9/15/09 update
Further SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) Haplogroup R1b subclade panel testing of Gary Muffley’s yDNA has yielded a code of R1b1b2a1a1 (new coding system adopted in early 2009). It seems that my male-line ancestors bearing the basic R1b Haplogroup y-chromosome may not have entered Europe as early as I had previously thought, so probably did not spend the last Ice Age in the Iberia Refugia after all. My y-DNA is positive for Marker M269 (yielding a R1b1b2 code), which may have developed about 8,000 B.C. in the vicinity of the Caucasus Mountains. The R1b1b type was later found in the Maykop Culture (northeast of the Black Sea) and in adjacent cultures to the south. The Maykop Culture arose about 3,500 B.C. in the area thought to be the origin place of R1b1b2, was an advanced Neolithic culture of farmers and herders, and later saw early development of metalworking and metal weapons. The R1b people in this area comprised part of the Proto-Indo-European peoples, along with their R1a neighbors to the north: The Yamma Culture, first domesticators of horses.
About 2,500 B.C., well into the Bronze Age, there was a sudden decline in the Black Sea Maykop Culture, perhaps due to large scale migrations of this Proto-Indo-European group, possibly crossing the Black Sea and going up the Danube River. By about 2,300 B.C., R1b1b2 was found in central and western Europe. Proto Italo-Celto-Germanic people settled around the Alps, where metals for bronze-making were abundant. The incoming Indo-Europeans had several advantages over European peoples who were already there, particularly the Indo-European use of metal tools and weapons, horses, and chariots. The R1b Haplogroup in time replaced earlier haplogroups as the predominant male haplogroup (female-line mtDNA haplogroups were less affected by the new migrations) in western Europe, and the Indo-European languages came to dominate. As the centuries passed, the Indo-European peoples of the Alpine area differentiated into Italic, Celtic, and Germanic groups.
About 1,500 B.C. (give or take a few hundred years), Gary’s Marker S21 likely appeared (yielding the R1b1b2a1a1 Haplogroup subclade). It is not known exactly when or where this genetic mutation occurred, but places where the R1b1b2 Indo-European group settled for long periods are prime contenders: Old Maykop stomping grounds beyond the Black Sea (least likely); Austrian Alps/southern Germany (suggested by considerable R1b subclade diversity in this region); and the Frisian coast of northwest Europe (highest frequency of S21). By the birth of Christ, S21 was reportedly well-established in future Frisia. The marker has been termed a Frisian or Western Germanic marker. At the birth of Christ, my ancestor bearing the S21 marker would have been at least 55 generations back from me.
The Alemanni may have been the Germanic group who carried my yDNA to Switzerland, as my ancestor Christian Maffli Sr. (born about 1651) was in an area where High Alemannic was spoken. Alemanni operated along Rome’s Rhine frontier, e.g. 212 A.D., and eventually settled in future Switzerland. The West Germanic S21 marker was particularly spread by 5th Century migrations, especially by Frisians and Saxons to England; by Franks to Belgium, France and Franconia; and by Lombards to Austria and northern Italy.
