Half Of West Europeans Are Descended From One Bronze Age 'King': Study

Most west European men have descended from one Bronze Age king about 4,000 years ago, says a recent report. Experts arrived at the conclusion after probing the "largest and most intricate research" of world genetic variations in the Y chromosome.

Hence, one king who was among the first rulers of Europe in the Stone Age was the father of a group of nobles who spread out to various parts of the continent.

Analysing the genetic variation in the Y chromosome, which is unique to humans, also indicated that a population explosion started 55,000 years ago, which were related to development in technology, the development of the wheel and metal transport.

"Genetics can't tell us why it happened but we know that a tiny number of elite males were controlling reproduction and dominating the population," said Dr. Chris Tyler-Smith from Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. "Half of the European population is descended from just one man. We can only speculate as to what happened. The best explanation is that they may have resulted from advances in technology that could be controlled by small groups of men."

Starting from 55,000 years ago, there were population explosions in various parts of Europe, due to various communities migrating to new regions with excess resources and technology share that helped the groups to flourish.

Scientists used the sequence difference of more than 1,200 men from 26 populations in the world, which was analyzed with information from the 1000 Genomes Project.

About 42 researchers came together from four continents to create a 1,200 Y chromosomes tree. It showed the relationships of various volunteering men to each other, and also found that they had all descended from one man living about 190,000 years ago.

Hence, half of Western European men have descended from one 4,000-year-old monarch who ruled during the Bronze Age.