The
Explico Historical Research Foundation:
will attempt to find out if Rollo the Viking [male line ancestor of William the Conqueror] was Danish or Norwegian to settle a dispute that has been going on for centuries in Scandinavia. This we will do by retrieving DNA from corpses of his descendants.
They
say they "hope to be able to perform our analysis by Easter 2011." The foundation's other projects include searching for remnants of the
Celts in Turkey and Goths north of the Black Sea.
More:
- Successfully conducted research on the Easter Island, proving South American origin for parts of the Easter Island population through genomic HLA typing. This research indicates strongly that some of the original Easter Island inhabitants some how migrated to the island from the east, from South America, and not only from Polynesia in the west, which has been the official story of Easter Island immigration. The research report by professor Erik Thorsby can be read here.
- On the Canary Islands contributed to the understanding of how the Canary Islands were originally settled and by whom (Pereira et al: Population expansion in the North African Late Pleistoscene signalled by mitochondrial DNA haplogroup U6. BMC Evolutionary Biology 2010 10:390). Also, DNA from a Royal Native lineage on the Canary Island La Gomera proves a connection most likely with the Basque, North Portugal or a British 'Celtic' connection.
- In Normandy, in our search for famous historical figures, closed in the lead on the patriach of William the Conqueror, the great Viking giant Rollo, in order to solve a close to thousand year old riddle about his origin. To be continued..
- In the Ukraine on Crimea and the Black Sea coast of Azov our successful 2006 expedition work is now continued in the labs, hopefully providing us with new vital knowledge on the ancient Greeks, who they were and whom today are most closely related to them.
- In the Caribbean we have worked hard on finding the DNA and especially the Y-chromosome lineage of Christopher Columbus' heritage. This work now seems to have paid off, giving us the opportunity to make new revelations about one of the worlds greatest explorers.
- Established good contact and made all preparations ready for field work in Northern Africa. We are awaiting the neccesary permissions to continue our scientific work in the Atlas Mountains.
- Continued our work in the different fields of expertise involving new technologies and our constant search for new discoveries. We are currently involved in projects in the Caribbean, the Ukraine, in Peru, Russia, Spain, France, Turkey, on Greenland and in Scandinavia. The new technologies we continue to make use of are foremost DNA and the mapping of Human Migrations and Georadar instruments for discovering treasures underground.
(Via the
GENEALOGY-DNA list.)
12 comments:
Interesting.
Are these guys for real? They've got some pizazz in choosing topics that I like, but I'd like somebody with more technical expertise to take a look at what they're doing and decide whether they are scientifically legit or not.
Steve,
I had not been aware of them before, but some of the research they've been a part of is definitely legitimate and has involved them collecting the samples and academics doing the actual DNA analysis.
E.g.: "We thank Sturla Ellingvåg (of Explico) for the Canarian samples." (Population expansion in the North African Late Pleistocene signalled by mitochondrial DNA haplogroup U6)
Similarly, an academic lab in Spain was involved in the Columbus DNA research.
They also apparently have some ties to the Genographic Project: "The DNA from a native Royal lineage on the Canary Island La Gomera has been analyzed at the National Geographic Society, proving a connection most likely to Basque, Western Iberia or Celtic origins."
In the case of the Rollo study, they say "professors are involved at universities in Oslo, Trondheim and Normandy."
From a Google translation of a Norwegian news article:
Explico plans new expeditions in the fall to the Ukraine to find out whether the current population in the area can be linked to the northern Europeans. The stocks have also plans to find out about the Viking chieftain Rollo was from Møre or from Denmark (see separate story), and whether Christopher Columbus was Italian, Spanish or perhaps fransk.Organisasjonen cooperate with National Geographic, and its huge geographical project - a survey of how humankind populated the planet. Explico also cooperates with the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation in the United States, with Norwegian historians and not least in Oxford, Professor Stephen Oppenheimer, a leading British expert who has written the books "Out of Eden," "The real Eve" and "British origin ".
Who was Rollo?
To write Snorri in the Saga of Harald Fair Hair, "Ragnvald was the dearest friend of King Harald had, and the king made him highly. Ragnvald was married to Hild, a daughter of Rolf Nevja, their sons were Rolf and Tore. Rolv was a great Viking He was so big in stature that no horse could carry him, so he went on foot everywhere. He was called Rollo. "Rollo laid out with the king since he sacked in Norway, too, was outlawed and ended up in Normandy, where he called Rollo became Duke in 911 Rollo was the great grandfather of William the Conqueror, who took England in 1066 "Rollo sailed across the sea to the Hebrides, from there he traveled to Valland and harried there and won a large jarle kingdom that he built for a large number of Norwegians, and it's called Mandi North side. Snorri wrote. But he was Danish, "said chronicler Dudo of St. Quentin, and with him the Danish historian Johannes Steenstrup. Explico hope to get the male Y chromosome from some of William's cousins, was buried in Gloucester Cathedral, to find the answer
Another article:
We hope to provide the answer, "said Sturla Ellingvåg.
In what can almost be described as an Indiana Jones-like "expedition", he has been joined by Professor Per Holck of Anatomy and Biology Professor Erika Hagelberg at the University of Oslo. In addition, a French archaeologist, historian and professor of languages involved in the project. [. . .]
Because there is no remnants of Rollo is usable for DNA testing. Ellingvåg and his team hope that the answer can be found in the DNA of two of his descendants, grandson and great grandson Richard in Richard II. These were buried in sarcophagi - monumental coffins - in a crypt in the Benedictine Abbey in the town Fécamp, 40 miles north of Le Havre.
"remnants of the Celts in Turkey"
There are/were definitely Celts in Turkey and they have been there for a very long time. The Galatians mentioned in the New Testament (in St. Paul's 'Epistle to the Galatians) were Celts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galatia
Some of these ended up immigrating back in to Europe to escape the darker Asiatic hordes who gradually moved in to Turkey while others ended up in the USA. There are many Turkish families in the USA who have light (non-brown) eyes, light skin, perfectly straight hair, and are almost entirely European aside from a few minor Near Eastern features: some of them fled here centuries ago to escape the darkening of Turkey.
"Are these guys for real? "
Yes.
I know this guy, but it has been a couple of years since I spoke with him, so this is from my memory.
At first the goal was to find descendants of the germanic (Scandinavian) tribes, but since the haplogroups scheme at this point in time do NOT separate all microsatellites, since they group them together with all the mutations that have happened over 1000s years within ancient lines, the project was impossible.
This means that you can not separate out Norwegians, Swedes, Germans etc, so they started to concentrated on just a few lines, where they could analyze the whole Y-dna, and actually learn something non-trivial about human migrations.
The Rollo angle is probably just a way to get money and complete Scandinavian y-dna, so he could go back the Vandals and the Goths again.
The correct person to contact would of course be Sturla himself, and I am 100% percent sure that he would answer any mail that is sent to him, since it is his interest in people and making new contacts, that have made the whole explico project possible at all.
SR
Anonymous said...
"remnants of the Celts in Turkey"
There are/were definitely Celts in Turkey and they have been there for a very long time. The Galatians mentioned in the New Testament (in St. Paul's 'Epistle to the Galatians) were Celts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galatia
Some of these ended up immigrating back in to Europe to escape the darker Asiatic hordes who gradually moved in to Turkey while others ended up in the USA. There are many Turkish families in the USA who have light (non-brown) eyes, light skin, perfectly straight hair, and are almost entirely European aside from a few minor Near Eastern features: some of them fled here centuries ago to escape the darkening of Turkey.
Of course, these people were the Anatolians, or Hellenized Byzantians, who were the original, autochthonous inhabitants of that land of what became the Ottoman empire, or contemporarily (thanks to the racial Macedonian Mustafa Kemal 'Ataturk') known as 'Turkey'.
*Oh and please Rassie - no pictures this time ;-)
The Canary Islands even have a small pyramid. Supposedly, a group of native whites lived there before Franco declared them "Spanish".
The Spanish conquered the Canary islands long before Franco was born.
The current inhabitants are a hybrid between Spaniards and the indigenous people who built the pyramid.
The U6c sub-haplogroup seems to be unique to the Canary islands and Morocco, suggesting that significant pre-Iberian ancestry persists in the islands.
I'll submit my source for the claim shortly. It's from one of Heyerdahl's books, though I don't have it on hand.
Isn't Rollo the Viking and Rollo the Walker the same individual?
can someone explain to me how people can claim that modern day british royal family are direct descendants to the dukes of normandy when they cannot speak french. one would think they could seing that all dukes learnt it during their time in france.
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