Genetic Distances to Iron Age Canaanite Samples
I've taken genetic data of the only two Iron Age Canaanite samples from a 2020 DNA study on Canaanite DNA from Israel (The Genomic History of the Bronze Age Southern Levant; Agranat-Tamir et al. 2020) and I made a K13 distance run using modern Levantine populations consisting of Levantine populations: Lebanese Christians, Lebanese Muslim, Lebanese Druze, Samaritans, Palestinian Christians, Palestinian Muslims, Jordanian Muslims and Syrian Muslims. I also used modern Jews including Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardic Jews, Iraqi Jews, Kurdish Jews, Moroccan Jews, Tunisian Jews, Libyan Jews, Yemenite Jews, Chechnya Mountain Jews, Georgian Jews and Moldovan Jews. The two Iron Age Canaanites in the study were Megiddo_IA:1417 and Abel:I2201. Here are the distance runs (for those that are not familiar with genetic distance runs, the smaller the number the closer in genetics the outgroup is to the target population).
Iron Age sample from Tel Megiddo
https://s12.freeconvert.com/task/611...ddo_IA.PNG.jpg
Iron Age sample from Abel Beth Maacah
https://s96.freeconvert.com/task/611...l%20IA.PNG.jpg
As you can see, the top four closest groups genetically to the Tel Megiddo sample, in order are: #1 Palestinian Muslims, #2 Palestinian Christians, #3 Samaritans and #4 Jordanians and the closest groups genetically to the Abel Beth Maacah sample are the #1 Samaritans, #2 Lebanese Christians, #3 Palestinian Christians and #4 Palestinian Muslims. All Levantine groups used were genetically closer to the ancient samples than all Jewish groups used. Iraqi Jews were the closest Jews in relation to both samples and Ashkenazi Jews were the furthest genetically from both samples. Let's discuss it.
