I'm fascinated by reports that Muhammad had lighter skin than most of his fellow Arabs, and had tinges of red in his hair. Also quite tall.
Possibly some Norse genes in there?
Possibly some Norse genes in there?
What I found really interesting was that 10,000 BC, Britain was populated with blue-eyed people with dark skin. They got mostly replaced by Anatolians, who then built the Stone Henge and occupied Britain for a few thousand years. Anatolians were then replaced by continental Europeans (who by then had been breeding with the progeny of other Anatolians for thousands of years). At least while the Anatolians were around, the remaining dark-skinned natives, who were dwindling in number, resorted to inbreeding so as not to dilute their genes. Clearly they didn't care for lighter skin.
Ya, archaeogenetics is a real trip. The field can upend our already flimsy notions of race and the narratives that come with it. Modern sequencing technology is yielding huge new results on a frequent basis.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-42939192
7,000-Year-Old Human Bones Suggest New Date for Light-Skin Gene
https://www.livescience.com/42838-european-hunter-gatherer-g...
Ancient human genomes suggest three ancestral populations for present-day Europeans
https://arxiv.org/abs/1312.6639
Early farmers from across Europe directly descended from Neolithic Aegeans
Spread of genes for light skin into dark-skinned Europe: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/how-europeans-evo...
"Once the first farmers from the near East began to arrive in Europe, and who carried both genes for light skin, they began breeding with the “indigenous hunter gatherers”. One of the depigmentation genes became prominent throughout Europe to the point where central and southern Europeans developed lighter skin."