The Ultimate Ancestor.

When I envisaged this post last night, I was simply going to make it an easy, simple little table of the L haplogroup variants on my Y Chromosome. I had a few problems with that, and therefore consulted for a while with Google Gemini AI. Before I knew it, my post grew and grew. I know that I have a particular kind of mind. One that hyper-focuses, sees patterns in data, and buries itself into whatever science, history, or nature that currently catches my attention. As this blog is intended only for me to enjoy making my observations, I shouldn't be apologizing.

Gemini helped me a little with organising the dating, and contexts of the yDNA. When I was happy with it, I then felt that the beginning of the story was far older than yDNA Adam, and therefore I asked it to add some information on earlier human evolution. But then that wasn't enough, because humans are only the recent end of just one lineage of life, so I asked it to add the story of Life on Earth. But then I knew that wasn't enough. You see, we are star dust. We see ourselves as selves. As individuals that matter the most. We make our own ego. Yet all life is entwined, and interdependent. Every several years, every cell in our body is replaced. Even as an individual I am no more than a chain of events, a process rather than a thing. A small percentage of my bodyweight isn't even the same species - it belongs to countless micro-organisms of a biome. We are also a lichen,

We interbeing not only with life, but with the universe. The matter in the fingers that punch this keyboard have been a part of other lifeforms before me. My existence has consequence for everything. Enough of the profound thoughts, let me get this list of my process down:

Part 1. The Cosmic Dawn: From Big Bang to Earth

  • ​The Big Bang (Birth of the Universe)

    • ​Age: c.\ 13.8 Billion Years Ago
      ​Context: Infinitely dense and hot energy expands aggressively. In mere fractions of a second, the universe grows from smaller than an atom to massive proportions.

  • ​The Cosmic Dark Ages & The First Stars

    • ​Age: c.\ 13.6 Billion Years Ago
      ​Context: After the initial flash, the universe goes pitch black for millions of years. Eventually, gravity pulls hydrogen and helium gas together, igniting the very first stars and flooding the universe with light.

  • ​The "Cooking" of the Elements

    • ​Age: c.\ 13.2 to 5.7 Billion Years Ago
      ​Context: Generations of massive stars live and die. Inside their burning cores, they fuse simple hydrogen into carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and iron. When they die in violent supernova explosions, they blast this "stardust" out into the void.

  • ​Formation of the Milky Way & Solar System

    • ​Age: c.\ 4.6 Billion Years Ago
      ​Context: A massive cloud of floating stardust and gas collapses under its own gravity. At the center, our Sun ignites. The leftover swirling debris clumps together to form the planets, including Earth.

  • ​The Young, Violent Earth

    • ​Age: c.\ 4.3 to 4.5 Billion Years Ago
      ​Context: Earth is a molten ball of fire. A Mars-sized planet slams into it, blasting debris into space that becomes our Moon. As the planet cools, water vapor condenses to form the first oceans.

Part 2: The Spark of Life to Early Animals

​Hypothesis 1: The "Warm Little Pond" (Primordial Soup)

  • ​Age: c. 4 to 4.2 Billion Years Ago

  • ​Context: Pioneered by Oparin and Haldane, and later tested by the famous Miller-Urey experiment. This theory suggests that lightning or solar radiation struck shallow tidal pools filled with simple chemicals, sparking the formation of amino acids and the building blocks of life.

​Hypothesis 2: Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents ("Iron-Sulphur World")

  • ​Age: c. 4 to 4.2 Billion Years Ago

  • ​Context: Many scientists now believe life didn't start at the sunny surface, but in the pitch black of the deep ocean floor. Alkaline hydrothermal vents provided the perfect combination of heat, continuous chemical flow, and microscopic rock pockets that acted as the world's first "cell membranes."

​Hypothesis 3: The RNA World

  • ​Age: c. 3.8 to 4 Billion Years Ago

  • ​Context: In modern life, DNA holds the instructions, but proteins do all the work. It's a classic chicken-and-egg problem. This hypothesis suggests that RNA—which can both store information and cause chemical reactions—was the original master molecule that predated both DNA and proteins.

​The LUCA (Last Universal Common Ancestor)

  • ​Age: c. 3.8 Billion Years Ago

  • ​Context: Not the first living thing, but the single-celled organism from which all bacteria, trees, animals, and humans ultimately descend. It already used DNA and the same genetic code we use today!

​The Great Oxidation Event (The Oxygen Catastrophe)

  • ​Age: c. 2.4 Billion Years Ago

  • ​Context: Early Earth had almost no free oxygen. Then, a group of bacteria (cyanobacteria) developed photosynthesis and started dumping oxygen into the atmosphere as a waste product. This wiped out most anaerobic life on Earth but paved the way for complex, oxygen-breathing organisms.

​The First Complex Cells (Eukaryotes)

  • ​Age: c. 1.8 Billion Years Ago

  • ​Context: Simple bacterial life trades in its simple structure for complexity. Cells develop a protected nucleus to hold DNA and absorb the free-living bacteria that become mitochondria (the cell's power plants), giving cells the massive energy boost needed to become multi-cellular.

​Part 3: The Deep Time Journey to Humanity

​The Dawn of Animals (Early Metazoans)

  • ​Age: c. 750 Million Years Ago

  • ​Context: Single-celled organisms begin clumping together to form the very first multi-cellular animals.

​The "Cambrian Explosion" (The Bilaterians)

  • ​Age: c. 530 Million Years Ago

  • ​Context: A massive burst of evolutionary creativity. Creatures develop bilateral symmetry (a distinct front, back, left, and right side) and the first true eyes, shells, and nervous systems appear in the oceans.

​Life Walks on Land (Tetrapods)

  • ​Age: c. 380 Million Years Ago

  • ​Context: Fish with strong, lobe-like fins begin adapting to breathing air and hauling themselves out of the water, becoming the ancestors of all land-dwelling vertebrates.

​The Mammal-Like Reptiles (Synapsids)

  • ​Age: c. 310 Million Years Ago

  • ​Context: Long before the famous dinosaurs, a group of reptiles branches off. They begin developing larger brains, specialized teeth, and a more upright posture—setting the stage for true mammals.

​The First True Mammals

  • ​Age: c. 210 Million Years Ago

  • ​Context: Living in the literal shadows of the dinosaurs, tiny shrew-like creatures emerge. They are warm-blooded, have fur, and produce milk to feed their young.

​The Dawn of the Y Chromosome

  • ​Age: c. 180 Million Years Ago

  • ​Context: A normal chromosome in early mammals mutates to hold the SRY gene, creating the very first Y chromosome and starting the paternal line we track today.

​The Asteroid & The Rise of Primates

  • ​Age: c. 66 Million Years Ago

  • ​Context: A massive asteroid impacts Earth, wiping out the non-avian dinosaurs. With the giant reptiles gone, small tree-dwelling mammals flourish, leading quickly to the first true primates.

​The Great Apes (Hominidae)

  • ​Age: c. 15 to 20 Million Years Ago

  • ​Context: Primates in Africa branch off into a group of large, tailless primates with larger brains and complex social structures. This group includes the ancestors of gorillas, orangutans, humans, and chimpanzees.

​The Split with Pan (Chimpanzees)

  • ​Age: c. 6.2 Million Years Ago

  • ​Context: Our lineage officially separates from the ancestors of chimpanzees and bonobos. These early hominins began moving out of the dense forests.

​The Dawn of Bipedalism (Australopithecus)

  • ​Age: c. 4 Million Years Ago

  • ​Context: Early human ancestors like the famous "Lucy" fossil are walking upright on two legs full-time, freeing up hands for carrying things and early tool use.

​The First of the Genus Homo (Homo habilis)

  • ​Age: c. 2.4 Million Years Ago

  • ​Context: The "Handy Man" emerges. Brain sizes increase significantly, and the intentional crafting of stone tools becomes a primary survival strategy.

​Mastery of Fire & Global Travel (Homo erectus)

  • ​Age: c. 1.9 Million Years Ago

  • ​Context: Body proportions become just like modern humans. They master fire, adapt to cooking food, and become the first human ancestors to expand out of Africa into Asia and Europe.

​The Common Ancestor with Neanderthals (Homo heidelbergensis)

  • ​Age: c. 600,000 Years Ago

  • ​Context: A large-brained human ancestor that lived in both Africa and Europe. The European populations eventually evolved into Neanderthals, while the African populations led to us.

​Anatomically Modern Humans Emerge (Homo sapiens)

  • ​Age: c. 300,000 Years Ago

  • ​Context: Humans who look physically identical to us today are now walking the earth in Africa.

​The "Y-Chromosomal Aaron" (Root of all Y-DNA)

  • ​Age: c. 230,000 to 270,000 Years Ago

​Context: This is the theoretical single male in Africa who passed down the Y-chromosome that all living men carry today.


​Part 4: Paternal Lineage & TMRCA Timeline

yDNA Variants

​A01

  • ​Age: 125,500 YBP (c. 123,550 BCE)

  • ​Context: Africa. The root of all human paternal lines.

​F

  • ​Age: 42,500 YBP (c. 40,550 BCE)

  • ​Context: Southwest Asia. Parent of most non-African lines.

​LT

  • ​Age: 37,050 YBP (c. 35,100 BCE)

  • ​Context: West Asia. Paleolithic hunter-gatherers.

​L / M20

  • ​Age: 20,100 YBP (18,150 BCE)

  • ​Context: Caucasus to Iranian Plateau. In Ice Age refuges of West Asia. The birth of the L super-clade. LGM Ice Age Hunter-gatherers.

​M317

  • ​Age: 11,050 YBP (9,100 BCE)

  • ​Context: Eastern Fertile Crescent. Controlling wild herds of ibex, mouflon. Gathering wild cereals.

​SK1412

  • ​Age: 10,050 YBP (8,050 BCE)

  • ​Context: Zagros (Iran) foothills and valleys. Early Neolithic Farmer population herding and cultivating cereals.

​FGC51074 / SK1414

  • ​Age: 7,800 YBP (5,880 BCE)

  • ​Context: Branching out to Anatolia, Caucasus, Near East, Iranian Plain, Gedrosia, and Indus Valley, but my specific line possibly remained in the Zagros region.

​FGC51041

  • ​Age: 7,130 YBP (5,180 BCE)

  • ​Context: Early Copper Age expansion. If still in Zagros region, likely in contact with Elamite, Indus Valley, and Sumerian civilizations. Exploiting soils of floodplains for agriculture 

​FGC51040

  • ​Age: 6,000 YBP (4,050 BCE)

  • ​Context: West Asia. Continued Copper Age movements. Possible link to Assyrians, Hurrians and Mittani dispersals.

​FGC51036

  • ​Age: 3,130 YBP (c. 1,180 BCE)

  • ​Context: End of Bronze Age. Anatolia, Levant or Mediterranean. Greek world?

​Arrival in England

  • ​Age: 600 YBP (c. 1350–1400 CE)

  • ​Context: Late Medieval period; potential entry into Britain. Most likely through the port of Southampton. Suspect Genoese or Venetian galleys. My yDNA ancestor may have been recruited as a crewman from the Levant.

​Brooker / Chandler split

  • ​Age: 400 YBP (c. 1550–1600 CE)

  • ​Context: England. Tudor era. Surnames become solidly fixed. Suspect that the surname split between Chandler and Brooker occurred around the area of Basingstoke, Sherfield Upon Loddon, or Kingsclere in Hampshire, England.

​Recorded genealogy

  • ​Age: 277 years ago (1749 CE)

  • ​Context: Clear paper records begin. My 6x great-grandfather, John Brooker, married Ann Gardiner at Oxford College while residing at Long Wittenham, Berkshire, England. Copyhold farmer on open fields held by St Johns college, Oxford.

​Relocation to Oxfordshire

  • ​Age: 211 years ago (1815 CE)

  • ​Context: My 4x great-grandfather John Brooker takes the yDNA from Long Wittenham to the Rotherfield Peppard, Shiplake, Harpsden, and Henley areas of Oxfordshire. Agricultural labourer.

​Relocation to London

  • ​Age: 144 years ago (1883 CE)

  • ​Context: My 2x great-grandfather Henry Brooker takes the yDNA from Harpsden, Oxfordshire to Fulham, Bethnal Green, Deptford, and then Lewisham, London. Cart driver.

​Relocation to Norfolk

  • ​Age: 120 years ago (1906 CE)

  • ​Context: The yDNA is taken to Norfolk with my grandfather Reginald John Brooker. Labourer.

​My Birth

  • ​Age: 60+ years ago

  • ​Context: I am born.

​The DNA Test

  • ​Age: 10 years ago (2016 CE)

  • ​Context: I took a DNA test and discovered my terminal yDNA branch was L-FGC51036, linking our personal story back through the thousands of generations listed above!

The Origins of Henry Shawers - revealed!

Above image of my ancestor Johannes Heinrich Sherz aka Henry Shawers, visualised by Google Gemini AI

Forty years ago I bought a marriage certificate for my great great grandparents, Henry Brooker and Elizabeth Rosina Shawers. There were no 'online' genealogical services then, and in order to find this certificate, I had to personally reference the paper indexes at the registry office in London, and order the paper certificate there. I thought that 'Shawers' was an unusual name, and suspected Huguenot. As bride, she declared on the certificate that her father was a narrow weaver named Henry Shawers. I later found out that a narrow weaver, was a lace weaver, who specialised in making fine lace e.g. for collars and sleeves. Over the forty years, I continued to make occasional attempts to learn more about Henry:

https://paulbrooker.posthaven.com/henry-shawers-a-weaver-in-the-tree

I discovered that he was actually a Swiss-born immigrant, and that he was illiterate, only about 163 cm tall, slight, fair, with blue-grey eyes. But I never could find anything about his Swiss roots. Not his first language, canton, etc. All that I knew was that on record the original names of himself and his father (John Shawers, coppersmith) had been anglicised.  To help my search, I built a life time-line for him here:

https://paulbrooker.posthaven.com/henry-shawers-timeline-of-an-ancestor

I had an immigration record of a Henry Shawers from the 11th August 1852, as a passenger on the Lord Warden, that disembarked at Folkestone docks. I found him in prison records and on a census. But no Swiss roots.

Well, AI has helped me to change that situation!

I am now proud to announce that our ancestor Henry Shawers, was born on 26th July 1827 at Köniz, Bern, Switzerland as Johannes Heinrich Sherz, son of Johannes Sherz and his wife nee Rosina Zürcher. Their first language was most probably Bernese Deutsch, and Canton was Bern.

Gemini AI has proposed further ancestry for my Swiss 4th great grandparents, but on that, I am hesitant to claim without discovering more evidence for myself. Gemini has portrayed social decline in recent centuries for the Swiss family in the countryside close to Bern. Napoleonic wars, Independence, civil strife between political fractions. This followed by the price competition of goods being factory manufactured in British cities, and finally, by a potato blight and the 'Hungry Forties'. This was the background to Johannes aka 'Henry' applying for a permit to emigrate, found in the Bernese District Records (Amtsbezirk Bern) from late 1851:

​Status: Heinrich Scherz, born 1827, weaver. ​Action: Granted a Wegzugsurkunde (Departure Deed). ​Context: The record implies he was traveling "nach England." This perfectly aligns with your August 1852 arrival on the Lord Warden. He likely spent the winter of 1851/52 working his way through France (Boulogne) before crossing to Folkestone.

Gemini also suggests why records later show him moving between London and Brighton. He was almost certainly tramping for work. I asked the AI if it would generate a portrait of my ancestor, and gave it an age, social conditions that he was living through, and a prison description. Gemini gave my the image above.

Idyllea

Egella, as visualized by Gemini AI

Another two years. Here I am again, starting over. This time things will be different. I've had to learn to let go of my past, of my old life. Living in the past is my poison. Therefore there may be an irony that I now return to my creative writing. I am working on a new manuscript. A follow up to my prior unpublished, unshared effort. Hopefully I have learned lessons. I mean that in more than one way. I have learned acceptance.

The above image represents one character in my story. She is Egella, a frog-witch of the Leva. You can see, she isn't of our age. The setting of the Book is Eastern England, as it was long before it was known as such, more than 6,000 years ago. Egella is just one of the protagonists. But I can't say more than that. Already I reveal too much.

But I'm still here on Earth. 21st century.


Age of the Degeneracy - reconstructing the Late Mesolithic of Britain

Image Source - my own, taken today, of a flint blade from an old finds box. Thetford Forest. It would have been recorded as a snapped blade, possibly transitional Mesolithic-Neolithic. Now in the 21st Century I understand that this blade was strictly, Mesolithic. I no longer believe there was transition.

I've written a novel. The story provided me with an escape from unbearable life. The tale has two primary settings, both circa 6,000 years ago.  One in what is now South Iraq on the edge of the marshes where civilisation starts to take shape, and the other in South East Britain, as Mesolithic hunter-gatherers meet Neolithic farmers. It is a little play on parts of the Genesis story.

I was cut off from all Nature. I am only just now starting to reconnect. It will be a very long healing experience if I decide to maintain it. Because I'm running short of hope. I had very little access to data. I had to scrap around in order to attempt any understanding of how the Mesolithic British may have experienced life, and was left with little more than contemplation. This is how I reconstructed a fictional South-eastern British environment 6,000 years ago:

Natural Britain during the Early Holocene

Birch scrub advanced first. Followed by pine, yew, and other evergreens.  This is the Age of Star Carr. The tundra grasslands receded with this rapid advance. Temperatures increased annually. Waters began to rise.

The birch grew taller. Alder joined them. Willow and holly. Followed by oak. Lime and hazel arrived on the British peninsular of North West Europe. Wych elm, hawthorn, blackthorn then ash. In South Eastern Britain, it was the lime which dominated as the most common tree.

Tree biodiversity was actually quite limited in Late Mesolithic Britain. Because the North Sea (Doggerland), and the English Channel, flooded with thawed out glacial waters to make Britain an island, before more species could shift across any land-bridge.

Later Mesolithic SE Britain.  Wild-woods or temperate-forests?

I suspect that the term temperate rainforest should be reserved for the wetter parts of the British Isles. Particularly for the west. Across the drier south-east of Britain, I propose that it would be better to describe it as wildwood.  Even here I suspect that the ecology was incredibly rich, with mosses, lichen and fungi.  Some areas of the wildwoods were kept quite open by the actions of large wild bovines that generated their own woodland pastures. Others were more dense.

The British canopy was not continuous. Breaking it were small glades, and some larger plains. These were kept open by browsing and grazing herbivores that herded in the open - aurochs, red deer, bison, roe deer. A distinct ecology existed on these small scrubs and prairies. 

Equally there were lowland marshes and fens of reed bed with water-logged islands of alder carr. Often, belts of these ran up the riparian terraces of river valleys to provide rich habitats for birds, beavers, and pig. The rivers were clean, and ran naturally within their floodplains except for the works of beavers. Upper stretches of chalk streams would have been choked by Summer watercress. Alder and willow trees dominated the riparian belts. Banks were not cut, and rivers wider, bordered by the roots of alder, or by gravel shores. They often flowed around riverine islets and over gravel banks. Water channels changed their many courses through the marshes of deltas.

Bird-life was devoid of some species that have adapted to and follow human agriculture, but could have included some surprise species no longer in the British Isles such as black woodpecker, black stork, and European eagle owl. These in addition to species such as titmice, woodcock, wood pigeon, tawny owl, bustards, and cranes. Goshawks would have been a widespread raptor across the forests, and white tailed eagles not an uncommon site.

Mammalian predators included wolf, brown bear, lynx, fox, badgers and martens

Image Source - taken on the phone today.

I've demonstrated in recent posts that the Mesolithic hunter-foragers in Britain, most likely descended either from the Ice Age Epigravettians of Italy and South East Europe. They or / and perhaps recent arrivals from South West Asia, who had crossed a dry Aegean. A recent study of ancient genomes supported the former population.

We know that they appear from genetics to be dark skinned and possibly with light coloured eyes.  That is just a fine detail. To those people that make a deal out of it, I ask why? And I love the reconstructions of western hunter-gatherers by Tom Björklund.

What was the environment in South East Britain, 6,500 years ago? How had they adapted to the changed environment?  Their ancestors had survived the Ice age mammoth steppe. They had survived so long on the tundra.  What challenges had the Holocene's new forests thrown at them?   Their ungulate prey species had dispersed from herds in the open, and into the woods. There, they were more difficult to locate, and could quickly disappear into cover. They had less need to form large herds.  Temperate forests release a lot of their calories only during the autumn. To survive, Mesolithic hunter-foragers needed to be exceptionally intelligent. They needed to break up into smaller bands, and adapt to a forest way of life

How I portray Late Mesolithic Britons in fiction

The wild-woods may not have always been dense. Yet they would have been difficult for humans to traverse by foot. Deadwood would have laid across everywhere. Its rot fed the ecology. Moss and dead leaf-mould, deep. Some alder rain-forests would have been likely waterlogged and swamped. Walking across these environments uses a lot of calories that are otherwise precious.

It was probably easier to travel by waterway whenever possible. Although upper rivers might be seasonally clogged by growth, and beaver dams a trial. Watercraft include dugouts, but also canoes of bark or animal skin. It would have been the way to travel.

During this travelling, few people would have been encountered. The bands dispersed in order to make best use of resources. Human population was likely very sparse across Britain.

Image Source.  11,000-year-old skull headdress from Star Carr.

Food opportunities were seasonal:

Late Winter / Early Spring. Bands would have radiated out of winter encampments, hunting deer, pig, among other prey species. But these themselves were losing all winter fat. The Mesolithic people may have relied heavily on caches of roasted nuts and other preserves. Or chewed tree resin and inner bark to stave off hunger. Fish were available, through traps, nets, spears. Eel, chub, and pike. This may have been the lazy time, when they sat around hearths, preserving expensive energy.

Late Spring.  Wild greens, pignuts, tubers, flowers, cat-tails, buds, even young tree leaves of elm and hawthorn. Slow game - birds eggs and chicks. Possibly European pond turtles. Roots such as those of cat tail could be dried and ground into flour.

Summer.  I have my fictional hunter-foragers moving to the coast during summer, where they meet up with other bands for sports and social networking. There they could have foraged sea beet, sea lettuce, samphire, buckthorn berry, and shellfish. Mussels, oysters, clams, cockles, razor shells, whelks, crabs.  Perhaps hunted seals on the beaches and sea flats.  Cetaceans would have been vastly more abundant in the seas, and whales would beach, providing opportunities. Sea canoes might have provided the opportunity to fish with nets, or to hunt small cetaceans. Late summer inland, and wild berries - raspberry, mulberry, sloe, brambleberry, elderberry, buckthorn, hawthorn.  Early fungi such as puffballs, parasols, chicken-of-the-woods.

Autumn / Early Winter.  Busy squirrels and martens could be snared.  Game is now at its fattest.  The salmon run on more British rivers than today.  But this would also be a time for foraging nuts and seeds. The hazel-nut may have almost been a staple, at least as a preserve.  It would have been roasted. It can be ground into flour to make bread and biscuits. Acorns were also abundant. They could be rinsed and soaked to remove excessive tannins, then added to flours. Pine nuts if many of their trees remained in South East Britain. Wild grass seeds could be harvested.  Beech probably arrived with the Neolithic. I imagine the small camps being busy at this time of year, processing acorns and nuts to be cached as food reserves. Edible fungi including bollettes, ceps, chanterelles, deceivers, and many more will carpet the wildwoods.

Image Source. Aurochs in a wild wood.

The dark honeybee was most probably abundant in the lime tree forests. I’m sure that their hives in dead trees would have been exploited for honey and wax. The honey could be eaten, or used to make mead - perhaps adding some berries for yeast. Birch and tree sap could also be enjoyed, and fermented to make alcohol. Hallucinogenic mushrooms would have been exploited. The beeswax would also be added to tree resins to make their glues.

Favoured prey species for hunting would have been the red deer, also roe deer, wild boar, aurochs (enormous wild cattle), European bison if they remained, tarpan / wild horse, fox, badger, beaver, etc. Bird species on the menu probably included geese, ducks, cranes, swans, bustards, wood pigeons, turtle doves, woodcock, snipe, etc.  My savages had the domestic dog, but it is a laika-type, that does not bark. It is useful for tracking prey by scent. Dogs also provide companionship and warmth in a den.

The belief system that I designed for my fictional savages was animist. The sense of self, and of afterlife, is projected onto everything natural - prey, trees, tools, the forest, and otherwise. Areas of natural resources became sacred. My fictional savages had female shamans, and were matrilineal. Celebrations and feasts would be frequent. They would engage in sports.  I also suggested some ritual cannibalism, if only to prevent the ghosts of enemies from extracting revenge on the living. I portrayed them as very egalitarian, with little personal property, and no chieftains. But they had different roles for either gender, and the elders were respected.

My fictional savages have a totem-identity, but I'm not sure that would have been the case. Again, my choice was to tie them to local nations set into a larger territory called a wilderness. These nations I divided into smaller more practically sized family bands. None of this is based on any strong anthropological evidence, and was entirely my own creativity.  In reality, bands could have had a wider more homogeneous identity, and ranged wider across the British Isles, free of tribal territorial restrictions. Yet I see this as leading to conflict.

Birth rate in my savages was controlled by extended nursing and delayed weaning in comparison to the Neolithic farmers. This reduced fertility. Otherwise competition would grow for limited natural resources, and local prey extinctions. Conflict between bands would follow as an ultimate population control.

Have I romanticised my Mesolithic Britons? Absolutely I have. I am envious of their freedoms, their relationship with Nature. I see progress as degenerative. 


That is how I creatively wrote the British Late Mesolithic.

Western Hunter-Gatherers - the European Mesolithic

The final in my series exploring the hunter-gatherer cultures of modern humans within Western Eurasia. First I briefly looked at Apidima fossils as evidence that modern traits had been in Europe from an early date. With the Aurignacians, I investigated the earliest known modern human culture in Europe. With the Gravettians, I learned about how hunter-gatherers adapted in the lead up, and into the Last Glacial Maximum How they divided into the Solutrean Culture of Iberia and France in the west; and with the Pavlovian and Epigravettian Cultures of Italy, Czech and the East. With the Magdalenians I discovered how they burst back following Last Glacial Maximum, and through the warmer Bølling–Allerød interstadial.

Above image is my own. Years ago, I recorded several flint microblade waste cores, of which the above wasn't the most regular or impressive. But it's a photo that I could still resource. These artefacts, along with a tranchet axe-head and a few microliths that I recorded, were Mesolithic. I thought that it would be nice if I could bring this series to a close with something, a bit more personal.

Genetics

Let me first sum up the whole Upper Palaeolithic story according to Ancient DNA.

We have established that the Aurignacians had descended from Basal Eurasian (in South West  Asia or further north among descendants?) when they split from ANE (Ancient North Eurasian). An early expansion into Western Europe first occurred circa 43,000 years ago, but a volcanic event in Italy may have terminated this occupation, with it resuming afresh circa 37,000 years ago.  They had since admixed with Neanderthals, and on average had 4-5% Neanderthal DNA with long segments. Neanderthals were likely still present in Western Europe, when the Aurignacians arrived there.

Through all of these Upper Palaeolithic cultures, prey species, conditions, and temperatures varied across the entire Eurasian range, with woodlands sometimes forming in Iberia, as opposed the the great Mammoth Steppe further east. Consequently, cultures and perhaps genomes divided into western and eastern blocks over time.

After 33,000 years ago, the Gravettians arrive from the North East, to replace the Aurignacians. Pushed by worsening climatic conditions, they also divided into west and east. Some descendants or relatives of the Aurignacians must have still been surviving, for Genetic studies suggest that during this period of stress, that the original Gravettians were in turn replaced by people who had more Aurignacian-like DNA. The technology and the artefact culture did not evidence this reversal of population.

Last Glacial Maximum passes, and 17,000 years ago, the Magdalenian Culture arises. The population behind this change were not so much the Solutrean of the west, but the people of the Epigravettian of Italy and the East. And they carry Aurignacian DNA. Very late, the Creswellian Culture develops in Britain, along with the Hamburgian around 12,000 to 10,000 years ago.

That brings me up to date with the Western Hunter-Gatherers and the approach of the Holocene.

WHG as a genetic component

So which of these groups did this component descend from?

Chasing this up brings me back to:


In this study, the authors found that WHG ancestry could be located into the Epigravettian genome. That hunter-gatherers had moved up primarily from the eastern and southern refugia to reach places like Britain.

WHG haplogroups so far identified

yDNA are I2a1 (I-M26) and R1b1a1a (R-M7)
mtDNA are U (mainly U5, U2 and U4)

Were the Earlier Mesolithic people of Britain related to those associated with the Creswellian points? Possibly. Or they could represent a fresh migration most likely not from the recently dominating Magdaenian Culture, but from the descendants of the earlier Epigravettian of SE Europe, possibly with admixture from  fresh populations crossing a dry Aegean from SW Asia:

Wikipedia:

The WHG displayed higher affinity for ancient and modern Middle Eastern populations when compared against earlier Paleolithic Europeans such as Gravettians. The affinity for ancient Middle Eastern populations in Europe increased after the Last Glacial Maximum, correlating with the expansion of WHG (Villabruna or Oberkassel) ancestry. There is also evidence for bi-directional geneflow between WHG and Middle Eastern populations as early as 15,000 years ago.

The WHG of Western Europe is sometimes referred to as the Villabruna or Oberkassel Cluster. They attracted public attention, when analysis of their DNA revealed that they were genetically likely to have had dark hair, and dark skin, with some individuals probably having light coloured, even blue eyes.  Dark skin was likely to have been a feature of earlier, Upper Palaeolithic fore-bearers. Despite low UVR levels, they found other ways of dealing with poor vitamin D production. Their diet may have compensated for the low UVR.

Image Source. Photo by Werner Ustorf (Flickr). Cheddar Man reconstruction.

A separate population appeared in Eastern Europe, defined as EHG (Eastern Hunter-Gatherer) and an SHG (Scandinavian Hunter-Gatherer) admixed between the two groups.

Image Source. Map of distribution for WHG genetic cluster across Europe.

Mesolithic Europe

These were the last of the European hunter-foragers who needed to adapt to climatic and environmental changes of the Holocene period. The Younger Dryas (12,900 to 11,700 years before present) represented a return of bitterly cold conditions before the rapid commencement of the Holocene. See the below trend in temperatures. Temperatures in Greenland rose by 10 C in only a decade.

Image Source.  Evolution of temperature in the Post-Glacial period according to Greenland ice cores (Younger Dryas)

Flora change followed this rapid rise in annual temperatures. During the Earlier Mesolithic, tundra grasslands were gradually replaced by birch scrub, followed by forest. Species to reach Britain included birch, alder, pine, and alder. During the Later Mesolithic, temperatures continued to rise. Lime (Linden), hazel, hawthorn, blackthorn, ash, elm / wych elm, followed. Beech probably didn't arrive until the end of the Mesolithic period. It had previously been speculated that Late Mesolithic lowland Britain would have been covered by one continuous wildwood canopy. However, pollen analysis has suggested some areas of open grassland, possibly kept open by the ruminations of large herbivores such as aurochs (wild cattle), bison, red deer, and roe deer. There has been some suggestion that the hunter-gatherers may have been managing these areas, and extending them with fire. This may have improved the regeneration of hazel (hazel nut was likely to have been a very important food source), and better, more open hunting conditions, where ungulates herd together in the open.

Lithics

The knapped flint and stone tools of the Mesolithic are largely characterised by the production of very small blades known as microliths. These would often be notched into small geometric shapes. Arrows were likely composite, with a microlith point, and small microlith barbs being glued and / or bound along the shaft behind that point. Microliths may have had further uses as microburins (piercers or borers for hide clothing etc) or as scalpel blades for working wood, bone, and antler. A further stone tool associated with this period is the Mesolithic tranchet axe head.

A tranchet axe head that I recorded during my surveying years.

Antler working

Star Carr is a well known archaeological site in North Yorkshire that dates to between 11,280, and 10,500 years before present. This places it shortly after the end of the Younger Dryas during the Earlier Mesolithic.

Image Source.  Star Carr collection at Yorkshire museum - mesolithic spear tips from the earliest known post glacial settlement in England. Star Carr has become the type site for the NW European Earlier Mesolithic.

Magdalenian - out of the Big Freeze

Image Source.  Bison Licking Insect Bite; 15,000–13,000 BC; antler; National Museum of Prehistory (Les Eyzies-de-Tayac-Sireuil, France).

The Magdalenian Culture of Palaeolithic Europe follows the big freeze of the Last Glacial Maximum and dates from 17,000 to 12,000 years ago. Climatic conditions continued to remain grim, but a warmer interstadial known as the Bølling–Allerød, lasted between 14,690 and 12,890 years ago. The Magdalenian first appears in France, where it is contemporary with the Epigravettian Culture of Italy and further east. The founder population of the Magdalenian descends from earlier West European groups, including West Gravettian / Solutrean, and Western Aurignacian.

Image Source. Photo by Karl Steel (Flickr).

Magdalenian yDNA haplogroups so far discovered are I, and one HIJK

Magdelanian  mtDNA haplogroups all U (several U8b and one U5b).


One cluster at El Muron was found to be related to West European Aurignacians of the Goyet caves of Belgium, from 20,000 years earlier, supporting that the Magdalenians were descended from earlier Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers of western Europe. However, later Western Hunter-Gatherers of the Mesolithic, were closer related to the more south eastern groups of the Epigravettian Culture.

Image Source. Flint blades from Grottes de Labastide.

Long, regular blades were struck from prepared, carinated cores. Later phases are associated with harpoons made of antler, ivory, and bone. Main prey species on the Continent was reindeer, although other groups such as those in Britain, focused on tarpan (horse). Red deer and ibex were also targeted. One study found little evidence of salmon nor saiga antelope in the diet of a Magdalenian woman. Another study has found evidence of consumption of wild plants and bolete mushrooms.

Diet of Upper Paleolithic Modern Humans: Evidence From Microwear Texture Analysis. AJPA 2014. Zaatari and Hublin.

This study found that the diet of Magdalenians was more varied, with more abrasive foods than those of earlier hunter-gatherers in Europe.

Image Source. Reproductions of some Lascaux artworks in Lascaux II.

Magdalenian Britain

Kent's Cavern

Image Source. Gough's Cave skull potentially evidencing cannibalism

The Cannibals of Gough's Cave.

Just as the climate began to improve circa 14,700 years ago, some Magdalenians sheltered in Gough's Cave Somerset. Batons and tools were left within, along with horse bones and human remains. Tarpan seem to have been their main prey, and they may have been following the horse herds north into Britain as the climate improved. The human bones had been treated in much the same way as the bones of food prey. Cut marks and incisions suggest that they were stripped of flesh, and this discovery has led to much debate about possible cannibalism. Human crania appear to have been modified into drinking cups:

'The skulls were scrupulously cleaned of soft tissue shortly after death. Marks show cutting of the lips, cheeks and tongue, and extraction of the eyes.

Then the bones of the face and the base of the skull were carefully removed. Finally the cranial vaults were meticulously shaped into cups.'

It has been suggested that a British Late Magdalenian Culture existed, called the Creswellian Technology, dating 12,000 to 10,000 years before present that is similar to a Hamburgian Culture on the Continent.