The Genographic Project: insights into Western/Central European variation

Abstract

The spread of Homo sapiens out of Africa and the subsequent continent colonisations and migrations have been reconstructed through the analyses of data reported by several disciplines, such as paleoanthropology, archaeology, linguistics and genetics. The joint effort of these disciplines has allowed having a broad knowledge about the tempo and mode of the origin of our species and the major colonisations at a continental level (Jobling et al., 2004). However, some local migration routes, especially those within continents, are far for been completely understood.