The Kura-Araxes People

The Kura-Araxes culture spread from the South Caucasus as far as the Levant between about 3400 and 2000 BCE, recognisable by its red and black burnished pottery, portable hearths and early arsenical bronze. These nine people come from two places: Balichi-Dzedzvebi in Georgia, beside the Sakdrisi workings argued to be among the oldest gold mines in the world, and the Dzhoghaz cemetery at Berkaber in Armenia, where a single crypt held more than fifty people and DNA showed close relatives, including a father and son, laid to rest together. Their ancestry combines Caucasus hunter-gatherer and Anatolian farmer roots, best modelled from the Maykop world to the north, with no steppe input at all.

The genome-wide data behind this entry was published in The rise and transformation of Bronze Age pastoralists in the Caucasus.

Every Ancestry Map includes the free Notable Matches lens: your coordinates are compared to every sequenced member of every catalog entry, and the distance to the closest member is reported, a Euclidean distance in the same 25-dimensional space the Distance lens uses. Because these are a small group of real individuals, not a population average, distances naturally run larger than population distances. That is expected, not a poor result. And one thing is never claimed: a small distance means similar ancestry composition, not that the Kura-Araxes People are your ancestor. See how it looks in the live demo or read about Ancestry Map, the full Global25 report.

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  Who were the Kura-Araxes People?

  The Kura-Araxes People (c. 3000-2350 BCE, Balichi-Dzedzvebi, Kvemo Kartli, Georgia) are one of the Iconic discoveries entries in our Notable Matches catalog, represented by 9 sequenced ancient genomes published in the study "The rise and transformation of Bronze Age pastoralists in the Caucasus".

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  What does "matching" the Kura-Araxes People mean?

  Your Global25 coordinates are compared to the entry's sequenced members and the distance to the closest one is reported, a Euclidean distance in the same 25-dimensional reference space the Distance lens uses. A notable entry is one person or one small burial group, not a population average, so distances naturally run larger than population distances.

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  Are they my ancestor?

  No, and no DNA test can show that. A small distance means your genome sits near theirs in a shared reference space: similar ancestry composition, not descent. Ancestrify never claims a notable individual is your ancestor or relative.

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  How do I see my own distance to the Kura-Araxes People?

  Notable Matches is a free lens on every Ancestry Map, never sold separately. Order Ancestry Map, our Global25 analysis (29.99 EUR), and your report ranks your coordinates against the full catalog, with a portrait, dossier and map for every entry. The public demo shows the lens with example data.

The catalog holds every published entry across three tiers. Browse the full Notable Matches directory. Nearby entries:

• The Old Kingdom Egyptian of Nuwayratc. 2855-2570 BCE

• The Vučedol Culturec. 3000-2200 BCE

• The Burnt City of Shahr-i Sokhtac. 3000-2550 BCE

• The Family of Koszycec. 2950-2700 BCE

• The Indus Peripheryc. 3100-1950 BCE

• The Seal Hunters of Gotlandc. 3000-2700 BCE

• Mota of the Ethiopian Highlandsc. 2500 BCE

• The Collective Tomb of Buryc. 3200-2500 BCE

• The Ancient City of Tepe Hissarc. 3600-2400 BCE

• The Megalith Farmers of Falbygdenc. 3300-2800 BCE

• The Bell Beaker Peoplec. 2500-2000 BCE

• Theopetra Cavec. 2250 BCE