The historical homeland of the Armenians sits north of the Fertile Crescent, a region of substantial importance to modern human evolution.
We have previously shown that studying genetic isolates also provides insights into human genetic variation and past demographic events.
Armenians were found to have genetic affinity to several other populations including the Jews, Druze, and Lebanese Christians, in addition to showing genetic continuity with the Caucasus.
In this study, we analyse newly generated genome-wide data from Armenians, as well as available data from 78 other worldwide populations.
Finally, we show that Armenians have higher genetic affinity to Neolithic Europeans than other present-day Near Easterners, and that 29% of Armenian ancestry may originate from an ancestral population that is best represented by Neolithic Europeans.
Insights into the human past come from diverse areas including history, archaeology, linguistics, and, increasingly, genetics.
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