Dodecad K12b values of Bronze Age individuals living in Armenia

A new paper in Nature (Allentoft et al., 2015) presenting the genomes of ancient 101 Eurasians is currently fascinating geneticists but also linguists and historians. Some of these tested Bronze Age individuals lived in nowadays Armenia.

Here, I want to use their Dodecad K12b values (shared by Mfa from Corduene.blogspot.com) to calculate the closest reference populations for these individuals. Most of the tested individuals from Armenia can be resembled the best as 50-75% Iranian (including Kurds) or Lezgin and 25-50% European. In most cases, Kurds and especially Zaza are among the Top10 reference populations for these ancient genomes, see data below.

In terms of genetic composition the Southern Caucasus was more Iranian-like and European-like than it is today. The shift from Bronze Age to now could be explained by several Semitic empires and three Semitic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) that expanded from South to North and probably impacted local populations of the Northern Middle East. 

 Interestingly, when traveling through Kurdistan a phenotypic gradient can be seen depending on the altitude: populations from hidden villages in the higher Mountains appear to have lighter skin (and lighter eye color) than the populations from towns in the valleys. Kurds also claim that in ancient times their people were more fair-skinned than they are today.

I believe the same (more Iranian-like and European-like than it is today) will be seen for genomes from Kurdistan. I also believe that the European-like character South of the Caucasus was introduced before the Neolithic expansion, hopefully, ancient DNA will prove this one day. As I mentioned earlier I believe that R1a and R1b originated in or near Kurdistan; two of the Bronze Age samples from Armenia are R1b (RISE397 and RISE413).


RISE413 MBA (1906 BC): 
TOP reference populations based on Dodecad K12b:

1 19.6 Turkmens_Y
2 20.2 Turkish_Aydin_Ho
3 20.7 Zaza_P
4 21.0 Turkish_Istanbul_Ho
5 21.3 Turkish_Kayseri_Ho
6 21.4 Tajiks_Y
7 21.7 Iranians
8 21.9 Iranian_D
9 22.1 Kurd_D
10 22.5 Kurds_Y

Oracle K12B:

# Distance
1 7.2639 69.1% Iranians + 30.9% Orcadian
2 7.2701 69.2% Iranians + 30.8% Orkney_1KG
3 7.2770 69% Iranians + 31% Irish_D
4 7.3007 68% Iranians + 32% CEU30
5 7.3294 68.1% Iranians + 31.9% English_D
6 7.3327 67.9% Kurd_D___ + 32.1% Argyll_1KG
7 7.3436 66.4% Iranians + 33.6% Mixed_Germanic_D
8 7.3579 68.4% Iranians + 31.6% Cornwall_1KG
9 7.3697 67.9% Iranians + 32.1% Kent_1KG
10 7.4109 68.1% Iranian_D + 31.9% Argyll_1KG

RISE416 MBA (1643 BC):

1    16.8    O_Italian_D
2    18.4    TSI30
3    18.5    N_Italian_D
4    18.9    Tuscan
5    19.3    C_Italian_D
6    20.5    North_Italian
7    22.7    S_Italian_Sicilian_D
8    23.2    Greek_D
9    23.4    Sicilian_D
10    24.7    Baleares_1KG

Oracle K12B:

#    Distance   
1    7.2386    75.3% N_Italian_D + 24.7% Balochi
2    7.4475    74.6% N_Italian_D + 25.4% Makrani
3    7.6021    77% N_Italian_D + 23% Brahui
4    7.6188    77% TSI30 + 23% Brahui
5    7.6521    52.4% Lezgins__ + 47.6% Pais_Vasco_1KG
6    7.6804    55% Kurds_Y___ + 45% Pais_Vasco_1KG
7    7.6909    73.3% North_Italian + 26.7% Balochi
8    7.8920    75.5% TSI30 + 24.5% Balochi
9    7.9160    55.2% Iranian_D + 44.8% Pais_Vasco_1KG
10    7.9334    72.6% North_Italian + 27.4% Makrani


RISE423 MBA (1402 BC):
1    14.8    Kumyks_Y
2    15.5    Turkish_Istanbul_Ho
3    16.1    Lezgins__
4    16.5    Turkish_Aydin_Ho
5    16.8    Turkish_Kayseri_Ho
6    16.9    Zaza_P___
7    18.5    Turks___
8    18.9    Turkish_D
9    19.0    Kurds_Y___
10    19.1    Chechens_Y

Oracle K12B:
#    Distance   
1    4.6697    73.6% Kurds_Y___ + 26.4% Belorussian
2    4.6825    72.5% Kurds_Y___ + 27.5% Mixed_Slav_D
3    4.7566    72.7% Kurds_Y___ + 27.3% Polish_D
4    4.7988    71.3% Kurds_Y___ + 28.7% Ukranians_Y
5    4.8007    73.2% Kurds_Y___ + 26.8% Russian_D
6    4.9732    75.6% Kurds_Y___ + 24.4% Lithuanian_D
7    4.9897    73.2% Kurd_D___ + 26.8% Belorussian
8    5.0133    76.7% Kurds_Y___ + 23.3% Lithuanians
9    5.0365    70.9% Kurd_D___ + 29.1% Ukranians_Y
10    5.0987    72.1% Kurds_Y___ + 27.9% Mordovians_Y

RISE408 LBA (1209 BC):
 TOP reference populations based on Dodecad K12b:
# Distance ID
1    18.0    Lezgins__
2    19.3    Kumyks_Y
3    21.4    Turkish_Istanbul_Ho
4    21.5    Turkish_Aydin_Ho
5    22.0    Chechens_Y
6    22.6    Turkish_Kayseri_Ho
7    22.7    Turkmens_Y
8    23.0    Zaza_P___
9    24.0    Tajiks_Y
10    24.3    Iranian_D

Oracle:

# Distance

1    4.7378    79.2% Lezgins__ + 20.8% French_Basque
2    5.2651    72.7% Lezgins__ + 27.3% Cataluna_1KG
3    5.5218    73.7% Lezgins__ + 26.3% Valencia_1KG
4    5.5712    73.9% Lezgins__ + 26.1% Cantabria_1KG
5    5.5818    74.3% Lezgins__ + 25.7% Aragon_1KG
6    5.6722    73.8% Lezgins__ + 26.2% Castilla_La_Mancha_1KG
7    5.6816    73.3% Lezgins__ + 26.7% Spanish_D
8    5.7200    73% Lezgins__ + 27% Spaniards
9    5.8826    71.1% Lezgins__ + 28.9% French
10    5.9217    71.1% Lezgins__ + 28.9% French_D


RISE412 LBA (1193 BC):
 TOP reference populations based on Dodecad K12b:
# Distance ID1    9.6    Adygei
2    11.2    Balkars_Y
3    11.7    Kumyks_Y
4    11.8    North_Ossetians_Y
5    13.1    Chechens_Y
6    13.2    Turks___
7    13.2    Turkish_D
8    14.1    Armenians
9    14.7    Turkish_Istanbul_Ho
10    15.8    Armenians_15_Y
11    16.2    Armenian_D
12    16.4    Turkish_Kayseri_Ho
13    17.5    Lezgins__
14    18.3    Abhkasians_Y
15    18.5    Georgia_Jews
16    18.7    Zaza_P___

Oracle K12B:

#    Distance   
1    3.6433    77.2% Adygei + 22.8% Sephardic_Jews
2    4.0513    77.5% Adygei + 22.5% S_Italian_Sicilian_D
3    4.0932    76.4% Adygei + 23.6% Ashkenazi_D
4    4.1480    75.4% Adygei + 24.6% Ashkenazy_Jews
5    4.2166    77.9% Adygei + 22.1% Sicilian_D
6    4.2440    80% Adygei + 20% Morocco_Jews
7    4.3430    64.7% Chechens_Y + 35.3% Cypriots
8    4.6281    60.3% Adygei + 39.7% Turkish_D
9    4.8258    75% Adygei + 25% Druze
10    4.9047    75.9% Adygei + 24.1% Lebanese
11    4.9790    84.3% Armenians + 15.7% Lithuanians
12    5.0526    77.3% Adygei + 22.7% Greek_D
13    5.0618    64.2% Abhkasians_Y + 35.8% Bulgarian_D
14    5.0744    82% Armenians + 18% Russian_B
15    5.0939    83.6% Armenians + 16.4% Lithuanian_D
16    5.1290    78.9% Adygei + 21.1% Syrians
17    5.1671    81.7% Armenians + 18.3% Mordovians_Y
18    5.1701    70.9% Balkars_Y + 29.1% Cypriots
19    5.2275    65.7% Abhkasians_Y + 34.3% Romanians
20    5.2709    67.1% Adygei + 32.9% Turkish_Kayseri_Ho


RISE396 LBA (1192 BC):
 TOP reference populations based on Dodecad K12b:
# Distance ID
 1    12.0    Turkish_Istanbul_Ho
2    12.6    Kumyks_Y
3    13.5    Turkish_Kayseri_Ho
4    14.5    Turkish_Aydin_Ho
5    14.5    Turkish_D
6    14.6    Turks___
7    15.3    Zaza_P___
8    16.1    Lezgins__
9    17.1    Chechens_Y
10    18.1    Kurds_Y___

Oracle K12B:
#    Distance
1    4.2060    58.2% Lezgins__ + 41.8% Greek_D
2    4.4492    61.5% Lezgins__ + 38.5% Sicilian_D
3    4.5387    60.3% Lezgins__ + 39.7% Ashkenazi_D
4    4.7105    63.8% Lezgins__ + 36.2% C_Italian_D
5    4.7696    58.9% Lezgins__ + 41.1% Ashkenazy_Jews
6    5.2481    63.3% Lezgins__ + 36.7% O_Italian_D
7    5.4614    66.2% Lezgins__ + 33.8% Tuscan
8    5.5673    67% Lezgins__ + 33% TSI30
9    5.8915    62.9% Lezgins__ + 37.1% Sephardic_Jews
10    6.0393    58% Kurds_Y___ + 42% Bulgarian_D

RISE407 LBA (1115 BC):
 TOP reference populations based on Dodecad K12b:
# Distance ID
 1    19.1    Lezgins__
2    19.6    Turkmens_Y
3    20.0    Tajiks_Y
4    20.7    Kumyks_Y
5    21.3    Zaza_P___
6    21.6    Turkish_Aydin_Ho
7    21.7    Turkish_Istanbul_Ho
8    22.0    Iranian_D
9    22.5    Kurd_D___
10    22.5    Kurds_Y___

Oracle K12B:
#    Distance
1    9.0414    77.7% Lezgins__ + 22.3% Pais_Vasco_1KG
2    9.1657    70.8% Iranian_D + 29.2% Norwegian_D
3    9.4091    70.2% Kurd_D___ + 29.8% Swedish_D
4    9.4630    79.2% Lezgins__ + 20.8% French_Basque
5    9.5599    70.4% Kurd_D___ + 29.6% Norwegian_D
6    9.6359    70.1% Kurds_Y___ + 29.9% Swedish_D
7    9.6374    71.4% Lezgins__ + 28.6% Portuguese_D
8    9.6513    72.7% Lezgins__ + 27.3% Cataluna_1KG
9    9.6726    71.2% Lezgins__ + 28.8% Extremadura_1KG
10    9.6800    73.6% Lezgins__ + 26.4% Castilla_La_Mancha_1KG