I think the explanation may lie in the fact that the Ashkenazim are a very bottle-necked population, with an extremely small group of founding members, and an even smaller group of mtDNA founding "mothers". A big percentage of their surviving mtDNA lines stem from just four women. Some mtdna lineages typical of the Near East, or Europe, for that matter, and especially if they were minor lineages, either weren't part of the founding population, or drifted out.
In think lots more ancient dna will clarify the picture, but we do have some already.
See...
U3 in pre-modern Europe has been found in:
Dnieper-Donets Ukraine-5474-5225 B.C.
LBK Neolithic in Germany-5,000 B.C.
Wielbark Culture Poland-0-300 A.D.
Skovgaard Denmark-200 A.D.
Zavalar-Kapolna Tomb Hungary-1100 A.D.
Cumanian people in Hungary (a semi Nomadic Turkic speaking people)-1200 A.D.
None of the above has anything to do with Ashkenazim; they didn't even exist yet, and they certainly weren't in those European areas at that time.
Ed. There is also a sample dated to 4490-4335 B.C. in Israel, when there weren't yet any Jews there either.
What an insane thread, U3 Jewish?, at least the poster above had the sense to look at the ancient DNA discovered thus far.
Sorry? I'm rather unsure of the meaning of your rather cryptic remark...but, yes, I think the idea is totally unsupported by any scientific data, as I tried to show. The amount of ancient dna we have at our disposal is infinitesimally small...until more becomes available, the most we can do is make logical deductions from the available modern data as correlated to history and archaeology.
I was actually highlighting your post as the only sensible one as it used references to ancient DNA found so far, no criticism. I'm all for speculation but based on scientific evidence. What's next?, are we going to resurrect the previous silly theory that U3 is Roma!
My Heritage on my Mother's side is of Ashkenazic Jewry. My MtDNA Haplogroup is U3a1a.
I would really like to understand how & when the U3a Haplogroup diversified,and were separated from their people before the bottleneck occurred better. What are their true Ethnic Origins???
Could it also be possible that some of these Tribes were enslaved & conquered by either the Assyrians,Persians,Greeks,and or Romans,and that is brought them into those areas? Has there been any new Mappings,or Research Theories that may provide even more clarity and info???
TIA
The Jews have practically no U3 : only 1% based on 836 samples.
I have 996 samples for Greece and an average of 3.8%.