My Upper Paleolithic Lappish Peculiarities

Me at various ages.

I often write about my Saami (Scandinvaian Lapplanders) ancestors, but my U5b1b1-T16192C! motherline is most likely proto-Saami (although my motherline is also found among the Saami without the extra mutation), as most (but not all) modern Saami carry 1 extra mutation at np 16144 that I don't carry. The defining Saami-specific motif mutation at np 16144 is believed to have split off from my motherline about 4000 years before the present. So, my motherline and the Saami (also known as Lapps) shared a common ancestor (and were of a common genetic people) at least over 4000 years ago.

This being understood, given the high likelihood that I inherited my short 5'2" stature from my circumpolar Lapplander ancestors, the proto-Saami/Lapps, I decided to evaluate other features of myself I may have inherited from these ancestors.

First, my ash blonde hair - while I am also a mixture of Nordic (Germanic Anglo-Saxon-Fennoscandian-Keltic) European racial stocks (where blondism is common), blondism is also found among pure Lapps (without Nordic admixture). When blondism is found among pure Lapps, it is ashen blonde. Ash blonde hair is characteristic of Lapps found in Finland and the Kola Penninsula.

Lapp hair is usually thick and wavy, mine is fine and straight - so while my hair color may have come from my Lapp ancestry, it's texture most likely did not. So, it's still unclear to me if my blondism came from my Lappish or Nordic ancestors.

Graying comes late for Lapps. I haven't a gray hair on my head yet, even at 53 years old, so this physical trait may be Lappish.

Second, my eyes, both color and character - while pure dark eyes are found in Reindeer Lapps and in a few in Norway, fairer light-mixed green-cast brown irises in eyes like mine are also common among Lapps of Finland. (My eyes are lighter than they appear in the attached monochrome photos).

Increasingly, based on my Lappish phenotypic traits, it looks like my proto-Lappish ancestors lived in or migrated specifically to the area of circumpolar Finland.

Not so much as an adult (though still minimally present), but more pronounced during one portion of my childhood, my eyes have a mild fold of skin slightly above my eyelid (see red arrows in attached photo) - this fold is a Lappish trait - it is not a Mongoloid epicanthic fold which covers the inner corner of the eye - according to Schreiner's detailed study of Lapp craniology, it "signifies that the original ancestral Lapps represented a stage in the evolution of both Upper Paleolithic Europeans and Mongoloids (in other words, the eye fold.characteristic of the Lapps is a trait which developed among homo sapiens predating the racial split between Europids and Mongoloids) .. In view of the Upper Paleolithic white and of mongoloids, this divergence of the Lapps from the others must have taken place as early as the Laufen glacial retreat*. Their area of specialization was presumably Western Siberia. Their specialization there shows little interference (from other genetic groups). From there they spread over Finland and northwestern Russia, then to Scandinavia during the first millennium CE". Scientists further write that "some of the Lappish peculiarities may have been common possessions of the Upper Paleolithic peoples (and) there may have been transitional forms between Lapps and Europeans. In other words, Lapps may represent a pure ancestral form common to all admixed European strains of humanity.

*The Laufen glacial retreat refers to the warm phase of the Würm glaciation, the glaciation dated to c. 24,000–10,000 BP (before present).

Interestingly, I'm finding that studying racial phenotypic characteristics is a really good way to find out about one's ancestors and ancestral migrations - information can be found in these studies tracing development of racial phenotypes about ancestral migrations that one won't find anywhere else.

Autosomal DNA SNP Population Results

According to the autosomal SNP genetic analysis I had done through Family Tree DNA, I am 87.06% (blue) Western European (my specific subpopulations - French, Orcadian-Scotland's Orkney Islands, Spanish) and 12.94% (orange) from other areas of Europe (my specific subpopulations - Tuscan, Finnish, Romanian, Russian, Sardinian).

I have no appreciable genetic links to ancient Basque or Italian populations by autosomal SNP analysis (although I do have links to the Italian peninsula through ancient Tuscany). Sweden and Norway are not part of the reference populations (see map), so it may be that the SNP population data for these two areas are still under scientific development (autosomal SNP genetic analysis is still developing its population databases I think).

Even as a developing method of ancestral analysis (in contrast to autosomal STR ancestral analysis), I suppose these autosomal SNP ancestral analysis results are in general agreement with the autosomal STR genetic results in that they also report that my genetic ancestry is largely Celtic (originating in Scotland's Orkney Islands with the ancient Picts) and then later Scandinavian (likely originating in Finland, which has a history intimately intertwined with Russia, Norway and Sweden).

Ancient Pictish history is tied to both the Celtic and Scandinaivian peoples. Also importantly, the ancient Neolithic Picts themselves originally came from the Iberian Peninsula (which is Mediteranean and explains Spain). Before that, they came from North Africa.

Sardinia and Tuscany are near and in the Italian Peninsula, but are distinct populations from Italy proper (see reference populations on map). In prehistorical times, Tuscany lost territory to the Celts, so it is likely some ancient Etruscan Tuscans simply got absorbed into the Celtic (Pictish-Celtic) gene pool. The first settlers of prehistoric Sardinia came from Etruria (present day Tuscany) and the Iberian peninsula (Spain), so the Sardinia result is also explained by these populations becoming admixed with the Pictish-Celtic gene pool. Both Sardinian and Tuscan genes found their way into the Pictish-Celtic gene pool via Spain.

The oldest human traces in Europe are found in France - "The oldest traces of human life in what is now France date from approximately 1,800,000 years ago." Consequently, the French result likely reflects my most ancient genetic beginnings in Europe (even possibly through Neanderthals, since 1-4% of the genome of all Eurasians has been contributed to us by Neanderthals), and in consideration of the fact that my motherline mitochondrial genetic haplogroup is U5, the oldest motherline haplogroup in Europe, arising in Europe approximately 50,000 years ago when the first homo sapiens came to Europe.

Like France, prehistoric Romania evidences some of the first homo sapiens to inhabit Europe. Also, ancient Celts lived in Northwestern Romania, so Romania also links up with ancient Celtic civilization, which likewise links back to the ancient Picts in Orkney (Scotland).

Taking all this together, it reasonable to say that my primary ancestral heritage (by autosomal SNP genetic analysis) is Pictish-Scottish-Celtic (with associated links to Northeastern, Southern and Southeastern Europe as discussed above) and Scandinavian-Finnish (with associated links to Russia and other Scandinavian countries as discussed above). This is in general agreement with my autosomal STR genetic analysis results which also tell me I am mostly Celtic and Scandinavian, with ancient genetic admixtures from other areas of Europe figuring into my genetic stew.

According to information at the Family Tree DNA website, these results reflect my ancestry for the last 100-2000 years (40-80 generations) and "may also reflect one population that mixed with another in ancient times and became fixed in the second population."

Celtic Druid & Jewish Remnants and the Viking Raids

While the previous map looked back approximately 500 years (up to 1000 years even, landing in the Middle Ages and possibly covering some of the period of the Viking raids), this map looks at the world regions where my ancestors (both maternal and paternal) have roots for the last several thousands of years. The timing is important, because I have a hypothesis related to my ancestry and the history of Europe. In this map, it looks like I have strong more ancient roots in the Celtic lands of Wales, Scotland, UK, Ireland and to the Viking land of Finland. So, my more ancient ancestors are also significantly Celtic, as well as Finnish Vikings (with a splash from Spain and Eastern Europe, which could have been from people "acquired" by the Vikings during raids or who joined up with the Vikings and Celts against the Romanization of Europe - perhaps even refugees from ancient Israel as well following destruction of the Temple - as suggested by my motherline genetic map). Interestingly, both the Celts (think Boadicea and the Druids on Anglesey) and the Vikings famously fought Rome and/or the spread of Christianity during the period this map covers (as did my Jewish ancestors fight Rome in ancient Israel). It's not inconceivable then, that perhaps my Celtic Druid ancestors fled to Viking Sweden following defeat by Rome at Anglesey, and there, together, the remnant of Celtic Druids joined up with the Vikings, and together plotted the revolt against the Romanization of Northwestern Europe (the land of the Vikings and the haven for a Celtic Druid remnant) - resulting in the Viking raids. All of this is supported by my genetic ancestry results and my dream of being a half-blood Celtic Druid Jewess on the run from Roman soldiers. I bet I ended up in Sweden and joined up with the Vikings, who were after all, my relatives too (in Finland).

The Viking revolt against Romanized Europe spanned the late 8th to 11th centuries.