G in the Paleolithic Period

Haplogroup G In The Old Stone Age

Compiled by Todd Paradine
(Last edited April 2021)

*This text is always under construction - the firm conclusions of today are the obsolete ponderings of yesterday*
Please direct any comments, concerns, and criticisms to me at paradinet@yahoo.com

Over 50,000 years ago, a group of roughly 50-100 hunter gatherers, whose male members bore the Y chromosome mutation G-M201, began a migration that would ultimately see its descendants out of Africa.  The group, likely pushed by extreme climactic events and the availability of food, reached the fertile land of the Levant around 40,000 BC.  There they would have found an advantageous area where fish, animal life, and wild grains were prevalent.  A range of wild barley and wild emmer wheat stretched from the southern levant, northward in an arch towards Anatolia and then west towards the Zagros mountains.  

To understand where Haplogroup G could possibly fit into the cultural/archeological strata at the end of the Middle Paleolithic Period (more commonly known as the Stone Age), we have to take a look at the dominant archeological cultures that spanned this period of time.  Archeological cultures during the Middle Stone Age are basically defined as repeated findings of similarly created artifacts (mostly stone tools) in geographically relatable areas.

The first culture relevant to our examination in the Levant was the Mousterian archaeological complex.  This style of stone tools seems to have been primarily developed by Neanderthal peoples.  This period begins to fade from Europe by approximately 50,000 BC, possibly providing a time frame for the arrival of modern humans to the continent.  Evidence in Israel demonstrates that both Neanderthals and modern humans were associated with Mousterian artifacts in the Levant.  This illustrates that early modern humans may have borrowed some techniques from the Neanderthals  while still retaining many of their own traditional techniques.

This paved the way for a transitional technique between 50,000-40,000 BC known as the Emiran in the Levant, and the Bohunician in Europe.  Next in the Levant was the Ahmarian complex with longer, more curved blades dating from about 46,000-42,000 BC.  It is plausible that before Haplogroup G’s theorized arrival, groups of modern humans had already made their way to the Levant (possibly by way of Egypt) out-competing and in some cases interbreeding with the Neanderthal tribes already living there.  A similar result would have occurred in Europe as well.  It is important to remember that the Haplogroups known to us today represent a fraction of the nomadic hunter gatherer males who navigated across the Paleolithic world. 

In some ways, the Levant may have acted like a narrow straw or tube bounded by arid land on one side and the Mediterranean on the other.  Whatever forces came from the bottom or south may have exerted pressure pushing groups up and out of the top or northern end.  Groups coming from the south would have either assimilated, replaced, or displaced pre-existing groups.  In the case of displacement, pre-existing groups may have felt pressured to migrate north, “up the tube” into Northern Syria and Anatolia due to the arrival of new peoples.  

Groups of Haplogroup G may have reached the Levant at the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic period and by 40,000 BC had begun to assimilate and disperse earlier groups living in the area.  The  Levanto-Aurignacian culture is a prime candidate to be associated with the men of Haplogroup G due to the corresponding time-frame and geographical location.  The Levanto-Aurignacian complex was prevalent in the Levant from about 39,000–24,000 BC.  This culture is connected with more sophisticated bone needles, points, and tools for punching holes like the ones shown here; found in a cave in Israel dating to around 30,000 BC.  During the period The Late Aurignacian culture is also known as the Antelian culture and spread its influence as far north as Southern Anatolia (Atlitan culture).  By about 25,000 BC, Haplogroup G seemed to have enjoyed some population success. 

According to The Levantine Aurignacian: a closer look, a paper by John K. Williams, “The advantageous climate of this time period allowed the population pressures on prehistoric groups to be offset by intensifying already-existing subsistence strategies.” Therefore, the mobility of the G Hunter Gatherers may have decreased during this period; in a sense the fruits of the land may have halted what would have been relatively 20,000 years on the move.

Some scholars argue that the Levantine Aurignacian which I associated with Haplogroup G in this exercise, did not come from the south as I have proposed, but from a more commonly known, but separate, Aurignacian culture that appeared in Europe a few thousand years earlier which seems to have developed in the same fashion.

In his paper, Williams also notes “that the title “Aurignacian” has...an implied association with early modern human culture, spread throughout the Old World through diffusion or migration.” “The problem,” he notes, “is that in the Levant, the Aurignacian arrives some five to ten thousand years later than the Initial Upper Paleolithic.”  The Aurignacian tool set wasn’t necessarily superior, in its advantage when it arrived, he noted, but what is of most interest to scholars is the question of how it is found in areas as far apart as southwest France and the eastern Mediterranean.  Such a question is beyond the scope of this study, Williams concludes.  

It is also possible that cultural diffusion from the European Aurignacian entered the Levant from the north around the same time Haplogroup G arrived from the south.  However, this scenario is not the only plausible one.

This advent of the Aurignacian in Europe seems to indicate the arrival of groups related to G such as Haplogroup C and others arriving in Europe.  It stands to reason groups like that of Haplogroup C and Haplogroup G, while taking vastly different paths, still had much in common from their shared early modern human ancestry.  After all, they were both descendants of Eurasian Adam.  While separated by 30,000 years, perhaps some of the ancestral technologies remained somewhat consistent, thus influencing the native cultural complexes in a similar fashion in Europe and the Levant.  Thus the Aurignacian arrived in Europe born by Haplogroup C and others while in the Levant it was championed by men made up in some part of Haplogroup G.

Around 24,000 BC, the climate in the Levant temporarily grew colder and dryer.  Haplogroups G1 and G2 were founded about 23,000 BC.  G1 may have been the northern branch of the range, while G2 may have lived to the south.  These groups were semi-sedentary foragers who knew how to take advantage of wild grains such as Emmer Wheat and Barley that grew in the area as well as to hunt wild game successfully.  By around 20,000 BC we see evidence of the use of the bow and arrow, the domestication of the dog, and the use of grinding stones to harvest wild grains, this early culture is called the Kebaran culture.  Some speculate this culture may have been brought about by newcomers to the area, while others believe it was diffused (or learned) from earlier cultures of Egypt and other areas of Africa.

It is the “up the tube” theory that may explain the northern exit events concerning the predominantly G1 and G2 groups.  Climactic factors may have pressured G2 North, which in turn pressured the G1 men out of the Levant and into the valleys of Northern Syria beginning around 18,000 BC.  As these groups migrated, they followed the arch of Emmer Wheat and Barley and thus were able to continue their pre-farming lifestyles which relied on harvesting on the reliable growth of certain grains as well as hunting and gathering.

The initial G1 group or tribe consisted of several G1 and G2 subclades [Yfull v9.01.00]: 

• G1B-L830: formed 16,400 BC, TMRCA 6,200 BC

• G1A-CTS11562 formed 16,400 BC, TMRCA 16,400 BC 

• G2B2-FGC3095: formed 17,500 BC, TMRCA 16,500 BC 

• G2B2A-Y37100: formed 16,500 BC, TMRCA 12,300 BC

• G2A2B1-FGC2964: formed 12,300 BC, TMRCA 800 BC

The G2 group or tribe consisted of  [Yfull v9.01.00]:

• G2A-P15: formed 18,600 BC, TMRCA 16,200 BC

• G2A1-Z6552: formed 16,200 BC, TMRCA 14,300 BC

• G2A2:L1259: formed 16200 BC, TMRCA 14700 BC

• G2B2A-Y37100 Formed 16,500 BC, TMRCA 12,300 BC

Starting around 15,000 BCE, the Natufians arrived in the Levant from the south.  Their influence would gradually extend throughout the entire Levantine regions from 12,500–9,500 BC.  It is the Natufians who are credited with the first fully agricultural culture with the addition of wild grains eventually being supplemented with domesticated sheep and goats.  YDNA analysis of the Natufians confirms that they were predominantly Haplogroup E.