Thursday, September 29, 2022

Here is an excerpt from Ilse Wegner's book about Hurrian language.

 Here is an excerpt from Ilse Wegner's book about Hurrian language. Alalakh is listed as an important site where numerous Hurrian names are found.

I post this because I noticed that in some DNA platforms Alalakh samples are marked as exclusively Amorite. For instance in MyTrueancestry. Semites obviously were present in Alalakh, which is visible in the Y dna. But Hurrians also had a large presence. Also occasionally Aryan names are attested in Alalakh which is confirmed by ancient DNA.


Լուսանկարի նկարագրությունը հասանելի չէ:
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Saturday, September 10, 2022

The difference between scaled and unscaled in Vahaduo/G25.

 The difference between scaled and unscaled in Vahaduo/G25.

When using G25 coordinates one important thing to keep in mind is that the G25 is not directly working on any alleles. G25 zips any ancient DNA into 25 numbers. Which are coordinates in a virtual 25 dimension PCA.
The application that makes them creates unscaled coordinates first. Unscaled "humanity" is much closer to each other than the scaled one. As You can see in unscaled mode Turks and Azerbaijani are quite close to Armenians than in the scaled. The closeness of Turkish pops makes sense from historic point of view. In this sense the unscaled G25 data looks more close to Fst.
So why they are not close in the scaled? The reason of this is that scaling makes divergent pops like East Asian , African, Amerindian, Papuan deliberately more distant from West Eurasians. As consequence an East Turkish pop who have less than 10% East Asian is pulled away from Armenians while the local Near Easterners who probably have less shared ancestry with Armenians becomes apparently closer.
So when You use the scaled coordinates keep in mind this feature. This is even more important for ancient DNA. Many aDNA suffer from damage. They have noise levels of various anachronistic ancestry from Africa, America, East Asia which will affect the distances also.
In sum unscaled behavior is closer to Fst while the scaled behavior is more close to Admixture based oracles.
PS I used Erzurum because it's close to average.





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Thursday, September 8, 2022

I updated this topic about Szolt Simon citing Dönmez "paper" about Triangle ware

 I updated this topic about Szolt Simon citing Dönmez "paper" about Triangle ware. It seems Dönmez made unscientific claims, which are quite sadly referenced by Simon.

To understand why it is an illogical argument I propose to read this paper from Summers.
He speaks about Triangle and Festoon ware, also about a special type of painted pottery. Notice painted potteries existed since Early Bronze Age. Here one type if it is discussed. The one related to Achemenids.
Main points are:
+ Triangle Ware, and that painted pottery are all linked to Achemenid period. They come from Iran. No single case in Urartu or even Hasanlu before Achemenids. The previous attribution of Triangle ware to Urartians was erroneous.
+Apadana architecture in Achemenid empire is borrowed from Urartu. That is why it is hard to distinguish Urartian period architecture from the Persian period.
+ Virtually no Medes period sites or artefacts in East Turkey Iron Age. Except one in west of Euphrates that can be tentatively linked to Medes. But even that needs a detailed examinations.
In sum we see what was already known from history. With the formation of Armenian Satrapy (547-331bc) the Tosp city in Van region became administrative center of Satrapy and hence we see there apparition of Persian pottery. It must be noted that in modern RoA Triangle ware is less frequent than in Van region. Erebuni was used as administrative center in RoA. If the Strabo's term Basorapeda is about Vaspurakan as some proposed then this could mean that a new name for East of Van was introduced during this Satrapy period. Vaspurakan means "nobility, high nobility" in Iranian languages. Consistent with it's role in the past. After the 331 when Achemenid empire collapsed the new capital was transfered to Armavir.
UPDATE: It seems Dönmez indeed used Triangle Ware as a Armenian presence marker. Well simply called this is a pseudo-science and it is quite sad that Simon relies on such references to promote his case. Dönmez pseudo-scientifuc theory was criticized by Mikael Badalyan also.

Archaeological Evidence for the Achaemenid Period in Eastern Turkey
ACADEMIA.EDU
Archaeological Evidence for the Achaemenid Period in Eastern Turkey
Archaeological Evidence for the Achaemenid Period in Eastern Turkey

Tuesday, September 6, 2022

We have 12 new Kur-Araxian samples from RoA.

 We have 12 new Kur-Araxian samples from RoA. Three Y DNA are published from Berkaber (~2500bc) All are J1-Z1842 which was also found in previous works in Daghestan. Another J1-Z1842 was found in MBA Hasanlu (2000bc). And finally we have another Z1842 from Arslantepe EBA shifted to east which confirms that Z1842 was an important Kur-Araxian Y DNA. The age of this branch is consistent with Kur-Araxian expansion.

Genome wide Kur-Araxians derive the bulk of their ancestry from preceding Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods of RoA/South Caucasus. They have also an extra CHG ancestry ~19%.
The most interesting finding is that Aknashen type of Neolithic farmers is important for Kur-Arax (KA). Except those KA sites that are situated in Shirak province (Karnut, Kaps). Areni ancestry is also well represented in KA. It must be noted that there were archeologic claims of very old KA pottery in Areni. This was so unexpected that Sagona expressed doubts about the validity of the age. But maybe there was some rational in it.
Anyway proto-Kur-Araxian homeland might be in a place where extra CHG will meet the Areni and the archaic Aknashen type. This shouldn't be a place far from the territory of RoA. Or quite possibly in it.
PS. Aknashen is a new Neolithic DNA from Armenia. It is different from Azerbaijan and Masis Blur Neolithic samples because it has some extra CHG/IranN ancestry. An odd combination most probably representing an older forager ancestry.
His Y dna is J2-PF5197. ( https://www.yfull.com/tree/J-PF5174/ )
An Y dna linked with Iranian plateau. Chances are quite high that J1-Z1842 and it's upstream Z1828 are also related to this Aknashen type.


Հնարավոր է սա text that says 'Target Distance ARM_Karnut_KuraAraxes_EBA 0.02217573 ARM_Berkaber_KuraAraxes_EBA 13.6 LN lowlands Aknashen_N Areni_C Caucasus CHG Samara Zagros_ TUR_Anatolia-South_N Anatolia _Barcin_N Yamnaya_ RUS ARM. ARM AZE GEO_ IRN_ TUR_ 7.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 38.4 0.01285327 31.2 Kura-Araxes_ARM_Kalavan 9.6 38.4 0.01979689 19.2 Kura-Araxes_ARM_Kaps ARM -Araxes_ 19.2 18.4 48.0 2.4 0.8 33.6 0.02311278 Kura Araxes ARM_ Talin 0.0 0.0 17.6 1.6 5.6 0.0 0.02527131 17.6 0.8 46.4 0.0 24.8 0.0 Kura-Araxes_RUS_Velikent 38.4 5.6 18.4 0.02483872 0.0 16.8 0.0 16.8 Average 0.0 41.6 3.2 18.4 0.0 0.02134145 0.0 6.4 23.2 0.0 4.0 30.9 24.3 0.0 18.9 4.0 8.8 18.4 3.7 0.3 1.7 1.7' նկարն է
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Sunday, September 4, 2022

Can all modern Armenian ancestry derive just from one Iron Age population inside Armenia?

 Can all modern Armenian ancestry derive just from one Iron Age population inside Armenia? No. Should it be the case Armenian Y dna structure would be very drifted. With young clusters that erased everything else that preceded them. But there is no such a thing in Armenian Y dna structure. Quite contrary it is one of the most diverse in West Asia. Even more diverse than in Caucasians who have very drifted bottlenecked Y dna.

Here an update of an model that I used in this group. Back then it became evident that Van region DNA will be very important. Indeed it is the case. Urartu played an important role in the creation of the current Armenian genetics.
But as we can see other Iron Age populations from modern RoA and Tsopk and around region are also present in fair amount..
The same is even more true for ancient Hellenistic and Medieval Armenians.
After Beniamin DNA it became clear that understanding Urartu is very important. And now it's even more evident.
But one thing should be kept in mind. If Vannic region is at the origin of ancient Grabar then Etiuni will become simply a sister extinct language of that Vannic Proto Armenian. They can't be unrelated.
PS Notice there are no IA samples from Malatya region so I used EBA period samples.
PPS Aintab results are in most likelihood an artefact. Not definitive.


Հնարավոր է սա text that says 'Target Distance Armenian 0.01016976 _ΕΙΑ Sarukhan Hasanlu_ Arslantepe TUR_E_Van_Urartian EBA _Van_Urartian ARM IRN TUR_ 22.2 51.6 Armenian_Aintab 21.0 5.2 0.01192882 Armenian_Erzurum 16.0 15.8 0.01126545 47.4 Armenian_Gesaria 20.8 20.6 0.0 0.01093373 20.4 Armenian_ Syunik 59.0 24.0 0.0 0.01102667 22.2 Armenian_Urfa 53.8 34.0 0.8 0.00910464 7.8 57.4 ARM_Sarukhan_Anc 6.4 15.4 0.02044270 35.0 43.2 ARM_Agarak_Mdv 25.4 22.6 0.01375924 22.0 30.0 ARM_Aghitu_Anc 41.6 5.0 0.01832717 16.4 Average 37.0 32.6 0.0 0.01299535 0.0 67.4 RESET SORTING 24.6 7.2 21.5 46.7 COPY TABLE AS CSV COPY TABLE AS TSV' նկարն է
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