Synopses & Reviews
This book contains most of the conclusion reached by the geneticists, anthropologists, and linguists at the meeting `Prehistoric Iberia'. This is the first time that a particular historical topic has been approached from a multidisciplinary point of view in a single meeting. The novel conclusions reached include the following: There is no evidence of the demic diffusion model of people substitution in Iberia during the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition. New technologies were probably reached by circum-Mediterranean navigation. Present day Iberians are genetically very similar to North African populations and also to other more distant Eastern Mediterraneans, including Turks. Arab invasions in North Africa and Spain in 711 AD did not result in a massive gene flow. North African Berbers and Spaniards have maintained their old genetic identity; this invasion was mostly religious and cultural. Celts in Iberia are difficult to find. Basque and Berber languages are similar to many other extinct `Usko-Mediterranean' languages (Etruscan, Minoan). These `older languages' were later substituted by the Euro Asiatic languages (Latin, Greek, German). Finally, the Saharan area is considered as a radiation focus of peoples, (and languages) who were forced to emigrate from a fertile area where hyper-arid conditions began to develop after 7000 BC.
Synopsis
The symposium "Prehistoric Iberia: genetics, anthropology and linguistics" was held in the Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid on 16th -17th November 1998. The idea was bringing together specialists who could address not clearly resolved historic and prehistoric issues regarding ancient Iberian and Mediterranean populations, following a multidisciplinary approach. This was necessary in the light of the new bulk of genetic, archeological and linguistic data obtained with the new DNA technology and the recent discoverings in the other fields. Genes may now be easily studied in populations, particularly HLA genes and markers of the mitochondrial DNA and the Y chromosome. Basques, Iberians, North Africans, Berbers (Imazighen) and Mediterraneans have presently been widely studied. The genetic emerging picture is that Mediterraneans are closely related from West (Basque, Iberians, Berbers) to East (Jews, Lebanese, Cretans); however, Greeks are outliers in all the analyses done by using HLA genes. Anthropologists and archeologists showed how there was no people substitution during the revolutionary Mesolithic-Neolithic transition; in addition, cultural relationships were found between Iberia and predinastic Egypt (EI Badari culture). Basque language translation into Spanish has been the key for relating most Mediterranean extinct languages. The Usko-Mediterranean languages were once spoken in a wide African and European area, which also included parts of Asia. This was the "old language" that was slowly substituted by Eurasian languages starting approximately after the Bronze Age (or 2,000 years BC).
Table of Contents
Preface.
Part I. Genetics: 1. Genetic and historical relationships among Mediterraneans;
J. Martínez-Laso, et al. 2. Genetic affinities among human populations inhabiting the sub-Saharan area, Northwest Africa, and the Iberian Peninsula;
C. Flores, et al. 3. The history of Iberian and Moroccan populations: evidence from genetic data (DNA studies and classical polymorphisms);
P. Moral, et al. 4. The Berbers of North Africa: genetic relationships according to HLA and other polymorphisms,
A. Sanchez-Mazas; Part II. Anthropology: 5. Berber ethnogenesis: the origin of the first Berber-speaking social formations;
J. Onrubia Pintado. 6. Applications of evolutive archeology: migrations from Africa to Iberia in the recent prehistory;
J. L. Escacena Carrasco. Part III. Linguistics: 7. Deciphering the Iberian-Tartesian language;
J. Alonso-García et al. 8. The Basque language is included in the Dene-Caucasian language family;
M. Ruhlen. 9. The
Usko-Mediterranean languages;
A. Arnaiz-Villena, J.Alonso-García. Index.