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Spanish people - Genetic research

Spanish people - Genetic research: Encyclopedia II - Spanish people - Genetic research

According to the latest genetic research, Spaniards are largely a Mediterranean people who have seen some admixture from various invaders including Celts, Romans, Germanic tribes and North African Berbers. Affinities with other Mediterranean populations seems probable as a study funded by the Spanish government, found that the proportion of the genetic variance that can be accounted for between the NW African and Iberian populations for mtDNA is 0.86% (p = 0.053), 1.89% (p = 0.028) for Alu insertion polymorphisms, and 35.2% (p = 0.024) fo ...

Spanish people: Encyclopedia II - Spanish people - Genetic research

Spanish people - Genetic research

These results showed substantial gene flow largely stemming from the Berbers of North Africa, while another study from the University of Chicago elaborates as to the north-south divide as northern Spaniards also show a substantial degree of similarity with their northern neighbors in France (see Franks) and reveals the extent of Celtic contributions to the Spanish population. The study's conclusions are ambiguous as the results show and mtDNA is not the only factor in determining maternal lineage (see X chromosome).

The recolonization of western Europe from an Iberian refugium after the retreat of the ice sheets 15,000 years ago could explain the common genetic legacy in the area.[2]

The links that Spain has with northern Europe may actually pre-date the Celts and Germanic invasions or reveal a high degree of similarity as parts of Celtic tribes from northern Spain left and colonized ancient Ireland:

The affinities of the areas where Celtic languages are spoken, or were formerly spoken, are generally with other regions in the Atlantic zone, from northern Spain to northern Britain. Although some level of Iron Age immigration into Britain and Ireland could probably never be ruled out by the use of modern genetic data, these results point toward a distinctive Atlantic genetic heritage with roots in the processes at the end of the last Ice Age.[3]

Much of the genetic evidence points out to a majority Spanish population that is predominantly derived from an early post Ice Age group which was modified over the centuries by various invaders, but it appears doubtful that Spain was drastically altered by the small colonies that followed the invasions of the Celts who largely mixed with the Iberians.^{[citation needed]}