Mountain village life, goat management and the distinctive ancestry of early western Iran.
📍 RegionIran
🧬 Closest modern matchMakrani
⏳ Time periodNeolithic · c. 8200–7600 BC
Ganj Dareh: early herders in the Zagros
Ganj Dareh was a small early Neolithic settlement in the highlands of western Iran, near Harsin in the central Zagros. It is among the key sites for understanding the beginnings of goat husbandry. Its inhabitants belonged to a genetically distinctive eastern Fertile Crescent population, showing that farming and herding emerged among several different Near Eastern communities rather than spreading from one ancestral population.
A highland village around 8200–7600 BC
Ganj Dareh occupied a side valley connected to the Gamasiab river system at roughly 1400 meters above sea level. Its early Neolithic occupation falls broadly between 8200 and 7600 BC. Rectangular mudbrick structures, pits and successive occupation surfaces preserve a compact settlement whose inhabitants worked within a strongly seasonal mountain environment. The archaeological sequence records changes in the organization of domestic space during the establishment of more settled life.
Animal bones and ancient goat genomes show that people were managing herds before domestic goats acquired all the physical characteristics familiar in later animals. Herd composition and breeding history therefore reveal an early stage of domestication that would be easy to miss from size and shape alone. Ganj Dareh’s importance is this close view of a developing relationship: people controlled and reproduced animals while continuing to live within landscapes where wild goats were present.
The human genomes are strongly differentiated from contemporary farmers in Anatolia and the Levant. They represent an early Zagros ancestry background with deep local connections, later incorporated into populations across the Iranian plateau and beyond. Ganj Dareh is consequently a useful reference for Iranian Neolithic-related ancestry in wider comparisons. The label describes a deep genetic relationship to this early population, while later communities developed through additional mixture. Set beside Natufian, Jordanian Neolithic and Anatolian farmer references, Ganj Dareh makes the early Near East’s regional diversity especially clear: similar transitions toward food production occurred among populations with different histories.
In the World Genetics modern G25 comparison, the closest non-self match for Iran N Ganj Dareh is Makrani. Other nearby references include Balochi Pakistan, Brahui, Balochi Iran, and Pashtun Mashwani. This gives the Iran N Ganj Dareh profile its nearest modern genetic context inside the current reference database.
Closest Matches
Target: —
Distance
What does Iran N Ganj Dareh ancestry look like?
The ancestral breakdown below loads the best-fitting World Genetics calculator for the Iran N Ganj Dareh 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.
Ancestral Breakdown
Loading
Loading ancestral breakdown.
Where is Iran N Ganj Dareh DNA closest on the map?
The heatmap gives the Iran N Ganj Dareh profile a geographic shape. Warmer areas mark regions where available modern reference populations sit closer to the Iran N Ganj Dareh average, while cooler areas represent more distant matches.
What populations are genetically closest to Iran N Ganj Dareh?
The closest non-self match in this World Genetics comparison is Makrani. Other nearby references include Balochi Pakistan, Brahui, Balochi Iran, and Pashtun Mashwani.
Is Iran N Ganj Dareh DNA closest to Makrani?
In the current modern G25 reference set, Makrani is the closest listed match to the Iran N Ganj Dareh average after removing Iran N Ganj Dareh itself from the table.
What does the Iran N Ganj Dareh heatmap show?
The heatmap shows where modern reference populations are closer or farther from the Iran N Ganj Dareh G25 average, giving the closest-match results a geographic view.
