According to Lazaridis et al. (2016),
Natufian skeletal remains from the ancient
Levant predominantly carried the Y-DNA haplogroup E1b1b. Of the five Natufian specimens analyzed for paternal lineages, three belonged to the E1b1b1b2(xE1b1b1b2a, E1b1b1b2b), E1b1(xE1b1a1, E1b1b1b1) and E1b1b1b2(xE1b1b1b2a, E1b1b1b2b) subclades (60%). Haplogroup E1b1b was also found at moderate frequencies among fossils from the ensuing
Pre-Pottery Neolithic B culture, with the E1b1b1 and E1b1b1b2(xE1b1b1b2a, E1b1b1b2b) subclades observed in two of seven PPNB specimens (~29%). The scientists suggest that the Levantine early farmers may have spread southward into East Africa, bringing along Western Eurasian and
Basal Eurasian ancestral components separate from that which would arrive later in North Africa. Additionally, haplogroup E1b1b1 has been found in an
ancient Egyptian mummy excavated at the
Abusir el-Meleq archaeological site in Middle Egypt, which dates from a period between the late
New Kingdom and the
Roman era. Fossils at the
Iberomaurusian site of
Ifri N'Amr Ou Moussa in
Morocco, which have been dated to around 5,000 BCE, also carried haplotypes related to the E1b1b1b1a (E-M81) subclade. These ancient individuals bore an autochthonous Maghrebi genomic component that peaks among modern
North Africans, indicating that they were ancestral to populations in the area. The E1b1b haplogroup has likewise been observed in ancient
Guanche fossils excavated in
Gran Canaria and
Tenerife on the
Canary Islands, which have been radiocarbon-dated to between the 7th and 11th centuries CE. The clade-bearing individuals that were analysed for paternal DNA were inhumed at the Tenerife site, with all of these specimens found to belong to the E1b1b1b1a1 or E-M183 subclade (3/3; 100%). Loosdrecht et al. (2018) analysed genome-wide data from seven ancient
Iberomaurusian individuals from the Grotte des Pigeons near
Taforalt in eastern Morocco. The fossils were directly dated to between 15,100 and 13,900 calibrated years
before present. The scientists found that five male specimens with sufficient nuclear DNA preservation belonged to the E1b1b1a1 (M78) subclade, with one skeleton bearing the E1b1b1a1b1 parent lineage to E-V13, another male specimen belonged to E1b1b (M215*). Martiniano et al. (2022) later reassigned all the Taforalt samples to haplogroup E-M78 and none to E-L618, the predecessor to E-V13. ==Distribution==