The genomic origin of Zana of Abkhazia ( mtdna L2b1b)

kingjohn

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Y-DNA haplogroup
e-fgc7391 500CE
mtDNA haplogroup
h3ap
Ashot Margaryan,Mikkel-Holger S. Sinding,Christian Carøe,Vladimir Yamshchikov,Igor Burtsev,M. Thomas P. Gilbert
First published: 14 June 2021

Abstract
Enigmatic phenomena have sparked the imagination of people around the globe into creating folkloric creatures. One prime example is Zana of Abkhazia (South Caucasus), a well-documented 19th century female who was captured living wild in the forest. Zana's appearance was sufficiently unusual, that she was referred to by locals as an Almasty—the analog of Bigfoot in the Caucasus. Although the exact location of Zana's burial site was unknown, the grave of her son, Khwit, was identified in 1971. The genomes of Khwit and the alleged Zana skeleton were sequenced to an average depth of ca. 3× using ancient DNA techniques. The identical mtDNA and parent-offspring relationship between the two indicated that the unknown woman was indeed Zana. Population genomic analyses demonstrated that Zana's immediate genetic ancestry can likely be traced to present-day East-African populations. We speculate that Zana might have had a genetic disorder such as congenital generalized hypertrichosis which could partially explain her strange behavior, lack of speech, and long body hair. Our findings elucidate Zana's unfortunate story and provide a clear example of how prejudices of the time led to notions of cryptic hominids that are still held and transmitted by some today.

source:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ggn2.10051


P.S
her mtdna is L2b1b
someone even uploaded her to yfull(y)
https://www.yfull.com/mtree/L2b1b/
her son khwit have the same mtdna as her
his y haplogroup was r1b though:unsure:
she was autosomally 66% east african + 33% west african
maybe the ottoman slave trade till this day
there are afro- abkhazians
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abkhazians_of_African_descent
 
Ashot Margaryan,Mikkel-Holger S. Sinding,Christian Carøe,Vladimir Yamshchikov,Igor Burtsev,M. Thomas P. Gilbert
First published: 14 June 2021

Abstract
Enigmatic phenomena have sparked the imagination of people around the globe into creating folkloric creatures. One prime example is Zana of Abkhazia (South Caucasus), a well-documented 19th century female who was captured living wild in the forest. Zana's appearance was sufficiently unusual, that she was referred to by locals as an Almasty—the analog of Bigfoot in the Caucasus. Although the exact location of Zana's burial site was unknown, the grave of her son, Khwit, was identified in 1971. The genomes of Khwit and the alleged Zana skeleton were sequenced to an average depth of ca. 3× using ancient DNA techniques. The identical mtDNA and parent-offspring relationship between the two indicated that the unknown woman was indeed Zana. Population genomic analyses demonstrated that Zana's immediate genetic ancestry can likely be traced to present-day East-African populations. We speculate that Zana might have had a genetic disorder such as congenital generalized hypertrichosis which could partially explain her strange behavior, lack of speech, and long body hair. Our findings elucidate Zana's unfortunate story and provide a clear example of how prejudices of the time led to notions of cryptic hominids that are still held and transmitted by some today.

source:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ggn2.10051


P.S
her mtdna is L2b1b
someone even uploaded her to yfull(y)
https://www.yfull.com/mtree/L2b1b/
her son khwit have the same mtdna as her
his y haplogroup was r1b though:unsure:
she was autosomally 66% east african + 33% west african
maybe the ottoman slave trade till this day
there are afro- abkhazians
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abkhazians_of_African_descent


Thanks for this paper. I have read the story of this poor woman, and her life was extremely tragic and heart-wrenching. Zana was often bullied, and children threw stones at her, or pocked at her with sticks in order to antagonize her like they do that with animals/dogs. Therefore, she cried and was often aggressive. Furthermore, Zana had a son, which means she was most likely raped. Here is a picture of her son Khwit.

a45e05eb306accf997744c7fdd9e85d5.jpg


The people treated Zana incredibly inhumane. However, in my opinion, she was mistreated not necessarily because of her African origin. It appears that the people in the Caucasus thought that she was a wild woman who was the descendant of Big foot. Besides, Zana was huge, 2 meters tall.



http://www.bigfootencounters.com/articles/zana.htm
 
MTA: Zana Ancient, Modern, Deep Dive, … :

GedM… : Zana of Abkhazia # WY9356123


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