Traced by Nathaniel T. Jeanson

Traced
by Nathaniel T. Jeanson

ISBN-13: 9781683442912
Hardocver: 252 pages
Publisher: Master Books
Released: March 11, 2022

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
What happened to the ancient Egyptians? When their civilization fell, did the Egyptian people disappear? Or do their descendants exist to this day? What about the ancient Persians? Romans? Mayans?

For years, the answers to these questions have been hidden. But no more. Nathaniel T. Jeanson, a Harvard graduate with a Ph.D. in cell and developmental biology, has discovered a DNA-based, generation by generation family tree for global humanity. This tree uncovers the origin and fate of these ancient peoples—and connects them to peoples alive today.

The fascinating research presented in Traced has additional far-reaching consequences for numerous contemporary debates. Traced shows that the races have changed multiple times in human history. Thus, “white”, “black”, “Asian” and other common descriptors lose their meaning in light of modern genetics. The genetics in Traced restores the indigenous histories to many obscure people groups and connects them back to specific ancestors in Genesis 10. Traced represents one of the strongest arguments in print for the recent origin of humanity.

Dive into the wild and emerging field of historical genetics and see how these recent discoveries on the fate of ancient civilizations end up uncovering the story of the whole world.


My Review:
Traced looks at what has been discovered about Y chromosome lineages and how this information helps to show people-group movements, mergings, and extinctions. Tracking genetic mutations and calculating mutation rates, biologists can estimate when certain Y chromosome lineages emerged and where their descendants moved (or stayed), giving a chromosomal-level view of early to modern history.

The author comes from the perspective of a young earth and biblical foundation for the origins of mankind. As in, after the Flood, the people groups were split and moved apart with Genesis 10 recording which groups went where. He tried to identify which lineages were which people groups in recorded history with findings about where various lineages occur providing some interesting insights into how much people got around in the ancient world.

He provided maps showing where the various lineages show up and about how much of the population in that area has that lineage. While I didn't completely understand how they figured out the timing on all the various splits to create the Y chromosome family trees, it's clear the author's put a lot of thought and research into it. The book focused more on trying to match the various lineages to known history. Overall, I'd recommend this book to those interested in what DNA can tell us about our lineage.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.