Scientists have denied the hypothesis of the ancient Greek historian Herodotus that the ancestors of Armenians are of Balkan origin. According to Armenpress, the article published in the American Journal of Human Genetics states that geneticists read the DNA of 57 Armenians in order to study the demographic history of their population and confirmed the observations that people genetically close to modern Armenians lived in the Caucasian region. are still in the Bronze Age.
The article mentions that the history of Armenians has long attracted the attention of researchers. This is due to the fact that they have their own apostolic church, alphabet and language, which belongs to a separate branch of the Indo-European language family. "Thanks to the reports of the Greek historian Herodotus of the ancient period, a hypothesis arose that the ancestors of the Armenians moved to the Caucasus from the Balkans and in particular from Thrace. That hypothesis was later pointed out by some linguists. However, modern evidence shows that a genetically similar population lived in this region at least in the Bronze Age. Moreover, a significant part of the ancestors of modern Armenians apparently lived in the Armenian Highlands during the Neolithic period. it is said in the article.
Anahit Hovhannisyan from Trinity College Dublin presented the results of the research on the demographic history of Armenians with colleagues from scientific organizations of 9 countries. Accordingly, the scientists read 34 complete genomes of people whose four generations of ancestors considered themselves representatives of the Armenian people. In addition, the researchers expanded the scope of the study to include 23 more individuals with whole-genome data, as well as presented data related to previously published ancient and modern genomes. From the Balkan Peninsula. Modern Armenians represent a fairly homogeneous population. "Genetics has also confirmed that some ancestors of modern Armenians lived in the Caucasus as far back as the Neolithic era, as previously reported in a large-scale study of ancient genomes," the article says.
The article mentions that the history of Armenians has long attracted the attention of researchers. This is due to the fact that they have their own apostolic church, alphabet and language, which belongs to a separate branch of the Indo-European language family. "Thanks to the reports of the Greek historian Herodotus of the ancient period, a hypothesis arose that the ancestors of the Armenians moved to the Caucasus from the Balkans and in particular from Thrace. That hypothesis was later pointed out by some linguists. However, modern evidence shows that a genetically similar population lived in this region at least in the Bronze Age. Moreover, a significant part of the ancestors of modern Armenians apparently lived in the Armenian Highlands during the Neolithic period. it is said in the article.
Anahit Hovhannisyan from Trinity College Dublin presented the results of the research on the demographic history of Armenians with colleagues from scientific organizations of 9 countries. Accordingly, the scientists read 34 complete genomes of people whose four generations of ancestors considered themselves representatives of the Armenian people. In addition, the researchers expanded the scope of the study to include 23 more individuals with whole-genome data, as well as presented data related to previously published ancient and modern genomes. From the Balkan Peninsula. Modern Armenians represent a fairly homogeneous population. "Genetics has also confirmed that some ancestors of modern Armenians lived in the Caucasus as far back as the Neolithic era, as previously reported in a large-scale study of ancient genomes," the article says.
