Jews with Haplogroup G (Y-DNA)
Encyclopedia
There are significant numbers of Jewish men found within multiple subgroups of haplogroup G (Y-DNA)
. Haplogroup G is found in significantly different percentages within the various Jewish ethnic divisions
, ranging from about a third of Moroccan Jews to almost none reported among the Indian, Yemenite and Iranian communities. These percentages often have a poor correlation with the percentages of haplogroup G in the non-Jewish population of the same country.
markers but sometimes are recognizable by having close genetic distances when dozens of STR marker values are compared. These Jewish clusters are found within all the major haplogroup G subgroups.
G1
-- A cluster of Ashkenazi Jewish men from northeastern Europe is found in G1 persons who are negative for G1 subgroups. These Jewish men share an odd value of 12 at STR marker DYS446.
G1a
--
A cluster of Ashkenazi Jewish men from northeastern Europe is found in G1a persons who are negative for G1a subgroups. These Jewish men share a value of 16 at STR marker DYS19 and 27 at DYS389b.
G1a1
-- Another cluster of Ashkenazi Jewish men from northeastern Europe is found in G1a1 persons. So far they seem to comprise the only men who are G1a1, and this is the only known grouping of haplogroup G Jews whose grouping is defined by a SNP mutation.
G2a1a
-- A cluster of Ashkenazi Jewish men from northeastern Europe is found in G2a1a. Almost all differ from the nonJewish G2a1a men in having two distinctive STR marker values: YCA=21,21 and typically DYS19=16.
G2a3a
-- A cluster of mostly Ashkenazi Jewish men from northeastern Europe is found in G2a3a persons negative for the G2a3a subgroup. Some samples from the western Mediterranean exist which may represent converso
s. These men have distinctive values for two STR markers: DYS454=12 and DYS392=12.
G2a3b1a
-- A cluster of Ashkenazi Jewish men from northeastern Europe is found within the large number of G2a3b1a men who share the STR marker value of 9 for marker DYS568. These Jewish men have distinctive low marker values at STR marker DYS385a and a high value at DYS385b when compared with other DYS568=9 men. Based on the number of STR marker mutations seen in comparisons, it is likely the common ancestor of all these men lived sometime in the Middle Ages.
G2a3b1a
-- A tiny number of Ashkenazi Jewish men from northeastern Europe is found within the large number of G2a3b1a men who share the STR marker value of 13 for marker DYS388. These Jewish men lack distinctive STR marker values but have each other as nearest matches in comparing STR marker samples. Based on the number of STR marker mutations seen in comparisons, it is likely the common ancestor of all these men lived sometime in the Middle Ages.
G2a3b1a
-- A tiny number of men who share the unusual STR marker value of 17 and are otherwise genetically close to each other. This subgroup includes a few Mediterranean men who may not have known Jewish roots.
G2a3b1a1
-- A small group of Ashkenazi Jewish men with ancestral origins in northeastern Europe is found in G2a3b1a1a1. They share a 12 value for slowly mutating STR marker DYS392, a rarity among G2a3b1a1a1 men.
G2a3b1a1a
-- A cluster of men whose ancestors were western Mediterranean conversos or had ties to Sephardic Jewish communities is found in G2a3b1a1a. They lack distinctive STR marker values, but have each other as nearest matches in comparing STR marker samples.
G2c
-- A high percentage of G2c men from Europe are Ashkenazi Jewish men who are negative for G2c1. These Jewish men have the distinctive feature within G2c of a shared null value for STR marker DYS425. Based on the number of STR marker mutations seen in comparisons, it is likely the common ancestor of all these men lived sometime in the Middle Ages.
>
population usual origin total N G % N=G notes
Moroccan Jews
Morocco
83
19.3%
16
Sephardim
Bulgaria
/Turkey
174
16.7%
29
Mountain Jews
Azerbaijan
57
15.8%
9
Libyan Jews
Libya
20
10.0%
2
Iraqi Jews
Iraq
79
10.1%
8
Ashkenazim
Pale of Settlement
/Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
(NE Europe
), Hungary
, Czech Republic
, Germany
, Netherlands
856
7.2%
61
Bene Israel
Konkan
, North India
31
6.5%
2
Georgian Jews
Georgia
62
4.8%
3
Yemenite Jews
Yemen
74
6.8%
0
Persian Jews
Iran
49
0%
0
Bukharan Jews
Uzbekistan
15
0%
0
Cochin Jews
Cochin, South India
45
0%
0
Ethiopian Jews
Gondar
, Ethiopia
27
0%
0
-- corresponding mostly to the modern state of Israel
-- when distinctly Jewish states first came into existence about 1350 BCE. By this point in time, the major G haplogroup divisions were in existence, but only ancient DNA
can today confirm the geographical spread of G then. The presence of haplogroup G to some extent in all populations throughout the Middle East does not rule out the possibility that G persons were living in Jewish lands during the formative years of the religion.
In the pre-Jewish period the Hurrians
once controlled Jerusalem through rulers such as Abdi-Heba
The Hurrian kingdom at times stretched from today's Syria
to the eastern Persian Gulf
. Farther back in time in the prehistorical period
, movements into the Middle East that may have resulted in population admixture are completely unknown due to the absence of written materials.
there are references to intermarriages with Egyptian
male slaves In the time of Joshua
about 3400 years ago, Israelites were also described as settling among the Hittites
, an ancient Anatolia
n people—probably the ones inhabiting Mount Lebanon
-- and also among the Amorites who were associated with Mesopotamia
and intermarrying with persons from both these groups. The Assyria
n king, Shalmaneser
, during the tenure of Hoshea
as King of Israel in the 700s BCE carried the Israelites off to his kingdom and replaced the Israelites who were living in Samaria
with persons brought from various Babylonian locales. This event also led to a permanent population of Jews within today's Iran
. The presence of the non-Israelites in Samaria could have provided an opportunity for additional population admixture on the return of the Israelites. In the 500s BCE, Israelites were carried into exile in Babylon on more than one occasion. This provided another opportunity to obtain accretions from regional peoples though the sources do not address whether this happened. During the period of the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem, persons from various towns in today's Syria
and Iraq
were among the Babylonian captives returning to Israel who could not show how they were descended from Israelites. Not all the Israelites returned to Israel from Babylonia.
In the 500s BCE at the end of the Babylonian exile, Cyrus
allowed additional Jews into Persia. In 135 CE, there was yet another wave of emigration into Persia by Jews fleeing the Roman persecutions. At the time of the original emigrations, Jews intermarried with the local population. The Assyrians also deported Jews to Armenia, and 10,000 Jews moved there on their own.
The omnipresent ancient slave trade
provided another opportunity for admixture with Jews because the covenant given to Abraham
and his descendants had required that Jewish slaves would be required to undergo circumcision
. There is a strong implication that the slaves became Jewish.
In 70 CE, the Romans
exiled Jews from the ancient land of their ancestors (the Diaspora
) and enslaved many of them. This resulted in the dispersal of Jews throughout the Roman Empire
.
During portions of the Early Middle Ages
, the hostility between Muslims and Christians provided an opportunity for Jewish Radhanite
s merchants to set up trade routes and establish new Jewish communities throughout Eurasia
. Later restrictions by Christian rulers on occupations Jews could pursue led to specific Jewish involvement in international migrations and trade. Throughout the Middle Ages, expulsions of Jews from some Christian countries led to further dispersals to distant locations. While a number of Jews were forced to convert to other religions, they also received converts into their ranks.
1. Haplogroup G1 is especially concentrated in today's Iran and its borders,. but the Jews from Iran who were sampled had no haplogroup G of any type present.
2. The Republic of Georgia has a substantial percentage of G in its population,. but the percentage of G among Georgian Jews is modest.
3. In Morocco, there is a substantial amount of G among Jews, but the non-Jews have negligible amounts.
Findings are also available to take the opposite side of the argument. Yemenite Jews have about the same small percentage of haplogroup G as found among the non-Jews, with the division between G1 and G2 similar in both groups.
The resolution of the question as to which populations originally supplied the haplogroup G can be partly resolved by comparing detailed STR marker samples of Jews and non Jews within the same population. This allows an estimate of time separation because markers mutate at a somewhat predictable rate. The only such comparisons currently available involve Ashkenazi Jews.
Over 50 detailed samples of Ashkenazi G2c Jewish men in the Haplogroup G Project indicate that these Ashkenazis do not share common ancestors with any other G person living in Europe within the Current Era based on the number of marker values that are different. And the type of haplogroup G seen among non-Jews in eastern Europe
from where these men originated is rarely G2c. It can be deduced, for this group at least, that they very likely did not share post-Roman era ancestry with the non-Jewish population of eastern Europe.
Haplogroup G (Y-DNA)
In human genetics, Haplogroup G is a Y-chromosome haplogroup. It is a branch of Haplogroup F . Haplogroup G has an overall low frequency in most populations but is widely distributed within many ethnic groups of the Old World in Europe, northern and western Asia, northern Africa, the Middle East,...
. Haplogroup G is found in significantly different percentages within the various Jewish ethnic divisions
Jewish ethnic divisions
Jewish ethnic divisions refers to a number of distinct communities within the world's ethnically Jewish population. Although considered one single self-identifying ethnicity, there are distinct ethnic divisions among Jews, most of which are primarily the result of geographic branching from an...
, ranging from about a third of Moroccan Jews to almost none reported among the Indian, Yemenite and Iranian communities. These percentages often have a poor correlation with the percentages of haplogroup G in the non-Jewish population of the same country.
Haplogroup G Subgroups with Jewish Members
The Jewish clusters of men within haplogroup G subgroups often have distinctive shared oddities of values at certain STRShort tandem repeat
A short tandem repeat in DNA occurs when a pattern of two or more nucleotides are repeated and the repeated sequences are directly adjacent to each other. The pattern can range in length from 2 to 5 base pairs and is typically in the non-coding intron region...
markers but sometimes are recognizable by having close genetic distances when dozens of STR marker values are compared. These Jewish clusters are found within all the major haplogroup G subgroups.
G1
Haplogroup G1 (Y-DNA)
In human genetics, Haplogroup G1 is a Y-chromosome haplogroup. G1 is a branch of Haplogroup G Y-DNA . Haplogroup G1 has an extremely low frequency in almost all countries except Iran and the countries adjoining Iran on the west....
-- A cluster of Ashkenazi Jewish men from northeastern Europe is found in G1 persons who are negative for G1 subgroups. These Jewish men share an odd value of 12 at STR marker DYS446.
G1a
Haplogroup G1 (Y-DNA)
In human genetics, Haplogroup G1 is a Y-chromosome haplogroup. G1 is a branch of Haplogroup G Y-DNA . Haplogroup G1 has an extremely low frequency in almost all countries except Iran and the countries adjoining Iran on the west....
--
A cluster of Ashkenazi Jewish men from northeastern Europe is found in G1a persons who are negative for G1a subgroups. These Jewish men share a value of 16 at STR marker DYS19 and 27 at DYS389b.
G1a1
Haplogroup G1 (Y-DNA)
In human genetics, Haplogroup G1 is a Y-chromosome haplogroup. G1 is a branch of Haplogroup G Y-DNA . Haplogroup G1 has an extremely low frequency in almost all countries except Iran and the countries adjoining Iran on the west....
-- Another cluster of Ashkenazi Jewish men from northeastern Europe is found in G1a1 persons. So far they seem to comprise the only men who are G1a1, and this is the only known grouping of haplogroup G Jews whose grouping is defined by a SNP mutation.
G2a1a
Haplogroup G2a1 (Y-DNA)
In human genetics, Haplogroup G2a1 is a Y-chromosome haplogroup. It is a branch of haplogroup G , and more specifically of haplogroup G2 and most specifically of haplogroup G2a...
-- A cluster of Ashkenazi Jewish men from northeastern Europe is found in G2a1a. Almost all differ from the nonJewish G2a1a men in having two distinctive STR marker values: YCA=21,21 and typically DYS19=16.
G2a3a
Haplogroup G2a3a (Y-DNA)
In human genetics, Haplogroup G2a3a is a Y-chromosome haplogroup. G2a3a is a branch of Haplogroup G Y-DNA . More specifically in descending order, G2a3a is a subbranch also of G2 , G2a and finally G2a3 Haplogroup G2a3a seems most common in Turkey and Greece...
-- A cluster of mostly Ashkenazi Jewish men from northeastern Europe is found in G2a3a persons negative for the G2a3a subgroup. Some samples from the western Mediterranean exist which may represent converso
Converso
A converso and its feminine form conversa was a Jew or Muslim—or a descendant of Jews or Muslims—who converted to Catholicism in Spain or Portugal, particularly during the 14th and 15th centuries. Mass conversions once took place under significant government pressure...
s. These men have distinctive values for two STR markers: DYS454=12 and DYS392=12.
G2a3b1a
Haplogroup G2a3b1 (Y-DNA)
In human genetics, Haplogroup G2a3b1 is a Y-chromosome haplogroup. It is a branch of haplogroup G . In descending order, G2a3b1 is additionally a branch of G2 , G2a , G2a3 and finally G2a3b . This haplogroup represents the majority of haplogroup G men in most areas of Europe west of Russia and...
-- A cluster of Ashkenazi Jewish men from northeastern Europe is found within the large number of G2a3b1a men who share the STR marker value of 9 for marker DYS568. These Jewish men have distinctive low marker values at STR marker DYS385a and a high value at DYS385b when compared with other DYS568=9 men. Based on the number of STR marker mutations seen in comparisons, it is likely the common ancestor of all these men lived sometime in the Middle Ages.
G2a3b1a
Haplogroup G2a3b1 (Y-DNA)
In human genetics, Haplogroup G2a3b1 is a Y-chromosome haplogroup. It is a branch of haplogroup G . In descending order, G2a3b1 is additionally a branch of G2 , G2a , G2a3 and finally G2a3b . This haplogroup represents the majority of haplogroup G men in most areas of Europe west of Russia and...
-- A tiny number of Ashkenazi Jewish men from northeastern Europe is found within the large number of G2a3b1a men who share the STR marker value of 13 for marker DYS388. These Jewish men lack distinctive STR marker values but have each other as nearest matches in comparing STR marker samples. Based on the number of STR marker mutations seen in comparisons, it is likely the common ancestor of all these men lived sometime in the Middle Ages.
G2a3b1a
Haplogroup G2a3b1 (Y-DNA)
In human genetics, Haplogroup G2a3b1 is a Y-chromosome haplogroup. It is a branch of haplogroup G . In descending order, G2a3b1 is additionally a branch of G2 , G2a , G2a3 and finally G2a3b . This haplogroup represents the majority of haplogroup G men in most areas of Europe west of Russia and...
-- A tiny number of men who share the unusual STR marker value of 17 and are otherwise genetically close to each other. This subgroup includes a few Mediterranean men who may not have known Jewish roots.
G2a3b1a1
Haplogroup G2a3b1 (Y-DNA)
In human genetics, Haplogroup G2a3b1 is a Y-chromosome haplogroup. It is a branch of haplogroup G . In descending order, G2a3b1 is additionally a branch of G2 , G2a , G2a3 and finally G2a3b . This haplogroup represents the majority of haplogroup G men in most areas of Europe west of Russia and...
-- A small group of Ashkenazi Jewish men with ancestral origins in northeastern Europe is found in G2a3b1a1a1. They share a 12 value for slowly mutating STR marker DYS392, a rarity among G2a3b1a1a1 men.
G2a3b1a1a
Haplogroup G2a3b1 (Y-DNA)
In human genetics, Haplogroup G2a3b1 is a Y-chromosome haplogroup. It is a branch of haplogroup G . In descending order, G2a3b1 is additionally a branch of G2 , G2a , G2a3 and finally G2a3b . This haplogroup represents the majority of haplogroup G men in most areas of Europe west of Russia and...
-- A cluster of men whose ancestors were western Mediterranean conversos or had ties to Sephardic Jewish communities is found in G2a3b1a1a. They lack distinctive STR marker values, but have each other as nearest matches in comparing STR marker samples.
G2c
Haplogroup G2c (Y-DNA)
In human genetics, Haplogroup G2c is a Y-chromosome haplogroup and is defined by the presence of the M377 mutation. It is a branch of Haplogroup G, which in turn is defined by the presence of the M201 mutation....
-- A high percentage of G2c men from Europe are Ashkenazi Jewish men who are negative for G2c1. These Jewish men have the distinctive feature within G2c of a shared null value for STR marker DYS425. Based on the number of STR marker mutations seen in comparisons, it is likely the common ancestor of all these men lived sometime in the Middle Ages.
Haplogroup G Found within Jewish Communities
The following percentages of haplogroup G persons have been found in the various Jewish communities listed in descending order by percentage of G.Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
/Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
Mountain Jews
Highland Jews, Mountain Jews or Kavkazi Jews also known as Juvuro or Juhuro, are Jews of the eastern Caucasus, mainly of Azerbaijan and Dagestan. They are also known as Caucasus Jews, Caucasian Jews, or less commonly East Caucasian Jews, because the majority of these Jews settled the eastern part...
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. 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...
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
Pale of Settlement
The Pale of Settlement was the term given to a region of Imperial Russia, in which permanent residency by Jews was allowed, and beyond which Jewish permanent residency was generally prohibited...
/Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was a dualistic state of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch. It was the largest and one of the most populous countries of 16th- and 17th‑century Europe with some and a multi-ethnic population of 11 million at its peak in the early 17th century...
(NE Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
), Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
Bene Israel
The Bene Israel are a group of Jews who migrated in the 19th century from villages in the Konkan area to the nearby Indian cities, primarily Mumbai, but also to Pune, and Ahmedabad. Prior to these waves of emigrations and to this day, the Bene Israel formed the largest sector of the subcontinent's...
Konkan
The Konkan also called the Konkan Coast or Karavali is a rugged section of the western coastline of India from Raigad to Mangalore...
, North India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
Georgian Jews
The Georgian Jews are from the nation of Georgia, in the Caucasus...
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
Yemenite Jews
Yemenite Jews are those Jews who live, or whose recent ancestors lived, in Yemen . Between June 1949 and September 1950, the overwhelming majority of Yemen's Jewish population was transported to Israel in Operation Magic Carpet...
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
Persian Jews
Persian Jews , are Jews historically associated with Iran, traditionally known as Persia in Western sources.Judaism is one of the oldest religions practiced in Iran. The Book of Esther contains some references to the experiences of Jews in Persia...
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
Bukharan Jews
Bukharan Jews, also Bukharian Jews or Bukhari Jews, or яҳудиёни Бухоро Yahūdieni Bukhoro , Bukhori Hebrew Script: יהודיאני בוכאראי and יהודיאני בוכארי), also called the Binai Israel, are Jews from Central Asia who speak Bukhori, a dialect of the Tajik-Persian language...
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....
Cochin Jews
Cochin Jews, also called Malabar Jews , are the oldest group of Jews in India, with roots claimed to date to the time of King Solomon, though historically attested migration dates from the fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE. Historically, they lived in the Kingdom of Cochin in South India, now part of the...
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
Gondar
Gondar or Gonder is a city in Ethiopia, which was once the old imperial capital and capital of the historic Begemder Province. As a result, the old province of Begemder is sometimes referred to as Gondar...
, Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
Haplogroup G Men Already Present among Jews When Judaism Began?
One of the basic questions is whether haplogroup G persons were already living in lands occupied by the Jews of the Hebrew BibleHebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...
-- corresponding mostly to the modern state of Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
-- when distinctly Jewish states first came into existence about 1350 BCE. By this point in time, the major G haplogroup divisions were in existence, but only ancient DNA
Ancient DNA
Ancient DNA is DNA isolated from ancient specimens. It can be also loosely described as any DNA recovered from biological samples that have not been preserved specifically for later DNA analyses...
can today confirm the geographical spread of G then. The presence of haplogroup G to some extent in all populations throughout the Middle East does not rule out the possibility that G persons were living in Jewish lands during the formative years of the religion.
In the pre-Jewish period the Hurrians
Hurrians
The Hurrians were a people of the Ancient Near East who lived in Northern Mesopotamia and adjacent regions during the Bronze Age.The largest and most influential Hurrian nation was the kingdom of Mitanni. The population of the Hittite Empire in Anatolia to a large part consisted of Hurrians, and...
once controlled Jerusalem through rulers such as Abdi-Heba
Abdi-Heba
Abdi-Heba was a local chieftain of Jerusalem during the Amarna period . Abdi-Heba's name can be translated as "servant of Hebat", a Hurrian goddess. Some scholars believe the correct reading is Ebed-Nob...
The Hurrian kingdom at times stretched from today's Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
to the eastern Persian Gulf
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...
. Farther back in time in the prehistorical period
Prehistory
Prehistory is the span of time before recorded history. Prehistory can refer to the period of human existence before the availability of those written records with which recorded history begins. More broadly, it refers to all the time preceding human existence and the invention of writing...
, movements into the Middle East that may have resulted in population admixture are completely unknown due to the absence of written materials.
Haplogroup G Assimilated into Early Jewish Populations?
In the Hebrew BibleHebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...
there are references to intermarriages with Egyptian
Egyptians
Egyptians are nation an ethnic group made up of Mediterranean North Africans, the indigenous people of Egypt.Egyptian identity is closely tied to geography. The population of Egypt is concentrated in the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the First Cataract to...
male slaves In the time of Joshua
Joshua
Joshua , is a minor figure in the Torah, being one of the spies for Israel and in few passages as Moses's assistant. He turns to be the central character in the Hebrew Bible's Book of Joshua...
about 3400 years ago, Israelites were also described as settling among the Hittites
Hittites
The Hittites were a Bronze Age people of Anatolia.They established a kingdom centered at Hattusa in north-central Anatolia c. the 18th century BC. The Hittite empire reached its height c...
, an ancient Anatolia
Anatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
n people—probably the ones inhabiting Mount Lebanon
Mount Lebanon
Mount Lebanon , as a geographic designation, is a Lebanese mountain range, averaging above 2,200 meters in height and receiving a substantial amount of precipitation, including snow, which averages around four meters deep. It extends across the whole country along about , parallel to the...
-- and also among the Amorites who were associated with Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...
and intermarrying with persons from both these groups. The Assyria
Assyria
Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
n king, Shalmaneser
Shalmaneser V
Shalmaneser V was king of Assyria from 727 to 722 BC. He first appears as governor of Zimirra in Phoenicia in the reign of his father, Tiglath-Pileser III....
, during the tenure of Hoshea
Hoshea
See also Hosea, who has the same name in Biblical Hebrew.Hoshea was the last king of the Israelite Kingdom of Israel and son of Elah . William F. Albright dated reign to 732 – 721 BC, while E. R. Thiele offered the dates 732 – 723 BC.Assyrian records basically confirm the Biblical...
as King of Israel in the 700s BCE carried the Israelites off to his kingdom and replaced the Israelites who were living in Samaria
Samaria
Samaria, or the Shomron is a term used for a mountainous region roughly corresponding to the northern part of the West Bank.- Etymology :...
with persons brought from various Babylonian locales. This event also led to a permanent population of Jews within today's Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
. The presence of the non-Israelites in Samaria could have provided an opportunity for additional population admixture on the return of the Israelites. In the 500s BCE, Israelites were carried into exile in Babylon on more than one occasion. This provided another opportunity to obtain accretions from regional peoples though the sources do not address whether this happened. During the period of the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem, persons from various towns in today's Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
and Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
were among the Babylonian captives returning to Israel who could not show how they were descended from Israelites. Not all the Israelites returned to Israel from Babylonia.
In the 500s BCE at the end of the Babylonian exile, Cyrus
Cyrus the Great
Cyrus II of Persia , commonly known as Cyrus the Great, also known as Cyrus the Elder, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire. Under his rule, the empire embraced all the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East, expanded vastly and eventually conquered most of Southwest Asia and much...
allowed additional Jews into Persia. In 135 CE, there was yet another wave of emigration into Persia by Jews fleeing the Roman persecutions. At the time of the original emigrations, Jews intermarried with the local population. The Assyrians also deported Jews to Armenia, and 10,000 Jews moved there on their own.
The omnipresent ancient slave trade
Slavery in antiquity
Slavery in the ancient world, specifically, in Mediterranean cultures, comprised a mixture of debt-slavery, slavery as a punishment for crime, and the enslavement of prisoners of war....
provided another opportunity for admixture with Jews because the covenant given to Abraham
Abraham
Abraham , whose birth name was Abram, is the eponym of the Abrahamic religions, among which are Judaism, Christianity and Islam...
and his descendants had required that Jewish slaves would be required to undergo circumcision
Circumcision
Male circumcision is the surgical removal of some or all of the foreskin from the penis. The word "circumcision" comes from Latin and ....
. There is a strong implication that the slaves became Jewish.
Haplogroup G Obtained from Non-Jews during the Diaspora or Medieval Trading?
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
exiled Jews from the ancient land of their ancestors (the Diaspora
Diaspora
A diaspora is "the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland" or "people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location", or "people settled far from their ancestral homelands".The word has come to refer to historical mass-dispersions of...
) and enslaved many of them. This resulted in the dispersal of Jews throughout the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
.
During portions of the Early Middle Ages
Early Middle Ages
The Early Middle Ages was the period of European history lasting from the 5th century to approximately 1000. The Early Middle Ages followed the decline of the Western Roman Empire and preceded the High Middle Ages...
, the hostility between Muslims and Christians provided an opportunity for Jewish Radhanite
Radhanite
The Radhanites were medieval Jewish merchants. Whether the term, which is used by only a limited number of primary sources, refers to a specific guild, or a clan, or is a generic term for Jewish merchants in the trans-Eurasian trade network is unclear...
s merchants to set up trade routes and establish new Jewish communities throughout Eurasia
Eurasia
Eurasia is a continent or supercontinent comprising the traditional continents of Europe and Asia ; covering about 52,990,000 km2 or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres...
. Later restrictions by Christian rulers on occupations Jews could pursue led to specific Jewish involvement in international migrations and trade. Throughout the Middle Ages, expulsions of Jews from some Christian countries led to further dispersals to distant locations. While a number of Jews were forced to convert to other religions, they also received converts into their ranks.
Genetic Findings as to Origins
There are several findings that are inconsistent with Jews acquiring haplogroup G from populations with which they came in contact.1. Haplogroup G1 is especially concentrated in today's Iran and its borders,. but the Jews from Iran who were sampled had no haplogroup G of any type present.
2. The Republic of Georgia has a substantial percentage of G in its population,. but the percentage of G among Georgian Jews is modest.
3. In Morocco, there is a substantial amount of G among Jews, but the non-Jews have negligible amounts.
Findings are also available to take the opposite side of the argument. Yemenite Jews have about the same small percentage of haplogroup G as found among the non-Jews, with the division between G1 and G2 similar in both groups.
The resolution of the question as to which populations originally supplied the haplogroup G can be partly resolved by comparing detailed STR marker samples of Jews and non Jews within the same population. This allows an estimate of time separation because markers mutate at a somewhat predictable rate. The only such comparisons currently available involve Ashkenazi Jews.
Over 50 detailed samples of Ashkenazi G2c Jewish men in the Haplogroup G Project indicate that these Ashkenazis do not share common ancestors with any other G person living in Europe within the Current Era based on the number of marker values that are different. And the type of haplogroup G seen among non-Jews in eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
from where these men originated is rarely G2c. It can be deduced, for this group at least, that they very likely did not share post-Roman era ancestry with the non-Jewish population of eastern Europe.
Famous Jews within Haplogroup G
- John G. CramerJohn G. CramerJohn G. Cramer is a professor of physics at the University of Washington in Seattle, the United States. When not teaching, he works with the STAR detector at the new Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the particle accelerator at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland...
(b. 1934)
- Physicist and author.
- James FranciscusJames FranciscusJames Grover Franciscus was an American actor, known for his roles in the series The Naked City and The Investigators, and in feature films.-Life and career:...
(1934–1991)
- James Franciscus
- Leading American film and television actor.
- Newton Minow (b. 1926)
- Former Chairman of the United States Federal Communications CommissionFederal Communications CommissionThe Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
(FCC) and Chairman of the Public Broadcasting ServicePublic Broadcasting ServiceThe Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
(PBS).
See also
- genetic genealogyGenetic genealogyGenetic genealogy is the application of genetics to traditional genealogy. Genetic genealogy involves the use of genealogical DNA testing to determine the level of genetic relationship between individuals.-History:...
- Haplogroup G (Y-DNA) Country by CountryHaplogroup G (Y-DNA) Country by CountryIn human genetics, Haplogroup G is a Y-chromosome haplogroupNone of the sampling done by research studies shown here would qualify as true random sampling, and thus any percentages of haplogroup G provided country by country are only rough approximations of what would be found in the full population...
- Y-chromosomal AaronY-chromosomal AaronY-chromosomal Aaron is the name given to the hypothesised most recent common ancestor of many of the patrilineal Jewish priestly caste known as Kohanim . In the Torah, this ancestor is identified as Aaron, the brother of Moses...