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.