abstract Across West Asia, hundreds of ancient human remains have been DNA sequenced spanning a large chunk of time and space. In this study we use these ancient DNA signatures to shed light on the dispersal of Indo-European languages in West Asia. Our latest genetics study paints a more complex population history for Western Iran […]
ABSTRACT We present genetic evidence of multiple demographic changes in Armenia and western Iran over the past 7000 years. By about 3000 years ago descendants of the 7000-year-old Chalcolithic Zagrosian herders, hereinafter referred to as Iran-CHL, along with their likely Elamo-Dravidian languages were gradually replaced by invading “Aryan” warriors from around the ancient Ariana (Airyanem
Population replacements in Armenia and Iran over the past 7000 years Read More »
ABSTRACT DNA from hundreds of ancient humans remains spanning the last 7000 years has been sequenced over the past few years in the “Southern Arc” region of West Asia and surrounds. Using DNA we here investigate the demographic changes that occurred over the past 2000 years in the Anatolia region as they pertain to the
The PEOPLING OF ANATOLIA OVER THE PAST 2000 YEARS Read More »
ABSTRACT Sometime between the late Bronze-Age and the early Iron-Age, Iran experienced a linguistic and population replacement. Approximately 2700 years ago, the Indo-Iranian Medes established the Median empire which stretched from north-west Pakistan westwards to Turkey, and thereby brought genetic, linguistic, as well as ideological changes to Iran. Although not much is known about this
DISCUSSION Earlier this month the much awaited Bronze Age Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) paper on the Harappan genomes was released (1). Unfortunately, only one of the sampled skeletons yielded usable DNA fragments. The main conclusions of the paper, which relied primarily on this single sequenced genome, named I6113, and 11 previously sequenced BA individuals in
DISCUSSION We are proud to announce the availability to the public of our latest genetic admixture inference program named SAPDA (Shared Ancestral Population Defining Alleles). Eurasians, whether Europeans or Asians, are genetically very similar to each other, with genetic similarities far outweighing any differences they have. Most Eurasians have descended from a few thousand individuals
SAPDA – A new publicly available admixture inference program Read More »
New program for ancestry calculation
Introducing SAPDA – a powerful new admixture inference software Read More »
ABSTRACT The flood of recently sequenced ancient DNA has tremendously increased our understanding of demography of various Eurasian modern populations. Thanks to the recently sequenced genomes in Damgaard et al, Narasimhan et al, Olaide et al, Lazaridis et al, and Mathieson et al, and the suite of tools within Admixtools, detailed in Patterson et al
Impact of the Iron Age Saka and Scythians on the demography of Kurds Read More »
DISCUSSION You have just obtained your results from a commercial ancestry result test such as 23andMe and it shows that you are 94% W Asian with 1% E Asian. Does this mean that you only have a tiny1% geneflow from some E Asian population? You think to yourself this does not seem right especially if
How to interpret your ancestry admixture results Read More »
BACKGROUND Over the past decade various tools have been developed for ancient DNA analysis and assessing shared drift between populations. Some programs such as STRUCTURE, ADMIXTURE are allele frequency based. Others such as Reich Lab’s ADMIXTOOLS use both allele frequencies as well as direct allele comparisons. Others yet such as IBS and IBD compared genomes
In progress: A method for improving accuracy in specific shared drift tests Read More »