''Ancient DNA reveals the origins of the Albanians'' study

[Konstantinos Kara]

Abstract
The origins of the Albanian people have vexed linguists and historians for centuries, as Albanians
first appear in the historical record in the 11th century CE, while their language is one of the most
enigmatic branches of the Indo-European family. To identify the populations that contributed to
the ancestry of Albanians, we undertake a genomic transect of the Balkans over the last 8000 years,
where we analyse more than 6000 previously published ancient genomes using state-of-the-art
bioinformatics tools and algorithms that quantify spatiotemporal human mobility. We find that
modern Albanians descend from Roman era western Balkan populations, with additional
admixture from Slavic-related groups. Remarkably, Albanian paternal ancestry shows continuity
from Bronze Age Balkan populations, including those known as Illyrians. Our results provide an
unprecedented understanding of the historical and demographic processes that led to the formation
of modern Albanians and help locate the area where the Albanian language developed.
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.05.543790v1#:~:text=We%20find%20that%20mod ern%20Albanians,including%20those%20known%20as%20I llyrians.

Things i found interesting
"The close clustering of BA-IA populations from Albania, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia,
and northern Greece is also confirmed in proximate qpAdm models, as the Çinamak MLBA-IA
samples derive most of their ancestry from the West Balkans (Tables S8-S9), with a possible 15
25% contribution from a southeast Balkan source (Bulgaria EIA, Greece BA Mycenaean) after the
Middle Bronze Age (MBA) (Table S9). "

According to the Abstract:"We find that
modern Albanians descend from Roman era western Balkan populations, with additional
admixture from Slavic-related groups." That means that albanians derive some southeast balkan(Greek,Thracian ancestry).
121611
Albanians and roman era westbalkan people have the same distance to bronze age mycenaeans,so my theory is that modern albanians also derive 15-25%
of their ancestry from Greeks-Thracians.

Slavic Ancestry of albanians(my theory and proof)
I run a simple model to find the slavic ancestry of albanians
121612
There is even a study which says that albanians derive around 25% of their ancestry to slavs
121613

Things i dont think will pass the peer review
"We have shown that modern Albanians from Tirana derive 25-48% of their ancestry from a South
Slavic-related source (Fig. 7; Tables S16-S17)"

[Tenn]

There is already a thread about this. And you can see Albanian Y-DNA statistics here: https://rrenjet.com/statistikat/

Claiming that Slavic ancestry in Albanians was only female is wrong considering some regions which were settled by Slavs have R1a and I2a and you still find Slavic minorites in Albania like Bulgarians in Golloborda and other areas and in South-West Kosovo you find Gorani. And you still find Vlachs and Greeks in Albania. Some of these studies also include people who are aware of foreign origin or minorities that still exist. The Greek, Vlach and Slavic ancestry you're talking about depends on the region and weather it was male or female also depends on the region. While Albanians derive a large chunk of their ancestry from Bronze Age / Iron Age populations of the Western / Central Balkans, other groups which historically settled these territories have also been assimilated into Albanians is what this means and it all fits perfectly with the historical context.

[Konstantinos Kara]

sorry i did not know that

[Tenn]

Basically 35%-45% of the Albanian male linages today are from Illyrians. This might go up to 50% in some territories and down in some territories. It also depends if you include minority Y-DNA among Illyrians or which were historically absorbed early. E-V13 doesn't seem Illyrian. But most possibly has a Central-East Balkan origin from a Thrako-Illyrian population. E-V13 might of also been significantly present in the areas close to Croatia around the Pannonian basin , Hungary etc. Croatia itself was dominated by J2b2 Illyrian groups and more north of Croatia during the Late Bronze Age appear Italic or post-BB groups such as R-L2. There is also Bronze Age Vucedol in Croatia, a proto-Illyrian culture + Balkan Neolithic, which had R1b-Z2103

Most Ancient Greek samples were J2a so modern Greeks have about 20% Y-DNA from Ancient Greeks on average . No population is pure unless you come from some incredibly isolated population. This all makes perfectly sense and fits with the history and different populations that have settled these territories. If Ancient Greeks also had R1b, this might increase Ancient Greek Y-DNA in modern Greeks.

[Voskos]

...

Not much R1b in Southern Greece at least until 1200 BC. There might've been a lot in the North however (Epirus, Macedonia).


Most R1b in Greece is balkan and some Eastern (Armenian), in Crete R1b is possibly a mix of medieval balkan, northern Greek and medieval Italian.



For the Aegean, we also estimated a significantly lower WES-ancestry proportion on the X chromosomes of the male individuals compared to most of the autosomes, which is consistent with male-biased admixture (Extended Data Fig. 3). However, only four out of the 30 male individuals dating post-sixteenth century bc (LBA and IA) carry the R1b1a1b Y haplogroup. The remaining—as well as the EBA/MBA ones—attest to the high prevalence of Y haplogroups J and G/G2 (39 and 10 out of 59, respectively; Supplementary Table 2). These were already present in Early Holocene Iran/Caucasus and among Anatolian and European farmers41,42,43,44,45 and very common in the Chalcolithic Anatolia and the Levant as well42,46,47, further highlighting the importance of the contacts between the Aegean and southwest Asian populations since the Early Neolithic.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-022-01952-3

[Konstantinos Kara]

Basically 35%-45% of the Albanian male linages today are from Illyrians. This might go up to 50% in some territories and down in some territories. It also depends if you include minority Y-DNA among Illyrians or which were historically absorbed early. E-V13 doesn't seem Illyrian. But most possibly has a Central-East Balkan origin from a Thrako-Illyrian population. E-V13 might of also been significantly present in the areas close to Croatia around the Pannonian basin , Hungary etc. Croatia itself was dominated by J2b2 Illyrian groups and more north of Croatia during the Late Bronze Age appear Italic or post-BB groups such as R-L2. There is also Bronze Age Vucedol in Croatia, a proto-Illyrian culture + Balkan Neolithic, which had R1b-Z2103

Most Ancient Greek samples were J2a so modern Greeks have about 20% Y-DNA from Ancient Greeks on average . No population is pure unless you come from some incredibly isolated population. This all makes perfectly sense and fits with the history and different populations that have settled these territories. If Ancient Greeks also had R1b, this might increase Ancient Greek Y-DNA in modern Greeks.

Well this thread is about the autosomal dna,not y-dna

[Tenn]

Well this thread is about the autosomal dna,not y-dna

Autosomal DNA shows us as mostly Illyrian/Paeonian actually with some Roman Imperial + Slavic and not those models you provided. You are working with very limited samples. There might be Thracian and Greek input too.

[Konstantinos Kara]

Are you talking about the Cinamak samples as Illyrian ones?