The Copper age also known as Chalcolithic (5300-3600BC) is one of most remarkable periods in Armenian Highlands

 The Copper age also known as Chalcolithic (5300-3600BC) is one of most remarkable periods in Armenian Highlands. Copper was abundant in mountains and populations using it and living there had an important changes in lifestyle which gave them a competitive advantage. This resulted in waves of migrations out of historic Armenia and neighbouring regions. Many haplotypes are related to this migrations. One of them is the T1a1a-L208.

It's homeland was in southern parts of the highland and North Mesopotamia. From there it moved to Levant and probably to Mesopotamia. In Levant the T-L208 makes it's first apparition in Chalcolithic period ~4000 BC. Genome wide those Levantine L208 samples have a shift toward North Mesopotamia compared to the previous period. From there they moved to Africa. A recent aDNA paper from Morocco confirmed a previous finding of T-L208 who had a significant Levantine ancestry. It's quite possible that L208 moved also to South toward Horn of Africa where it reaches its highest levels today. Although it's possible that some of L208 moved to East Africa from Yemen in Iron Age with Ethio-Semitic tribes. In any case those high levels of T-L208 in Somalian tribes are due to founder effects. T-L208 was also found in Kilis EBA and Alalakh MLBA. (South Turkey)

T-L208 has a number of branches. One subbranch that is found in modern Armenians is the Z709. An ancient sample from LBA Karashamb ( RoA ) was from this branch. It seems it was already present in Northern regions of the Highland since the Chalcolithic like the E-M84.

Z709 itself has an important subbranch which had an expansion in MBA, the P77. It's hard to pinpoint the exact culture with which it expanded. But the Khabur ware is a good bet. P77 was not found in Bronze Age Levant so we can assume that it's homeland was near historic Sasun and North Mesopotamia. One case of P77 was probably present in Roman era Boghazkoy in Anatolia. Chances are high that this T-P77 is related to Hurrian expansions in MBA. But more data is needed to confirm this theory. In modern Armenians the highest levels of haplogroup T is found in Sasun Armenians