desert were formidable barriers to gene flow between Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe. But Europe was periodically accessible to Africans due to fluctuations in the size and climate of the Sahara. At the Strait of Gibraltar, Africa and Europe are separated by only 15 km of water. At the Suez, Eurasia is connected to Africa forming a single land mass. The Nile river valley, which runs from East Africa to the Mediterranean Sea served as a bidirectional corridor in the Sahara desert, that frequently connected people from Sub-Saharan Africa with the peoples of Eurasia.^[2]

Mushabian-Kebaran merge

According to Bar-Yosef the Natufian culture emerged from the mixing of the Kebaran (already indigenous to the Levant) and the Mushabian (migrants into the Levant from North Africa).^[3] Modern analyses^[4][5] comparing 24 craniofacial measurements reveal a predominantly cosmopolitan population within the pre-Neolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age Fertile Crescent,^[4] supporting the view that a diverse population of peoples occupied this region during these time periods.^[4] In particular, evidence demonstrates a strong Sub-Saharan African presence within the region, especially among the Epipalaeolithic Natufians of Israel.^{[4][6][7][8][9][10]} These studies further argue that over time the Sub-Saharan influences would have been "diluted" out of the genetic picture due to interbreeding between Neolithic migrants from the Near East and indigenous hunter-gatherers whom they came in contact with.

Ricaut et al. (2008)^[11] associate the Sub-Saharan influences detected in the Natufian samples with the migration of E1b1b lineages from East Africa to the Levant and then into Europe. Entering the late mesolithic Natufian culture, the E1b1b1a2 (E-V13) sub-clade has been associated with the spread of farming from the Middle East into Europe either during or just before the Neolithic transition. E1b1b1 lineages are found throughout Europe but are distributed along a South-to-North cline, with a E1b1b1a mode^{[disambiguation needed ]} in the Balkans.^[12][13] "Recently, it has been proposed that E3b originated in sub-Saharan Africa and expanded into the Near East and northern Africa at the end of the Pleistocene. E3b lineages would have then been introduced from the Near East into southern Europe by immigrant farmers, during the Neolithic expansion."^[13] Also, "a Mesolithic population carrying Group III lineages with the M35/M215 mutation expanded northwards from sub-Saharan to North Africa and the Levant. The Levantine population of farmers that dispersed into Europe during and after the Neolithic carried these African Group III M35/M215 lineages, together with a cluster of Group VI lineages characterized by M172 and M201 mutations."^[12]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Bar-Yosef, O. (1987). "Pleistocene connexions between Africa and Southwest Asia: an archaeological perspective". African Archaeological Review 5: 29. doi:10.1007/BF01117080. 
2. ^ Krings M, Salem AE, Bauer K, et al. (April 1999). "mtDNA analysis of Nile River Valley populations: A genetic corridor or a barrier to migration?". American Journal of Human Genetics 64 (4): 1166–76. doi:10.1086/302314. PMC 1377841. PMID 10090902. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1377841. 
3. ^ Please refer to African admixture in Europe#Paleoanthropology.
4. ^ ^{a b c d} Brace, C. L. (January 2006). "The questionable contribution of the Neolithic and the Bronze Age to European craniofacial form". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 103 (1): 242–247. doi:10.1073/pnas.0509801102. PMC 1325007. PMID 16371462. http://www.pnas.org/content/103/1/242.full. 
5. ^ Ricaut, F. X.; Waelkens, M. (August 2008). "Cranial Discrete Traits in a Byzantine Population and Eastern Mediterranean Population Movements". Human Biology 80: 535–564. doi:10.3378/1534-6617-80.5.535. PMID 19341322. http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.3378/1534-6617-80.5.535. 
6. ^ Barker, G (2002). "Transitions to farming and pastoralism in North Africa". In Bellwood, P; Renfrew, C. Examining the Farming/Language Dispersal Hypothesis. McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research. pp. 151–161. ISBN 1902937201. 
7. ^ Bar-Yosef, O. (1987). "Pleistocene connexions between Africa and Southwest Asia: an archaeological perspective". The African Archaeological Review 5: 29–38. doi:10.1007/BF01117080. 
8. ^ Kislev ME, Hartmann A, Bar-Yosef O (2006). "Early domesticated fig in the Jordan Valley". Science 312 (5778): 1372–1374. doi:10.1126/science.1125910. PMID 16741119. 
9. ^ Lancaster, Andrew (2009). "Y Haplogroups, Archaeological Cultures and Language Families: a Review of the Multidisciplinary Comparisons using the case of E-M35". Journal of Genetic Genealogy 5 (1): 35. ISSN 1557-3796. http://www.jogg.info/51/files/Lancaster.pdf. 
10. ^ Findings include remains of food items carried to the Levant from Africa —— Parthenocarpic figs (please refer to prior reference: Kislev, Hartmann, Bar-Yosef, Nature, 2006) and Nile shellfish (please refer to Natufian culture#Long distance exchange).
11. ^ Ricaut FX, Waelkens M (October 2008). "Cranial discrete traits in a Byzantine population and eastern Mediterranean population movements". Human Biology 80 (5): 535–64. doi:10.3378/1534-6617-80.5.535. PMID 19341322. 
12. ^ ^{a b} Underhill PA, Passarino G, Lin AA, et al. (January 2001). "The phylogeography of Y chromosome binary haplotypes and the origins of modern human populations". Annals of Human Genetics 65 (1): 43–62. doi:10.1046/j.1469-1809.2001.6510043.x. PMID 11415522. http://www.human-evol.cam.ac.uk/Members/Lahr/pubs/AHG-65-01.pdf. 
13. ^ ^{a b} Cruciani F, La Fratta R, Santolamazza P, et al. (May 2004). "Phylogeographic analysis of haplogroup E3b (E-M215) y chromosomes reveals multiple migratory events within and out of Africa". American Journal of Human Genetics 74 (5): 1014–22. doi:10.1086/386294. PMC 1181964. PMID 15042509. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1181964.