I first posted about a unique and rare mtDNA haplogroup C1e found only in Iceland, back in 2014, hinting at a Neanderthal origin. Recently, I mentioned mythical voyages of mythical King Arthur to Iceland. Today I will review publications that mention C1e, since 2015.
C1e in Central Asia
This rare haplogroup has been reported in a paper by Järve, Mari et al. (2019), Shifts in the Genetic Landscape of the Western Eurasian Steppe Associated with the Beginning and End of the Scythian Dominance. Current Biology, Volume 29, Issue 14, 2430 - 2441.e10. The article mentions this lineage casually, and then includes data in its Supplementary file, as Table 2: "All of the 31 individuals were successfully haplotyped (Table S2). Despite the small sample size, the 31 samples of this study exhibit a remarkable heterogeneity of mtDNA haplogroups (hgs) (Table S2)... with a few representatives of the rare hgs X, W and C1e (5/31)". Only one sample of the 31, was C1e, it is sample MJ-43, identified as ScySar_Su (Scythians and Sarmatians from the Southern Urals).
This sample belongs to a woman from the Early Prokhorovka period (4th century BC) from Sibai-1 from the northern periphery of the Prokhorovka area in Russia (more details on MJ-43 here) this spot can be seen in this map. These people were nomads who bred sheep and cattle, and were great horse riders. They buried their dead in large mounds.
The article describes this group: "Scythians and Sarmatians of the Southern Urals (group ScySar_SU) Due to its geographic position, the Southern Urals region became a contact zone of different ethnic groups at the beginning of the Early Iron Age. The prominent natural feature of the region is the mountain range of the Urals that divides the Eurasian steppe zone into its European and Asian parts. The relative proximity to the nations of Central Asia and the Near East, the abundance of natural resources and the existence of large centers of metallurgy made the region attractive for nomads, which culminated in the formation of a large-scale union of nomads in the 5th–4th century BC." How did the C1e go to Iceland from here, or reach this area from Iceland?
C1e in Xinjiang, China
Then there is the paper by Wang W, et al. (2021) (Ancient Xinjiang mitogenomes reveal intense admixture with high genetic diversity. Sci Adv 7: eabd6690) who mention the C1e haplogroup in its Supplementary file Table S1 as follows "WTL_M3B, Wutulan (WTL), Nilka County", China. This place can be seen in this Google map. It is dated at 2425-1942 BP. This is far from Iceland, and roughly 1,250 miles or 2,000 km from the Russian site, and very far from America.
A paper published last year by Cabrera V. (2025) suggests a back-migration from America into Asia: "Hg C1 comprises four common and well spread sub lineages, three of them (C1b, C1c, C1d) practicably exclusive of the Americas and one (C1a) with a wide Asian range, and several rare clades/isolates, the most ancient of which is represented by two identical sequences from Brazil (Simão et al. 2021) and Paraguay (Avila et al. 2019) that carries twelve mutations in its basal stem (Supplementary_Fig_S3.xls). Curiously, the other isolates have been detected in northwestern Eurasia instead of East Asia: C1e in Iceland (Ebenesersdóttir et al. 2011), western Russia (Järve et al. 2019), and western China (Wang et al. 2021); C1f in Tajikistan (Peng et al. 2018) and C1g in Mesolithic remains from western Russia (Der Sarkissian et al. 2014). As the oldest clades are found in the New World, the most parsimonious conclusion is that all the C1 branches in Eurasia resulted from retro migrations from America."
Name Change C1f → C1g
Cabrera refers to a C1g haplotype reported in 2014, in Russia, by Der Sarkissian et al. I quote this paper below. But note that the nomenclature has changed between this 2014 paper and now. The
A paper by Clio Der Sarkissian, et al.(2014) reporting another rare variant, mtDNA C1f haplogroup, found in Yuzhnyy Oleni Ostrov (see map), in NW Russia, discusses the American origin of the C1f and C1e variants:
"The Americas also remain under-sampled for complete mtDNA genomes and could be suggested as a potential geographical origin for the C1f lineage, as it has been for the Iceland-restricted C1e sub-clade. For C1e, an American origin through mating of Viking explorers with Native American women sometime earlier than 300 years ago was proposed. Among other hypotheses including that of a European origin, an American origin was favoured on the basis that most of the hg C1 diversity is found on the American continent, despite the fact that no sequence belonging to hg C1e could be detected in the Americas (or anywhere else). This lack of match was explained by under-sampling of the American mtDNA genome diversity. In any case, if admixture between Native Americans and Vikings did occur, it must have been limited, as no other American-specific lineage (e.g. hg A2, B2, D1, C1b, C1c, C1d) was detected in Iceland.
As for Mesolithic Europe, the possibility of a direct prehistoric genetic influence from the Americas is highly unlikely. However, in the eventuality that further sampling of complete mtDNA genomes in the Americas reveals the presence of additional haplotypes belonging to C1f, it would suggest an evolutionary history similar to that of mtDNA hg X2. Like hg C1, hg X2 displays relatively low frequencies albeit with a global distribution in the Northern hemisphere. For example, clade X2a was observed in Europe in the West, in the Near East, Europe, Central Asia, Siberia as well as North America [43]. One model for the present-day distribution of hg X2 suggests that clade X2a split early from the rest of the X2 lineages in the Near East, and reached east Siberia before participating in the second wave of migration into the Americas through admixture with Beringian populations [44]. A similar scenario involving an early split of the different C1 clades in Asia followed by their spread and subsequently isolated evolution could be considered as an explanation for the wide geographical distribution of hg C1 in general. However, this scenario currently lacks substantial support."
But the authors favor an Eurasian origin: "we suggest that the Icelandic-specific C1e sub-clade could have had a recent origin in northern Europe rather than an American origin. This hypothesis is relevant with regard to the origins of the Icelandic population, as Iceland was discovered and first settled by Scandinavian Vikings around 1,130 years ago. Vikings raids extended as far from their homeland in Scandinavia as France, Spain and Sicily, but their main expansion range comprised western Russia, the Baltic region, Scandinavia, and the British Isles [16]. The study of the mtDNA diversity of present-day Icelanders identified that most of the Icelandic mtDNA lineages had Norse (from Scandinavia) or Gaelic origins (from the British Isles) and that the Icelandic gene pool had strongly been impacted by genetic drift... Considering the Scandinavian origins of Icelanders and the identification of the sister clade C1f in Mesolithic North East Europe, it can be proposed that the Icelandic-specific C1e and C1f sub-clades might have both split from the common ancestors of the C1 lineages somewhere in Eurasia and later reached northern Europe during independent or similar migrations (before the Mesolithic for C1f). Therefore, the rare occurrence of the C1e and C1f sub-clades in Europe could be the result of their dilution within the pre-existing European mtDNA diversity when these lineages reached Europe... C1e might have been brought in by the Vikings who first colonised Iceland... While the C1e sub-clade might have been preserved at detectable frequencies in the Icelandic population due to the effects of founder event, it most likely has gone extinct in the source population in northern Europe as a consequence of its low frequency."
More Recent Developments
With the surge in genetic analysis, there have been more reports of C1f (see this source) that reports: 4 individuals in Iceland, 2 Native American, 1 German, and 5 individuals in another two countries (Italy and Tajikistan). A blog post from 2023. C1g has been reported in one ancient male individual, from Karelia (close to the Yuzhnyy Oleni Ostrov location), dated to 8,800-7,950 BP (Source).
A 2017 paper by Ming-Sheng Peng et al. adds some more C1g individuals to the map. In its Supplementary Table S4 it mentions two individuals with C1g haplogroup, PT35 and HM804483 the second has a note that reads "Origin_locality: USA Family Tree". Table S1 identifies the origin of PT35 as Pamir Tajik, the other sample seems to be an older one, used as a reference. This source gives full details, it is a C1, and back in 2009 it was a C1f (Source), now reanamed C1g.
More information is provided by https://www.yfull.com/mtree/C/, with 2021 data showing:
- C1f1, two individuals from Tajikistan, Gorno Badakhshan which includes Pamir.
- C1f2, one individual from India, Marathi, the other (id: YF132247) unspecified.
- C1g, one individual from Bolivia, ancient sample c.826-1049 BP, the other (id:JQ705835.1) unspecified.
I must admit, however, that I am confused by the nomenclagure, the Tajiks and the Indian are classed as C1f, but we have seen above that they are C1g! (?) geneticists have this persistent issue with changing codes and causing confusion!. Anyway the point is that this ratifies the Tajiks as C1g -or f- variants, and mentions an Indian subject, and a new ancient C1g in Bolivia, pre-Hispanic by its age.
The ages of the C1f branches in Asia are 4700 years BP are much younger than the 16200 years assigned to C1g, however, I must point out that Postillone and Pérez (2017) says that the Bolivian sample mentioned further up -it has the same id code- is C1c and not C1g! "KU523335.1 245.C1c C1c Bolivia." It also appears as C1c in the National Center for Biotechnologydatabase. So I have my doubts about it being C1g.
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