“(a) Red symbols indicate the geographical locations of 36 populations analyzed. (b) Interpolated spatial contours of annual precipitation (mm) distribution. (c) Interpolated J1* frequency spatial distribution. (d) Interpolated J1e frequency spatial distribution. (e) Interpolated J1e mean haplotype variance spatial distribution. (f) Construed trajectories of J1e lineage spread episodes. In red are delineated the initial Holocene migrations from the Armenian Highland to the Arabian Peninsula. Shown with black arrows are the subsequent expansions of Arabic populations in Arabia beginning in the Bronze Age.”
Caucasian Haplogroups
The linguistic and genetic mosaic of the Northwest Caucasus
Y-DNA haplogroups by populations of the Caucasus
Y-DNA haplogroups by ethnic group
Overall, the most frequent haplogroups in the Caucasus were G2a3b1-P303 (12%), G2a1a-P18 (8%), J1*-M267(xP58) (34%), and J2a4b*-M67(xM92) (21%), which together encompassed 73% of the Y chromosomes, while the other 24 haplogroups comprise the remaining 27%.
Haplogroup G2a3b1-P303 comprised at least 21% (and up to 86%) of the Y chromosomes in the Shapsug, Abkhaz and Circassians. Haplogroup G2a1a-P18 comprised at least 56% (and up to 73%) of the Digorians and Ironians (both from the Central Caucasus Iranic linguistic group), while not being found at more than 12% (average 3%) in other populations.
Haplogroup J2a4b*-M67(xM92) comprised 51-79% of the Y chromosomes in the Ingush and three Chechen populations (North-East Caucasus, Nakh linguistic group), while, in the rest of the Caucasus, its frequency was not higher than 9% (average 3%).
Haplogroup J1*-M267(xP58) comprised 44-99% of the Avar, Dargins, Kaitak, Kubachi, and Lezghins (South-East Caucasus, Dagestan linguistic group) but was less than 25% in Nakh populations and less than 5% in the rest of Caucasus.
The prevalence of J1*-M267(xP58) in Dagestan is well known (or suspected) from previous studies. Haplogroup J-P58, if we use the genealogical rate, has an age of ~5.4ky in Semitic groups, and this is in concordance with the 5,750 years ago origin of Semitic languages based on Bayesian phylogenetics.
So, it is clear that part of haplogroup J1 was prevalent in ancient Semitic groups, another, disjoint part in ancient Dagestani groups.
To make things more interesting, the Nakh groups (Ingush and Chechens) have J2a4b*-M67(xM92) as their modal haplogroup. Nakh is also a Northeast Caucasian language subfamily, like Dagestani, and indeed NE Caucasian is also called Nakho-Daghestanian.
It would be tempting to think that Proto-Nakho-Dagestanians were J1-dominated, as J1 exists in both Nakh (16-25%) and Dagestani (58-99%) groups, whereas J2a4b-M67 (the Nakh modal haplogroup) is nearly completely absent in Dagestanians.
There is a lack of European influence in the populations of the North Caucasus. It seems that both R1a1a-M198 and I2a-P37 have a major barrier eastward in the Don river. While the former is not strictly a European haplogroup it nonetheless experiences a massive drop in frequency, and is negligible everywhere except in Abkhaz-Circassians (NW Caucasus; 10.3-19.7%), with an outlier in Dargins (22%).
This seems to put a limit on the origin of any hypothetical movements across the Eurasian steppe east of the Don river, as haplogroup I2a-P37 is largely absent in Central Asia, and occurs 3 times in 1,525 individuals in this sample. So, while there have been proposals of a Central European origin of some steppe pastoralist groups, these are hard to reconcile with this picture.
There is a high frequency of haplogroup G2a* in Georgians and Balkars (~30%, also modal in both populations). It appears that G2a is a mainly West (both NW and SW) Caucasian phenomenon within the context of this region. The haplogroups G2a1a-P18 appears in Iranians (56-73%) and G2a3b1-P303 (NW Caucasians, 21-86%).
Haplogroup G2a3 is one of the lineages of early Central European farmers. G2 is also, curiously, one of the West Eurasian lineages that are found in very small quantities in India, especially among upper caste Hindus.
There seems to be a possible link between the Caucasus region and India based on the appearance of a “Dagestan” component in India, the clear West Asian origin of Ancestral North Indians, as well as a possible linguistic link between Northeast Caucasian, Hurrian, and Indo-European.
The “Dagestan” genetic component in South Asia and Europe is modal in populations of Dagestan: Dargins from Urkarah, Lezgins, and Kumyks from Stalskoe. Dargins and Lezgins are Northeast Caucasian speakers, and while Kumyks are Turkic, this is probably due to a small East Eurasian component in their ancestry, and it’s a fair guess that they too are natives to the region who underwent language shift.
The component occurs at a high frequency in some South Asian populations, including Telugu and Tamil Brahmins from South India. These are believed to be descended from Indo-Aryan speakers from North India and to have maintained a genetic distinctiveness vis a vis the native inhabitants of South India.
A problem with that theory is that the high J1*(xP58) frequency in Dagestan has no counterpart in South Asia, but the Nakh part of the Nakho-Dagestanian (Northeast Caucasian) family is haplogroup J2a4b-M67 dominated, so, while haplogroup J1*(xP58) may have been present among Proto-Northeast Caucasians, these must have interacted with J2a folk.
J-M67 is clearly intrusive into the Central Caucasus, from the South where a much greater variety of J2a-related lineages is observed among Armenians, North Iranians, and Anatolian Turks.
The center of the J2a world is somewhere between eastern Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, and Syria. The Caucasus is a northern extension of this world, just as Greece and Italy are its main western extensions, with a strong extension into Central Asia as far as Xinjiang, and well into South Asia all the way to upper caste South Indian Hindus.
In the Caucasus itself J-M67 is dominating Nakh speakers, but with little other J2a related variation. In comparison to Nakhs, J2a seems more varied in Georgians, among Ossetes, and among NW Caucasian speakers
It is hard to make any pronouncements on how J2a spread northwards from its Transcaucasian cradle, but the Kura-Araxes and Maikop cultures are fairly good candidates for that spread, with the former being J2a dominated, and the latter being more G2a dominated.
Haplogroup E1b1b1 has a more Mediterranean distribution and is conspicuously absent in the North Caucasus. Unfortunately no downstream markers were typed, but (a) its presence in small amounts in NW Caucasians (1-1.7%) together with a similar low frequency (1.5%) in Georgians, (b) its absolute absence among Nakho-Dagestanians, except for one Lezghin, suggest to me that it arrived to the region from the west, and is probably a low-frequency trace of Ancient Greek colonies of the Black Sea, just as it is associated with Greek colonists in the West Mediterranean and Sicily.
There is a little haplogroup L in the North Caucasus. L-M27 and L-M317 seems concentrated in the Northwest, while L-M357 is found only in Nakh speakers. The detection of L-M357 in North, but not South Iran, may be related with this population, and also the L-rich population of Syria, especially from the eastern inland area.
Haplogroup T in this region is found in 2 NW Caucasians, 1 Ossetes and a couple of Lezgins, but unfortunately with no fine phylogenetic resolution.
There seems to be a direct origin of Caucasus male lineages from the Near East, followed by high levels of isolation, differentiation and genetic drift in situ.
There seems to be a different major haplogroup prevalent in each of the four sets of populations that occupy distinct geographic regions and belong to different linguistic branches in Caucasus. The haplogroup frequencies correlated with geography and, even more strongly, with language. Within haplogroups, a number of haplotype clusters were shown to be specific to individual populations and languages.
Comparison of genetic and linguistic reconstructions covering the last few millennia showed striking correspondences between the topology and dates of the respective gene and language trees, and with documented historical events. Overall, in the Caucasus region, unmatched levels of gene-language co-evolution occurred within geographically isolated populations, probably due to its mountainous terrain.
Haplogroup J-P209
Haplogroup J-P209 is believed to have arisen roughly 31,700 years ago in Southwest Asia (31,700±12,800 years ago according to Semino 2004). It is most closely related to Haplogroup I-M170, as both Haplogroup I-M170 and Haplogroup J-P209 are Haplogroup IJ subclades.
Haplogroup IJ and haplogroup K derive from Haplogroup IJK, and only at this level of classification does haplogroup IJK join with Haplogroup G and Haplogroup H as immediate descendants of Haplogroup F.
J-P209 is defined by the M304 genetic marker, or the equivalent 12f2.1 marker. The main current subgroups J-M267 and J-M172, which now comprise between them almost all of the population of the haplogroup, are both believed to have arisen very early, at least 10,000 years ago. Nonetheless, Y-chromosomes F-M89* and IJ-M429* were reported to have been observed in the Iranian plateau (Grugni et al. 2012).
On the other hand, it would seem to be that different episodes of populace movement had impacted southeast Europe, as well as the role of the Balkans as a long-standing corridor to Europe from the Near East is shown by the phylogenetic unification of Hgs I and J by the basal M429 mutation.
This proof of common ancestry suggests that ancestral Haplogroups IJ-M429* probably would have entered Europe through the Balkan track sometime before the LGM. They then subsequently split into Haplogroup J and Haplogroup I in Middle East and Europe in a typical disjunctive phylogeographic pattern.
Such a geographic hall is prone to have encountered extra consequent gene streams, including the horticultural settlers. Moreover, the unification of haplogroups IJK creates evolutionary distance from F–H delegates, as well as supporting the inference that both IJ-M429 and KT-M9 arose closer to the Middle East than central or eastern Asia.
Haplogroup J-P209 is found in greatest concentration in Southwestern Arabian Peninsula. Outside of this region, haplogroup J-P209 has a presence in North Africa. It also has a moderate presence in Southern Europe (especially in central and southern Italy, Malta, Greece, and Albania), Central Asia, and South Asia, particularly in the form of its subclade J-M172.
Haplogroup J-P209 is also found in north East Africa, particularly in the form of its J-M267 subclade. The J-M410 subclade is found mostly in Greece, Anatolia, and southern Italy. In Northern India, 28.7% of the Shia Muslim among whom are the Sayyid population, belong to haplogroup J2.
Haplogroup J2-M172
Haplogroup J-M172 is a Y-chromosome haplogroup which is a subclade (branch) of haplogroup J-P209. J-M172 can be classified as Mediterranean/Aegean (Di Giacomo, 2004), Greco-Anatolian, Mesopotamian and/or Caucasian and is linked to the earliest indigenous populations of Anatolia and the Aegean.
Haplogroup J-M172 is found mainly in the Fertile Crescent, the Caucasus (Nasidze 2003), Anatolia, the Balkans, Italy, the Mediterranean littoral, and the Iranian plateau (Semino 2004).
The highest reported frequency of J-M172 ever was 87.4%, among Ingush in Malgobek. J-M172 – Associated with Mediterranean, South Caucasian and Fertile Crescent populations, with its peaks at 87.4% in Ingushetia and 72% in Georgia’s Kazbegi region (near Mount Kazbek).
In the North Caucasus, the largest frequencies are those of Nakh peoples (Chechens 56.7% and Ingush 88.8%). Other notable values were found among North Caucasian Turkic peoples (Kumyks 25% and Balkars 24%).
It is notable that according to both Nasidze’s study in 2004 and then a later study on Dagestani peoples by Yunusbaev in 2006, J-M172 suddenly collapses as one enters the territory of non-Nakh Northeast Caucasian peoples, dropping to very low values among Dagestani peoples.
The overwhelming bulk of Chechen J-M172 is of the subclade J-M67 (J2a4b), of which the highest frequencies by far are found among Nakh peoples – Chechens were 55.2%, while Ingush were 87.4%.
J-M172 is found at very high frequencies in certain peoples of the Caucasus: among the Ingush 87.4%, Chechens 55.2%, Georgians 21%-72%, Azeris 24%-48%, Abkhaz 25%, Balkars 24%, Ossetians 24%, Armenians 21%-24%, Circassians 21.8%, and other groups.
J-M67 (Called J2f in older papers) has its highest frequencies associated with Nakh peoples. Found at very high (majority) frequencies among Ingush in Malgobek 87.4%, Chechens in Dagestan 58%, Chechens in Chechnya 56.8% and Chechens in Malgobek, Ingushetia 50.9%.
In the Caucasus, it is found at significant frequencies among Georgians 13.3%, Iron Ossetes 11.3%, South Caucasian Balkars 6.3%, Digor Ossetes 5.5%, Abkhaz 6.9%, and Cherkess 5.6%.
It is also found at notable frequencies in the Mediterranean and Middle East, including Cretans (10.2%), North-central Italians 9.6%, Southern Italians (4.2%; only 0.8% among North Italians), Anatolian Turks 2.7-5.4%, Greeks 4-4.3%, Albanians 3.6%, Ashkenazi Jews 4.9%, Sephardis 2.4%, Catalans 3.9%, Andalusians 3.2%, Calabrians 3.3%, Albanian Calabrians 8.9%.
Sephardi Jews have about 15%-29%, of haplogroup J-M172, and Ashkenazi Jews have 15%-23%. It was reported in an early study which tested only four STR markers that a small sample of Italian Cohens belonged to Network 1.2, an early designation for the overall clade now known as J-L26, defined by the deletion at DYS413. However, a large number of all Jewish Cohens in the world belong to haplogroup J-M267.
Haplogroup J-M172 has been shown to have a more northern distribution in the Middle East, although it exists in significant amounts in the southern middle-east regions, a lesser amount of it was found when compared to its brother haplogroup, J-M267, which has a high frequency southerly distribution.
It was believed that the source population of J-M172 originated from the Levant/Syria (Syrid-J-M172), and that its occurrence among modern populations of Europe, Central Asia, and South Asia was a sign of the neolithic agriculturalists. However, as stated it is now more likely to have originated in regions farther to the north, with the first metallurgists of the Middle East.
In Europe, the frequency of Haplogroup J-M172 drops as one moves northward away from the Mediterranean. In Italy, J-M172 is found with regional frequencies ranging between 9% and 36%. In Greece, it is found with regional frequencies ranging between 10% and 48%. Approximately 24% of Turkish men are J-M172 according to a recent study, with regional frequencies ranging between 13% and 40%. Combined with J-M267, up to half of the Turkish population belongs to Haplogroup J-P209.
It is further divided into two complementary clades, J-M410 and J-M12 (M12, M102, M221, M314). It has been proposed that haplogroup subclade J-M410 was linked to populations on ancient Crete by examining the relationship between Anatolian, Cretan, and Greek populations from around early Neolithic sites in Crete.
Haplogroup J-M12 was associated with Neolithic Greece (ca. 8500 – 4300 BCE) and was reported to be found in modern Crete (3.1%) and mainland Greece (Macedonia 7.0%, Thessaly 8.8%, Argolis 1.8%).
In South Asia Haplogroup J-P209 was found to be more common in India’s Shia Muslims, of which 28.7% belong to haplogroup J, with 13.7% in J-M410, 10.6% in J-M267 and 4.4% in J2b.
The precise region of origin for haplogroup J-M172 remains a topic of discussion. However, at least within a European context, Anatolia and the Aegean seem to be source regions, with Hg J2 having perhaps arisen in the Levant / Middle East with the development of agriculture.
As to the timing of its spread into Europe it has been pointed to events which post-date the Neolithic, in particular the demographic floruit associated with the rise of the Ancient Greek world, but it has also been postulated that it initially spread with Neolithic farmers from the Near East.
However, its subclade distribution, showing localized peaks in the Southern Balkans, southern Italy, north/ central Italy and the Caucasus, does not conform to a single ‘wave-of-advance’ scenario, betraying a number of still poorly understood post-Neolithic processes which created its current pattern. The Bronze Age southern Balkans was suggested to have been an important vector of spread.
Haplogroup J1-M267
Y DNA haplogroup J-M267, also commonly known as Haplogroup J1, is a subclade (branch) of Y-DNA haplogroup J-P209, (commonly known as Haplogroup J) along with its sibling clade Y DNA haplogroup J-M172 (commonly known as Haplogroup J2). (All these haplogroups have had other historical names listed below.
Men from this lineage share a common paternal ancestor, which is demonstrated and defined by the presence of the SNP mutation referred to as M267. This haplogroup is found today in significant frequencies in many areas in order near the Middle East, and parts of the Caucasus, Sudan and the Horn of Africa.
It is also found in high frequencies in parts of North Africa and amongst Jewish groups, especially those with Cohen surnames. It can also be found much less commonly, but still occasionally in significant amounts, in Europe and as far east as Central Asia and the Indian Subcontinent.
Since the discovery of haplogroup J-P209 it has generally been recognized that it shows signs of having originated in or near West Asia. The frequency and diversity of both its major branches, J-M267 and J-M172, in that region makes them candidates as genetic markers of the spread of farming technology during the Neolithic, which is proposed to have had a major impact upon human populations.
J-M267 has several recognized subclades, some of which were recognized before J-M267 itself was recognized, for example J-M62 Y Chromosome Consortium “YCC” 2002. With one notable exception, J-P58, most of these are not common. Because of the dominance of J-P58 in J-M267 populations in many areas, discussion of J-M267′s origins require a discussion of J-P58 at the same time.
J1 is the major haplogroup in the Caucasus with the most complex and diverse phylogenetic network in the region. Of all the major Caucasian haplogroups (G2a3b1, G2a1a, J2a4b), J1 (xP58) is also the most frequent haplogroup present around the Caspian Sea and the most frequent in Northern Iran.
Other J1 (xP58) SNP like J1b M365 is a Northern Iranian haplogroup forming a distinct cluster with the Western European, Western Iberian Portuguese-Brazilian J1b haplotypes, which is a genetic testimony of a section of the Iranian-speaking Alan presence in Lusitania and Northwestern Iberia, well attested in historical documents and plausible in terms of their TMRCA in the Atlantic and the Caspian shores.
Haplogroup J1e-P58
J1 is the major haplogroup in the Caucasus with the most complex and diverse phylogenetic network in the region. Of all the major Caucasian haplogroups (G2a3b1, G2a1a, J2a4b), J1 (xP58) is also the most frequent haplogroup present around the Caspian Sea and the most frequent in Northern Iran.
Other J1 (xP58) SNP like J1b M365 is a Northern Iranian haplogroup forming a distinct cluster with the Western European, Western Iberian Portuguese-Brazilian J1b haplotypes, what possibly can be a genetic testimony of a section of the Iranian-speaking Alan presence in Lusitania and Northwestern Iberia, well attested in historical documents and plausible in terms of their TMRCA in the Atlantic and the Caspian shores.
The J1e ancestors of the Assyrians of Lake Van and the Greater Zab River, as well as J1* Turks of Lake Van, originate from a common ancestor some 16 kya. Zagros archaeological results for this period, known as the Zarzian, are at the cutting edge of current research and are giving us some idea of the lifestyle of these Mesolithic people.
Haplogroup J1 is a prevalent Y-chromosome lineage within the Near East. We report the frequency and YSTR diversity data for its major sub-clade (J1e, J-P58), which is found in a low frequency in the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula. It is by far the most widespread subclade of J1.
It is a typically Semitic haplogroup, making up most of the population of the Arabian peninsula, where it accounts for approximately 40% to 75% of male lineages. The dominant lineage in the Arabian peninsula is J1-L147.1. The numerous subclades downstream of L858 represent the tremendous expansion of J1 lineages linked to the propagation of Islam and the Arabic language from Saudi Arabia from the 7th century CE.
L147.1 is also the Cohen Modal Haplotype. Roughly half of all Cohanim belong to the L147.1 subclade. In the Hebrew Bible the common ancestor of all Cohens is identified as Aaron, the brother of Moses.
J1-P58 is thought to have expanded from eastern Anatolia to the Levant, Taurus and Zagros mountains and the Arabian peninsula at the end of the last Ice Age (12,000 years ago) with the seasonal migrations of pastoralists. Arabic speakers recolonised the Arabian peninsula in the Bronze Age from the north-west of the peninsula, close to modern Jordan.
The rise of Islam in the 7th century CE played a major part in the re-expansion of J1 from Arabia throughout the Middle East, as well as to North Africa, and to a lower extent to Sicily and southern Spain.
Like haplogroup G, J1 might have been of the principal lineages to bring domesticated animals to Europe. Both G and J1 reach their maximal frequencies in the Caucasus, some ethnic groups being almost exclusively J1 (Kubachis, Kaitaks, Dargins, Avars), while others have extremely high levels of G (Shapsugs, North Ossetians).
Most of the ethnic groups in the North Caucasus have between 20 and 40% of each haplogroup, which are by far their two dominant haplogroups. In the South Caucasus (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan), haplogroup J2 comes into the admixture and is in fact slightly higher than either J1 or G. Most of the Caucasian J1 is at present J1*, meaning that at present no common SNP has been identified that could form a new subclade.
The Zagros/Taurus mountain region, in the northern area of eastern Anatolia, northern Iraq and northwest Iran, displays the highest haplotype diversity, although the J1e frequency increases toward the peripheral Arabian Peninsula. Moreover, the previously described J1 (DYS388=13) chromosomes, frequently found in the Caucasus and eastern Anatolian populations,were ancestral to J1e and displayed an expansion time of 9000 years.
It is very prevalent in many areas where J-M267 is common, especially in parts of North Africa and throughout the Arabian peninsula. It also makes up approximately 70% of the J-M267 among the Amhara of Ethiopia. Notably, it is not common among the J-M267 populations in the Caucasus.
The southerly pattern of decreasing expansion time estimates is consistent with the serial drift and founder effect processes. The first such migration is predicted to have occurred at the onset of the Neolithic, and accordingly J1e parallels the establishment of rain-fed agriculture and semi-nomadic herders throughout the Fertile Crescent. Subsequently, J1e lineages might have been involvedin episodes of the expansion of pastoralists into arid habitats coinciding with the spread of Arabic and other Semitic-speaking populations.
The overall expansion time estimated from 453 chromosomes is 10.000 years. Chiaroni 2009 proposed that J-P58 (that they refer to as J1e) might have first dispersed during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period, “from a geographical zone, including northeast Syria, northern Iraq and eastern Turkey toward Mediterranean Anatolia, Ismaili from southern Syria, Jordan, Palestine and northern Egypt.” They further propose that the Zarzian material culture may be ancestral.
They also propose that this movement of people may also be linked to the dispersal of Semitic languages by hunter-herders, who moved into arid areas during periods known to have had low rainfall. Thus, while other haplogroups including J-M172 moved out of the area with agriculturalists who followed the rainfall, populations carrying J-M267 remained with their flocks (King 2002 and Chiaroni 2008).
According to this scenario, after the initial neolithic expansion involving Semitic languages, which possibly reached as far as Yemen, a more recent dispersal occurred during the Chalcolithic or Early Bronze Age (approximately 3000–5000 BCE), and this involved the branch of Semitic which leads to the Arabic language. The authors propose that this involved a spread of some J-P58 from the direction of Syria towards Arab populations of the Arabian Peninsula and Negev.
Haplogroup J1c3d – Aron (Aram)
Y-chromosomal Aaron is the name given to the hypothesized most recent common ancestor of many of the patrilineal Jewish priestly caste known as Kohanim (singular “Kohen”, “Cohen”, or Kohane).
In the Torah, this ancestor is identified as Aaron, the brother of Moses. The hypothetical most recent common ancestor was therefore jocularly dubbed “Y-chromosomal Aaron”, in analogy to Y-chromosomal Adam.
The original scientific research was based on the discovery that a majority of present-day Jewish Kohanim either share, or are only one step removed from, a pattern of values for 6 Y-STR markers, which researchers named the Cohen Modal Haplotype (CMH).
However it subsequently became clear that this six marker pattern was widespread in many communities where men had Y chromosomes which fell into Haplogroup J; the six-marker CMH was not specific just to Cohens, nor even just to Jews.
More recent research, using a larger number of Y-STR markers to gain higher resolution more specific genetic signatures, has indicated that about half of contemporary Jewish Kohanim, who share Y-chromosomal haplogroup J1c3 (also called J-P58), appear to be closely related.
A further approximately 15 % of Kohanim fall into a second distinct group, sharing a different but similarly tightly related ancestry. This second group fall under haplogroup J2a (J-M410). A number of other smaller lineage groups are also observed. Only one of these haplogroups could indicate ancestry from Y-chromosomal Aaron.
The J1-P58 and J2a possible Cohen clusters, when including those tested who are of Sephardi and Ashkenazi background.
Armenia stands out of the lot by having a substantial J1c3d minority (at least one third of all J1, i.e. roughly 4% of the population). The expansion of Haplogroup J1c3d is closely tied to the expansion of the Semitic languages, they themselves both linked to the expansion of herder–hunters moving into the arid regions of the Arabian Peninsula.
It has been proposed that the divergence within Semitic languages occurred approximately 5750 years ago in the Levant, which is both consistent with J1c3d’s age estimate and its parent clade’s place of highest diversity.
People of the Haplogroup J1c3 orginally possibly spoke a language similar to Alarodian derived languages. Semitic shows an interesting degree of relatedness with Nakho-Daghestani of Anatolia (including Turkey, Armenia, and Georgia), this language also could have hypothetically been involved in the formation of Afroasiatic as Haplogroup J1.
Some of its clades have been found in non-negligible frequency amongst Copts, Bejas and Guanches all of whom are non-Semitic Afroasiatic speakers while retaining the fact that African branches of Afroasiatic contain Caucasian and Sumerian loanwards, thus making another case for the lineage’s Near Eastern origin.
Afroasiatic languages spread from the Levant into Africa between 7000 and 12,000 years ago, probably in more than one movement. Subsequent history has seen an enormous spread of Semitic languages, including Ethiopian Semitic and, of course, Arabic, on such a scale that the original phylogenetic geography of the Afroasiatic language family must have been considerably erased.
Kurds
The Kurds are an ethnic Iranian group who have historically inhabited the mountainous areas to the south of Caucasus (Zagros and Taurus mountain ranges), a geographical area collectively referred to as Kurdistan. Most Kurds speak an Indo-European language belonging to the Northwestern Iranian branch.
There are various hypotheses as to predecessor populations of the Kurds, such as the Carduchoi of Classical Antiquity. The earliest known Kurdish dynasties under Islamic rule (10th to 12th centuries) are the Hasanwayhids, the Marwanids, the Shaddadids, followed by the Ayyubid dynasty founded by Saladin.
The Battle of Chaldiran of 1514 is an important turning point in Kurdish history, marking the alliance of Kurds with the Ottomans. The Sharafnameh of 1597 is the first account of Kurdish history. Kurdish history in the 20th century is marked by a rising sense of Kurdish nationhood focused on the goal of an independent Kurdistan as scheduled by the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920.
Partial autonomy was reached by Kurdistan Uyezd (1923–1926) and by Iraqi Kurdistan (since 1991), while notably in Turkish Kurdistan, an armed conflict between the PKK and Turkish Armed Forces was ongoing from 1984 to 1999, and the region continues to be unstable with renewed flaring up of violence in the 2000s.
Although Kurdistan came under the successive dominion of various conquerors, including the Armenians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Ottoman Turks, and Persians, they may have remained relatively unmixed by the influx of invaders, because of their protected and inhospitable mountainous homeland.
Genetic testing amongst randomly chosen Kurdish populations has begun to shed light into the disparate origins of the Kurds. The results reveal a variety of connections amongst the Kurds, when assessing paternal and maternal lineages.
Overall the Kurds share some genetic ties to other speakers of Iranian languages as well as with various peoples from the Caucasus such as the Armenians which suggests that the Kurds have ancient ethnic ties that connect them to both the early inhabitants of the Kurdistan area, such as the Hurrians.
A study by Richards and colleagues of mitochondrial DNA in the Near East found that Kurds, Azeris, Ossetians and Armenians show a high incidence of MtDNA U5 lineages, which are common among Europeans, although rare elsewhere in the Near East. The sample of Kurds in this study came from northwest Iran and northeast Iraq, where Kurds usually predominate.
A geographically broad study of the Southwest and Central Asian Corridor found that populations located west of the Indus Valley mainly harbor mtDNAs of Western Eurasian origin.
When Ivan Nasidze and his colleagues examined both Mitochondrial and Y-Chromosome DNA, they found Kurdish groups most similar genetically to other West Asian groups, and most distant from Central Asian groups, for both mtDNA and the Y-chromosome. However, Kurdish groups show a closer relationship with European groups than with Caucasian groups based on mtDNA, but the opposite based on the Y-chromosome, indicating some differences in their maternal and paternal histories.
According to DRB1, DQA1 and DQB1 allele frequencies showed a strong genetic tie between Kurds and Azeris of Iran. According to the current results, present-day Kurds and Azeris of Iran seem to belong to a common genetic pool.
David Comas and colleagues found that Mitochondrial sequence pools in Georgians and Kurds are very similar, despite their different linguistic and prehistoric backgrounds. Both populations present mtDNA lineages that clearly belong to the Western Eurasian gene pool.
There also appear to be some links to northern Semitic peoples such as the Syrians and possibly ancient Hebrews, but fewer links to southern Semites in the Arabian peninsula in spite of the region having been conquered very early by Muslim Arabs.
In 2001 Nebel et al. compared three Jewish and three non-Jewish groups from the Middle East: Ashkenazim, Sephardim, and Kurdish Jews from Israel; Muslim Arabs from Israel and the Palestinian Authority Area; Bedouin from the Negev; and Muslim Kurds.
They concluded that Kurdish and Sephardic Jews were indistinguishable from one another, whereas both differed slightly, yet significantly, from Ashkenazi Jews.
Nebel et al. had earlier (2000) found a large genetic relationship between Jews and Palestinians, but in this study found an even higher relationship of Jews with Iraqi Kurds. They conclude that the common genetic background shared by Jews and other Middle Eastern groups predates the division of Middle Easterners into different ethnic groups.
Interestingly, Nebel et al. (2001) also found that the Cohen Modal Haplotype (CMH), considered the most definitive Jewish haplotype, was found among 10.1% of Kurdish Jews, 7.6% of Ashkenazim, 6.4% of Sephardim, 2.1% of Palestianian Arabs, and 1.1% of Kurds.
The CMH and the most frequent Kurdish haplotype (MKH) were the same on five markers (out of six) and very close on the other marker. The MKH was shared by 9.5% of Kurds, 2.6% of Sephardim, 2.0% of Kurdish Jews, 1.4% of Palestinian Arabs, and 1.3% of Ashkenazim.
The general conclusion is that these similarities result mostly from the sharing of ancient genetic patterns, and not from more recent admixture between the groups.
The Origin of Y-chromosome Haplogroup J1: Another Lake, Other Rivers
Northern Fertile Crescent Hunter Gatherers
Genes and Languages in the Caucasus
The emergence of Y-chromosome haplogroup J1e among Arabic-speaking populations
The emergence and dispersal of haplogroup J-P58 (aka J1e)
The Famous Hebrew Ten Lost Tribes have been found!
Haplogroup J1 and J1c3d or The Cohen Gene
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