BAMAD-78
Brit-Am Anthropology and DNA Update
23 May 2010 10 Sivan 5770
Contents:
1. The Faces of Ancient Egypt by "Mathilda"
2. "View from the Lab: Who is a Jew? DNA can hold the key" by Steve Jones
3. Will Wonders Never Cease?
Athol Bloomer [tentatively] Traces Yair Davidiy to the Alexander Clan of Scotland and Makes Our Day!
|
Brit-Am Discussion Group 
|
Contents by Subject |
Research Recognition Reconciliation Contribute |
|
Site Map Contents in Alphabetical Order |
 This Site |
1. The Faces of Ancient Egypt by "Mathilda"
http://mathildasanthropologyblog.wordpress.com/2009/07/
Brit-Am Note:
On our site we already have a page of illustrations depicting the Ancient Egyptians
http://britam.org/HebrewTypes7.html
We point out that:
The descendants of Joseph are partly descended from Ancient Egyptians!
[Genesis 41:45] AND PHARAOH CALLED JOSEPH'S NAME ZAPHNATHPAANEAH; AND HE GAVE HIM TO WIFE ASENATH THE DAUGHTER OF POTIPHERAH PRIEST OF ON. AND JOSEPH WENT OUT OVER ALL THE LAND OF EGYPT.
We also have a separate page with:
Some Ancient depictions of Egyptian Women
http://www.britam.org/Kings/1Kings3.html#Some
Nevertheless the above URL by "Mathilda" seems to be a bit better. "Mathilda" is a professional anthropologist (I think) and seems to have succeeded in depicting both the diversity alongside the underlying unity of Ancient Egyptian physical types.
2. View from the Lab: Who is a Jew? DNA can hold the key
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/7346496/
View-from-the-Lab-Who-is-a-Jew
-DNA-can-hold-the-key.html
By Steve Jones
Extracts:
Who is a Jew? As the recent passport row shows, that question can be murky, with elements of belief, values, descent and nationality mixed in.
In 1650, there were only 100,000 Ashkenazim in Europe, a number then further reduced by pogroms. In 18th-century central Europe, though, came massive expansion of that population, largely because of their relatively good living conditions. In Frankfurt, Jewish life expectancy was at aged 48, compared to 37 among non-Jews. By 1800, Jews numbered two million and by 1900 almost four times as many.
Much of the growth occurred in the Rhine Valley, modern-day Germany. The increase was concentrated among a few well-off families, many of whom had 10 children while the poorest classes had far fewer. As a result, the majority of today's Ashkenazim derive from a small proportion of that population, two million from one mother, quite literally their shared Eve, who probably lived, unknown and unrecognised, in an affluent household in a German or Polish village three centuries ago. A shared close identity through mothers, grandmothers, and more is, for millions of Ashkenazim, a genetical fact.
For others, though, the story is murkier. A separate great centre of Jewish tradition and culture grew up in Spain. Most of the Sephardim arrived after the peninsula fell under Roman control in the second century BC. In 711 AD, a Muslim army invaded. The Jews flourished under a tolerant regime, often as lawyers, merchants and the like. Then the Church returned. After a century of persecution, they were expelled in 1492. The Sephardim were scattered over much of Europe, the Middle East, and the New World.
Their mitochondria, unlike those of the Ashkenazim, give no sign of a recent bottleneck. Their DNA show instead how porous the boundaries of faith may be. Threatened by the Inquisition, thousands of Spanish Jews left to places such as Turkey. Others converted, or pretended to do so ' and one Portuguese village maintained a secret Jewish culture, marrying among themselves for five centuries.
Y chromosomes reveal much leakage across the religious divide. A fifth of all the male lineages of modern Spain are of Jewish origin, which means that millions of devout Spanish Catholics have Sephardic ancestry, while the Sephardim themselves, with their unique and ancient Jewish ritual, present a wider range of genetic variation than do their Ashkenazi cousins. Plenty of those with one faith have biological roots in the other. My wife, as it happens, comes from a Sephardic family and has relatives with surnames such as Cardozo and Pexiota. After 40 years here, she has still not got round to obtaining a British passport. In spite of the double helix, identity remains a confusing thing.
3. Will Wonders Never Cease?
Athol Bloomer [tentatively] Traces Yair Davidiy to the Alexander Clan of Scotland [and Irish Reilly?] and Makes Our Day!
From: Athol Bloomer <atholbloomer13@hotmail.com>
Re DNA Test Results: Yair Davidiy
