E-M84 in Armenia.

 E-M84 in Armenia.

We have already three cases of E-M84 from Middle and Late Bronze Age Armenia (modern Republic ). And another from Arslantepe_EBA which btw is the oldest M84 ( ~ 5200 ybp ) we have currently.

E-M84 can be found in 3% of modern Armenians. It's the most frequent type of E in Armenia. It's age is 7700 year old. In theory it could have reached Armenia in Neolithic but it is more likely that it's apparition is related to Late Chalcolithic (~6300 ybp) events known as Chaff faced ware. As I mentioned earlier this period shows evidence of increasing contacts with North Mesopotamia.

Ultimate origin of upstream M35 is obviously the Levant but the exact locus from which all modern M84 descend is hard to pinpoint. In most likelihood it is not far from historic Armenia, probably on southern flanks of it or in North Mesopotamia. It is quite popular in Arabic countrirs. It is also found among Kurds and Turks but is very rare in Caucasus.

The remarkable thing about the M84 found in MBA grave (Rise416) was that genome wide it had as much Steppe as any other sample found in MLBA/EIA period. It was found in wealthy kurganic burial from Nerquin Getashen (Sevan bassein). Another M84 was found in LBA from the same site. And now another one from Beniamin ( Shirak region ).

The internal structure of M84 is complex. Many Armenian M84-s still remain uncategorized due to lack of deep testing. Those who have deep testing belong to three main branches. One of which has ~3000 year age ( https://www.yfull.com/tree/E-FGC18388/ ). Two other branches are older. One of them is related to Arslantepe M84 ( https://www.yfull.com/tree/E-CTS9608/ ).

The branch from Beniamin ( https://www.yfull.com/tree/E-Y6186/ ) assuming it is correct is still missing in FTDNA but with more testing we will find it.

In sum we can deduce that during the MBA some M84 men where successfully integrated into a new society. Reached high social position and expanded over time inside Armenia. One of such expansion occured in Iron Age. Chances are high that it was related to IE speaking migrations. Which is interesting because E-M35 xM78 ( most might be M84) is more frequent in Erzrum region ~5.1% and Araratian plain. This can pinpoint to some connections between MLBA modern Armenia and Erzrum region in the past. In any case aDNA is needed to confirm this.

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