I just noticed by magnifying the maps that there are small percentages among the Irish of Y-chromosome type R1a which is most common among Indo-European peoples of the kurgan culture, and also of type J which apparently originated among semitic people of the Middle East. The other more common Middle Eastern type I probably spread with the Gravettian culture which is of Upper Paleolithic times and may have been in Ireland before the Neolithic period. It could be that both R1a and R1b types were common to the ancient Celts of central Europe. One theory is that the Celts were formed by a mix of people who are characterized from stone battle axes found probably related to the Slavic people, and other people characterized by bell shaped beakers probably related to the Basques. Since the two types of DNA are so closely related, it may also be the case that the original kurgan culture comprised both DNA types in some proportions before spreading westward. Michael O'Hearn ____________________________________________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail beta. http://new.mail.yahoo.com