The Eastern side Armenians

 The Eastern side Armenians

Hovhannisyan et al. 2024 published numerous DNA from Artsakh, Syunik and Gardman regions. Additionally a member of our group Diana Sarkisova Vikutan provided a number of coordinates from Shamakhi Armenians, as well as DNA with mixed ancestry from Shamakhi and Artsakh regions. We are grateful to her for this action.

All this data was combined into one PCA and ancestry proportion chart with other modern and ancient samples stretched from Syunik to Shamakhi. All done with unscaled coordinates. Based on this we learned that:

+ Artsakh Armenians are similar to Syunik Armenians. Both are part of the genetic cline of historic Armenia which have strong affinity to so called "Central farmer" ancestry. Gardman Armenians also are close to them with some Caucasian hunter gatherer (CHG) shift.

+ All Armenian subgroups are away from Armenia LIA samples from Syunik. This is due to so called "southern" shift which might have occurred in those eastern regions some time after Urartu.

+ Shamakhi Armenians have higher steppe ancestry than any known Armenian subgroup. Two samples from Shamakhi region are somewhat different from each other. One of them Sham01 has more Zagros Neo ancestry. What is the source of this shift is at this stage unknown. It must be noted that a single Late Antiquity (3td century AD) sample from Shamakhi region had already an extra Zagros/Iran Neolithic ancestry almost certainly due to Iranian influence on that region. Another possibility is that the Zagros shift in Sham01 is from a more modern non-Armenian ethnic group. And another possibility is that yet unsampled mysterious Tat Armenians subgroup is the origin of this extra shift.

+ Three DNA samples have a mix Shamakhi and Artsakh ancestry. They are between the Shamakhi and Artsakh points as expected. Nevertheless their dispersal means that the real diversity of Shamakhi Armenians could well be as high as already available two samples himts.

+ And finally Udi people are far from their linguistic kinsmen Lezgins. Even more they are shifted away from Late Antiquity Shamakhi sample who might represent the Caucasian Albanian ancestry. How Udi genetic profile formed is unknown yet but their proximity to Armenians who themselves are shifted toward "south-west" means that Udi got Armenian ancestry either in antiquity or more likely in medieval period. It must be noted that some Azerbaijani from Shaki region also plot close to Udi meaning that the impact of Armenian like ancestry was not restricted just to Udi.

Additionally the Skourtanioti 2024 paper noticed an"Anatolian" shift in Iberia and linked it to the spread of Christianity. It's possible that similar events occurred in Caucasian Albania in Late Antiquity and Early Medieval period. Hopefully with the publication of time transection from Kakhetia region we can learn better how the genetics of Caucasian Albania evolved in historic times.

Summing up this results we can say that the genetic history of what is now the Azerbaijani Republic is quite complex after Bronze and Iron Age. Multiple influences shaped the genetic diversity of the region. The single Caucasian Albanian sample is somewhat puzzling. Do it represent a regular Albanian ancestry or was an outlier is unknown. As usual more modern and ancient samples are needed from those regions to better understand it's history.

If You are an Armenian and have ancestry from Gardman, Shaki and Shirvan including Shamakhi regions You can join the relevant FTDNA project. You can find the link below. The title of the project will change in the future.

https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/gardmank-gandzak/about

Yediay et al. 2024 had Bronze Age samples from north Anatolian site Rasuloglu Hoyuk in Çorum province.

 Yediay et al. 2024 had Bronze Age samples from north Anatolian site Rasuloglu Hoyuk in Çorum province.

They were explicitly labeled as representative of Hattian culture. So it would be interesting to look what Y DNA they had. One of them was G2-M406 as expected. Many commentators considered G2-M406 as a Hattic people marker. And now we have a confirmation of that. Another interesting finding from Rasuloglu was the T1a2a. It must be noted that till now T1a2 has regularly been found in ancient Anatolia. Both the T1a2a and T1a2b. Apparently it was a minor Neolithic lineage that moved somewhat late to Europe and had rare presence in Neolithic Europe, restricted solely to Balkans.

Later in Early Chalcolithic period with the expansion in north Anatolia of new groups related to Hattic people (later Hittite, Palaic also) the T1a2-L131 became more frequent alongside with G2-M406.

We have another T1a2 from ancient Hellenistic era Samsun a region which had a Hattic and possibly Kaskian population in Bronze Age. And number of T1a2 in western Anatolia.

It's remarkable that similar to G2-M406 the T1a2 was rare or virtually absent in Bronze Age Minoan Crete demonstrating that the group involved in the rise of Minoan Civilization was somewhat different from those who moved to North Anatolia in Early Chalcolithic.

The distribution in modern Armenians supports those findings. T1a2 is found predominantly in western Armenians and rare in eastern Armenia. It's remarkable that a modern Armenian is in basal position in T1a2* which adds extra evidence that the initial homeland of T1a2 was in the vicinity of historic Armenia

Aratta was a semi legendary land known from Sumerian epics. It probably existed in the first half of third millennium BC.

 Aratta was a semi legendary land known from Sumerian epics. It probably existed in the first half of third millennium BC.

It's location has been debated for long time. Gamkrelidze and Ivanoff proposed an IE etymology for Aratta based on river terminology. Indeed a river Aratta is attested in Urmia basin in Iron Age. 2000 years after the legendary Aratta.

Despite this semantic match, other theories positing Aratta in eastern regions like Afghanistan or east Iran are also popular due to different arguments.

It's remarkable that Aratta is not only a land name in Sumerian but also a simple word. One meaning is heavy/glorious/important and the other meaning is tin.

Aratta meaning tin can be interpreted in two ways. Aratta was a land with rich tin mines. And Aratta was a place from where Sumerians were getting tin by trade or learned about the use of tin.

Tin was an important metal in Bronze Age. There were two techniques to create bronze from copper. One was by mixing with arsenic and another was with tin. Both types of bronze are found in Armenia during the Kura-Araxes period. Even more Armenia also had tin mines. But Central Asia also has tin mines. Tin bronze was also very popular in Europe.

So a lot off uncertainty existed about the origin of tin in Near East. A recent paper working with isotopes debunked the theory that most of tin in Levant, Greece and Anatolia are from Central Asia. They proposed a new origin in Europe.

But Aratta can't be in Europe. So if we rely on this argument then two options are possible. Either Aratta was a trading hub somewhere in Near East that was getting tin from Europe and reselling to Sumerians. Either Aratta was located in Armenia or it's vicinity in north Zagros where Kura-Araxes culture existed during that period. Two theories are not mutually incompatible. Isotope research on tin from historic Armenia can help to understand this question better.

And finally the word tin in Armenian "anag" (անագ) is related to Sumero-Akkadian-Hurrian word for tin and lead. Anna / annaki / anagi in those languages means also tin, featuring a possible long lasting trade contacts between Mesopotamia and Armenia.

Genetic history of Levant. Part A.

 Genetic history of Levant. Part A.

Recently there was a surge of interest in Levantine genetics, so here is a summary of Levant genetic history in two parts

Natufian culture (13000-9000BC) a hunter gatherer society which has a remarkable feature of being sedentary or semi sedentary. Archaic E1b and CT haplogroups.

Levant Neolithic (9000-4500BC) is divided in two parts. Pre Pottery Neolithic (PPN) and Pottery Neolithic. Spread of farming to south Levant from more northern regions. The core region of farming invention was in Urfa region ( Portasar / Gobekli tepe ) near modern Syrian Turkey border. You can see on the chart an important shift to north in autosomes during this period in south Levant ( Israel , Jordan PPNB ). A best proof of this scenario is the haplotype E1b-Z1919 which has two important branches. One E-L618 moved to Europe via Anatolia and today is popular in Balkans. The other parallel branch E-V22 moved to Egypt introducing farming there. It is popular today in north Egypt. Another important lineage from this period is the E-M123 mostly found today in West Asia even though it moved to Central Asia also. Sporadic apparition of H2 and T1a.

Copper Age - Chalcolithic ( 4500-3300BC) there are no much samples from this period. The few cases from a period close to Ghassulian culture show another shift in autosomes toward north Iraq. Consistent with the archaeological records showing emergence of new burial tradition. Currently it's hard to pinpoint the exact cultural phenomenon that triggered this shift in Chalcolithic south Levant. The similar shift toward north Mesopotamia started in north Levant (Tell Kurdu) earlier. The plausible candidate is the Halaf culture. The T1a1a-L208 in this period is also favoring the theory of involvement of new groups not directly descending from Neolithic period.

Early Bronze Age (3300-2200BC) the end of Chalcolithic and the start of Bronze Age in Levant is a period of dramatic changes in material culture. Old settlements are abandoned and new mobile pastoralist groups spread all over Levant. Those are the early Semitic tribes. The change in autosomes is subtle, more eastern but the change in Y DNA in Levant EBA is drastic. The E1b shrinks and the J1-Z1853 is the most popular haplotype starting from this period. J2b1 also shows an important increase in this period. Where was exactly located the Proto Semitic homeland is debated. It is usually placed in Arabian peninsula. The slight increase of Natufian ancestry do favour a southern location. But the surge of ancestry related to historic Armenia force to imagine a region close to Mesopotamia (see the map) A region where J1 must have been present since older periods. J1 is ultimately from more northern Taurus-Zagros-Caucasus mountains.

Currently the ancient DNA is insufficient to locate precisely the Proto Semitic homeland and the path of J1 migration.

Wherever the Proto-Semitic homeland was located they expanded to north reaching Taurus mountains and to east reaching Zagros mountains. In the south they crossed Red sea and landed in Ethiopia around 1000BC. The first branch in Semitic family is the East Semitic represented by Eblaite and Akkadian. Both extinct today. They settle in north Levant and Mesopotamia where their culture merged with the Sumerians and apparently put end to Uruk culture at 3100BC. Akkadians created one of oldest empires, uniting Mesopotamian city states around 2330BC which collapsed around 2150BC.

After the 2200BC climatic event and the demise of Akkadian empire new period starts in Levant which will be discussed in Part B

Alashkert Armenians have quite remarkable genetics.

Alashkert Armenians have quite remarkable genetics. They are the closest in fst runs to three geographically distant from each other groups. Artsakh, Sasun and Hamshen Armenians.

Is this due to their central "average" position in the Armenian regional diversity or has some deeper reasons is hard to say at this stage.

Negative fst value means zero. Which means lack of any meaningful distance.

Genetic history of Greece

 Genetic history of Greece

Yediay et al. 2024 published large number of ancient DNA from Bronze Age Greece which permitted to solve the question of Greeks origin. If we skip the unsampled Paleolithic period Greece has witnessed three important migrations in prehistoric times.

+ Neolithic farmers from Anatolia, ultimately from Urfa region moved to Greece around 7000 BC. Farming was introduced earlier in Greece than in any part of Europe. From there farmers moved to north.

+ Chalcolithic migrants from historic Armenia around 4000-3000 BC. This second migration was associated with Chaff faced ware in Anatolia. While in Greece it left the strongest impact in Crete and Aegean Cycladic islands. It can be connected to the formation of Minoan civilization. (Linear A) Even though Heggarty 2023 wanted to link it with Greeks.

This migration introduced new haplotypes and in most likelihood is partly responsible for the so called Mediterranean substrate present both in Greek and Armenian. An examlle is the iwl, el (իւղ, եղ) meaning oil in Armenian. Compare to Greek elaiwon (ἔλαιον) olive oil.

+ Migration from Pontic Caspian Steppe around 2200 BC. Similar to Armenia the change from Early Bronze Age to Middle Bronze Age is associated with migrations from Pontic Caspian steppe. Those migrants introduced haplotypes like R1b-Z2103 and R1b-PF7562. With few cases of I2 and J2b2a. Mycenaean Greeks also had large number of J2-Z6055 a lineage that was present in Greece since the Neolithic period. High level of that lineage are probably due to founder effect.

After a short MBA period there is a dilution of steppe ancestry in Late Bronze Age Greece (1700-1100BC). A period associated with Mycenaean culture. (See the chart) Linear B has been deciphered and linked to early or parallel extinct forms of Greek. Mycenaean Greeks had ancestry both from local Neolithic farmers and preceding migrants from more eastern regions. In the chart it's marked as Anatolia C. Which is related to the CFW from historic Armenia.

Yediay et al. 2024 linked the steppe migration with Indo Europeans from Yamnaya culture. Thus solving in convincing manner the origins of Greek people.

Around 1200 BC the Mycenaean civilization collapsed and many people were forced to emigrate. During this period number of groups moved to eastern Mediterranean where they were known as Sea people. One of those groups settled in Cyprus introducing Greek language there.

Even prior that Greeks were already settling in Western Anatolian coasts. In that region they are known probably as Ahhiyawa in Hittite texts. Multiple wars started for the control of western Anatolian coasts. The memory of those wars is preserved in the Greek epic poems known as Illiad and Odyssey.

Modern Greek is usually assumed to be derived from Attic-Ionic dialect

Attempt to redo the models from recent papers.

 Attempt to redo the models from recent papers.

Armenia LBA as a simple mixture of Kura-Araxes and Catacomb is a failure. P value too low. ( pic. 1)
Addition of an Anatolian population like Ikiztepe C improves the p value. This was done in Skourtanioti 2024. The model is feasible. p=0.2
The use of CamlibelTarlasi_LateC instead of Ikiztepe improves the p value even more. Done in Yediay 2024. p more than 0.3
An addition of Leila tepe culture (from what is now Azerbaijan) instead of Anatolian C improves the p value much more. p more than 0.7. But the standard errors increase a lot because the Kura-Araxes and Leila tepe are too close genome wide to each other. To reduce the standard errors I need to change the settings (right pops). This will require a time from me. But I think its quite obvious what is going here.
And finally I add the Ukraine N hunter gatherers to the source and the p value reaches practically 0.9, close to certitude. The standard errors also improves slightly, but still requires improvement.

Conclusions. The populations that played a role in the formation of Trialeti Vanadzor culture came from what is now the Krasnodar region, acquired there a minor Ukraine_N HG ancestry. Moved via Dagestan mixed with older South Caucasian Chalcholithic groups in Kura-Araxes plains then splits into two branches. One moved to upstream to Kur-Debed region and created the TVC, while the other moved to Urmia and Van basins and created Van-Urmia culture even though their genetic impact there was lower than in TVC. The Y DNA associated with those people should be searched in Krasnodar region. L584, I2a2b, PH331. Finding Y4364 will be harder. Its even possible that the true homeland of Proto-Yamnaya was also there