July 03, 2012

Craniological and dental signatures of Out-of-Armenia

From the paper on the craniological results:

One can see a clear link between the Armenian highlands samples and the Western Europe samples (the Arcvakar sample - 17 close phenetic links are revealed). The samples from the Georgia (Samtavro /Late Bronze Age - II period) and Iran (Tepe Gissar III), Uzbekistan (Sapallitepe) are identified as the samples with closest affinities samples from Ukraine (Shirochanski) and Poland, Germany (Corded Ware culture) in particular (figure 3). This suggests that some of the European genes do actually stem from this area. So, mediterranean connections from Armenian highlands, Georgia and Central Asia are distinctly fixed in Western Europe and in the Middle-Late Bronze Age. 
... 
If true, it is suggested that the dispersal of the Indo-European languages have been accompanied by migration and some gene flow from the Armenian highlands homeland to the various historical seats of the Indo-European languages. The different rates of genetic drift and external gene flow may have contributed to the morphological differentiation and diversification amongst the different Eurasian populations. Cluster analysis has revealed a craniological series having analogies (on a complex of craniometric, odontologic characters) with representatives of the population of the Armenian highlands, the Caucasus, the Near East and Central Asia. The initial starting area (or one of the intermediate areas), as indicated by the anthropological data, would seem to be the Armenian highlands, and the Caucasus as a whole (Figure 7).


Asian Culture and History Vol. 4, No. 2; July 2012
doi:10.5539/ach.v4n2p48


Bioarchaeological Analysis Mutual Relations of Populations Armenian Highlands and Eurasia Using Craniological and Dental Nonmetric Traits

Anahit Yu. Khudaverdyan1 Institute of Archaeology and Еthnography National Academy of Science, Republic of Armenia

Abstract

Undertaken here is a multidimensional craniometric analysis of more than 254 ethnic groups of the Neolithic and Bronze Ages from the territory of Eurasia. On the basis of the received information, cluster analysis was done and has shown the genetic condensations of ethnoses and vectors of relatives or, conversely, distinctions between them. Craniometric and odontologic investigation of the Bronze Age is interesting and in connection with discussion about the origin of Indo-Europeans and about the place of their ancestral home. Different aspects of the problem of the ancestral home of Indo-Europeans are far from completely resolved and generate lively debate in the pages of scientific publications. New anthropological data allowed identification of alien Mediterranean characteristics influencing various ethnic Eurasian groups and revealed evidence of a migratory stream from the Armenian highlands and the Caucasus. This research provided new evidence of patterns of ethnic contact and intermixture in Western Eurasia

Link

3 comments:

Jim H. said...

It seems clear that Caucasus gene flow to Poland is evident in my own DNA.

1. My Y-DNA is a strange version of J1* (yellow cluster on the Google Map at http://tinyurl.com/nsww44 ) which is clearly traceable to the North Caucasus, but not recently. A TMRCA calculation by Marko Heinila finds a 5,590 year separation between my data and the Caucasus homeland of my branch of J1*.

2. Autosomally, I have what looks like too much Caucasus/West Asian admixture for a person whose ancestry is half Irish and half Polish/Slovak, as if more than my direct paternal ancestors were people of the Caucasus ---

DIY Dodecad V2: 6% West Asian
Eurogenes_K12b: 3.4% Caucasus
FTDNA Family Finder: Western European 94.38% and Middle East including Adygei 5.62%

The only explanation I can think of is that my direct paternal ancestor, as well as some others, were part of some small-scale ancient movement to Poland from the Caucasus.

Jim

Justin said...

"(or one of the intermediate areas)"

This is what I think you are observing.

I would imagine many of the readers here have come across the Physiognomy section of the Hattians wiki entry describing: "Egyptian depictions of the Battle of Kadesh reportedly show long-nosed Hattian soldiers, while their Hittite leaders looked different according to Turkish archaeologist Ekrem Akurgal"

Well I got his book and there are a bunch of good pictures, and I must say the Hittites do look quite apparently different than any of other groups depicted in the ancient countries of the area, not only the Hattians.

It seems impossible for me to see how they look so different from their would-be immediate neighbors unless they aren't and they were from somewhere else.

I would be happy to post these pictures unless this is already common to the consensus here. He also has a bunch of other good insights in the book, like the Hittites spent a good amount of time in southern Turkey/northern Syria before their Hattian take over, which could be where they picked up some semitic words.

Anonymous said...

I found the English used in the pdf rather hard to understand. What exactly do they mean when they use the term Mediterranean?