Guess the location of David Reich’s proposed 'Southern Arc'

[Guti]

Just a few weeks left before the first of the 3 ground-breaking papers will come out.
According to David Reich the 'Southern Arc' was a place where the first stage PIEans came from. It was the initial homeland of the earliest proto-Indo-European peoples that later on Indo-Europeanized many people in Europe and Asia.


First of all, I don't know anything about the papers. So at this moment nobody can be right or wrong. It is just a guess. But with my current knowledge about population genetics I can make somehow an educated guess.


After studying the Yamnaya DNA my first guess would be that the 'Southern Arc' has to be located on the eastern side of West Asia. That means that I am ruling the Levant and Anatolia out.

The next step for me to determine the PIEan URHEIMAT is was it in north parts, in the eastern parts or somewhere at the centre of the Eastern West Asia.

All data are pointing out that early stage PIEan people were heavy on a 'Gedrosia' (Caucaso-iranic) component with some minor Anatolia/Levantine influence. That means that I am ruling out the location of the 'Southern Arc' somewhere in the Caucasus.

The only 3 locations that are left are in the Upper Mesopotamia (Southern Kurdistan around Lalish), Northwestern Iran and the northern/central Zagros Mountains.


If I have to choice between those 3, my first chose would be

1. Northcentral Zagros Mountain range. Kurdish Soran areas to the south of Lake Urmia, maybe even close to the Luristan


My second choice would be:

2. an area in the Upper Mesopotamia around Lalish (centre of the Yezidism)


3rd option would be

3 Northwestern Iran around southwestern Caspian Sea coast. Not far from Gilan province of Iran.

[Guti]

You don't have to agree with Reich, but where do you think his location of the 'Southern Arc' will be?

[Guti]

If we have to believe professor Gordon Whittaker of Georg-August-Universität Göttingen the 'Southern Arc' is located in the Mesopotamia! (my 2nd choice)


If the alleged pre-Sumerian population in Mesopotamia was indeed Indo-European, then it stands to revolutionize our perception of very early Indo-European society, since its ancestors must have migrated prior to the domestication of the horse. All evidence suggests that they settled in the region as 'peaceful agriculturalists' no different in character from other societies of the Ancient Near East. Although it would be the earliest known Indo-European society by well over a thousand years, it seems in other respects surprisingly familiar.

https://rootsofeurope.ku.dk/english/...009/euphratic/

[Voskos]

The broader region encompassing the Caucasus-Caspian-Pakistan/Northwestern India. Just guessing here.

[Guti]

Interesting, I have thought a little bit about that in the past and it might be indeed possible that the 'Southern Arc' was connected to a Jiroft culture, like an ancestor to Jiroft.

[Awuddah]

Are you from that red circle by chance?
You sound like you've got skin in the game.

[Guti]

No, some of my ancestors are outside any circle, closer to Lake Wan and Armenia.
Some are from a blue circle.

[Halgurd]

I would say in between your first and second choice, the Hakkari-Urmia region - or perhaps both choices combined. Could explain the Kurgan stelae that was discovered in Hakkari.

[Guti]

As far as I know the Kurgan stelae in Hakkari were not that old and might be more related to the Cimmerians who came thousands of years after the PIEan people.

Personally I do prefer red above blue because red has more elevated Cauacaso-Iranic (Gedrosia) ancestry, while blue has a little bit more Caucaso-Anatolian/Levantine ancestry.

[kingmob]

I'd say the 2nd choice.

Spoiler!