Armenian women have not changed genetically in 8,000 years

The Armenian women have not been changed in the last eight thousand years from genetic perspective. The researchers at the Center for Earth History of the Danish Museum of Natural History came to this conclusion. The corresponding study was published in the journal Current Biology.

“In the long run, we have not found any changes in the gene pool of women. This is extremely interesting, as the region has experienced many cultural shifts during the same period, but these changes probably have nothing to do with genetic effects, especially with women”, – said co-authors Ashot Margaryan and Morten Alentooft.

Experts came to this conclusion from studying 52 monochondrial genomes of ancient skeletons from Armenia and Artsakh and the oldest specimens are 7,8 thousand years old. These data have been compared with the information about 206 modern migraine genomes of modern Armenians.

According to the study, the population of contemporary Armenia and Artsakh has rapidly increased after the last ice age (almost 18,000 years ago), but migration in the region that took about 2-3,000 years ago has almost not affected the female segment of the population.

Researchers have been interested in this part of the world due to the location on the cultural crossroads in ancient times, also known as an important region for the Potential Origin and Spread of Indo-European languages.

Full text in Armenian