Painted pottery, connected valleys and the changing ancestry of western Iran.
Seh Gabi lay in the Kangavar–Asadabad valley of the central Zagros, close to the larger site of Godin Tepe. Its Copper Age occupation belongs to a world of established farming communities, distinctive pottery traditions and growing connections between neighboring valleys. The genetic reference records a later stage of Iranian prehistory, after the sharply separated populations of the early Neolithic had begun to mix more extensively.
The site lies between modern Hamadan and Kermanshah, in a landscape linking highland valleys across western Iran. Its several mounds preserve a long prehistoric sequence. Mound B is especially important for the Middle Chalcolithic, including the Dalma, Seh Gabi and Taherabad phases. These archaeological distinctions track changes through the fifth and fourth millennia BC, giving the genetic reference a setting within a well-developed regional sequence.
The excavated ceramics include painted and decorated wares whose production techniques reveal the choices and skills of local potters. Different forms of surface treatment and decoration distinguish phases and connect Seh Gabi with neighboring settlements. Such objects record everyday production as well as regional relationships. The site’s proximity to Godin Tepe is useful for reconstructing this wider landscape of communities, where material traditions changed through local development and contact across the Zagros.
Copper Age populations of Iran retained ancestry related to the region’s early farmers while acquiring additional ancestry connected to western Near Eastern groups. Their genetic position therefore differs from the much earlier Ganj Dareh and Tepe Abdul Hosein references. Seh Gabi helps illustrate that transition from strongly differentiated Neolithic populations toward the mixed backgrounds characteristic of later Southwest Asia. Comparing it with early Iranian references highlights continuity; comparing it with Anatolian and Levantine groups reveals the wider connections. This ancestry background also matters farther east and north, where related Copper and Bronze Age populations participated in the formation of later Iranian, Caucasian and Central Asian communities.
In the World Genetics modern G25 comparison, the closest non-self match for Iran CA Seh Gabi is Gilak. Other nearby references include Persian Hormozgan, Mazandarani, Persian Bushehr, and Tat Iran. This gives the Iran CA Seh Gabi profile its nearest modern genetic context inside the current reference database.
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The ancestral breakdown below loads the best-fitting World Genetics calculator for the Iran CA Seh Gabi average. It should be read as a model of deep ancestry components, while the closest-match table is the better guide to which modern populations are most similar in G25 space.
The heatmap gives the Iran CA Seh Gabi profile a geographic shape. Warmer areas mark regions where available modern reference populations sit closer to the Iran CA Seh Gabi average, while cooler areas represent more distant matches.
The closest non-self match in this World Genetics comparison is Gilak. Other nearby references include Persian Hormozgan, Mazandarani, Persian Bushehr, and Tat Iran.
In the current modern G25 reference set, Gilak is the closest listed match to the Iran CA Seh Gabi average after removing Iran CA Seh Gabi itself from the table.
The heatmap shows where modern reference populations are closer or farther from the Iran CA Seh Gabi G25 average, giving the closest-match results a geographic view.
