Did the proto-Indo-Europeans annihilate or intermix with peoples of pre-IE substrata?

Question

At the LGM, glaciation and desertification probably reduced humanity in Europe to at least 3 distinct 'clusters' of non-IE hunter-gatherer societies: the 'paleo-Iberians', the 'paleo-Italic', and the 'paleo-East Europeans' (in the Balkans, the Aegean, and along the shores of the Black Sea southeast of the glaciated Carpathians), all of whom probably developed vastly different languages and customs in isolation. The IE peoples, born on horses and wheels, subsequently invaded from the east, all but replacing the languages, cultures, and identities of these pre-IE peoples. But these unfortunate victims, do their genes still survive in modern-day Europeans? Did the IE overwhelmingly annihilate these peoples a la indigenous American genocide by Europeans? Or did they assimilate the majority instead, replacing their languages and customs but leaving behind the people a la Austronesian expansion?

Answer 1

Horse-mounted invasion is, albeit  Romantic, not a well-supported model of Indo-Europeans' populating of Europe.

Diffusion in waves of agricultural communities serves a more funtional model; assimilation of pre-Celtic non-Indo-European speakers in technology must have been the primary change with exogamic gene exchanges as a co-occurrence to the effect of either full assimilation or limited, sporadic exchange/hunting of brides/bride grooms.

See Colin Renfrew for updated anthropological models to replace the Romantic models of the 1800's and early 1900's..

Answer 2

Nobody either annihilates or intermixes completely with their conquest!

Conquering men annihilate as many of their opponents men as they can (As we do in sporting events, today), and breed with as many leftover women as they can...

This has aways been the case, resulting in a blending of DNA, over time...

Answer 3

Most Europeans descend from paleolithic peoples--approx 80 percent. Most of the  rest from neolithic farmers. So there was no 'extermination'. It  goes to show that a culture can change vastly,including its language,but still remain genetically close to what it always was (especially in the maternal line.)

An interesting case is England. For years we were taught the 'Saxons slaughtered all the celts'. As it turns out, genetically a good proportion of English people are celts too (and we really should say 'pre-celts' because there's no evidence of huge invasions of iron Age mid-European celts who slaughtered bronze age people either).The Saxon genetic influence as expected was highest in areas like east Anglia but was still very low in maternal lines which means that mostly men must have come to England--and eventually interbred/married with native women. So it looks like they were more of a ruling aristocracy that anything else

Answer 4

Yes, genetically they did survive..

Takes a deep breath.

The Indo European languages are thought to have originated form Turkey, along with the Neolithic revolution, and their spread has been estimated as being concurrent with the spread of farming. It seems the Mesolithic farmers spoke agglutinative languages, you see remnants in the Euskara and Hungarian languages.

The latest estimate is that the Neolithic farmers only contributed about 25% or so of the DNA in Europe, most of the rest was the original inhabitants. Northern Europeans are the descendants of Cro Magnon-type EUP humans, and places like Sweden and Scotland are still a pretty good match for their cranio-facial structure.

Also, a few Cro Magnon bones had their Mt DNA typed, and they were haplotype N, still common in Europe.

I have a butt load of research into the Neolithic expansion on my blog. It takes a good browse to find it all though.

http://mathildasanthropologyblog.wordpre...

http://mathildasanthropologyblog.wordpre...

It looks like the Indus valley civilisation was Indo European too, if you're interested.

That reminds me, iI'd better hunt down the DNA study I'm quoting and paste it on my blog.

Answer 5

Archaeogenetics!  Look it up!

Modern surveys show most Europeans have ancestry traceable back to the Glacial Era so the IE speaking people must have intermixed!