23andMe ICM in Syrian from Damascus

Hi,

I did a 23andme test and it said I’m ~40% Iranian, Caucasian, or Mesopotamian, and only 36% Levantine. Since that’s such a large percentage, I would expect to be some historical record of such a large migration happening, given that other Syrians report similar results from 23andme. Also, this can’t be a few random Kurds or Assyrians moving into the big cities, because Alawites also have a lot of ICM, according to 23andme, as do people from the countryside. I conclude this must be the result of a large migration, because migrations into cities don’t affect people in the countryside as much as those in cities, so I would expect rural people to have at the very least less ICM than city dwellers, but they have similar levels.

I can’t find historical evidence for this large-scale migration (that also affected Alawites, so it can’t be recent). Can someone explain my results?

There was a huge genetic turnover in the 3rd millennium BC Levant coming from Chalcolithic Iran or Mesopotamia. More than half of the population was replaced. That's probably why you score 40% ICM.

Here, we report genome-wide data analyses from 110 ancient Near Eastern individuals spanning the Late Neolithic to Late Bronze Age, a period characterized by intense interregional interactions for the Near East. We find that 6th millennium BCE populations of North/Central Anatolia and the Southern Caucasus shared mixed ancestry on a genetic cline that formed during the Neolithic between Western Anatolia and regions in today’s Southern Caucasus/Zagros. During the Late Chalcolithic and/or the Early Bronze Age, more than half of the Northern Levantine gene pool was replaced, while in the rest of Anatolia and the Southern Caucasus, we document genetic continuity with only transient gene flow. Additionally, we reveal a genetically distinct individual within the Late Bronze Age Northern Levant. Overall, our study uncovers multiple scales of population dynamics through time, from extensive admixture during the Neolithic period to long-distance mobility within the globalized societies of the Late Bronze Age.

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See here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867420305092

Anfänger said:

There was a huge genetic turnover in the 3rd millennium BC Levant coming from Chalcolithic Iran or Mesopotamia. More than half of the population was replaced. That's probably why you score 40% ICM.

Click to expand...

Yeah but Maronites and other Christians don’t have any or have very low ICM percentages. So if half the gene pool got replaced after the 7th century (in pretty much all Syrians including Alawites), I should find some records about it, but I don’t.

When did I say 7th century ? I said 3rd millennium BC, that’s more than 5000 years ago. That’s about the time when Semitic languages spread in the region. There is very little historic information from this time period.

I also doubt that Maronites and other Christians lack this component. Maybe 23andMe doesn’t show it but it is definitely there, since Maronites and Christians are not that much different from other Levantines.

I recommend reading the paper i linked above.