The Basques And The Neanderthals

     Everyone other than sub-Saharan Africans has 1.5% - 2% DNA from the Neanderthals, but the last Neanderthals are said to have died off around 20,000 years ago. Instead of Neanderthal DNA, some Australasians get 3% of their DNA from the Denisovans, a genetic cousin of the Neanderthals that is thought to have died off around 50,000 years ago. Homosapiens and Neanderthals share a common ancester called Homo Heidelbergensis who emerged from the genetic bottleneck 800,000 years ago as the dominant form of man in Africa. Heidelbergensis was basically like modern man but gigantic, like the tallest basketball players are today.

     The Neanderthals evolved from a group of Heidelbergensis that got cut off in Europe during a glacial period, and about 450,000 years ago they evolved some kind of dwarfism, making Neanderthals dwarf giants. The Neanderthals had to survive through multiple ice age cycles that lasted 100,000 years, and warm periods that lasted 10,000 years, which forced them to learn to wear clothes, build shelters, make fires, and to be constantly adapting, sometimes forcing them into caves where the oldest known cave art on the planet is considered to have been done by Neanderthals in southern France around 65,000 years ago.

     Meanwhile back in Africa another group of Heidelbergensis had somehow shrunk to become pygmies by 300,000 years ago, making Homosapiens pygmy giants, and then the last of the original giant Heidelbergensis disappeared from the fossil record in Africa and the Middle East by around 200,000 years ago. We know how long Homosapiens have been wearing clothes by comparing the genome of human body lice to gorilla nest lice, which says that Homosapiens didn't even start wearing clothes until 180,000 years ago, at least 250,000 years after the Neanderthals were forced to begin wearing clothes in Europe. The dwarf giant Neanderthals and the pygmy giant Homosapiens first met in the Middle East or Europe around 45,000 years ago, and there was very little height difference between the two groups when they met, just a weight difference because the Neanderthals were barrel chested, making them more stocky than Homosapiens.

     Neanderthals were Rhesus Positive Incomplete or RPI, so their women suffered from Hemolytic Disease of the Newborn or HDN if they tried to mate with anyone non-Neanderthal that had different types of Rh factors in their blood, which limited the Neanderthal’s ability to crossbreed with the other human species they occasionally ran into on the planet like the Homosapiens who mostly had RhD blood, or the Homo Rhodesiensis that lived in North Africa and southern Europe up until about 100,000 years ago that apparently didn't match either. We know about HDN because there are also modern human groups that are called Rh negative or Rh- and the same thing happens if an Rh- woman tries to have children with an Rh positive man. There are many different Rh factors, but the main one we concern ourselves with today is called RhD, in modern women HDN is a complete rejection of the RhD blood of the fetus that came from the father, resulting in the miscarriage, stillbirth, or death of every baby after the first, and even sometimes the first.

     Starting about 45,000 years ago as Homosapiens started interacting with the Neanderthals in the Middle East or Europe, the HDN of the RPI Neanderthal females kept any Homosapien genes from entering the Neanderthal gene pool. Also, through an astonishing coincidence, around 45,000 years ago is when it is estimated that Rh negative entered the gene pool of Homosapiens, which also causes HDN, though there is no known link between RHI and Rh-, and they do occur at a different gene. Over the next 25,000 years all genetic testing of all Neanderthal bones shows no trace of Homosapien DNA entering their genepool, they were 100% Neanderthals to the end, and then they disappeared from the fossil record in southern France 20,000 to 30,000 years ago.

     The Basque region of southern France has a very high Rh- percent in the population, around 47%, and settlement in the area can certainly be traced back to over 17,000 years ago. Did the Neanderthals that suffered from HDN and lived in the area just die out and then the Basques arrived and also coincidentally suffered from a different Rh blood incompatibility that caused the same HDN? It can't be a coincidence that the Neanderthals suffered from HDN and disappeared from the fossil record in the Basque region 20,000 to 30,000 years ago, and then Homosapiens are said to have lived in that exact same area for at least 17,000 years, and the ones that live in that area also suffer from HDN.

     The entire area surrounding Basque country in northern Spain and southern France ranges from 40% to 54% Rh-, with the Basques sitting at the center of the Rh- blood type in Europe, so they are not an isolated Rh- group surrounded by RhD groups like the Ashkenazi or Sephardic Jews, who are both 100% Rh-. The area around Basque country has been occupied for over 17,000 years by the ancestors of the Basques who were clearly Rh-, and who did the most famous cave art in the world of running herds of animals. So all of the cave art that has ever been found in Europe was either done by Neanderthals that suffered from HDN, or by the Rh- ancestors of the Basque who also suffered from HDN. Interesting. 

     The Basque language is also missing a few sounds that may have been missing in the Neanderthal spoken language, and it is unique among world languages. There's much confusion over the history of the Basque peoples and whether or not they had Matriarchy, versus Matrilineal family lines. Due to being Rh-, they had to have Matrilineal families which has often been confused with the Matriarchy, claiming that the men had a second class role in the pastoral ancient past in Basque country, and that things have changed since then. This is not true. The Basque country has always been run by men which is called Patriarchy, but in a culture dominated by Rh negative blood family lines had to be traced Matrilineally, like they are with Jewish and Yazidi families, which is not the same thing as Matriarchy or women running the society. We only discovered the difference between Rh negative and Rh positive blood in 1937, which explains why centuries of commentary about the Basque peoples confused Matrilineal family lines with the Matriarchy.

     We eventually developed something called RhoGAM that can be given to an Rh- mother so that she will not reject her RhD baby. But before 1968 RhoGAM wasn't available, so Rh- cultures typically were Matrilineal and had strict rules about not marrying outside of the group. The Yazidi, the Ashkenazi Jews, and the Sephardic Jews are all examples of Rh- blood maintained through Matrilineal family lines and not marrying outside of the group. Matrilineal because in general an Rh- woman can only reproduce with an Rh- man, and with only 1 child even possible from a pairing with an RhD man that means there is only a 50% chance of having a girl, so Matrilineal family lines maintain Rh- bloodlines.

     Most of the nobility of Europe used to be Rh-, but traced family lines through the Patrilineal or father's side, but they could only maintain their Rh- bloodlines through strict adherence to only marrying noble women, and despite using a Patrilineal system the Rh- blood was ultimately maintained because noble women still suffered from HDN if they married an RhD man. So if a man became noble through fighting or war but had RhD blood, when he married a noble woman she would only be able to have at most one child with him, so only a 50% chance of getting a male heir to continue his name. The nobility of Europe functioned through Patriarchy with an equal emphasis on both the Matrilineal and Patrilineal family lines. Rh- women may not be able to have more than one child with an RhD man, but Rh- men can have as many children as they want with RhD women, and while their children are technically RhD, they are weak positive and carry half of their father’s Rh- genetics. If they reproduce with another weak positive person about 1/4 of their children would be Rh-, and then an Rh- female will only be able to have multiple children with another Rh- male. The rulers of France, Spain, England, Austria, and Russia were all descended from the kings of Navarre in Basque country, and through intermarrying, almost all European nobility were related and had Rh- blood.

     Since the Neanderthals were RPI and suffered from HDN, they most likely traced their family lines through the Matrilineal or female side like most Rh- groups do. RPI has only been found in 1 or 2 modern humans, so that did not get passed down, but the Neanderthal DNA did, with up to 20% of Neanderthal DNA existing in fragments in modern Homosapiens, but any one human only has 1.5% - 2% Neanderthal DNA. Just like Rh- men can have as many children as they want with RhD women, RPI Neanderthal males could have had as many children as they wanted with Homosapien women, and while most of their children may have been sterile, clearly not all of them, which is how most of the people on Earth got up to 2% Neanderthal DNA, from Neanderthal fathers passing their genes to their hybrid children.

     Since there was apparently an overlap of 25,000 years between the Neanderthals and Homosapiens, maybe the RPI Neanderthal women that suffered from HDN met Rh- women that also suffered from HDN. Maybe the mothers of the Neanderthal men that took Homosapien wives taught their daughter in-laws. Maybe the Neanderthal men were more compatible with Rh- women than RhD women, and this is how Neanderthal genes made their way into modern humans. If so, maybe they shared their stories and their culture. This would explain how the Basques have 48% Rh- blood and a unique language. Maybe they lived alongside the Neanderthals in the Middle East or Europe and picked up their language and culture because they both suffered from the same HDN if they tried to have children with foreigners.