The Armenians are an ancient people of the Near East who demonstrate a genetic affinity with the peoples of Europe, as well as the Middle East and the Caucasus. This is stated in an article published in the European Journal of Genetics. Studying genetically isolated groups allows you to take a fresh look at history. …
According to History Professor Salim Cöhce from the İnönü University in Turkey, about 600 thousand Armenians, mostly children, were converted to Islam only in 1915 – 1923. Those Armenians should now have about 4 million descendants in Turkey. According to Italian Professor Giovanni Guaita, at least 150 thousand Armenians, also mostly children, were converted to …
Recent studies conducted by the University of Oxford demonstrate that DNA analysis can uncover much more secrets of the origin of the human race than historical and archaeological discoveries. Thanks to a method called “Globetrotter” based on the analysis of phenotype fragments, scientists carried out the project “A genetic atlas of human admixture history”, which …
Edward Ghazaryan, a world-renowned Armenian micro miniaturist, is regarded as the creator of the art of micro miniature. Back in the 1950s, the European press was humming about an Armenian claiming to have created tiny artworks smaller than a needle eye. One German reader even sent a letter of disbelief to the artist. The reply …
A recent British study refutes a theory that most of the European men are the descendants of farmers who had migrated to Europe from the Near East 5 – 10 thousand years ago. The results of the research conducted by scientists from different parts of the world are published in the magazine “Proceedings of the …
A team of scientists from the University of Tuebingen and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany have examined the genetic data of 93 Egyptian mummies, which date back to between 1400 BC and 400 BC. The study discovered surprising levels of affinity to ancient Near Eastern populations, including Armenians. …
A recent study of Armenian DNA revealed that modern Armenians show signs of mixture of local Bronze Age people. Those ancient populations, which demonstrate a high level of affinity to Neolithic Europeans, have maintained homogeneity for over three millennia. Armenians themselves are distinct from their neighbors. They have their own unique church, the Armenian Apostolic …
The emergence of agriculture is a key event in the human history. The very first animal to be tamed was the dog, which’s domestication probably took place in the Early Stone Age in connection with the development of hunting. Several centuries later, people tamed sheep, goat, cows, and pigs. The Armenian Highlands play a pivotal …
Recent genetic studies demonstrated that Neolithic farming spread from Armenian population into Europe. For example, haplogroup G features its highest diversity among Armenians, indicating that it originated with Armenians before spreading to Caucasus and Europe. Along with J2 clades, haplogroup G has been associated with the spread of agriculture in Europe in particular. The haplogroup …
Thanks to latest technologies, the researchers from Harvard Medical School (HMS) were able to investigate theories of ancient population migrations. Complex DNA analyses now allow scientists to decipher the past of humanity hidden in the DNA of bones found in ancient tombs and graves. Although genetic data becomes increasingly damaged as the time goes on, …
A recent paper in the “Science” journal published by Hellenthal et al. (2014) revealed extensive admixture in human populations during the last few thousand years. Being a result of meeting and breeding of past populations, admixture leaves genetic traces within the descendants’ genomes. Unfortunately, over time, the genetic evidence decays and becomes hard to track. …
Recently, several genetic studies examined Armenian DNA, revealing some fascinating and, most importantly, consistent results. For instance, the 2014 Hellenthal et. al. study investigated worldwide human admixture history in the period of the past 4,000 years, allowing them to create a Genetic Atlas of human admixture. Oddly, experts could not identify any Armenian admixture for …
The onetime Etruria region located in present-day Central Italy gave birth to one of the first European civilizations. The origins of the Etruscan civilization have long been a subject of debates among scholars. Most of the known information has been gathered from ancient texts, archaeological findings, and, in the last few years, through genetic analyses. …
Armenian Highlands are considered an important center of early technological and agricultural inventions. Thanks to its positioning at the crossroads between Europe, Middle East, and Asia, earliest human technologies and genetics spread to Europe during the Neolithic revolution, when humans abandoned hunting and gathering to start settling down. The oldest center of stock farming can …
Under the lead of anthropologist and geneticist Levon Yepiskoposyan, archaeologists from the UK, US, Denmark, and Armenia examined the caves near the Azokh village in the Republic of Artsakh. Their fruitful research resulted in the discovery of unique ancient artifacts, including a 7,000 years old human tooth. Thanks to the interior condition features of the …
The process of reconstruction of history through genetics is gaining momentum. Recently, the Armenian Highlands has brought many surprises, which makes scientists and leading experts believe that the history of mankind needs to be corrected up to the rewriting. Newest archaeological discoveries throughout the Armenian Highlands made by scientists from different countries greatly contribute to …
The Armenians’ indigenousness to the Armenian Highlands has already been established by prominent genetic studies. For instance, Haber et. al. (2015) could not identify any traces of admixture among Armenians for over 4,000 years: “Our tests suggest that Armenians had no significant mixture with other populations in their recent history and have thus been genetically …
Back when the Silk Road was a significant trade route, the Armenians invested their genetic capital in the current Han Chinese population. The genome of modern Han people shows that they at some point interbred with the ancestors of modern Armenians much more than with the Japanese. About 4% of their genes identify them with …