On deep roots of Iranian hunter-gatherers, and possible scenarios on their formation
The Iranian hunter-gatherers are among the more enigmatic lineages, with unclarified deeper roots. Although they fall broadly within the West Eurasian cluster, they are placed in an extreme position, displaying no strong genetic affilation with nearby Anatolian or Levant groups. – This distinct position is primarily attributed to them deriving a significant amount of their ancestry from a deeply diverged local West Eurasian branch (dubbed WEC2 by Vallini et al. 2024), which stayed in the supposed population hub on the Persian plateau, after the divergence of 'Ancient East Eurasian;s' (IUP = Initial Upper Paleolithic wave; c. 48–46kya), and after the deepest split within West Eurasian lineages, with the remainder WEC lineages expanding elsewhere (WEC; UP = Upper Paleolithic wave, such as Kostenki14 or Sunghir in Europe; >38kya). – Earlier proposals associated the distinct position to high amounts of Basal Eurasian ancestry, but this seems not accurate anymore. – For a more de...