Kvali

Genetic distances of a Maeotian (mercenary?) found in Sicily in 480 BCE Note that genetic distance is not synonymous with ancestry. The main reason Circassians are not closest to the Maeotian is that Circassians received additional minor East Asian ancestry from steppe peoples that Northeast Caucasians have less of.

The modern Circassian genetic profile has persisted for at least 3,500 years. The oldest known representative was discovered at the Kravchenko (KVO) site in Krasnodar Krai, which is located within historical Circassia, and dates to roughly 2100 BCE. Despite this sample's local autosomal profile, its paternal lineage belonged to the R1b Y-DNA haplogroup. This clearly Indo-European lineage is scarce among modern Circassians, suggesting that the regional paternal gene pool had not yet solidified and that frequent genetic exchange occurred between steppe Indo-European and forest-dwelling Circassian populations. By 1500 BCE, however, individuals from the Shushuk (SUS) site in Adygea exhibited Y-DNA lineages ancestral to modern Circassians, specifically J-Y26650 and G-P303. While the latter lineage remains unconfirmed, it is highly likely to be closely related to, or downstream of, the quintessentially Northwest Caucasian G-Y12277 clade. Taken together, these discoveries indicate that the primary ethnogenesis of the Abkhaz-Adyghe peoples occurred in the southern regions of the modern Republic of Adygea.

A fascinating 10th-century account from the Arab historian al-Masudi describes a land called Samsahá, which corresponds to the modern-day Samtskhe region in Georgia. He highlights it as a kingless territory where Christians and pagans coexisted, while also noting a neighboring Christian kingdom that allegedly claimed Arabic roots (though genetics shows no proof of this): "Beyond the Kharzan خرزان (Hazarán), is the country of the Samsahá الصمصخا, who are Christians, mixed, however, with Pagans: they have no king. Next to the Samsahians, between the frontier of Tiflís and the fortress Báb el-Lán, which we have described, is the kingdom of the Senárians الصنارية (السيارية): their king has the name Ke-reskús كرسكوس (كركسوس). They are Christians, and believe that they are of Arabic origin, and a portion of the 'Okaïl* tribe..."

qpadm model of Georgians

Before 3000 BCE, the Levant’s genetic landscape was dominated by haplogroups E (🟫) and T (🟧). But by 3000–2500 BCE, everything changed with a massive spike in haplogroup J (🟪). This perfectly aligns with the expansion of the Kura-Araxes culture into the region. However, there’s an odd twist: these aren't the quintessential J-Z1842 lineages found in the Kura-Araxes core (traditionally associated with Nakh-Dagestanis). Instead, they are subclades of J-P58. A possible scenario is that this lineage was carried by a peripheral population that was absorbed into the expanding Kura-Araxes culture, who then acted as the vectors bringing it into the southern Levant.

Anthropological types of Chechens from Shali

Paleoanthropological types in Central Asia

Early horse representations in the steppes. (A) The earliest clear image of a steppe horse, embossed on a silver cup from the Maikop-Oshad chieftain’s grave, Russia (107) dated 3520–3350 calBCE at 2σ (4645 ± 23 BP; OxA-X-3106-13), located at the ecotone between the North Caucasus Kuban piedmont and the Volga-Don steppes where modern DOM2 horses evolved, so probably a horse of the DOM2 clade. The large head, stiff mane, thick neck, and partly tufted tail is like a modern E. ferus przewalskii (E. przewalksii) of the DOM1 clade, picture on the right. Source: "Horse genetics, archaeology, and the beginning of riding"

Genetic distances of Italians from Lombardy

The pairwise Nei’s genetic distances matrix of east Caucasian populations. Source: Origins of East Caucasus Gene Pool: Contributions of Autochthonous Bronze Age Populations and Migrations from West Asia Estimated from Y-Chromosome Data