Mitochondrial Mutation Rate and Ancient Cultures
That the mitochondrial mutation rate (set at about 1 mutation in 600
generations) is likely much higher than assumed by Sykes can be seen
at the site of The Molecular History Research Center at
http://www.mhrc.net/mitochondria.htm
and
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/realeve/ask/ask_04.html
Some studies have shown a mutation rate of 1 in about 40
generations, see e.g.
http://www.ridgenet.net/~do_while/sage/v2i6n.htm
Sykes places Ursula at 40,000 BC in Greece whereas the oldest
archaeological records of first humans in Greece would seem to be
about 20000 BC as at Franchthi, Greece - see
http://emuseum.mnsu.edu/archaeology/sites/europe/franchthicave.html
so that a good argument could be made that all of Sykes dates should
at least be halved.
If one does so then the dates correspond better with the dating of
archaeological finds in the respective regions.
Xenia at 24,000 years ago would more correctly be ca. 12,000 years ago, a date also
assigned by the linguists to the spread of Indo-European from this
central European region and close to the Mesolithic skulls found in Eastern Europe
dating to ca. 8000 BC.
Helena in France at 20,000 years ago would be ca. 10,000 years ago
and thus near the date of 9000 BC I assign to the astronomical
paintings at Lascaux.
Velda in Spain at 17,000 years would be in the same chronological
ball park at ca. 9000 BC for the Altamira cave paintings near
Santander.