TWO thirds of European men can trace their ancestry back to just three tribal warlords from the early Bronze Age, geneticists claim.
Scientists from across the continent took DNA samples from 334 randomly chosen men in 17 groups, including 20 from Orkney and the same again from England.
By sequencing the Y chromosomes the researchers discovered that the three most common lineages, found in 64 per cent of men, converged much later than previously thought.
Of the 20 Englishmen, 16 came from a a single genetic group which goes back to one man who was born around 3000BC.
They claimed that in the changing world of the early Bronze Age male warlords could have spread their offspring far and wide and founded robust dynasties to protect them.
Chiara Batini, the post-doctoral researcher at the University of Leicester, who led the study, said: "You can imagine very easily a scenario in which there are a few men who are more powerful.
"They have easier access to wealth and other resources such as food, they will probably have more kids, the male kids have the same kind of benefits so those lineages will be more dominant."
In a similar 'common ancestor' project from 2001 genetics professor Bryan Sykes from Oxford University claimed there were seven 'clan mothers' from whom all human beings were descended.
One theory claims Genghis Khan and his family are the ancestors of every one in 200 men alive.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.Â
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.Â
That is invaluable.Â
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article