haplogroup l lineages are relatively infrequent less than throughout europe with the exception of iberia where frequencies as high as percent have been reported these lineages had previously been associated with the african slave trade however an analysis by gonzalez et al revealed that most of the l lineages matched northwest african l lineages rather than contemporary sub saharan l lineages the authors suggest this pattern indicates that most of the sub saharan l lineages entered iberia in prehistoric times rather than in more recent periods haplogroup l lineages are present at low frequencies in eastern europe though a high diversity of african mtdna lineages have been detected few lineages have accumulated enough mutations in europe to form monophyletic clusters malyarchuk et al detected only two monophyletic clusters l b and l b in russians with an estimated age no greater than years malyarchuk et al identified african l b l a l b l d and m clades in slavic populations at low frequencies l b l b and l d had matches with west african populations indicating that these lineages probably entered europe through iberia one lineage l a a appeared to be much older indicating that it may have entered europe in prehistoric times this clade was possibly related to l a clades identified in individuals of ashkenazi heritage from france germany poland romania and russia l a lineages are widespread throughout africa as a result the exact origins of this lineage are uncertain