Angela
Elite member
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See: From Uppsala University
Megha Srigyan et al
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.03.281261v1
"The Middle East plays a central role in human history harbouring a vast diversity of ethnic, cultural and religious groups. However, much remains to be understood about past and present genomic diversity in this region. Here, we present for the first time, a multidisciplinary bioarchaeological analysis of two individuals dated to late 7th and early 8th centuries from Tell Qarassa, an open-air site in modern-day Syria. Radiocarbon dates, religious and cultural burial evidence indicate that this site represents one of the earliest Islamic Arab burials in the Levant during the Late Antiquity period. Interestingly, we found genomic similarity to a genotyped group of modern-day Bedouins and Saudi rather than to most neighbouring Levantine groups. This is highlighted through substantial Neolithic Levant ancestry in our samples, inviting an alternative scenario of long-term continuity in this region. This raises questions about the influence of ancient populations and historical migrations to genetic structure in the Middle East. As our study represents the first genomic analysis of an early Islamic burial in the Levant, we discuss our findings and possible historic scenarios in light of forces such as genetic drift and their possible interaction with religious and cultural processes."
Well, I still have to get through the Supplementary Info, but I've always believed that the genetics of the Levant must have changed to some degree with the movement of "Arabic" tribes into the area. I realize this wasn't/isn't politically correct in certain circles but I still think it makes the most sense, especially given the make up of earlier samples from the Levant.
From Shai Carmi:
"looking back, these genomes have almost entirely Levant Neolithic ancestry, with barely any ancient Iran(-related) ancestry. This is in contrast to all post-Neolithic ancient samples from the Levant that were genotyped in recent work by us ..."
"It would be nice to see replication with methods other than supervised ADMIXTURE."
Megha Srigyan et al
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.03.281261v1
"The Middle East plays a central role in human history harbouring a vast diversity of ethnic, cultural and religious groups. However, much remains to be understood about past and present genomic diversity in this region. Here, we present for the first time, a multidisciplinary bioarchaeological analysis of two individuals dated to late 7th and early 8th centuries from Tell Qarassa, an open-air site in modern-day Syria. Radiocarbon dates, religious and cultural burial evidence indicate that this site represents one of the earliest Islamic Arab burials in the Levant during the Late Antiquity period. Interestingly, we found genomic similarity to a genotyped group of modern-day Bedouins and Saudi rather than to most neighbouring Levantine groups. This is highlighted through substantial Neolithic Levant ancestry in our samples, inviting an alternative scenario of long-term continuity in this region. This raises questions about the influence of ancient populations and historical migrations to genetic structure in the Middle East. As our study represents the first genomic analysis of an early Islamic burial in the Levant, we discuss our findings and possible historic scenarios in light of forces such as genetic drift and their possible interaction with religious and cultural processes."
Well, I still have to get through the Supplementary Info, but I've always believed that the genetics of the Levant must have changed to some degree with the movement of "Arabic" tribes into the area. I realize this wasn't/isn't politically correct in certain circles but I still think it makes the most sense, especially given the make up of earlier samples from the Levant.
From Shai Carmi:
"looking back, these genomes have almost entirely Levant Neolithic ancestry, with barely any ancient Iran(-related) ancestry. This is in contrast to all post-Neolithic ancient samples from the Levant that were genotyped in recent work by us ..."
"It would be nice to see replication with methods other than supervised ADMIXTURE."