Results up to DOD764 are posted (+portraits, Indo-Iranians etc.)

The results can be found in the spreadsheet

Submission to the Project is currently closed, and of course I encourage participants who have not already done so to leave a message in the ancestry thread.

This completes the results for all Project participants who joined during the latest submission opportunity.

The population averages are finalized -for the time being- but I will occasionally update the _D populations as more participants join the Project and/or I discover cases of fraud in terms of ancestry self-reporting.

Population Portraits

Finally, the population portraits have been uploaded (here and here). For example, here is the Nganassan one, showing three distinctive outliers:

A colorful view of the Nepalese, showing the co-existence of South-Asian-like and East-Asian-like individuals:

Note, that there are also some portraits of populations not included in the averages. For example here are the Onge:

The Onge from the Indian Ocean are outside the area covered by the populations used to create the Dodecad v3, and show mixed "South Asian", "South-East Asian" affiliations. They are probably a good example of case #4.

Indo-Iranian Origins

Here is the population portrait of the Kurds:

I have long noticed that all Indo-Iranian populations possess some of the "South Asian" component. The origin of that component is difficult to ascertain, as it is a composite of "North Indian" and "South Indian" ancestral components, related to West Asians and Onge respectively.

What also seems interesting is that the "South Asian" component is closer to the "West Asian" one with respect to all other West Eurasian components, while many South Asian individuals have substantial levels of the "West Asian" component itself.

The occurrence of "South Asian" in non-negligible levels seems to track the Indo-Iranian world quite well: it is found at about 1/10 in Iranians and Kurds, and also occurs widely in Central Asia, where its true ancient levels were probably much higher due to the substantial presence of east Eurasian elements in the area today. It even occurs at non-trace levels in people who have been part of historical Persian empires such as those from the eastern Caucasus (compare Lezgins and Azerbaijan Jews with Georgians and Adygei, and Iranians/Kurds with Turks, Cypriots, Syrians, and Armenians).

These patterns can be well-explained, I believe, if we accept that Indo-Iranians are partially descended not only from the early Proto-Indo-Europeans of the Near East, but also from a second element that had conceivable "South Asian" affiliations. The most likely candidate for the "second element" is the population of the Bactria Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC). The rise and demise of the BMAC fits well with the relative shallowness of the Indo-Iranian language family and its 2nd millennium BC breakup, and has been assigned an Indo-Iranian identity on other grounds by its excavator. As climate change led to the decline and abandonment of BMAC sites, its population must have spread outward: to the Iranian plateau, the steppe, and into South Asia, reinforcing the linguistic differentiation that must have already began over the extensive territory of the complex.

The proposed Indo-Iranian homeland, transitional between the West and the South would explain both:

• the presence of the "West Asian" component in South Asians (contrast e.g., Kashmiri Pandits with other Indians and south Indian Brahmins with non-Brahmin south Indians), and also
• the "South Asian" component in Iranians and Iranian-admixed Central Asian Turkic speakers

In their westward march, the Iranians would acquire an excess of West and Southwest Asian components (which would reduce their "South Asian" one), while in their southward march, the Indo-Aryans would acquire an excess of the South Asian component (which would reduce their "West Asian" one).