History, Wonder Tales, Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends The Flemish | Page 221

Table 6 shows a similar comparison for the Flemish I1 modal haplotype. The modal
values for many of the markers are based on fewer than 10 haplotypes, so no firm
conclusions may be drawn for these markers. However, one notable difference with
the Frisian I1 modal haplotype (McEwan, 2006) is on DYS390, where adequate data
exist. The Flemish I1 modal haplotype has a value of 24 on this marker, matching the
overall European I1 modal haplotype in this case, while the Frisian I1 modal haplotype
has a value of 23.
Discussion
What are the main differences between the haplogroups that are most prevalent
among the Flemish?
Spencer Wells’ book, Deep Ancestry, describes the haplogroups as follows:
•
Haplogroup R1b members are descendants of someone who 30,000 years ago
gave rise to the defining marker M343. These descendants that dominated the human
expansion into Europe are likely the same as the Cro-Magnons (Wells, 2007, p 226).
•
Members of Haplogroup I1 have the defining genetic marker M253, and moved
15,000 years ago from their refugia in the Balkans to the north ofEurope. This
haplogroup is still very common in Scandinavia and hence it is likely that many Vikings
descended from this line. The Viking raids on the Low Countries and Britain help to
explain the dispersal of this lineage (Wells, 2007, p 213-14).
•
Haplogroup E1b1b, characterized by the M35 marker, appeared in the Middle
East among populations of the first farmers who spread agriculture from the Middle
East to Europe (Wells, p209).
•
Haplogroup G2a (referred to as G2 in the book), identified by the marker P15,
arose in he Middle East and spread westwards through modern Turkeyinto
southeast Europe. Most migrations took place more than 15,000 years ago before
much of Europe was locked in ice during the last glacial maximum. When the glaciers
finally began to recede, the G2a lineage expanded northward and eastward to
repopulate Europe (Wells, 2007, p 211).
It should be noted that almost all haplotypes classed as R1b in this geographic study
are likely also to be R1b1b2-M269. Most of the present-day European males with the
M343 marker also have the P25 and M269 markers. These markers define the
R1b1b2 subclade (ISOGG, 2008). The subclade R1b1b2g (defined by S21/U106),
although recently discovered, appears to be the most common downstream marker
from R1b1b2, appearing in over 35% of those R1b1b2 people tested. This group has
a maximum in Frisia (the Netherlands) and, in general, is the predominant R1b subhaplogroup in northwest Europe. It is also found in Belgium, in the UK, in
southern Sweden, Switzerland,
and Italy. It
only
sporadically
appears
in Spain, Poland and Lithuania (Polish), Finland(Swedish)
and Romania (Romanian). The S21/U106 subclade may have originated near the end
of the last ice age as Europe began to be repopulated, or perhaps more or less 9000
years before the present, possibly in the northern European mainland.

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