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Tuesday, February 21, 2017

The great male migration


The Goldberg et al. preprint that I blogged about late last year has made it into PNAS under a different title and with a few other changes (behind a pay wall here). The authors added a couple of lines about R1a and R1b, which is awesome because I think these markers are crucial to the Indo-European homeland debate, and also made the change from "horse-driven chariots" to "horse-driven wagons", probably as a result of my comment at bioRxiv (scroll down here).

Based on archeological data, as well as ancient and modern Y chromosome data, the later migration from the Pontic-Caspian Steppe has also been hypothesized to be male-biased (5, 24–29). In particular, multiple large-scale studies of modern Y-chromosome data infer a rapid growth of R1a and R1b haplotypes ∼5,000 y ago (27–29). Similarly, Haak et al. (5) provide evidence that R1a and R1b were rare in central Europe before ∼4,500 y ago, but common soon thereafter. They also observe multiple R1b haplotypes in ancient Yamnaya individuals from the steppe. Populations in the Pontic-Caspian Steppe region, such as the Yamnaya or Pit Grave culture, are thought to have strong male-biased hierarchy, as inferred by overrepresentation of male burials, male deities, and kinship terms (26, 30). The region is a putative origin for the domesticated horse in Europe, and the culture is known for its use of horse-driven wagons, a potential male-biased mechanism of dispersal into central Europe (30).

...

The signal of a large male bias holds when analyzing late Neolithic Corded Ware individuals and later Bronze Age Unetice individuals separately, with mean X-to-autosomal ancestry ratios in the two groups of 0.716 and 0.474, respectively. Ancestry and sex bias do differ between the groups, with a larger male bias and lower SP ancestry for the later Unetice, although the trend is not statistically significant (SI Appendix, Fig. S1B). Individuals from Bell Beaker archeological sites, a culture that overlapped with Corded Ware and Unetice but occurred over a wider geographic scale, show levels of X and autosomal ancestry suggestive of overall ancestry contributions and levels of sex bias that are similar to Corded Ware and Unetice, with mean X and autosomal ancestry of 0.28 and 0.56, respectively (SI Appendix, Table S7).

Goldberg et al., Ancient X chromosomes reveal contrasting sex bias in Neolithic and Bronze Age Eurasian migrations, PNAS, February 21, 2017, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1616392114

Update 15/03/2017: "Failure to Replicate a Genetic Signal for Sex Bias in the Steppe Migration into Central Europe"

65 comments:

Davidski said...

Science has an open access feature on the paper, with a couple of quotes from David Anthony.

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/02/thousands-horsemen-may-have-swept-bronze-age-europe-transforming-local-population

Romulus the I2a L233+ Proto Balto-Slav, layer of Corded Ware Women said...

so it's just a bunch of regurgitation? no aDNA?

Romulus the I2a L233+ Proto Balto-Slav, layer of Corded Ware Women said...

Similarly, Haak et al. (5) provide evidence that R1a and R1b were rare in central Europe before ∼4,500 y ago


BUUUUULLĹLLLLSSSHHHHHIIIIIIIITTTT

Davidski said...

You think R1a and R1b weren't rare in Central Europe before ∼4,500 YBP? How'd you work that out?

Romulus the I2a L233+ Proto Balto-Slav, layer of Corded Ware Women said...

Villabruna, Latvia, Neolithic Spain.

Romulus the I2a L233+ Proto Balto-Slav, layer of Corded Ware Women said...

To think R1b expanded all the way to Italy from Cental Asia in 12,000 BC but somehow never made it further west than Latvia takes a total moron.

Davidski said...

Obviously Latvia is not located in Central Europe.

The other two confirmed ancient R1b samples are from Southern Europe, not Central Europe, and they don't look relevant to the rapid expansion of R1b-M269 during the Bronze Age.

Romulus the I2a L233+ Proto Balto-Slav, layer of Corded Ware Women said...

So it just so happens we hit the 1 in a trillion chance and sampled the Leos and Clark of the Mesolithic in Latvia? You are fully stupid. For these samples to be outliers is a statistical impossbility amd you can be guaranteed it was everywhere in a massive radius. Western European R1b is not from Yamnaya PERIOD.

a said...

Blogger Romulus said...

"M269 is not fom the Yamnaya. Or the "West Yamnaya" or the "East Yamnaya" or the "Purple Yamnaya" or the Shmanaya or the Pamnaya or my asshole or your asshole or any asshole no matter how many assholes Anthony looks in or writes about."

Instead of posting negatives; maybe you would like to explain from where \m269 is from?

Romulus the I2a L233+ Proto Balto-Slav, layer of Corded Ware Women said...

Any statement on that would be speculation, so why bother? What we can say for a fact is that it isn't from the Yamnaya. The Yamnaya are an extremely well sampled group in their geographical region and in their epoch. They are uniformly downstream from M269. The only modern people who trace their paternal lineage to them inhabit that same geographical horizon.

Samuel Andrews said...

Romulus,

Neolithic Y DNA.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1kBrzFiTOynv13maME6EA3-PMWERXLSyL-B0HAy5ZDaM

Chalcolithic Y DNA.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1SBEMpAR6bdCNvVRzRzYF19wEzK-5Eh4qfT5LtzEpK3o

Stop rebelling for the sake of rebelling. All you guys; Romulus, Olympus, Gio, and more, know the facts now stop spitting nonesense.

Romulus the I2a L233+ Proto Balto-Slav, layer of Corded Ware Women said...

As usual more bullshit from Krefter, focus on learning to think and stop playing pet bitch.

CroMagnon said...

@ Romulus

The argument is that no samples from Western Yamnaya exist yet. There will be L51 and R1a-M417 there

Davidski said...

Yamnaya was a horizon that included 9 different cultures. Check out the map here.

http://ubm.opus.hbz-nrw.de/volltexte/2015/3975/pdf/doc.pdf

I have no idea which of these ancient populations will show R1a-M417 and R1b-L51, but one or more of them will. You can bank on it.

Yamnaya groups stemming largely from Dnieper-Donets and Sredny Stog probably had R1a-M417, because already one Dnieper-Donets sample belongs to a basal R1a.

a said...

Blogger Romulus said...

"As usual more bullshit from Krefter, focus on learning to think and stop playing pet bitch"

M269 and R1a in and around Yamnaya?

Who would have thought R1b-L754+ 14k+/- in Italy
Who would have thought we find some ancient R1b-m73 7.7k+/- in Latvia.
Who would have thought we find status burial R1b-m73 in Tavan Tolgoi, Mongolia? Buried in cinnamon wood coffin and or with small gold and pearl jewel; and status symbol earring for left ear?

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371
/journal.pone.0161622

16/16 match in Kalmykia. Very strange, since that is a very old region of Yamnaya, what are the chances? You could not make this stuff up.


http://www.nevgen.org/
13,22,14,11,13-17,0,0,12,13,13,30,15,0-0,0,0,0,15,20,0,0-0-0-0,0,11,0-0,15,0,0,0,0-0,0,10,0,0,0-0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0-0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,23

Romulus the I2a L233+ Proto Balto-Slav, layer of Corded Ware Women said...

"I have no idea which of these ancient populations will show R1a-M417 and R1b-L51, but one or more of them will. You can bank on it."

Whenever you have no arument to back up a claim it's always a meaningless phrase like " u can bank on it". Totally worthless. Good thing we didn't bank on your predictions about the mesolithic baltic. Too bad we didn't bank on mine.

Davidski said...

Good thing we didn't bank on your predictions about the mesolithic baltic.

They weren't predictions. Wait for the next paper on the Baltic, focusing mostly on Lithuania (not Latvia).

Nirjhar007 said...

Much ado about nothing and utterly boring :P ......

AWood said...

@Romulus

There's no evidence that R1b-V88 was widespread during the Neolithic. It was likely just one of many lineages, probably the result of local European hunter gatherers who were absorbed by the farmers. Sure the Baltic foragers and Villabruna were R1b, but both were hunter-gathers and part of communities who had low population size. Almost all the Neolithic men have been non-R1b, as have been almost all the Middle Eastern men. Haak's point still stands. I think we will see the Baltic foragers have a direct relationship to the men of the steppes, but likely represent a dead branch of R1b.

AWood said...

@Romulus

It's irrelevant if R1b was in western Europe 12,000 years ago. It's plausible, but more than likely represented as a dead line. What is important is that you realize Bell Beaker and Corded Ware sprung from lineages that are younger than the European Neolithic which has been represented almost exclusively by Middle Eastern Y lineages.

Gioiello said...

@ Samuel Andrews and all who think to be what they aren't, as the same Goldberg. But AWood does he think to be?
"Stop rebelling for the sake of rebelling. All you guys; Romulus, Olympus, Gio, and more, know the facts now stop spitting nonesense".
From another Gio, my compatriot, and perhaps some smart person amongst you will understand why I define that firm "criminal":

Nicholas Galea Thank you for those very interesting links. Very difficult to know whether any of them are my ancestors though, because Galea is one of the most popular surnames in Malta.
Giorgio Tognarelli Galea is an Italian surname. Perhaps you should clarify the link you have with Sicilian Piscioneri who matches you at Y12.
Giorgio Tognarelli The origin of the Galea Piscioneri families is in South Calabria, Locri, and you may think what you prefer about your old ancestry. Anyway my compatriot Gioiello Tognoni has definitely demonstrate that R-V88 comes from the Italian Refugium. A deep SNP test could say where your haplotype is put in the tree.
Giorgio Tognarelli I think close to the Iberian R-V88 and your haplotype could be linked with the R-V88-Y7777 found in Iberia 7100 years ago, i.e. its Italian ancestor.
Nicholas Galea Thank you, Giorgio. My ancestors have always been Maltese to my knowledge, that is within living memory of my parents, grandparents, and great grandparents. But what in fact is Maltese? My father's ancestors may easily have originated from Southern Italy prior to the 19th century. Galea is the 4th most common Maltese surname so it seems that plenty of them did, however so far none of them (or anyone else in the Malta group) matches my V88 haplogroup. That is interesting that there are Galea Piscioneri families in Locri. Maybe my Piscioneri match at Y12 is closer than I thought. Piscioneri is not a name which is found amongst the usual Maltese surnames.

Gioiello said...

Giorgio Tognarelli Nicholas, we know that Maltese, Beyond many people from different sources linked to the "Cavalieri di Malta", came above all from Sicily and Calabria, and perhaps Sicilians were people converted to Muslim religion... I have the sample of Ebeyer (R-L23 like me) from Arab from Sicily Ebejjer "one year old sheep"... but ìf you do a deep SNP test you may confirm or disprove my hypothesis: R-V88-Y7777.
Nicholas Galea Is it possible to test for that SNP in isolation? Because to do the full big Y is very expensive and since I have so few matches showing up anywhere, I think I would be the only one wherever I end up on the Haplotree, for a very long time to come!
Giorgio Tognarelli I would give discounted that you are R-Y8447 FGC20970/Y8447 * FGC20998/Y8458 * FGC21009/Y8452 6400 ybp, TMRCA CI 95% 8100 5900 ybp"formed 7600 ybp, TMRCA 7000 ybp for having DYS426=11 and that you aren't R-FGC21047 FGC21065 * FGC21053 * FGC21047+3 SNPs425 ybp, TMRCA CI 95% 650 100 ybp"formed 1050 ybp, TMRCA 350 ybp because this is the recent R-V88 Jewish clade introgressed in Iberia and you are far from them. Thus the only two SNPs to test are R-FGC20973 FGC20973 * FGC21003 * FGC21040+29 SNPs 5900 ybp, TMRCA CI 95% 4600 2600 ybp"formed 7000 ybp, TMRCA 3600 ybp for understanding the link with an Arab haplotype and R-FGC20980 FGC21023 * FGC20980 * FGC21021+15 SNPs2600 ybp, TMRCA CI 95% 1800425 ybp"formed 3600 ybp, TMRCA 1050 ybp for understanding the link with the Iberian cluster. Thus, having to choose only one SNP, I'd test FGC20980: if you are positive, you are close to the Iberian cluster, if you are negative very likely you are close to that Arab haplotype. Of course a deep SNP test would be very useful for understanding all this subclade.
Nicholas Galea Giorgio thank you so much for your advice and your great knowledge and understanding of this complicated science which is beyond most of the rest of us. I will certainly look into testing that SNP, or possibly both, now that I know which ones to do and the reason why. I will let you know the results in the future. Once again, grazie tante!
Nicholas Galea Giorgio there was no test available for R-FGC20980 although it appeared on my list of SNPs downstream from V-88. So I ordered the test for R-FGC21005 which includes FGC20973. I will look forward to your interpretation of the results when they come back!
Giorgio Tognarelli To test a SNP at the FGC20973 level risks to be useless. It will be very likely positive. You should have search for a SNP at the FGC20980 level.

Olympus Mons said...

@a.

"nstead of posting negatives; maybe you would like to explain from where \m269 is from?"


I know, I know... me, me!

M269 was born in early 6th millennia bc in south caucasus, and L23 born roughly in the same region by late 6th millenia. Now, crazy, Crazy (I am bold that way) is that L51 was actually a stock in Merimde/EL-omari in Delta Nile by 4200BC that migrated to Iberia by 3800BC and later became the Bell Beaker and spread all over europe by 2500BC. - See easy.

Olympus Mons said...

Oh, by the way, the same M269 & L23 also migrated to North Caucasus via black sea eastern shores by 4980BC and reached the Kuban river by ...March 4935BC. There they moved up into Volga and later samara.

Matt said...

On the actual topic, overall conclusion still seems strong. Thoughts though:

1) As with the preprint, it would've been great if they'd used qpAdm as well as what I understand them to have used, which is ADMIXTURE based methods (other algorithms, Structure, etc.). Or at least used an f4 ratio method as well. Particularly as IIUC, they're using it over quite low sets of samples here (just ancient samples), not the very large generalized panels. Fairly small (10%-15%) differences in the denominator can have comparatively large effects in their ratios.

2) With the Unetice vs Corded Ware estimates, there's some degree of decline in X:Autosome ratio for CE (Central European farmer) ancestry, as well as we know overall enrichment for CE ancestry on the autosome. Suggests the further admixture process after Corded Ware (if Unetice are descended from them) was not sex biased in the same way (sex neutral / slight male bias to CE farmer), or to a lesser extent. If sex biased admixture continued with enrichment of overall CE ancestry, the ratio would continue go up. I wonder what they would find with Bell Beaker Germany, Rathlin and the Hungarian BA samples, who are more CE enriched.

3) Would have been interesting to supplement with comparisons in modern day populations. E.g. are Basque / Spanish / Italian more biased to X:Autosome for CE / Steppe compared to German / Polish? If not then we might draw tentative conclusion that expansion of IE to Southern Europe was not strongly male mediated (as Unetice vs CW appears). What are modern people like compared to Bronze Age samples with similar Steppe ancestry (e.g. Scotland / Ireland vs Rathlin)?

Ric Hern said...

Horse driven Wagons. Mmm...Horses pulling solid wooden wheeled wagons ? How big were there horses actually ? If they could pull such a heavy weight then why could they not have also been ridden ?

Matt said...

Reading the ratios for CW for CW vs Unetice, I think I may have got it backwards above:

Corded Ware: 0.716 (X chromosome 0.716 as much steppe as autosome - mild male bias)
Unetice: 0.474 (as they say, stronger male bias)
Bell Beaker Germany: 0.5

So the initial entry of Steppe ancestry in this model, less male biased, and then subsequent interaction, more biased towards women entering the later recognizable Unetice / Bell Beaker cultures.

More compatible with Haak that the initial CW migration involved many Steppe females...

Rob said...

Matt

Interesting, because Unetice have so far come back almost all I2a; which might be "native" to CE/ Scandinavia/Hungary

Davidski said...

Unetice might be the result of a late migration from Ukraine. There are early Unetice sites in southeastern Poland and western Ukraine I'm told. Why would they have Y-chromosomes from Scandinavia and Hungary?

Unknown said...

"Horse driven Wagons. Mmm...Horses pulling solid wooden wheeled wagons ? How big were there horses actually ? If they could pull such a heavy weight then why could they not have also been ridden ?"

I'm pretty sure they were smaller than a Mayflower moving truck but I'm also sure migrating folks left their dish washers, weight sets, sofas and queen size beds behind. They probably were light in both respects.

and....Oh the drama, in some of these threads

Unknown said...

and some probably were hrse riding, like western movies about wagon trains

Rob said...

@ Davidski

"Unetice might be the result of a late migration from Ukraine. There are early Unetice sites in southeastern Poland and western Ukraine I'm told. Why would they have Y-chromosomes from Scandinavia and Hungary?"

Ukraine ?
The earliest Unetice sites are in Slovakia ; which is in the Scandinavia - Hungry axis
Granted, there is I2a2 in Mesolithic Ukraine and catacomb; so they could come from there
But this is the easternmost periphery of I2.
Generally, Unetice is seen as a fusion of CWC, native CE and carpathian impulses

Ric Hern said...

Which drama are you referring to ? My point is valid and there is no need for sarcasm. Thanks. Wagon implies a four wheeled vehicle with an extended loading area.This certainly adds weight. Also the fact that thone wagons were made of solid wood and the wheels had no bearings. Why use a wagon if you only want to transport a sleepingbag, why not use a cart instead ? They certainly did transport some food and water etc. So why do you try to ridicule me ?

Ric Hern said...

However it would be interesting to know what these wagons weighed without a load.

Rob said...

@ Ric

Yes Ric you're quite right in that Oxen were used to pull these heavy wagons.

Ric Hern said...

I wonder if the R1b found in Kromsdorf and Quedlinburg were not the tails-end of a R1b-M269 migration towards the West with R1a and I2a replacing most of them in that area ?

Ric Hern said...

Thank for the objective view Rob. I appreciate.

Grey said...

"How big were there horses actually ? If they could pull such a heavy weight then why could they not have also been ridden ?"

i'd imagine they started with something like this and gradually evolved from there - so necessarily travelling very light at first (especially as dogs were used for the same thing)- if so then when wheels came along they would have increased the maximum load

http://www.lakota-indians.narod.ru/Canadaindians.files/Travois.jpg

Matt said...

Rob: Interesting, because Unetice have so far come back almost all I2a; which might be "native" to CE/ Scandinavia/Hungary

Well, note, in my first interpretation in this thread, I think I did get it backwards - it looks like Unetice shows more of a male steppe to female central european neolithic bias compared to Corded Ware (who may have had more migrating females with them when entering Europe). The I2a y-dna the Unetice samples hold have could be from central european neolithic male(s) who were the exception to the general trend and even ultimately from European HG from either the region or broader Eastern Europe, or they could be from practically anywhere (seems present almost everywhere at some percentage).

Ric Hern said...

Yes. I wonder if a Travois actually makes more sense within the Central European muddy,rainy environment ? When did the Wheel and Horse actually arrive in Ireland ? I see some photos where Poledrags were used in Ireland up until the 1800s.

Unknown said...

Which drama are you referring to ?"

I meant some earlier comments and different discussions over speculation and educated guesswork. Didn't mean to give the impression I was referring to you, nor was my reply meant to be sarcastic or ridicule you.

Yeah your points are valid but the migrants probably varied and likely took a bit more than a sleeping bag while traveling in groups. Think of armies that marched and loaded water, possessions, food, plunder, religious items maybe granddad's favorite menhir or stelae, whatever, on wagons. They probably used a variety of vehicles and also horses and many poorer/lower class/young may have hoofed it.

It's possible that R1A, I2 replaced the R1b but it could have been around for a while there maybe getting replaced slowly even past the migration period.

Ric Hern said...

Thanks Ser Nam. Yes I agree.

Nirjhar007 said...

Come on lets be serious here folks. Before the invention of horse war chariots , there weren't any difference of having a horse or a bovine !.

The place where horse got domesticated originally, that's a different issue.

Neolithic Arabia has sculptures , indicating domestication and also in Neolithic Uzbekistan, there is evidence from sites like Ayakagytma , aDNA testing is also a possibility, which will be really helpful in this regard .

Ric Hern said...

I think horses can survive in much colder climates than cattle and they are better at digging for food in the snow and breaking up ice. That was surely a positive for the Steppe environment. But yes I venture to say that cattle were probably ridden before horses were ridden.

Unknown said...

If you mean in at war Nirjhar that's certainly arguable, even mounted infantry have maneuver advantages. and even a small horse plowing into a guy on foot or a group galloping at a bunch of local farmers would be an advantage.
Roman era Germanic cavalry were considered effective against better armed and probably better trained enemies than BA Europeans and they didn't use saddles or stirrups.

Nirjhar007 said...

Horse riding is from late 2nd millennium BC mates , after that Horse-Chariots started to lose their importance .

Rob said...

@Matt

Yes I noted your correction which is why I made my comment .;)

Unknown said...

How old was the BB that is assumed to have been a horse rider?

Rob said...

You mean the one with Hip osteoarthritis and no accompanying horse ?

Unknown said...

Has it been shown arthritis caused the wear? Anyway Botai were supposed to be using horses much earlier and it's not hard to believe it spread.

Rob said...

It's my postulate based on its unilateral character (unless he was riding side saddle)
The evidence from botai is suggestive of domestication and use for secondary products (milk) and traction etc. No evidence for riding, although it is of course possible that attempts were being made to ride them
But without stirrups or psalias little control was conferred . Horsemanship came around rather late (M2 in Central steppe; Hallstatt Western Europe).

Ric Hern said...

Apparently there were a large range of horses ranging anything from 11 to 15 hands in Central Europe during the Bronze Age.The Heavier forest horses certainly didn't pop up out of nowhere. Where there not remains found a while back of the Frisian Horses probable ancestors in the Netherlands that dates back to 2000 bC. ?

jv said...

Proud to be a descendant of that ONE migrating women for every TEN migrating men from the Pontic-Caspian Steppe to Northern/Central Europe. So enjoyable to study the Cultures of my ancient Grandmothers!

Karl_K said...

@jv

Indeed. The women who migrated are so overlooked, yet they likely came in equal numbers. Women just couldn't start taking more husbands and making larger numbers of babies.

jv said...

Even if this is "regurgitated" news, I'm always eager for any news of my H6a1a grandmothers migration from the Yamnaya Culture to Corded Ware Culture.

jv said...

@Karl_K
I imagine migrating women in a wagon have less children than settled Neo Farmer women!

André de Vasconcelos said...

@ser nam

"even a small horse plowing into a guy on foot or a group galloping at a bunch of local farmers would be an advantage"

Oh no, it's the "Mongol syndrome" again. No, it wouldn't and it wasn't, which is why armies wouldn't do that for thousands of years. For a long time, as most of other domesticated animals, they were used to drag stuff, not carrying it on its back - animals don't like it when you put stuff on top of them, certainly not wild ones. Chariots were very successful military units early in history, but not mounted horsemen. How would you explain that? Even Khadesh happened in 1274BCE, and we're talking over 1000 years before that battle.

Horses were not nearly as domesticated as today, and I don't mean just as far as size is concerned, also in terms of behaviour and how they are physically built. Cavalry charges in the Chalcolithic are as realistic as battle tanks in the dark ages.

Samuel Andrews said...

I'm suupper critical of the conclusion many more Steppe men than Steppe women migrated into Europe based on a handful of LN/BA European genomes. I think we should wait for more data.

Suprisingly of the Bell Beaker, Corded Ware, Unetice mtDNA published so far Bell beaker has the most U5a and U4. Unetice has more than Corded Ware. We need more samples but I think it shows lots of Steppe women did migrate with their men. The Steppe migration wasn't a male migration and may have not even been overwelhmingly male.

Rob said...

"it's the "Mongol syndrome" again"

I think the politically correct term is Trisomy 21

André de Vasconcelos said...

I was nicknaming the cavalry obcession, not trying to insult him. Sorry if it sounded like that, maybe I should have called it Hunnic or Scythian syndrome

Rob said...

Andre
I know you weren't, i was being a smart alec

Karl_K said...

@jv

Well, you can imagine women doing whatever you want in a wagon, but it won't lead you to having more children.

jv said...

@Karl_K
Yes, migrating women in wagons or on foot have less children.....................

Grey said...

André de Vasconcelos said..

"Oh no, it's the "Mongol syndrome" again."

"Cavalry charges in the Chalcolithic are as realistic as battle tanks in the dark ages."

1) The Numidians from the classical era didn't use saddles, stirrups or bridles.

The Numidians from the classical era didn't mount cavalry charges - tactically they rode up, threw javelins and then rode away again - possibly in a circle like the later Iberian jinettes.

The Numidians from the classical era were very successful light cavalry i.e. good at raiding and scouting.

2) None of which is relevant to the strategic advantage which is about mobility. The ability to hit and run is what gives the critical strategic advantage.

Did the ships carrying Arab raiders have the *tactical* capability to charge into battle? No.

Did they have the *strategic* ability to hit and run which led to them displacing the coastal population all over southern Europe? Yes.

The cavalry advantage is not just tactical - it's strategic also.

Anonymous said...

Pseudoscience garbage to the max.