The seven daughters and the seven gardens of Eden, by Bryan Sykers: Our reconstructions had identified seven major genetic clusters among the Europeans. Within each of those clusters, the DNA sequences were either identical or very similar to one another. Over 95% of modern-day native Europeans fit into one or another of these seven groups. Our interpretation of European prehistory and the emphasis it placed on the Paleolithic hunter-gatherers had depended on giving ages to these clusters, and we had worked these out by averaging the number of mutations we found in all the modern members of the seven different clans.

The seven clusters had ages of between 45,000 and 10,000 years. What these estimates actually tell us is the length of time it has taken for all the mutations that we see within a cluster to have arisen from a single founder sequence. And, by purely logical deduction, the inescapable but breathtaking conclusion is that the single founder sequence at the root of each of the seven clusters was carried by just one woman in each case.. So the ages we had given to each of the clusters became the times in the past when these seven woman, the clan mothers, actually lived. It required only that I gave them names to bring them to life and to arose in me, and everyone who has heard about them, an intense curiosity about their lives. Ursula, Xenia, Helena, Velda, Tara, Katrine and Jasmine became real people.

Bryan Sykers: The seven daughters of Eve, Norton, New York, 2001.

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