
Genetic studies show that Neolithic farming defused from Armenian population into Europe. Haplogroup G for example has it’s highest diversity within Armenians, which indicates that it originated with Armenians and spread to Caucasus and Europe.
“Haplogroup G, together with J2 clades, has been associated with the spread of agriculture, especially in the European context. The homeland of this haplogroup has been estimated to be somewhere nearby eastern Anatolia, Armenia or western Iran, the only areas characterized by the co-presence of deep basal branches as well as the occurrence of high sub-haplogroup diversity.
Haplogroup diversity spanned from a low of 0.21 in Adyghes, to highs of 0.88 in Azeris (Iran) and 0.89 in eastern Anatolia and 0.90 in Armenia. We estimate that the geographic origin of hg G plausibly locates somewhere nearby eastern Anatolia, Armenia or western Iran.
Concerning the presence of hg G in the Caucasus, one of its distinguishing features is lower haplogroup diversity in numerous populations (Supplementary Table S1) compared with Anatolia and Armenia, implying that hg G is intrusive in the Caucasus rather than autochthonous.”
S. Rootsi et al. (2012)
[…] study only goes as far as 4000 years, while Armenian ethnogenesis is much older. We also know from previous studies that the dominant Armenian markers R1b, G2 and J2 originated in (and around) the Armenian Highlands, […]
[…] Genetics and the spread of agriculture […]
[…] Armenian Highlands played an important role in the history of the domestication of animals and the invention of agriculture. These developments led to the cultivation of vines and the creation of wine as an alcoholic […]
[…] crossroads between Europe, Middle East and Asia it served as a geographic conduit for the spread of technology and genetics into Europe during the Neolithic revolution when humans first abandoned hunting and gathering and […]