E-M35, also known as E1b1b1-M35, is a human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup. E-M35 has two basal branches, E-V68 and E-Z827. E-V68 and E-Z827 are primarily distributed in North Africa and the Horn of Africa, and occur at lower frequencies in the Middle East, Europe, and Southern Africa.
Origins
In June 2015, Trombetta et al. reported a previously unappreciated large difference in the age between haplogroup E-M215 (38.6 kya; 95% CI 31.4–45.9 kya) and its sub-haplogroup E-M35 (25.0 kya; 95% CI 20.0–30.0 kya) and estimated its origin to be in Horn of Africa, where the node separating the E-V38 and E-M215 branches occurs about 47,500 years ago (95% CI: 41.3–56.8 ka). E-M35 was dated by Batini in 2015 to between 15,400 and 20,500 years ago.
All major sub-branches of E-M35 are thought to have originated in the same general area as the parent clade: in North Africa, the Horn of Africa, or nearby areas of the Near East. Some branches of E-M35 are assumed to have left Africa thousands of years ago, whereas others may have arrived from the Near East. For example, associates the spread of the haplogroup with the Neolithic Revolution, believing that the structure and regional pattern of E-M35 subclades potentially give "reagents with which to infer specific episodes of population histories associated with the Neolithic agricultural expansion". also estimate that E-M78 (called E1b1b1a1 in that paper) has been in Europe longer than 10,000 years. Accordingly, human remains excavated in a Spanish funeral cave dating from approximately 7,000 years ago were shown to be in this haplogroup. Two more E-M78 have been found in the Neolithic Sopot and Lengyel cultures too.
Concerning E-M35 in Europe within this scheme, have remarked that E-M215 seems to represent a late-Pleistocene migration from North Africa to Europe over the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt."Y chromosome data show a signal for a separate late-Pleistocene migration from Africa to Europe via Sinai as evidenced through the distribution of haplogroup E3b lineages, which is not manifested in mtDNA haplogroup distributions." While this proposal remains uncontested, it has more recently been proposed by that there is also evidence for additional migration of E-M215 carrying men directly from North Africa to southwestern Europe, via a maritime route (see below.)
Ancient DNA
According to Lazaridis et al. (2016), Natufian skeletal remains from the ancient Levant predominantly carried the Y-DNA haplogroup E. Of the five Natufian specimens analysed for paternal lineages, one belonged to CT, one to E-M35, one to E-M215, one to E-Z830. Haplogroup E-M35 was also found the dominant marker among fossils from the ensuing Pre-Pottery Neolithic B culture, with the E-M78 and E-Z830 subclades observed in multiple PPNB specimens (~50%).
Following Fregel et al. (2017), two Neolithic farmers from the North African site of Ifri n Ammar ou Moussa belonged to haplogroup E-L19. The majority of their genomes traced back to Natufian and PPN ancestry, indicating a recent intrusion into North Africa from the Levant. Their presence is likely linked to the spread of pastoral technologies from the Levant into North Africa.
Loosdrecht et al. (2018) analysed genome-wide data from seven ancient Iberomaurusian individuals from the Grotte des Pigeons near Taforalt in eastern Morocco. The fossils were directly dated to between 15,100 and 13,900 calibrated years before present. The scientists found that five male specimens with sufficient nuclear DNA preservation all belonged to the E1b1b1a1 (M78) subclade, with one skeleton bearing the E1b1b1a1b1 parent lineage to E-V13. Martiniano et al. (2022) later reassigned all the Taforalt samples to haplogroup E-M78 and none to E-L618, the predecessor to E-V13.
Haplogroup E-M35 has been identified among both Amorite and Akkadian remains, found in the sites of Megiddo, Ebla, and Alalakh. It is also attested among later Semitic populations, such as the Phoenicians who settled throughout the Mediterranean region, where it appears to have been the most prevalent lineage.
In Egypt, haplogroup E-V1515 has been identified in the remains of an elite Egyptian individual from the site of Nuerat, dating to the Old Kingdom period, while haplogroup E-V22 has been detected in an ancient Egyptian mummy excavated at the Abusir el-Meleq archaeological site in Middle Egypt, dated to between the late New Kingdom and the Roman era.
Distribution
E-M215 and E-M35 are quite common among Afroasiatic speakers. The linguistic group and carriers of E-M35 lineage have a high probability to have arisen and dispersed together from the Afroasiatic Urheimat. Amongst populations with an Afro-Asiatic speaking history, a significant proportion of Palestinians and Jewish male lineages are E-M35. Haplogroup E-M35, which accounts for approximately 18% to 20% of 18% of Palestinians and Ashkenazi and 8.6% to 30% of Sephardi Y-chromosomes, appears to be one of the major founding lineages of the Palestinian and the Jewish population."Paragroup E-M35 * and haplogroup J-12f2a* fit the criteria for major AJ founding lineages because they are widespread both in AJ populations and in Near Eastern populations, and occur at much lower frequencies in European non-Jewish populations."
The following table only includes sample populations with more than 1% E-M215 men with all known subclades as of June 2015. It contains the E-V1515 clade defined by Trombetta et al. 2015, and all the E1b1b subclades distributed below the Sahara ( E-V42, E-M293, E-V92, E-V6), which were identified as E-M35 basal clades in a former phylogeny.