After recently coming across the genetic analysis of the Nubian mercenary who was found in Serbia, along with his very familiar haplogroups, I grew very curious as to what the population of Nubia must've been like. Of course, I'm not a professional, nor am I any more knowledgeable than the next person, really, but I wanted to run some calculators on the sample to see which of the two commonly spouted, contradictive narratives would best be reflected in his genetic makeup.
Theory A: Nubians were essentially entirely Dinka-like, with later Nubians becoming Arabised/Egyptised so it's only later that they resembled their modern counterparts, and by extension Horners.
Theory B: Nubians were Cushitic genetically, and only speak a Nilo-Saharan language due to a later language shift that came about through millennia of contact with neighbouring Nilo-Saharan speakers, facilitated by the Green Sahara(?).
I thought about how to go about it, strictly from a genetic standpoint (linguistic evidence of a/no language shift is indecisive atm, and also boring), and after about 30 seconds of thinking, I remembered Vahaduo and the publicly available Kulubnarti G25 coordinates. Although it wasn't ideal (really wanted the Roman mercenary as the extended timespan would've lent additional credence to whatever conclusion), I decided to go ahead with the Kulubnartians as the targets. I initially input every sample, but my high-performance laptop couldn't handle it (or maybe the browser idk idc), so I cut the number in half. For reference, I also added my own results as pure Somali, at least according to 23andMe.
For my sources, I used Savanna Pastoral Neolithic samples to represent the "Cushitic" component, Dinka samples to represent the "Dinka-like" component and, even with the genetic overlap, some ancient Levantine and Egyptian samples to represent the "Arabisation" event; maybe I trust the accuracy of G25 too much, idk. I also added a Ugandan, Bantu-like sample from 500 years ago just bcos.
The results were as follows:
What people don't consider is the possibility of the validity of both theories to some extent. If I'm right in assuming that Vahaduo can differentiate between Cushitic and admixed Nilote, it's clear to see the presence of both populations in the genomes of Kulubnartians over a 400 year time span. Cushitic DNA seems to be the most abundant, followed by Levantine and then Dinka. What baffles me, though, is the lack of Egyptian DNA in these populations. If these people were indeed, at least partially, the results of recent admixture, you'd assume that it would be Egyptian and not Levantine, and yet Levantine is significantly more prevalent.
Just something interesting I randomly decided to pursue about an hour ago, and it has really piqued my interest and so I decided to share. All answers, criticisms and questions regarding the process and validity of this are appreciated. I'm open to any suggestions too. I'm still relatively new and I'd like to learn more.
I attached the coordinates used in a PDF file cos I can't upload a .txt file and there's a character limit.
Theory A: Nubians were essentially entirely Dinka-like, with later Nubians becoming Arabised/Egyptised so it's only later that they resembled their modern counterparts, and by extension Horners.
Theory B: Nubians were Cushitic genetically, and only speak a Nilo-Saharan language due to a later language shift that came about through millennia of contact with neighbouring Nilo-Saharan speakers, facilitated by the Green Sahara(?).
I thought about how to go about it, strictly from a genetic standpoint (linguistic evidence of a/no language shift is indecisive atm, and also boring), and after about 30 seconds of thinking, I remembered Vahaduo and the publicly available Kulubnarti G25 coordinates. Although it wasn't ideal (really wanted the Roman mercenary as the extended timespan would've lent additional credence to whatever conclusion), I decided to go ahead with the Kulubnartians as the targets. I initially input every sample, but my high-performance laptop couldn't handle it (or maybe the browser idk idc), so I cut the number in half. For reference, I also added my own results as pure Somali, at least according to 23andMe.
For my sources, I used Savanna Pastoral Neolithic samples to represent the "Cushitic" component, Dinka samples to represent the "Dinka-like" component and, even with the genetic overlap, some ancient Levantine and Egyptian samples to represent the "Arabisation" event; maybe I trust the accuracy of G25 too much, idk. I also added a Ugandan, Bantu-like sample from 500 years ago just bcos.
The results were as follows:
What people don't consider is the possibility of the validity of both theories to some extent. If I'm right in assuming that Vahaduo can differentiate between Cushitic and admixed Nilote, it's clear to see the presence of both populations in the genomes of Kulubnartians over a 400 year time span. Cushitic DNA seems to be the most abundant, followed by Levantine and then Dinka. What baffles me, though, is the lack of Egyptian DNA in these populations. If these people were indeed, at least partially, the results of recent admixture, you'd assume that it would be Egyptian and not Levantine, and yet Levantine is significantly more prevalent.
Just something interesting I randomly decided to pursue about an hour ago, and it has really piqued my interest and so I decided to share. All answers, criticisms and questions regarding the process and validity of this are appreciated. I'm open to any suggestions too. I'm still relatively new and I'd like to learn more.
I attached the coordinates used in a PDF file cos I can't upload a .txt file and there's a character limit.
