Y-DNA from Rasuloğlu Höyük and the Hattian Context

Y-DNA from Rasuloğlu Höyük and the Hattian Context

Yediay et al. (2024) published Bronze Age samples from the North Anatolian site of Rasuloğlu Höyük in Çorum province. These samples were explicitly labeled as representatives of the Hattian cultural context, making it particularly interesting to examine their Y-DNA lineages.

One of the individuals carried haplogroup G2-M406, as expected. Many commentators have previously suggested that G2-M406 could serve as a marker associated with Hattic populations, and these results provide additional support for that idea.

Another interesting finding from Rasuloğlu was haplogroup T1a2a. It should be noted that T1a2 lineages have repeatedly been identified in ancient Anatolia, including both T1a2a and T1a2b branches. Apparently, this was a minor Neolithic lineage that spread somewhat later into Europe and appears only rarely in Neolithic European contexts, largely restricted to the Balkans.

Later, during the Early Chalcolithic period, the expansion of groups related to the Hattian cultural sphere in northern Anatolia (and later associated with Hittite and Palaic populations) seems to have increased the frequency of T1a2-L131 alongside G2-M406.

Another T1a2 lineage has been identified in an ancient sample from the Hellenistic period in Samsun, a region that likely had Hattic and possibly Kaskian populations during the Bronze Age. Additional occurrences of T1a2 have also been reported in western Anatolia.

It is noteworthy that, similar to G2-M406, T1a2 is rare or virtually absent in Bronze Age Minoan Crete. This suggests that the population involved in the rise of the Minoan civilization differed from the groups that expanded into northern Anatolia during the Early Chalcolithic.

The distribution of T1a2 among modern Armenians also supports these observations. The lineage is found predominantly among western Armenians and is rare in eastern Armenia. Interestingly, a modern Armenian individual occupies a basal position within T1a2*, which provides additional evidence that the early homeland of T1a2 may have been located in the vicinity of historic Armenia.