Examining the Growth & Expansion of mtDNA Haplogroup H

In follow-up to my earlier post which compares my general mtDNA haplogroup (namely, U5, the oldest and indigenous haplogoup in Europe) with the predominant mtDNA haplogroup in Europe today, namely H, this post will examine possible factors which influenced the growth and expansion of haplogroup H.

The Neolithic agricultural (farming) revolution began about 12,000 years ago, so the H-haplogroup migration wave which came into Europe 20-25,000 years ago would not have been of a farmer culture. The H-wave migration consisted also of hunter-gatherers coming from West Asia (in the literature) into the areas populated by the indigenous U5 tribes.

In the article Occupy the Neolithic at ScienceNOW, we are informed:

Most researchers agree that social hierarchies began with the advent of farming. The earliest known farming communities are found in the Near East, dating back almost 11,000 years. Archaeologists have looked for evidence of social stratification in these societies with mixed results. Some early farming societies show signs that people played different roles and that some were buried with greater ritual—shuffling off this mortal coil with a number of elaborate "grave goods," including pottery and stone tools. However, there is little evidence that social inequality was hereditary or rigidly defined.

That seems to have changed sometime after farmers moved into Europe from the Near East, beginning about 8500 years ago during a period known as the European Neolithic.

One of the best studied farming cultures is the Linearbandkeramik (LBK), which arose in what is today Hungary about 7500 years ago ... LBK societies were "patrilocal," meaning that males tended to stay put in one place while females moved in from other areas to mate with them (which may explain why mtDNA haplogroup H is the predominant ancestral motherline in Europe). A number of recent genetic studies have shown similar patterns among early European farmers. "The signatures from these skeletons reinforce other indications of male-dominated descent and even land inheritance," Bentley says, adding that such social inequalities "only grew in extent and scale" over the course of history." To read more, click link.

So, the growth and extent of haplogroup H in Europe may be closely correlated with the dynamics and spread of farming communities throughout Europe.

In Northern Tradition folklore, Heimdallr (also known as Rig) is the deity associated with "assigning" by birth the societal group into which one is born. It makes sense that the largest group would consist of the farmer group known as karls or bondi (which also included craftsmen, landowners, and other freeborn people). The other two major societal groups in ancient times were known as thralls (serfs and slaves) and jarls (priests, nobles and kings). -