TIL that the first carrier of the blonde hair allele in modern day Europeans lived in Siberia 16,000 years ago. This suggests that migrations from the Eurasian steppe brought blonde hair to the European population.

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1. From the Wikipedia article:

   >Phenotypic analysis shows that Afontova Gora 3carries the derived rs12821256 allele associated with blonde hair color in Europeans, making Afontova Gora 3 the earliest individual known to carry this derived allele.

   Interestingly, despite Afontova Gora 3 displaying attributes present in European populations, she is closer to modern day indigenous Siberian populations and Native Americans. Nonetheless she belonged to a group of people called the ‘Ancient North Eurasians’ that contributed to the ancestry of modern-day Europeans, helping form the group called ‘Eastern Hunter Gatherer’ (EHG). These EHGs lived in eastern Europe and their descendants called the Proto-Indo-Europeans (or Yamnaya) would spread their languages and conquer parts of Europe, West Asia and South Asia.

   It’s interesting how an obscure people that lived tens of thousands of years ago in such a harsh landscape would contribute history and ancestry to so many people living nowadays.

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2. Genealogy and blondes: a lot of the blondes I know have more black roots than Alex Haley.

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