Behind the prehistoric Irish

2000/03/28 Roa Zubia, Guillermo - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Genetika
• Historia
• Giza zientziak

Two groups of researchers from Ireland and England have come together to analyze something that is unusual in the field of genetics. His goal is to know the arrival of prehistoric man in Ireland. They have used Y chromosomes and surnames of people. The Y chromosomes left by the parent to your child are analyzed in a laboratory. But it is more difficult to secure the origin of surnames, but so far it has been a masculine heritage.

Nine groups of different haplotaris (groups of genetic changes) related to specific locations are known worldwide. One of them, haplotalde 1 (hg1), is common in Ireland. 78.1% of the island population has these genetic characteristics to a greater or lesser extent.

Distribution within Ireland

To classify the origins of the samples, Ireland has been divided into the seven best-known territories of the seven surname cohorts. Four of them are prehistoric, of Gaelic origin (Ulster, Munster, Leinster and Connaught). The other three are influenced by historical migrations (Scottish, Norman and English).

Western samples (Gaelic) have a higher frequency of the hg1 group than oriental ones. Those in the territory of Connaught, that is, the western boundaries between them, had a frequency of 98%. When duplicate surnames are not taken into account, the same results are obtained.

This frequency change has also been analyzed in European samples. The result is similar, that is, an increase from east to west in the hg1 group from Turkey (1.8%) to Euskal Herria (89% to the south). The migrations of Neolithic farmers from the Middle East explain this European gradient.

The hg1 groups of samples of the Irish Gaelic peoples have many similarities and therefore it can be considered that they all had the same anchor. However, the part outside the hg1 group does not have that consistency. These fragments are less abundant in samples from eastern Irish countries. You probably have to look for the cause in GM flows at the latest.

From all these findings it can be deduced that the haplotalde originating from Ireland is hg1. Knowing this and, of course, collecting much more data, you can calculate when the genotype is "when", that is, when it was unchanged. Researchers estimate that hg1 is 4,200 years ago. This data is in accordance with the idea of Ireland's 9,000 year history. There are errors, of course, and also those due to the degree of accuracy of the methodology itself. However, large prehistoric migrations were favoured by agriculture. Therefore, it can be encouraged when the development of agriculture took place in Europe or at least approached through this type of research. From the point of view of the origins of peoples and cultures, we also open a small window.