Y-DNA haplogroup R1a was most certainly proto-Indo-European in origin, according to widespread opinions...
Ancient DNA testing has confirmed the presence of haplogroup R1a1a in samples from the Corded Ware culture in Germany (2600 BCE), from Tocharian mummies (2000 BCE) in Northwest China, from Kurgan burials (circa 1600 BCE) from the Andronovo culture in southern Russia and southern Siberia, as well as from a variety of Iron-age sites from Russia, Siberia, Mongolia and Central Asia.Not to forget that it's also common among high-caste northern Indians.Nowadays, high frequencies of R1a are found in European Russia (45 to 65% of the population), Poland (55%), Belarus (49%), Ukraine (43%), Slovakia (42%), Latvia (40%), Lithuania (38%), the Czech Republic (34%), Hungary (32%), Croatia (29%), Norway (27%), Austria (26%), north-east Germany (23%), and Sweden (19%).
Eupedia.com (click the link and read their article on R1b) seems also to suggest that R1b was involved in the Indo-European-speaking expansion to Western Europe (R1a, on the other hand, is quite uncommon in far Western Europe), and that the high frequencies today can be explained by the possibility that the powerful elites (the men of the ruling-class in this regard) had the chance to pass their genes on to a greater amount of off-spring. * This theory is not accepted by all researchers, however, and is thus controversial. Many seem to prefer the theory of R1b being pre-Indo European, and I do not personally think I have the necessary insight to fully support one or the other today.
But if the R1b-Indo-European-"replacement"(not completely, but partially)-theory is correct after all, then this would mean that the modern European (and Germanic) gene-pool is Indo-European to a large degree, and much more so than what's often been assumed.
* To illustrate this, it could be pointed out that about one in five males from north-western Ireland are directly descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages (a sub-group of R1b, by the way).
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