New ancient DNA from Greece.

 New ancient DNA from Greece. From Corinth region and western Greece. Old samples are similar to other samples from Greece and Balkans but the Roman era samples show a shift to Anatolia. Somewhat similar to Roman imperial events.

One of the Roman era Corinthians has Y DNA R1b-L584 consistent with its eastern shift. Another person from Roman era had J2-M92 plausibly from Anatolian affiliation also. Other Y DNA found in those sites are typical to Balkans. E1b-L618. R1b-Pf7562, J2b-L283, T1a2, G2.

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The consensus of our findings (PCA, ADMIXTURE, qpAdm using the “Most_Proximate” set of sources) shows that the Amvrakia and Tenea individuals can be considered as descendants of the LBA and IA populations of the southern Balkans, especially the area of present-day Greece. In addition, the Roman Tenea individuals appear to have an additional minor contribution from the east, represented by BA Levant and Hellenistic Türkiye (Northwest and West, including Halikarnassos) in the “Most_proximate” qpAdm analysis. Overall, a local genetic continuity is suggested from the LBA/IA Greece to the Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic Greece, as well as in a lower degree to Roman Greece, albeit for the latter the spatial sampling is inadequate to justify such a generalization.

An open thread about Bronze Age Anatolian Y DNA

 An open thread about Bronze Age Anatolian Y DNA

I plan to write a review about the origins of IE Anatolians. As stated earlier in this group I believe that the definite solution of this question requires dozens of Bronze Age Y DNA from specific locations in plain Anatolia that are neither Greek ( Aegean coast ) neither Hattic or Kaskian ( north of Anatolia ) and neither had a strong presence of Hurrians. Before this data is available I would like to make a summary of already available Y DNA to find some patterns. I will not discuss in this thread the steppe markers R1b and I2. Their affiliation to IE migrations is unambiguous. What is more important about them is the route of migration and possible linguistic affiliation in IE family. I will discuss them in the review about Anatolian IE.

J1-Z1828* found from Harmanören - Göndürle Höyük, dated at ~2400BC. (Lazaridis et al. 2017)

There is no information about the downstream branch but chances are quite high that it is from BY69 branch that was found in Anatolia from later periods.

J2-Z6065>Y9268>Z43664 from Ovaoren dated at ~2750BC. Damgaard et al. 2018.

This branch is parallel to the P81 found in Maykop culture.

Another J2-Z6065 was found in Yediay et al. 2024.

2x J2-M67>Z6273 from Kalehoyuk dated around 2500-1200 BC. Damgaard et al. 2018

This branch can reflect a new post Neolithic migration, however the presence in Neolithic Italy Cardial Ware raise the possibility that it was present in Anatolia from Neolithic period.

Another possible Bronze Age Anatolian lineage is the E-791. However we need to wait the publication of Yediay et al. 2024 for the raw files for full confirmation of this theory.

Indirect data suggest that J2-L70 and upstream level also was a Bronze Age Anatolian lineage that expanded in LBA - IA possibly with Luwians.

I didn't include G2-M406 and T1a2a given that there is strong reasons to believe that they were initially associated with Hattic people expansion.

The main visible pattern is that all this haplotypes have obvious eastern connections. Another remarkable feature is their absence from a large set of Minoan Y DNA. This support the idea that they can't be connected to Proto Minoan migration neither to non-IE Hattic people.

to be continued

An unusual branch of E1b-M123 from ancient Aghitu

 An unusual branch of E1b-M123 from ancient Aghitu

A E1b-Z21466 was found from ancient Aghitu Hellenistic era. This branch is rare in ancient remains. Only one was known from Imperial Rome periode and now another from ancient Armenia.

You may ask why its important? Well Z21466 is the parallel branch of E1b-L791 (see the chart) which also is not particularly rich with ancient samples. L791 is important because indirect data suggest that its expansion is related to Bronze Age Anatolia. And the presence of samples from the parallel branch may give a hint about the direction from which L791 came to Anatolia. Even though the common ancestor of L791 and Z21466 is quite old (12.000 years), the lack of much ancient DNA from this two branches suggests that they had a compact distribution in the past.

In most likelihood the common ancestor Z841 is related to the spread of so called Central farmers from northern Mesopotamia to north including the historic Armenia and possibly to south Mesopotamia. Later the L791 expanded in Anatolia in Bronze Age. Yediay et al. 2024 has found a E1b-Z830 in Bronze Age Anatolia. In most likelihood it is from M123 branch. When files are uploaded we will know its exact subclade.

Napoleon Bonaparte relatives have been tested and he was from E1b-L791 branch.

Y DNA from Hellenistic era Syunik Aghitu (Skourtanioti et al. 2025) are now uploaded to FTDNA and TheYtree. 16 Y DNA were detected by Theytree.

 Y DNA from Hellenistic era Syunik Aghitu (Skourtanioti et al. 2025) are now uploaded to FTDNA and TheYtree. 16 Y DNA were detected by Theytree.

1x E1b֊PF6759

1x G1 low coverage

1x J2-M92

1x I2-L699>S12195

1x R1b-Y4364

9x R1b-L584

2x undetermined R1b-M269

From this list the most interesting is the I2-L699 which is found for the first time in ancient Armenia. Its presence was expected, given that L699 was present in Yamnaya. Few exceptions aside like the Sredni Stog enclave in lower Don Yamnaya it was a rare lineage starting from Early Bronze Age in Steppe so it is not surprising that we have not seen much in ancient Armenia. This I2 is different from I2a2b. This latter had an important founder effect in Trialeti Vanadzor culture and its the main reason of its high frequency in ancient Armenia and Georgia.

This finding shows that dense sampling is needed to find some rare markers. So the owners of R1b-PF7562 and R1b-Z2110 can still expect to find their haplotypes in ancient Armenia.

According Hovann Simonian the haplotype of Andranik Ozanyan also known as Zoravar Andranik or Andranik Pasha was the I2-L699>S12195>Y6998 (Pic 2). His branch do not directly descend from Aghitu I2 but has a common ancestor with it.