Attribution: Fielding Lucas, Jr. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
This post is partly an excuse to upload and store the above creative commons image. My Y-DNA terminal SNP (L-SK1414) twin was a Balochi speaker in Makran, SW Pakistan. In classical times, Makran was located in the Kingdom of Gedrosia. It's almost ironic that an open source range of autosomal DNA testers on GEDmatch have been named after Gedrosia.
Gedrosia was a dry, mountainous country along the northwestern shores of the Indian Ocean. The indigenous name for Gedrosia is thought to have been Gwadar. It was conquered by the Persian king Cyrus the Great (559-530 BC). The capital of Gedrosia was Pura, which may survive today as modern Bampûr. In 326 BC, The Macedonian king, Alexander the Great disastrously crossed the Gedrosian Desert, on the return from his campaign in India, and lost 12,000 of his men to the savage conditions.
Image of Gwadar Bay by wetlandsofpakistan (Gwadar - West Bay) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.
So, although the GedrosiaDNA GEDmatch heritage calculators may have little to do with the legendary land that may have been host to my Y ancestors, out of interest, how do our atDNA test results tally with the GedrosiaDNA calculators? These calculators are designed to measure Ancient Eurasian Admixture.
My results (using an FT-DNA raw file) against those of my mother (23andMe raw file).
My Eurasia K9 ASI Oracle:
- 39% Western Hunter-Gatherer
- 27% Early Neolithic Farmer
- 15% Eastern Hunter-Gatherer
- 12% Caucasus Hunter-Gatherer
- 7% SW Asian
- 1% Siberian East Asian
Mother's Eurasia K9 ASI Oracle:
- 40% Western Hunter-Gatherer
- 26% Early Neolithic Farmer
- 14% Eastern Hunter-Gatherer
- 12% Caucasus Hunter-Gatherer
- 6% SW Asian
- 1% Siberian East Asian
My Gedrosia K3 Oracle:
- 97.5% West Eurasian
- 2.5% East Eurasian
Mother's Gedrosia K3 Oracle:
- 96% West Eurasian
- 4% East Eurasian
My Gedrosia K15 Oracle:
- 40% Western Hunter-Gatherer
- 25% Early European Farmer
- 21% Caucasus
- 5% Burusho
- 5% SW Asian
- 3% Balochi
- 1% Siberian
Mother's Gedrosia K15 Oracle:
- 40% Western Hunter-Gatherer
- 24% Early European Farmer
- 18% Caucasus
- 4% Burusho
- 3% Kalash
- 2% Siberian
- 1% Balochi
My Ancient Eurasia K6 Oracle:
- 40% West European Hunter-Gatherer
- 39% Natufian
- 21% Ancient North Eurasian
- 1% East Asian
Mother's Ancient Eurasia K6 Oracle:
- 41% West European Hunter-Gatherer
- 38% Natufian
- 19% Ancient North Eurasian
- 2% Ancient South Eurasian
- 1% East Asian
Conclusions
We both appear to have inherited around 40% of our DNA from ancient Western (European) Hunter-Gatherer populations, nothing unexpected there. Western Hunter-Gatherers not only lived in Europe, but appear to have contributed to some later Eurasian populations such as the Yamnaya and Early European Farmers.
We both have low counts of Ancient North Eurasian - particularly my mother, who scores only 19% ANE (Upper-Paleolithic genomes from the Lake Baikal region of Siberia, identified as Malta, Afontogora 2, and Afontogora 3, dated to 17 to 24 kya). It has been noted during online discussions, that the English appear to have slightly lower percentages of ANE than do their close neighbours. ANE is sometimes used to indicate Yamnaya ancestry (ANE was a component), that spread from the Eurasian Steppes into Western Europe during the Early Bronze Age.
I have 3% Balochi compared to 1% Balochi for my mother. It may mean nothing, but it could just perhaps indicate something in the autosomes that associates on my paternal side with my Y-DNA story. The indicators (particularly K15) suggest that I have more SW Asian ancestry, presumably from my paternal side - again, it just could associate with what we know about my Y haplogroup L-SK1414.
We have around 24-25% Early European Farmer ancestry, representing early Neolithic descendants of an admix of WHG and "Basal Eurasians". This signal apparently peaks around 80% in modern Sardinians. However, the "Natufian" reference are higher - 38-39%. According to GEDmatch: "Natufian was an Epipaleolithic culture that existed from 12,500 to 9,500 BC in the area of Israel. They were derived about 50% from an original Out-of-Africa population, referred to as Basal Eurasians. If you are a European and show Natufian admixture, this does not imply that Natufians interacted with your ancestors. All it means is that Natufian like admixture was mediated to you via intermediaries, such as the early European Farmers from the Near East". I'm not sure what to make of that.