I just read:
http://www.salon.com/books/review/2001/08/06/eve/

This book is about mitrocondrial DNA research and what it tells about
the human history.
Of special interest to this list is the author's suggestions about
the fact that people who came out of Africa a hundred thousand years
ago stayed in the middle east area for 50000 years before they expanded
further on: During the ice age the climate further north differed a lot
from the African climate. New technology and adaption to the food
available there (bison, reindeer, mammuth...) was needed first.
Close to 80% of europeans inherit from those hunter/gatherers, 17%
inherit from later middle east agriculturalists and around 5 % have
other inheritance.

- Hans