A New Oldest R-Z18

The sample is CGG107465, Lille Vasby, Høje-Taastrup, Zealand, Denmark, 2194-2026 calBCE, Bell Beaker. In the image below they are the farthest down on the left. Visually represented close to the estimated beginning of R-Z18. This is the oldest sample for R-Z18 (R-Z19) that could not be placed in a child branch. He’s right at the edge of the Nordic Bronze Age.

Here is Lille Vasby on a map of Denmark and Southern Sweden. Tucked in there on Zealand.

CGG107465 is roughly 65km away from the burial location of our previous oldest R-Z18 sample, NEO752 R-Z18 Madesø, Zealand, Denmark 1814-1483 calBCE Nordic Bronze Age. Madesø is a lake on the western side of Zealand.

A Few Child Branches Around the Same Time

CGG106705 CTS3624 Karlstrup, Tune, Zealand, Denmark 2126-1932 calBCE Bell Beaker
CGG106708 CTS3624 Karlstrup, Tune, Zealand, Denmark Bell Beaker 2125-1947 calBCE Bell Beaker

CTS3624 is my branch so, obviously, it is pretty awesome. Here it is on the time tree with two samples a bit younger than the age of CGG107465, which you would expect since they are a few generations away from the parent R-Z18 line. These are all Bell Beaker folk from the Dagger Period when flint daggers were being manufactured in Denmark and Sweden.

Here is a map of Lille Vasby to Karlstrup. The burial places for our R-Z18 man and CTS3624 men are roughly 16km apart, but probably separated by a few generations.

Another child branch, a few generations from our R-Z18 source. R-FTH164 in Southern Sweden.

CGG105923 Z18>FGC5817>FTH164 Albäcksbacken Maglarp, Skåne, (So.) Sweden 2200-1700 BCE Late Neolithic. CGG105923 does not appear on the time tree at Family Tree DNA yet, as far as I can see. It may be in the works still. The age estimate for FTH164 is 1988 BCE at FTDNA which is in line with this sample.

The oversimplified story I’m clinging to currently is that R-Z18 and it’s early children pop up in this area. They are tied to flint mining or trading and are probably familiar with sewn plank boats, local currents and trade routes. Their ancestors came from central Europe as part of a movement of people and culture. I see those ancestors arriving in Denmark much the same way that the Amesbury Archer arrived in Britain, and then setting up camp in Zealand and Sweden.

I’m leaning on this simplified map of trade routes for flint daggers quite a bit. The map is following the origination points of different flint deposits and their paths through trade routes. I think it makes it easy to imagine people moving along with goods and possibly settling in an area. One thing I find really interesting are the criss-crosses. The Zealand to Frisia route overland through Schleswig-Holstein and the Pomerania route swinging south from Northern Jutland.

I am imagining this sort of placement in the early branches and the possibility of human movement along these routes as a form of explanation about why you might see branches of Y DNA that are distantly related in the same areas. If I think about the possibility of an early R-Z18 branch in pomerania in the early bronze age they could go off on their own further into the continent or down the coast, forming new branches, only to be followed hundreds or thousands of years later by men and boys from Sweden, for entirely different reasons into the same area. These two imaginary branches would be from different cultures and language groups but come from the same wellspring in Zealand. They went on migrations that are so distant, they are forgotten.

I could see ending up with R-Z18 men in Poland for instance, having traveled with these flint tradesmen, and then two thousand years later distantly related men arrive with the Weilbark culture, Goths, Gepids, Huns, only to have distantly related men show up a thousand years after that from Sweden, Germany, and the Netherlands as vikings or later, farmers.

In my own group, I can recall wondering at the idea that you could have two men from a Y DNA branch with a shared ancestor in 400 AD with one family in England and another family in Poland, and then have a man related to both of you in 700 BC, popping up in England in the next county over.

Mapping that journey through time is a team effort with very individual results.