Elamites

 Elamites

Amjadi et al. 2025 paper published an ancient DNA from Chalcolithic period South Zagros dated at 4600BC. The sample was from Gol Afshan tepe site related to Bakun period which immediately precedes the so called Lapui period (4100-3500BC) associated to Proto Elamites. Assuming that there wasn't any dramatic change between Bakun and Lapui periods we can conjecture that Proto-Elamite language was derived from a population having a large amount of Zagros/Iran Neolithic. In line with autosomes the sample had the R2 Y DNA. A haplogroup popular in ancient Zagros farmers which is found today mostly in South Asia and in some parts of West Asia. In Sasun Armenians for example. (see the second map)

Elamite civilization flourished in south west of Iranian plateau. Elamite language was widely used in Achaemenid empire as an administrative language. Persians were calling the Elam region as Hujiya>Khuzi from which the modern Khuzestan province name is derived. Elamite was apparently still spoken in medieval period given that Arabs report an incomprehensible Khuzi language different from Persian in that region. Armenian word khuzhan meaning hooligan, wild person is derived from that region name.

If further research confirms the link of Elamite with Zagros/Iran neolithic farmers few possible ramifications emerge from that.

+ Sumerian is unrelated to Elamite so we can assume that Sumerian is related to another population known as Central farmers and not to Zagros farmers.

+ North Iran had a different genetic history. A contemporary Chalcolithic DNA from Urmia basin ( Hajji Firuz Chl) is strongly shifted to west and plot close to Central farmers. It's migration to east diluted the Zagros Neolithic ancestry in North Iran where other ethnic groups are known to inhabit in Bronze Age. The most prominent of them were the Kassites. Kassite has no known connection with Elamite. While a connection of Kassites and Hurrian has been proposed.

+ A theory connecting Elamite and Dravidian in South Asia was proposed even though not widely accepted. The connection of Elamite to Zagros/Iran Neolithic farmers can add a support to this theory, even though Dravidians have also large amount of South Asian specific ancestry related to Andaman island HG.

+ Widespread use of Elamite in multiethnic Persian empire administration can give a hint about the real status of Urartian language in Biainili kingdom. We now know that it was not solely Urartian kingdom and other ethnic groups, the Armenian being the most prominent were part of Biainili kingdom also. Elamite inscriptions were found from Achaemenid era Armavir city in Armenia. This show once more that a presence of written texts from a certain region do not necessarily mean a widespread presence of it's speakers in that region.

A PCA with ancient and modern samples from Iran, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iraqi Kurdistan.

 A PCA with ancient and modern samples from Iran, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iraqi Kurdistan.

The Caucasian Albanian from Late Antiquity has obvious shift toward Iranian populations. Its not on Udi-Armenia LIA - Lezgins cline

Ancient Iranians Medes and Parthians might be located in left and slightly down of Tepe Hissar. Probably in the place of Shahtepe BA or slightly left/bottom.

It's not yet clear but modern Iranians have probably some slight western/northern? shift compared to ancients.

Kurds are the most western, Persians from Khorasan and Tats have the highest steppe ancestry ( shift toward left) while Mazandarani have the highest Zagros Neo ancestry.

The Shamakhi Armenian singleton shift seems to be more Armenia_LIA/Tat/Lezgin than to any other Iranian population.

Dinkha tepe BA IA 2 associated with Grey ware in late Middle Bronze Age could be the first wave of early Indo Iranians.

PS. I updated the PCA and added the Shah tepe BA

The western Iranians.

 The western Iranians.

Three major ancient western Iranian groups were the Persians, Medes and Parthians. Until now we didn't have ancient DNA samples that could be securely linked to this groups. Iron Age samples from south of Urmia could be related partly to Medes but given their genetic profile and dating such linking was remaining speculative.

Amjadi et al. 2025 published first historic western Iranian ancient DNA samples that were either Parthians, either eastern Medes. The location (Marsin Chai, Vestermin) of those samples was in the border of Medes and Parthian satrapies so there is some incertitude how they were identified in their lifetime. (See the map).

Liarsangbon samples could be related to Medes given their more western location. It's remarkable that some of them had also slightly more western genetic profile. J1-620(xP58)>FGC6069 was found in Liarsangbon. Without much doubt of local origin. Another undefined J2a was also uncovered from that site in Parthian empire period.

Genome wide Achaemenid period samples from Marsin Chai were grosso modo looking similar to Bronze Age samples from the same region (TepeHissar, Shahtepe) nevertheless they are not identical.

Looking closer on the PCA it's clear that they are slightly more "northern" shifted. And in some cases slightly "western" shifted. The slight western shift could be of local origin but could be also from Sintashta/Andronovo cultures in Central Asia that had substantial Anatolian Farmer related ancestry.

Despite this no R1a was found from those ancient Iranian remains, only J2b2a2. This can mean that R1a was low but also can be due to sampling issue. Given that many samples were relatives and had the same Y DNA.

Overall those ancient Parthians/Medes have quite high Zagros/Iran Neolithic ancestry with low EHG/ANE. Also they have some South Asian related Onge/Andaman island Hunter Gatherer ancestry.

They are different from Urmia basin Iron Age samples which are more western and who plot close to antique era samples from Armenia. This difference can be due to geography but can be also related to different ethnic background. Ancient Medes samples from core Media are needed to understand this difference.

Returning to the R1a issue it must be noted that the R1a appear both in Armenia and Georgia at Achaemenid period. Even more interesting samples from Meskhetia region in Georgia yielded surprising results. Out of seven Y DNA from Sassanian period Meskhetia here were 2 cases of R1a and 2 cases of Q2 which almost certainly was introduced there by western Iranians. Another J1-P58>Z1853 from Meskhetia was also of non local origin. All this show that western Iranians must have more diverse Y DNA pool and more sampling is needed to understand their diversity.