First Level Paternal Y-DNA Results In

Yay! The first level results (Y-DNA1-12, the first 12 markers) on my father's Y-DNA test are in. The 25-marker and 37-marker results are still pending, which may refine my dad's Y-haplogroup more specifically. Nevertheless, my dad's first level Y-DNA haplogroup is I2. His final Y-DNA haplogroup using current nomenclature is predicted by FTDNA scientists to be I-M223 (formerly known as I2b1, I2a2a and I1c in earlier phylosystems).

I2 is  generally considered a Anglo-Saxon-Germanic-Fennoscandia genetic haplogroup.

At this point, my dad has exact Y-DNA genetic matches in England, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and another one of unknown origin.

So far, he has multiple genetic matches distance-1 to males (in order of frequency) in these countries:

unknown origin
Germany
Scotland
England
United Kingdom
Norway
Switzerland
Sweden
Denmark
United States

and 1 match each from these countries:

Belgium
Croatia
France
Ireland
Northern Ireland
Portugal
Poland

In the ancestral origins results, his top three exact country matches are (in order of frequency):

England/UK
Germany
Ireland

This is exactly what oral family tradition on my dad's side has passed down - that my paternal family most recently came from England, Germany and Ireland.

According to FTDNA scientists, "The I2b1 lineage likely has its roots in Northern France. Today it is found most frequently within Viking / Scandinavian populations in Northwest Europe and extends at low frequencies into Central and Eastern Europe."

Looks like my dad is a real Viking! and descends from Vikings who eventually settled in the British Isles.

My Celtic Anglo-Saxon Germanic Nordic Saami Ethnicity

This article (Myths of British Ancestry) suggests that most people with ancestors from England are primarily descended from aboriginal Basques, rather than from the Celts, Anglo-Saxons or Vikings.

Everyone has heard of Celts, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings. And most of us are familiar with the idea that the English are descended from Anglo-Saxons, who invaded eastern England after the Romans left, while most of the people in the rest of the British Isles derive from indigenous Celtic ancestors with a sprinkling of Viking blood around the fringes.

Yet there is no agreement among historians or archaeologists on the meaning of the words “Celtic” or “Anglo-Saxon.” What is more, new evidence from genetic analysis indicates that the Anglo-Saxons and Celts, to the extent that they can be defined genetically, were both small immigrant minorities. Neither group had much more impact on the British Isles gene pool than the Vikings, the Normans or, indeed, immigrants of the past 50 years.

The genetic evidence shows that three quarters of our ancestors came to this corner of Europe as hunter-gatherers, between 15,000 and 7,500 years ago, after the melting of the ice caps but before the land broke away from the mainland and divided into islands. Our subsequent separation from Europe has preserved a genetic time capsule of southwestern Europe during the ice age, which we share most closely with the former ice-age refuge in the Basque country.

Despite that many of English ancestry may be primarily descended from aboriginal Basques, my autosomal STR genetic results indicate that relatively less of my genetic makeup comes from the Basques. Instead, my primary gene pool comes from the Celts, Belgae (Gallo-Germanic tribes), Germanic, Norse and Italian - only then comes a Basque genetic contribution. Consequently, it looks to me that the Ice Age refuge for many of my ancestors may have been more toward the Italian peninsula than toward Basque country. Notably, the Anglo-Saxons originated in Northern Germany, northern Netherlands and southern Scandinavia.

Lands of the Angles and Saxons

Taking all of this together, and given that my mtDNA genetic (U5b1b1-T16192C!) ancestral motherline is aboriginal Saami from Northern Arctic Europe, it looks to me that the indigenous population of Northern Europe constitutes my primary genetic origins more so than does an indigenous Iberian population. Also, I think my autosomal STR genetic results shown below demonstrate that I have significant Anglo-Saxon and Viking ancestry, despite that many "English" people may have a greater overall Basque ancestral contribution than I do. This of course, does not negate the fact that the indigenous Basques (who may also be genetically linked to the Trojans as are thought to be the Swedish Vikings) are also my ancestors.

My DNA Tribes Europa Region Autosomal STR Results

*Celtic (0.95) 921,899.01
*Belgic (0.95) 559,522.46
*Germanic (0.94) 495,966.75
*Norse (0.93) 419,887.28
*Italian (0.94) 318,722.69
Basque (0.81) 313,736.10
Balkan (0.91) 239,382.75
Polish (0.91) 230,188.26
Russian (0.88) 190,356.19
Spanish (0.84) 122,269.92
Finnic (0.91) 92,306.35
Portuguese (0.81) 80,883.71
Thracian (0.85) 41,232.14
*Urals (0.94) 32,020.30
Scythian (0.67) 30,707.03
Greek (0.84) 17,991.77
Ashkenazic (0.52) 10,512.21

Importantly, the Eurogenes K9 chromosome painting taking into account all of the genes on all my chromosomes (as opposed to looking at specific genetic markers as does autosomal STR anaylsis) supports that most of my genetic contribution comes from Northern Europe (as opposed to Southern Europe / Mediterranean).

K9 Chromosome Painting of My Genetic Makeup

My Swedish-Trojan Root

My Deep Ancestry - Autsomal STR Result

According to my autosomal STR DNA results (which consider both maternal and paternal ancestry comprehensively) obtained through DNA Tribes, my deep ancestral root localizes to southern Sweden as shown above in one of the graphical results I received from DNA Tribes. So, from where do these Swedes, among which my deep ancestors are counted, come from?

This article suggests we came from ancient Troy:

There are numerous geographical studies, archaeological findings, historical accounts and written evidences which confirm much of Scandinavian history. Most of the written history begins after 600 AD. There is strong evidence that Swedish predecessors were an aggressive refugee "boat-people" who first came from the ancient city of Troy. Located in northwest Asia Minor (present-day northwest Turkey), the ruins of Troy were discovered in 1870. Troy (or Troi) existed over 4000 years, and was known as a center of ancient civilizations. Its inhabitants were known as Trojans (or Thracians) in the period beginning about 3000 BC, which began by an "invasion of sea peoples" according to the Egyptians. The Trojans were early users of iron weapons, and rode horses. Evidence shows the city of Troy suffered through several wars with Greek and Egyptian armies. Troy was finally laid in ruins about 1260 BC by the Greeks, leaving the city completely devastated, which is verified by the fact that the city was vacated to about 700 BC.

Remaining about 70 years after the war, an estimated 30,000 Trojans/Thracians (called Dardanoi by Homer, Anatolians by others) abandoned the city of Troy, as told by various sources (Etruscan, Merovingian, Roman and later Scandinavian). The stories corroborate the final days of Troy, and describe how, after the Greeks sacked the city, the remaining Trojans eventually emigrated. Over half of them went up the Danube river and crossed over into Italy, establishing the Etruscan culture, the dominating influence on the development of Rome, and then battling the Romans for regional dominance. The remaining Trojans, mainly chieftons and warriors, about 12,000 in all, went north across the Black Sea into the Mare Moetis or "shallow sea" where the Don river ends (Caucasus region in Southern Russia), and established a kingdom about 1150 BC, which the Romans called Sicambria. The locals named these Trojan conquerors the "Iron people", or the Aes. The Aes (also Aesar, Aesir, Æsir or Asir) built their famous fortified city Aesgard or Asgard, also described as "Troy in the north." Various other sources collaborate this, saying the Trojans landed on the eastern shores with their superior weaponry, and claimed land. The area became known as Asaland (Land of the Aesir) or Asaheim (Home of the Aes).

The Asir people dominated the area around the Sea of Azov for nearly 1000 years before moving north around 90 BC. The time of their exodus from the Caucasus region, and their arrival at the Baltic Sea in Scandinavia, has been supported by several scholars and modern archaeological evidence. As told by Snorri Sturluson (a 13th century Nordic historiographer) and confirmed by other evidence, the Asir felt compelled to leave their land to escape Roman invasions by Pompeius and local tribal wars. The aggressive war-like Indo-European nomadic Trojan Asir tribes came north, moving across Europe, bringing all their weapons and belongings on the rivers of Europe in their boats. The Asir were divided into several groups that in successive stages emigrated to their new Scandinavian homeland. Entering the Baltic Sea region, they sailed north to the Scandinavian shores, only to meet stubborn Germanic tribes. The prominent Germanic tribes in the region were the Gutar, also known as the Guta, Gutans, Gotarne or Goths by Romans. These Germanic tribes were already known to the Asir, as trade with the Baltic areas was well established prior to 100 BC.

The immigrating Asir had many clans, and the most prominent were their Eril warriors or the "Erilar" (meaning "wild warriors"). The Asir sent Erilar north as seafaring warriors to secure land and establish trade. The clans of Erilar (also called Jarlar, Eruls or Heruls by Romans) enabled the Asir clans (later called Sviar, Svea, Svear or Svioner by Romans) to establish settlements throughout the region, but not without constant battles with the Goths and other immigrating Germanic tribes. The Heruls eventually made peace with the Goths who ruled the region. The Svear population flourished, and the Heruls and Goths formed a powerful military alliance of well-known seafarers.

To read the full article, click the link aobve.

European mtDNA Haplogroups U and H

Though my very specific U5b1b1* subclade markers localized my own deep genetic ancestral motherline root to Sweden, the chart in this link at Eupedia (Distribution of European mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroups by region in percentage) shows that, generally, the broader U and U5 mtDNA haplogroups (both to which my own subclade belongs) both have their highest distribution frequency in Finland.

While the highest distribution frequency for U5 is in Finland, the predominant mtDNA haplogroup overall in Finland is haplogroup H, just like in other European countries. In an earlier post I reported that my relatively rare ancestral motherline mtDNA haplogroup U5 (11% of modern Europeans) has its origins in the indigenous hunter-gatherer population of Scandinavia. Following later migrations across Europe of cultures originating in Western Asia, the predominant mtDNA haplogroup in Scandinavia and in other European countries became as they are in modern historical times:

Albania - H
Austria - H
Basques - H
Belgium - H
Bosnia-Herzegovina - H
Bulgaria - H
Croatia - H
Czech Republic - H
Denmark - H
England - H
Estonia - H
Finland - H
France - H
Germany - H
Greece - H
Hungary - H
Iceland - H
Ireland - H
Italy - H
Latvia - H
Lithuania - H
Macedonia - H
Netherlands - H
Norway - H
Poland - H
Portugal - H
Romania - H
Russia - H
Scotland - H
Serbia - H
Slovenia - H
Spain - H
Sweden - H
Switzerland - H
Ukraine - H
Wales - H 

So, we can see that in modern times, mtDNA haplogroup H is the predominant ancestral genetic motherline to many Europeans and to those of European ancestry. Haplogroup H is known in Brian Sykes' book, The Seven Daughters of Eve, as Clan Helena. Since about one half of all Europeans (and those of European descent) are of mtDNA haplogroup H, here is a link to read more about Clan Helena - Haplogroup H

Haplogroup H was carried to Europe by migrations c. 20-25,000 years ago, with several independent studies concluding that haplogroup H probably evolved in West Asia c. 30,000 years ago.

The only geographical regions where haplogroup U (Clan Ursula) predominates in frequency over haplogroup H (Clan Helena) are:

Adygey - in the northern foothills of the North Caucasus Mountains
Bashkirs- Volga-Ural, a region located around the Ural Mountains
Volga-Finnic - eastern Finns

These 3 predominantly haplogroup U regions represent the extant indigenous peoples of Russia (of the Caucasus and Volga-Ural regions) as well.

Gail Tonnesen/FTDNA U5 Project scientist writes:

Haplogroup U is estimated to have lived in the Near East or Southwest Asia some 55,000 years ago, about 15,000 years after modern humans expanded out of Africa. U5 probably expanded into Europe with the first modern humans some 47,000 years ago.

So, the working timeline among scientists is that U5 was present in Europe by around 47,000 years ago (coming from the Near East/Middle East/Anatolia through Russia), while haplogroup H came into Europe about 20-25,000 years ago (from West Asia which includes the Near/Middle East).

The Odin Oath - Vikings, Orkneyjar & the Cadusii Purim Story

An 18th century sketch of the Odin Stone - one of the few illustrations of the monolith we have today.

The Orkney Islands of Scotland are also known by the name Orkneyjar. Orkneyjar is an Icelandic Old Norse name for the Orkney Islands. The Odin Stone, in monument to the Odin Oath, stands in Orkneyjar.

The oath is an important theme in Norse religion. The religion of the Norse is known as our Troth (i.e., Asatru - our Troth to the ancestral Aesir). The highest of the gods, Odin is an oath god to whom oaths are sacred and very important, although ironically, he is called the oath-breaker for reasons not altogether clear (although many explanations have been attempted). In the Orkney Islands of Scotland (where references to Odin abound), there is in it a stone called the the Odin Stone, a stone monument before which vows are made and before which Orcadians (my ancestors as well) swore and swear the Odin Oath by clasping hands through the hole (in the stone - where the oath of Odin was "broken" or "incomplete"?) and swearing, making their vows absolute (thereby "completing" Odin's oath?):

This oath was an utterly unbreakable pact, the words to which are now unfortunately lost.

Interestingly, these known facts about oaths and Odin support the idea that the Norse Vikings of Scandinavia and Scotland may be descended from the Cadusii of Azerbaijan, particularly given the prominance of oaths to Odin and to Norse tradition in general, as well as to the known history of the Cadusii:

At this time the Medes waged a great war against the Cadusii, the cause of which were as follows: Parsondes the Persian, a man far-famed for courage, sagacity, and other virtues, was at that time a favorite of the king and the most powerful member of the royal council. But this man, sorely vexed at a certain judgment of the king, fled to the Cadusii, with three thousand foot soldiers and a thousand calvary; and giving his own sister in marriage to the most powerful man in those parts, he remained there amongst the Cadusii. Having become a rebel, he stirred up the entire nation to assert their liberty; and because of his valor he was elected their general.

Hearing news thereafter that a great army was being mustered against him, he armed the Cadusii en masse, not less than two hundred thousand of them all told, and he took up his position before the approaches into the country. King Artaios had taken the field against him with eight hundred thousand men, but Parsondes defeated him in battle, killed over fifty thousand of his soldiers, and repulsed the rest of his force from the land of the Cadusii. This brought him great admiration among the natives, who elected him king; and he plundered Media unremittingly, carrying desolation everywhere he went.

He thus acquired great renown. In old age, as the end of his life approached, he caused his successor on the throne to draw nigh and bound him with an oath that never might the Cadusii relax in their emnity against the Medes; with a curse that utter ruin would overtake both his own progeny and all the Cadusii as well if ever terms of peace were agreed upon. For this reason then, were the Cadusii always hostile to the Medes and never subject to their king, until such time as Cyrus transferred the empire to the Persians. 

Thus, perhaps we have here recovered the "lost" words of the oath. Interestingly, this recount of the Cadusian oath, the oath of the king of the Cadusii, successor to General-King Parsondes, sounds alot like the Purim story in Jewish tradition about "Persian-Jewish" Mordechai and Esther whose people gloriously defended themselves following a harsh decree of the King that all of their people be killed.

King Odin may be called the oath-breaker because he left the area of the Median Kingdom some time following all of these events, bringing his people to Scandinavia and its surrounding regions instead of perpetuating acts of emnity against the Medes (still under the oath of his own ancestor) to putatively avoid living under Roman occupation and subjection of the people to Rome (we are told).

The Cadusii of Azerbaijan fit very well to be the proto-Vikings of history.

Ancient Tribes of Northern Media Not Aryan

The Cadusii (the tribe which may be the potential origin of the proto-Vikings from Azerbaijan) and other ancient tribes in Northern Media may not have been Aryan or of Iranian stock:

Josephus relates the Medes (OT Heb. Madai) to the biblical character, Madai, son of Japheth. "Now as to Javan and Madai, the sons of Japhet; from Madai came the Madeans, who are called Medes, by the Greeks" Antiquities of the Jews, I:6.

Other ancient historians including Strabo, Ptolemy, Herodotus, Polybius, and Pliny, mention names such as Mantiane, Martiane, Matiane, Matiene, to designate the northern part of Media.

We can see how the Iranian element gradually became dominant; princes with Iranian names occasionally occur as rulers of other tribes. But the Gelae, Tapuri, Cadusii, Amardi, Utii and other tribes in northern Media and on the shores of the Caspian may not have been Iranian stock. Polybius (V. 44, 9), Strabo (xi. 507, 508, 514), and Pliny (vi. 46), considered the Anariaci to be among these tribes; but their name, meaning the "not-Arians", is probably a comprehensive designation for a number of smaller indigenous tribes.

and here, it informs:

The Cadusii, a people not belonging to the Persian race, who dwelt in the frontier hills of Media, towards the Caspian, were perfectly unsubdued; they were the ancestors of the bold Delemites (in the heroic epic of the Persians, the Cadusii were called Delemites ...

Cadusii Our Proto-Vikings?

Information from Wiki.

Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to the south. The exclave of Nakhchivan is bounded by Armenia to the north and east, Iran to the south and west, while having a short borderline with Turkey to the northwest.

The earliest evidence of human settlement in the territory of Azerbaijan dates to the late Stone Age and is related to the Guruchay culture of the Azykh Cave. The Upper Paleolithic and late Bronze Age cultures are attested in the caves of Tağılar, Damcılı, Zar, Yataq-yeri and in the necropolises of Leylatepe and Saraytepe.

Early settlements included the Scythians in the ninth century BC. Following the Scythians, Iranian Medes came to dominate the area to the south of the Aras. The Medes forged a vast empire between 900–700 BC, which was integrated into the Achaemenids Empire around 550 BC. The area was conquered by the Achaemenids leading to the spread of Zoroastrianism. Later it became part of Alexander the Great's Empire and its successor, the Seleucid Empire. Caucasian Albanians, the original inhabitants of the area, established an independent kingdom around the fourth century BC. During this period, Zoroastrianism spread in the Caucasus and Atropatene. Ancient Azerbaijanis spoke the Old Azari language.

Caucasian Albania is a name for the historical region of the eastern Caucasus, that existed on the territory of present-day republic of Azerbaijan (where both of its capitals were located) and partially southern Dagestan.

According to one hypothesis, Caucasian Albania was incorporated in the Median empire. Persian penetration into this region at a very early date is connected with the need to defend the northern frontier of the Iranian Empite.

[And this particularly fits with the character of "proto-Vikings":]

Another rebellion (of the Medes against the Persians), in 409 BC, against Darius II was of short duration. But the Iranian tribes to the north, especially the Cadusii, were always troublesome; many abortive expeditions of the later kings against them are mentioned. [How very much like Vikings do these troublesome Cadusii seem - the north from south regions were eventually partitioned from one another, perhaps on account of them - reminds me of Hadrian's Wall.]

During Seleucid rule, while southern Media, with Ecbatana, passed to the rule of Antigonus, and afterwards (about 310 BC) to Seleucus I, Atropates maintained himself in his own satrapy and succeeded in founding an independent kingdom. Thus the partition of the country, that Persia had introduced, became lasting; the north was named Atropatene (in Pliny, Atrapatene; in Ptolemy, Tropatene), after the founder of the dynasty, a name still said to be preserved in the modern form 'Azerbaijan'. [and here we have our link from the troublesome and fierce northern "Median" Cadusii tribe with the characteristics of Vikings to Azerbaijan]

Viking Origins

"According to Thor Heyerdahlthe Norwegian mythology tells that the Scandinavian god Odin moved with his people to Norway from a land called Aser, in order to avoid Roman occupation. A 13th-century historian's description of Aser's origination matches that of Azerbaijan: east of the Caucasus mountains and the Black Sea.

Heyerdahl and other scholar are convinced that people living in the area now known as Azerbaijan settled in Scandinavia around 100 AD. Roman troops arrived in Azerbaijan in 97 AD.

Odin came from the land of the "Aser" (Aeser), and is, therefore, frequently referred to as "Asa-Odin" (Aser-Odin).
Asgard or Ásegard is the realm of the Gods Aser in Norse religion and Norse mythology. The exact meaning of "Asgard is Aser Land or the Land of Aser". Modern day Scandinavians migrated north from the east of the Caucasus, Aserbaijan (Azerbaijan/Caucasian Albania) in prehistoric times. According to Icelandic Sagas, written in the 13th century, the Norse God Odin migrated from the east of the Caucasus, from Aserbaijan in the first century AD.

Heyerdahl concluded that Azerbaijan and not northern Europe was the center from which the Caucasian people spread so that Chinese archaeologists would find their 4000 years old remains buried in northwestern China. He based that conclusion on early Norwegian sagas written down by the Icelander, Snorre Sturlason, before his death in 1241, (Snorri, The Sagas of the Viking Kings of Norway. English translation: J. M. Stenersens Forlag, Oslo 1987)."



This data supports the basic assertions of the controversial Thor Heyerdahl as to the connection between the Azeri people and the Scandinavians - The Genetic Link of the Viking – Era Norse to Central Asia - An Assessment of the Y Chromosome DNA, Archaeological,Historical and Linguistic Evidence