🇹🇲 Turkmenistan BA Gonur Tepe (IVC Profile) genetics

Margiana and the Indus world

Gonur belonged to the Oxus civilization, with its main archaeological sequence extending approximately from 2300 to 1500 BC. The settlement’s elaborate craft and burial traditions developed within a network of oasis communities. Connections with South Asia formed part of a much wider pattern of Bronze Age exchange. The IVC-profile reference places a human ancestry connection alongside those archaeological links, showing how the same center could accommodate populations with different deeper histories.

[1] [2]

What the Indus-related profile contains

The characteristic combination brings together ancestry related to early Iranian populations and ancestry from deeply rooted South Asian hunter-gatherer lineages. It has little or none of the Anatolian farmer-related contribution characteristic of the main BMAC cluster. Research on a genome from the Indus civilization itself supports the connection between this profile and the Harappan world. The Iranian-related component is a deep relationship: it does not require descent from the particular Neolithic farming populations so far sampled in western Iran.

[2] [3]

A connection that matters for later South Asia

Indus-related ancestry became a major foundation of later South Asian populations. Subsequent mixtures with other groups, including steppe-related populations in the northwest, produced new combinations during and after the Bronze Age. The Gonur IVC profile is valuable because it illuminates that earlier background outside the Indus region itself. Comparison with the main Gonur profile shows the distinction between two populations sharing an interconnected archaeological world; comparison with Shahr-i-Sokhta’s IVC profile follows a similar ancestry connection across eastern Iran. These relationships make Gonur an important meeting point in the population history of Central and South Asia.

[2] [3]

What is Turkmenistan BA Gonur Tepe (IVC Profile) DNA closest to?

In the World Genetics modern G25 comparison, the closest non-self match for Turkmenistan BA Gonur Tepe (IVC Profile) is Gujar Punjab. Other nearby references include Gujar Kashmir, Rajasthani Rajput, Gujar Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Saraiki Jat. This gives the Turkmenistan BA Gonur Tepe (IVC Profile) profile its nearest modern genetic context inside the current reference database.

What does Turkmenistan BA Gonur Tepe (IVC Profile) ancestry look like?

The ancestral breakdown below loads the best-fitting World Genetics calculator for the Turkmenistan BA Gonur Tepe (IVC Profile) 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.

Where is Turkmenistan BA Gonur Tepe (IVC Profile) DNA closest on the map?

The heatmap gives the Turkmenistan BA Gonur Tepe (IVC Profile) profile a geographic shape. Warmer areas mark regions where available modern reference populations sit closer to the Turkmenistan BA Gonur Tepe (IVC Profile) average, while cooler areas represent more distant matches.

Sources and further reading

Dates: approximate cultural or historical period.

1. New polychrome painting from Gonur Depe, Turkmenistan (2020)
2. Narasimhan et al. (2019), The Formation of Human Populations in South and Central Asia
3. Shinde et al. (2019), An Ancient Harappan Genome Lacks Ancestry from Steppe Pastoralists or Iranian Farmers