Theme: Science

Jan 19, 2020, 3:33 PM by Göran Dahl Up until very recently, it was thought that Eastern Europeans (in the form of Poles, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Russians and Balts) were the genetically closest to Proto-Indo-Iranians and, indeed, to Proto-Indo-Europeans. However, it appears that these ethnic groups had ever so slightly inflated Steppe ancestry percentages due to having higher levels of so-called Narva_HG admixture. Narva_HG belongs to the Mesolithic Narva culture, whose members were a mixture of EHG (Eastern Hunter-Gatherer) and WHG (Western Hunter-Gatherer). Today, we can say that the people closest to Proto-Indo-Iranians and Proto-Indo-Europeans in terms of genetic distance (and Steppe ancestry) are Norwegians, Irishmen and Icelanders; the latter due to being a composite of the two former. Irishmen tend to be the closest fit for typical Proto-Indo-Iranian cultures such as Srubnaya and Sintashta, whereas Norwegians are the closest to Yamnaya_Kalmykia (a subset of Yamnaya) and Potapovka, which is thought to be ancestral to the forementioned Srubnaya.

Jan 19, 2020, 3:33 PM by Göran Dahl Up until very recently, it was thought that Eastern Europeans (in the form of Poles, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Russians and Balts) were the genetically closest to Proto-Indo-Iranians and, indeed, to Proto-Indo-Europeans. However, it appears that these ethnic groups had ever so slightly inflated Steppe ancestry percentages due to having higher levels of so-called Narva_HG admixture. Narva_HG belongs to the Mesolithic Narva culture, whose members were a mixture of EHG (Eastern Hunter-Gatherer) and WHG (Western Hunter-Gatherer). Today, we can say that the people closest to Proto-Indo-Iranians and Proto-Indo-Europeans in terms of genetic distance (and Steppe ancestry) are Norwegians, Irishmen and Icelanders; the latter due to being a composite of the two former. Irishmen tend to be the closest fit for typical Proto-Indo-Iranian cultures such as Srubnaya and Sintashta, whereas Norwegians are the closest to Yamnaya_Kalmykia (a subset of Yamnaya) and Potapovka, which is thought to be ancestral to the forementioned Srubnaya.

Jan 19, 2020, 3:43 PM NECESSARY READING FOR THE INFORMED by Göran Dahl A great document with lots of information regarding admixture events, ancestry proportions, what modern people are made up of etc. The Modern sections with “Yamnaya” proportions are somewhat misleading, because they don’t use actual Yamnaya people as proxies for Yamnaya ancestry, but rather two of the three components that Yamnaya people are made up of: CHG (Caucasian Hunter-Gatherer) and EHG (Eastern Hunter-Gatherer). There is also a third component that has been left out: EEF (Early European Farmer), which is why Yamnaya proportions in modern Europeans and even ancient post-Yamnaya populations seem lower across the board. West Eurasia index2 docs.google.com https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LPWAEC3dbAEDu8aBAAcxIOa5CQjuflt0f0cvhCpZ_ME/htmlview

Jan 19, 2020, 3:43 PM NECESSARY READING FOR THE INFORMED by Göran Dahl A great document with lots of information regarding admixture events, ancestry proportions, what modern people are made up of etc. The Modern sections with “Yamnaya” proportions are somewhat misleading, because they don’t use actual Yamnaya people as proxies for Yamnaya ancestry, but rather two of the three components that Yamnaya people are made up of: CHG (Caucasian Hunter-Gatherer) and EHG (Eastern Hunter-Gatherer). There is also a third component that has been left out: EEF (Early European Farmer), which is why Yamnaya proportions in modern Europeans and even ancient post-Yamnaya populations seem lower across the board. West Eurasia index2 docs.google.com https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LPWAEC3dbAEDu8aBAAcxIOa5CQjuflt0f0cvhCpZ_ME/htmlview