Allentoft Study Shows I2a1a in Bronze Age Remedello in Northern Italy

If you've been following Ancient DNA lately, you know that Allentoft et al came out with results of eastern Bronze Age populations.  The data confirm an expansion out of the steppes and likely give credence to a two or three wave Indo European expansion.

Paul Heggarty gives an excellent analysis here, perhaps the best on the web.

This post will focus on the study's implications for I-M26.  It is possible that M26 was linked perhaps to the spread of Cardium Pottery, which spread from Italy rapidly: 2,000 km from the gulf of Genoa to the estuary of the Mondego in probably no more than 100–200 years. This suggests a seafaring expansion by planting colonies along the coast.

Whether M26 spread with Cardial Ware, or existed before it and those people became acculturated by it, with the findings from Treilles and Remedello, we have confirmation that M26 was the lineage of some of the very first waves of inhabitants of Italy and the western Mediterranean, and that it persisted through very different times, since the Remedello culture was very different from its predecessors and very similar to steppe cultures.