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AN ADMIXTURE SIGNAL IN ARMENIANS AROUND THE END OF THE BRONZE AGE REVEALS WIDESPREAD POPULATION MOVEMENT ACROSS THE MIDDLE EAST

View ORCID ProfileAnahit Hovhannisyan, Eppie Jones, Pierpaolo Maisano Delser, Joshua Schraiber, Anna Hakobyan, Ashot Margaryan, Peter Hrechdakian, Hovhannes Sahakyan, Lehti Saag, Zaruhi Khachatryan, Levon Yepiskoposyan, Andrea Manica
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.24.168781
Anahit Hovhannisyan
1Institute of Molecular Biology, National Academy of Sciences, 7 Hasratyan Street, 0014 Yerevan, Armenia
2Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB23EJ, UK
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  • ORCID record for Anahit Hovhannisyan
Eppie Jones
2Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB23EJ, UK
3Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland
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Pierpaolo Maisano Delser
2Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB23EJ, UK
3Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland
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Joshua Schraiber
4Department of Biology, and Institute for Genomics and Evolutionary Medicine, Temple University, 19122 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
5Ancestry DNA, 84043, Lehi, UT, USA
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Anna Hakobyan
1Institute of Molecular Biology, National Academy of Sciences, 7 Hasratyan Street, 0014 Yerevan, Armenia
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Ashot Margaryan
1Institute of Molecular Biology, National Academy of Sciences, 7 Hasratyan Street, 0014 Yerevan, Armenia
6Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, 1350 Copenhagen, Denmark
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Peter Hrechdakian
7Armenian DNA Project at Family Tree DNA, 77008 Houston, Texas, USA
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Hovhannes Sahakyan
1Institute of Molecular Biology, National Academy of Sciences, 7 Hasratyan Street, 0014 Yerevan, Armenia
8Estonian Biocentre, Institute of Genomics, University of Tartu, Riia 23b, 51010 Tartu, Estonia
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  • For correspondence: a_hovhannisyan@mb.sci.am
Lehti Saag
8Estonian Biocentre, Institute of Genomics, University of Tartu, Riia 23b, 51010 Tartu, Estonia
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Zaruhi Khachatryan
1Institute of Molecular Biology, National Academy of Sciences, 7 Hasratyan Street, 0014 Yerevan, Armenia
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Levon Yepiskoposyan
9Russian-Armenian University, 123 Hovsep Emin Street, 0051, Yerevan, Armenia
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Andrea Manica
2Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB23EJ, UK
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Abstract

The Armenians, a population inhabiting the region in West Asia known as the Armenian Highland, has been argued to show a remarkable degree of population continuity since the Early Neolithic. Here we test the degree of continuity of this population as well as its plausible origin, by collating modern and ancient genomic data, and adding a number of novel contemporary genomes. We show that Armenians have indeed remained unadmixed through the Neolithic and at least until the first part of the Bronze Age, and fail to find any support for historical suggestions by Herodotus of an input from the Balkans. However, we do detect a genetic input of Sardinian-like ancestry during or just after the Middle-Late Bronze Age. A similar input at approximately the same time was detected in East Africa, suggesting large-scale movement both North and South of the Middle East. Whether such large-scale population movement was a result of climatic or cultural changes is unclear, as well as the true source of gene flow remains an open question that needs to be addressed in future ancient DNA studies.

Competing Interest Statement

We declare that we have competing interests

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AN ADMIXTURE SIGNAL IN ARMENIANS AROUND THE END OF THE BRONZE AGE REVEALS WIDESPREAD POPULATION MOVEMENT ACROSS THE MIDDLE EAST
Anahit Hovhannisyan, Eppie Jones, Pierpaolo Maisano Delser, Joshua Schraiber, Anna Hakobyan, Ashot Margaryan, Peter Hrechdakian, Hovhannes Sahakyan, Lehti Saag, Zaruhi Khachatryan, Levon Yepiskoposyan, Andrea Manica
bioRxiv 2020.06.24.168781; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.24.168781
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AN ADMIXTURE SIGNAL IN ARMENIANS AROUND THE END OF THE BRONZE AGE REVEALS WIDESPREAD POPULATION MOVEMENT ACROSS THE MIDDLE EAST
Anahit Hovhannisyan, Eppie Jones, Pierpaolo Maisano Delser, Joshua Schraiber, Anna Hakobyan, Ashot Margaryan, Peter Hrechdakian, Hovhannes Sahakyan, Lehti Saag, Zaruhi Khachatryan, Levon Yepiskoposyan, Andrea Manica
bioRxiv 2020.06.24.168781; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.24.168781

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