Y-chromosomal analysis of Greek Cypriots

oh boy too many M406

I like that,
I am one
 
So, I guess we could say not really "western" R1b. It's the Yamnaya clade. It's also what's found in southern Italy.

As for the R1a, no Z93, which I had thought we'd find.

Where is the total R1a for the two groups?

I hate to ask this after all the work that you did, but you're sure it's M558?

If it is, it's recent in the area and came from Greece, along with E-V13 probably.

The R1b came either from the Balkans/Greece or from Anatolia.

If the R1a in Greece is similar, my money is now on R1b Z2103 for the Mycenaean signature.

The only result I truly don't get is the I2a being so high in the Turkish Cypriots versus the Greek Cypriots. Well, maybe the T and some of the G2a as well.

Thanks for all the work Azzurro. Very interesting.

My pleasure Angela, when the haplogroups are broken down with the nevgen predictor its very useful and a lot can be learnt from this paper.

Just to say one side little point, I had found through the nevgen predictor 3 E-Y6923 which have not been found outside Ashkenazi Jews except a Puerto Rican of who is very probably of direct converso paternal descent.

I want to add that I too was very surprised that R1a-Z93 was not found and that I2 and T were much higher in Turkish Cypriots but if you look at the results they are almost the same as I-P37 and T-L208 are the dominant subclades, this could actually be due where they got the samples. I am the least confident in the R1a results, there is 10 R1a amongst the Greek Cypriots and 13 amongst Turkish Cypriots, I think I should re-look at the R1a, even with R1b like R1a those were the only too that I manually started checking and thats the results I came up with.
 
We have a bit of a difference here.

M406:
TC (14)
GC (8)

L497 is also higher in TC:
TC (13)
GC (8)

and PF3187:
TC (10)
GC (7)

Again, do we have dates, frequency for these?

G-PF3147 is the Neolithic farmer marker, I don't know the frequency of it, G-L497 is definitely a Balkan-Central Euro marker, I know it peaks in Serbia, I would think G-L497 was brought in by the Greeks. G-M406 it always depends the subclade through the Greek Cypriot samples we see L14, M3302 and Z17887, G-M406 follows J2a and is found usually where J2a appears, G-M406 could be Greek, could be Levantine, could be Anatolian, thats why deep subclades would be good for G-M406, it is a great candidate for the potential Kura-Araxes Expansion. There is also interesting finds there too with G-Z724, G-L293 (Z6653 on Yfull), G1 is found in both and also G-U1 seeing that it is the most common G for Greek Cypriots.
 
Interesting: E-V13 and E-M84 are the most frequent in both, but GC has way more E-M84 (46 to 18). So, if we're positing some actual gene flow from the Turks into Cyprus E-M84 was not a significant factor in that flow. It was probably there earlier, yes?

If you add up the E-V13, it seems about equal. E-V22 is roughly the same, and then you get into smaller percentages that could just be sampling.

I think that E-M84 along with E-L791 and E-Z830 were in Cyprus since the Neolithic, E-M123 peaks in the Levant and E was found to be the main Natufian male lineage. E-V13 in Cyprus is in my opinion with 99% certainty Greek, what is great is that 3 specific E-V13 lineages were found (predicted) that is Z5017 as it is dominant in both Greek and Turkish Cypriots, there is even trace of S7461 which looks more like an Alpine E-V13 but who knows? There is also the Z5018>Y3183 from E-V13 in smaller numbers. What is interesting is that Turkish Cypriots have additional E subclades which are North African and African E lines like E-M81, E-V65, E-V32(V68), E-M4225 and E-Y1623.
 
So similar


Yes, I think so too. Religion is the major division. It's the same for the Bosnians and for the Northern Irish, although perhaps they have a little bit more difference.

So sad, really. Brother against brother literally almost, or at least first and second cousins.

Well, if it's not different genetics, and if not genetics religion, and if not either politics will do, I guess.
 
Interesting:

J2b-M205 is much higher in Greek Cypriots than in Turkish Cypriots even taking into account the larger number of Greek Cypriot results, yes? (16 versus 5) In fact it's the yline with the highest frequency in Greek Cypriots.

From the pie chart, there's very little J2b in Turkey, so I think that's pretty significant.

J2a1-Z387 is also more frequent in Greek Cypriots. (14 to 7)

Z7700 is quite a bit higher in Turkish Cypriots than in Greek Cypriots even though there are fewer Turkish Cypriot samples (16 to 10). The same for PF 5191 (11 to 7).

Do we have an age range for these above? Do we know where they're most frequent.

M319 is about the same.

Z500 is about the same.

J2b-M205 was found in 4 ancient results, Bronze Age Jordan, Roman Gladiator, Sidon Bronze Age and Egypt, this line came with the Iran Chal expansion, its probably been in Cyprus since Early Bronze Age.

J2a1-Z387 is the grandfather clade of J2a-Z435>L70 and J2a-FGC35461, this will need even deeper analysis to see how many of the samples belong to which of the two.

J2a1-Z7700 (J-F3133) has many branches, its possible that Turkish Cypriots have an additional Z7700 lineage that the Greek Cypriots don't have making much more frequent, J2a1-PF5191 can just be due sampling, Z7700 is much more significant in Turkish Cypriots it makes 20% of J2. Also J2a1-Z6065 decreases in half.

The problem with J-Z500 yes it does stay the same but there is many subclades under it like M92, Z515 and PF7412, J2a1-Z500 needs a more detailed look.

J2a-M319, J2a-L210 and J2b-M241 stay at the same frequency.

In the Greek Cypriot samples J2a-Z7671 increase from 1 to 3, J2a-S25258 increase from 1 to 7, and J2a2-PF5008 increases from 3 to 7.

Also Turkish Cypriots have an additional J2a1 that is unique to them PF7431.
 
Why would Turkish Cypriots have 3X more T? I would have guessed T was Neolithic or at least Bronze Age, so why would Greek Cypriots have so much less?

Because T originates between Armenia and the Pamir mountains of Himalayas . Armenians, Azeri, Tajiks, Kurds and kazaks have the oldest SNP , while east-africa and Arabia the youngest SNP according to Yfull
 
For the Breakdown of Haplogroups T and L, based on Nevgen Predictors.

Turkish Cypriots had more T and L than Greek Cypriots, in fact almost 3x more T.

Greek Cypriot T, number is 5

1. T-L208: 4
2. T-Y11151: 1

Turkish Cypriot T, the number is 14

1. T-L208: 12
2. T-L131: 2

For Greek Cypriot L, the number is 4

1. L-L595: 2
2. L-M317: 2

For Turkish Cypriot L, the number is 6

1. L-M317: 3
2. L-M27: 2
3. L-M357: 1

As I stated on the other site


T-L208 = T1a1 group x 16
T-L131 = T1a2 group x 2
T-Y11151 = can be either group
 
The story of Cyprus is a big story
that starts from copper era,

Near Easterners,
Aigyptians
Mycenians
Makedonians
Romans,
Arabs
Crusaders
Ottomans
British

2known groups are
the Maronites
the Armenians

maybe I forget something
 
The story of Cyprus is a big story
that starts from copper era,

Near Easterners,
Aigyptians
Mycenians
Makedonians
Romans,
Arabs
Crusaders
Ottomans
British

2known groups are
the Maronites
the Armenians

maybe I forget something

Thats why they have many Haplogroups and Subclades, Yetos did you test further than G-M406? There was 3 deeper subclades of G-M406.
 
Thanks for your efforts, Azzurro. This study on Cyrpus is turning out to be one of the most interesting this year thanks to you! I'd say I am learning more from this deep clade analysis than from some ancient DNA studies published this year. Here are a few comments.

R1b-V88 is well represented in both GC (2.9%) and TC (1.8%). It would be interesting to see percentages in various parts of Greece and Turkey too. But at present I would think it came directly from the Levant to Cyprus, at any time between the Neolithic and Iron Age (it's not necessarily the result of a single migration).

It's good to know that Cypriots have no R1b-U152. This confirms my suspicion that it came with the Romans to Greece. The authors of the study mention that, although Cypriots are very close to Calabrians, the latter have considerably more R1b, as if there has been an influx of populations high in R1b, which affected South Italy much more than Cyprus. Indeed that is the case, and that population was certainly the Romans. Greek Cypriots may be a good proxy for the ancient Achaean Greek population prior to the Roman expansion. That also means that R1b-Z2103 was present among ancient Greeks, and it is not of Roman, Ottoman or other origin. My theory has always been that the Mycenaeans brought a mix of R1b-Z2103 and R1a straight from the Steppe around 1600 BCE, based on archaeological similarities between the two regions at the time. I recently added G2a-U1 and J2b2a-L283 to the mix. E-V13 might also have been present among Mycenaeans, although this is less clear.

If R1a was present among Mycenaeans, it might have been the R1a-CTS1211 found in GC and TC. Since the Mycenaeans descended from a population that emerged during the Catacomb (R1b-Z2103) and Srubna (R1a-Z280) transition, it might well have included CTS1211. But then why is it present among Turkish Cypriots too? Another possibility is that R1a-CTS1211 came with the Slavic migration, as has been claimed again and again in the case of Greece and the whole Balkans. But AFAIK the Slavs never reached Cyprus nor Turkey. A third possibility is that it was the Goths who brought R1a-CTS1211 to Greece and Turkey. Unfortunately there is no I1 nor R1b-U106, and the few I2a2a (M223) samples could easily have come from the Mycenaeans as I2a2a-L699 was present in Yamna. If the I2a-P37 turns out to be CTS10228, then we would have discovered through genetics that the Slavs did go much further than known from historical sources, but it's doubtful. If it's an older type of I2a, then it could be of Neolithic or Bronze Age origin, as there is after all 4% of I2a in Turkey, against 5.5% for TC and 3% for GC. Not a big difference. Nevertheless we still don't know exactly how all that I2a got to Turkey either.


Kura-Araxes lineages

Cyprus is a great place to study Kura-Araxian lineages as this culture supposedly expanded from Armenia and eastern Turkey to the Levant, then by sea to Cyprus, Crete and the Aegean to found the Minoan civilisation. Here are all the lineages that Azzurro and I believe to be linked to that culture.

HaplogroupGreek CypriotsGC percentageTurkish CypriotsTC percentage
G2a-L29342
G2a-M406814
J1-Z1828 (actually Z1842)29
J2a1-Z606536
J2a1-M672718
J2a1-M3191311
L1 (M317 and M27)25
T1a1a-L208 (actually P77)412
TOTAL6318.3%7720.3%


E-M34 (M84 + L791), J2a2 and J2b1 might also be linked to Kura-Araxes, although that might be specific clades only, as they did spread during the Iranian Chalcolithic phase too. In that case we could add 33 samples (8.7%) for Turkish Cypriots and 74 samples (21.5%) for Greek Cypriots. It is odd that the GC should have so much more J2a2, J2b1 and E-M84 that the TC, but the sample size is small, and there are also big differences for other haplogroups linked to Kura-Araxes. The deeper we dig into the phylogeny, the smaller the number of samples and the bigger the differences between two sampled populations.
 
Slavs did go much further into Greece and Asia Minor, from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sclaveni

These Slavic settlements (area, territory) were initially out of Byzantine control and independent.[citation needed] By 800, however, the term also referred specifically to Slavic mobile military colonists who settled as allies within the territories of the Byzantine Empire. Slavic military settlements appeared in the Peloponnese, Asia Minor, and Italy.

Constans II conquered Sklavinia in 657–658, "capturing many and subduing", and settled captured Slavs in Asia Minor; in 664–65, 5,000 of these joined Abdulreman ibn Khalid.

Justinian II (r. 685–695) settled as many as 30,000 Slavs from Thrace in Asia Minor, in an attempt to boost military strength. Most of them however, with their leader Neboulos, deserted to the Arabs at the Battle of Sebastopolis in 692.[29]
 


Exactly so. I had forgotten about this. Migrations in Western Eurasia didn't just go east to west; they sometimes went northwest to southeast.

Is R1a-CTS1211 even old enough to be Mycenaean?

If the I2a is I2a-Din, then it could have come along with it as part of these Slavic resettlements. If it's an older clade, I agree with Maciamo that it could be descended from a Neolithic clade in the area, couldn't it? That wouldn't be a surprise either, since I2a was there in the Neolithic.

This is why it will be great when we get the ancient dna. It will clear a lot of this up.

As for some of the "E" clades, I think we have to wait and see. With so much "E" in the Natufian and Levant Neolithic it could have been in Cyprus from a very early time. The E-V13 definitely comes from the mainland though.

I think we also have to keep in mind that as interesting as this all is, the NevGen calculator isn't necessarily as exact as actual snp analysis of these samples.
 
Exactly so. I had forgotten about this. Migrations in Western Eurasia didn't just go east to west; they sometimes went northwest to southeast.

Is R1a-CTS1211 even old enough to be Mycenaean?

If the I2a is I2a-Din, then it could have come along with it as part of these Slavic resettlements. If it's an older clade, I agree with Maciamo that it could be descended from a Neolithic clade in the area, couldn't it? That wouldn't be a surprise either, since I2a was there in the Neolithic.

This is why it will be great when we get the ancient dna. It will clear a lot of this up.

As for some of the "E" clades, I think we have to wait and see. With so much "E" in the Natufian and Levant Neolithic it could have been in Cyprus from a very early time. The E-V13 definitely comes from the mainland though.

I think we also have to keep in mind that as interesting as this all is, the NevGen calculator isn't necessarily as exact as actual snp analysis of these samples.
R1a-CTS1211 is between 4800 --- 3900 YBP https://www.yfull.com/tree/R-CTS1211/

It's age is suitable, but most subclades have more northern distribution, if there was a Mycenaean clade downstream of CTS1211 then it should be at least older than 3600 YBP (because Mycenaeans can't appear after the Mycenaean kingdom :) ) and it should have a clear Balkanic and Mediterranean distribution, because of Greek colonies.

And I agree, E-V13 comes from the mainland, because that's where we find the diversity of it's top subclades.
https://www.yfull.com/tree/E-V13/
 
Thats why they have many Haplogroups and Subclades, Yetos did you test further than G-M406? There was 3 deeper subclades of G-M406.


my test was ''gift'',
full DNA map, thousands genes before years, most of known that time,

the full results are in AUTh Medical school, D reasearch clinic of Ippokrateion Hospital
i do not think they did deeper search,
they mainly wanted mthfr HBO etc and many other for my blood circulation problem,
they cross it with another one, who had same problem
it is hard to comunicate with them,
and the chief proffesor now is retired, (fantastic man)
the last time they call and I 've seen my file (1 huge book) was 2014.
 
Last edited:
my test was ''gift'',
full DNA map, thousands genes before years, most of known that time,

the full results are in AUTh Medical school, D reasearch clinic of Ippokrateion Hospital
i do not think they did deeper search,
they mainly wanted mthfr HBO etc and many other for my blood circulation problem,
they cross it with another one, who had same problem
it is hard to comunicate with them,
and the chief proffesor now is retired, (fantastic man)
the last time they call and I 've seen my file (1 huge book) was 2014.

Well thanks for sharing that story, in deed a nice one :) Your subclade at least at the M406 which Yfull gives it a TMRCA of 8600 ybp or 6600 BC matches the spread of J2a along the Mediterranean and are always found together whether in Italy, Greece or Middle East.
 
Thanks for your efforts, Azzurro. This study on Cyrpus is turning out to be one of the most interesting this year thanks to you! I'd say I am learning more from this deep clade analysis than from some ancient DNA studies published this year. Here are a few comments.

R1b-V88 is well represented in both GC (2.9%) and TC (1.8%). It would be interesting to see percentages in various parts of Greece and Turkey too. But at present I would think it came directly from the Levant to Cyprus, at any time between the Neolithic and Iron Age (it's not necessarily the result of a single migration).

It's good to know that Cypriots have no R1b-U152. This confirms my suspicion that it came with the Romans to Greece. The authors of the study mention that, although Cypriots are very close to Calabrians, the latter have considerably more R1b, as if there has been an influx of populations high in R1b, which affected South Italy much more than Cyprus. Indeed that is the case, and that population was certainly the Romans. Greek Cypriots may be a good proxy for the ancient Achaean Greek population prior to the Roman expansion. That also means that R1b-Z2103 was present among ancient Greeks, and it is not of Roman, Ottoman or other origin. My theory has always been that the Mycenaeans brought a mix of R1b-Z2103 and R1a straight from the Steppe around 1600 BCE, based on archaeological similarities between the two regions at the time. I recently added G2a-U1 and J2b2a-L283 to the mix. E-V13 might also have been present among Mycenaeans, although this is less clear.

If R1a was present among Mycenaeans, it might have been the R1a-CTS1211 found in GC and TC. Since the Mycenaeans descended from a population that emerged during the Catacomb (R1b-Z2103) and Srubna (R1a-Z280) transition, it might well have included CTS1211. But then why is it present among Turkish Cypriots too? Another possibility is that R1a-CTS1211 came with the Slavic migration, as has been claimed again and again in the case of Greece and the whole Balkans. But AFAIK the Slavs never reached Cyprus nor Turkey. A third possibility is that it was the Goths who brought R1a-CTS1211 to Greece and Turkey. Unfortunately there is no I1 nor R1b-U106, and the few I2a2a (M223) samples could easily have come from the Mycenaeans as I2a2a-L699 was present in Yamna. If the I2a-P37 turns out to be CTS10228, then we would have discovered through genetics that the Slavs did go much further than known from historical sources, but it's doubtful. If it's an older type of I2a, then it could be of Neolithic or Bronze Age origin, as there is after all 4% of I2a in Turkey, against 5.5% for TC and 3% for GC. Not a big difference. Nevertheless we still don't know exactly how all that I2a got to Turkey either.


Kura-Araxes lineages

Cyprus is a great place to study Kura-Araxian lineages as this culture supposedly expanded from Armenia and eastern Turkey to the Levant, then by sea to Cyprus, Crete and the Aegean to found the Minoan civilisation. Here are all the lineages that Azzurro and I believe to be linked to that culture.

HaplogroupGreek CypriotsGC percentageTurkish CypriotsTC percentage
G2a-L29342
G2a-M406814
J1-Z1828 (actually Z1842)29
J2a1-Z606536
J2a1-M672718
J2a1-M3191311
L1 (M317 and M27)25
T1a1a-L208 (actually P77)412
TOTAL6318.3%7720.3%


E-M34 (M84 + L791), J2a2 and J2b1 might also be linked to Kura-Araxes, although that might be specific clades only, as they did spread during the Iranian Chalcolithic phase too. In that case we could add 33 samples (8.7%) for Turkish Cypriots and 74 samples (21.5%) for Greek Cypriots. It is odd that the GC should have so much more J2a2, J2b1 and E-M84 that the TC, but the sample size is small, and there are also big differences for other haplogroups linked to Kura-Araxes. The deeper we dig into the phylogeny, the smaller the number of samples and the bigger the differences between two sampled populations.

It is my pleasure, I put a lot of work into it. Your analysis as usual is great.

I have done some reading on the history of Cyprus that might explain R1a-CTS1211 and possibly G-L497 as they mostly belong to the CTS4803 branch which is most common in Western Europe and Sweden. There was also minor I1 but I did not post it. Going back to the possible explanation, in Cyprus there was Lusignan warriors that were settled they formed a couple of towns, if we look at the history of the house of Lusignan they came from an area in France next to Poitiers, this area was conquered by the Visigoths, is it possible that these lineages are in fact representive of the Visigoths? For I-P37 I think there was a Greek branch.
 
Well thanks for sharing that story, in deed a nice one :) Your subclade at least at the M406 which Yfull gives it a TMRCA of 8600 ybp or 6600 BC matches the spread of J2a along the Mediterranean and are always found together whether in Italy, Greece or Middle East.


most of Greeks are G M201, especially in the anatolian ones, and Turks also
seems like around Kappadokia and Pontus and wider North Turkey a corridor has more M 201
and west and south a south corridor has M406
Italy has more M 406 I know than some parts of Greece or Turkey
and I am surprised with Cyprus
 

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