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To Don: Genetic Mapping of modern Assyrians
#1
Hey Don,

Here is a link to the article I was mentioning after church service on Sunday, and the related graph:

[Image: graph-gen.gif]

I find it odd that the closest genetic link to the modern Assyrians are the Jordanians....given the geographic distance between the two populations (in blue and red below.)

[Image: middle_east.jpg]

http://www.assyrianfoundation.org/genetics.htm

-Shamasha Paul
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#2
Hi! Shamasha Paul,

May the Lord bestow His blessings abundantly on you and your lovely family.

According to several maps that I have of ancient Israel portraying the first stages in their conquest of HaEretz just after their forty years of wandering in the wilderness, show the same approximate area that you circled in red on the map you sent to me via this forum. Very Interesting!

According to the Book of Numbers, chapter 32, (NIV), it says that the Israelite tribes of Rueben, Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh received their inheritance on the east side of the Jordan River. Hmm? This is in the same general area where the modern country of Jordan is located.

In 2 Kings, chapter 15, along with related notes, say that several campaigns of Tiglath-Pileser III, then Shalmaneser V and finally Sargon II - all Kings of the Assyrian Empire - destroyed the Northern Kingdom and moved at least part of the conquered population to somewhere else. Intriguing! Where would this population be moved to?

Could it be in and around the area that you circled in blue on the map you sent?

Could it be that modern day Assyrians may be able to trace their lineage at least in part back to those two and a half tribes if not to the entire so called "Ten Lost Tribes?" Wow!

Looks like Asahel Grant was on to something. I hope so!

Thanks for passing this information to me. Basima.

Allaha Amokh, Don
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#3
Shamasha Paul,

Would you happen to know if by "Assyrians" that study also meant modern Chaldeans and Suryanaye(Syriacs)? Were these two groups tested also?
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#4
Mshikhaya Wrote:Shamasha Paul,

Would you happen to know if by "Assyrians" that study also meant modern Chaldeans and Suryanaye(Syriacs)? Were these two groups tested also?

Shlama Qabbil Mshikhaya,

The closest reference to the population sample I could find in the study was the following:

Quote:Akbari et al. examined some 500 members of Christian communities in Iran (Armenians and Assyrians from six localities) from whom specimens were obtained and examined for a number of blood group, red cell enzyme and serum protein systems. In the case of Assyrians, the researchers studied 18 different gene sites with a total of 47 different forms of those genes (alleles) in Assyrians in two regions of Iran - Urmia and Tehran. The particular gene frequencies of those 47 genes in the population formed the basis, along with the other two studies (4, 5), for establishing the distinctive genetic character of the Assyrians. A major finding of the study is that Assyrians, especially those in Urmia (their home area in Iran), are genetically homogeneous to a high degree. That is, an individual Assyrian's genetic makeup is relatively close to that of the Assyrian population as a whole. "The results indicate the relatively closed nature of the [Assyrian] community as a whole," and "due to their religious and cultural traditions, there has been little intermixture with other populations." The small size of the population is also a factor. The genetic data are compatible with historical data that religion played a major role in maintaining the Assyrian population's separate identity during the Christian era.

For most of that period Assyrians existed as a Christian minority in non-Christian majority populations, and adherence to their religion, abundantly documented in the historical record, would have provided a "genetic barrier" to gene flow from external groups. In analyzing other groups in similar situations, Cavalli-Sforza et al. arrived at this opinion: "The important conclusion is that the genetic origin of groups that have been surrounded for a long time by populations of different genetic type can be recognized as different only if they have maintained a fairly rigid endogamy [ marriage within the group] for most or all the period in which they have been in contact with other groups," although genes contributed by external groups ("gene flow") can be tolerated for many centuries or even millennia by a population, provided they are not on a large scale. Later in this article we will see an analogous situation with Jews, where a religious difference allowed them to maintain their genetic characteristics as a minority over many centuries while living among non-Jewish majority populations. In any case, the data provide unequivocal evidence that Assyrians as a people are distinguishable from all other population groups in their genetic characteristics and are not a part of any other population.

Judging from the above, it seems that two other studies were added to that of Akbari, et al:

(a) Papiha, S.S. et al. Isoelectric focusing of vitamin D binding protein (Gc): Genetic diversity in the population of Iran. Jpn. J. Hum. Genet., 30: 69-73. 1985.

(b) Amin-Zaki, L. et al. Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency among ethnic groups in Iraq. Bull. WHO, 47:1-5. 1972.

It appears that Papiha, like Akbari, used the Iranian population as the sample. However the 2nd study by Amin-Zaki could have included both Syriacs and Chaldeans in the mix as their population in Iraq outnumbers the CoE.

-Shamasha
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#5
Akhi Don,

I find the 78th chapter of 2Baruch interesting:

Quote:These are the words of that epistle which Baruch the son of Neriah sent to the nine and a half tribes, which were across the river Euphrates, in which these things were written. Thus saith Baruch the son of Neriah to the brethren carried into captivity: 'Mercy and peace.' I bear in mind, my brethren, the love of Him who created us, who loved us from of old, and never hated us, but above all educated us. And truly I know that behold all we the twelve tribes are bound by one bond, inasmuch as we are born from one father. Wherefore I have been the more careful to leave you the words of this epistle before I die, that ye may be comforted regarding the evils which have come upon you, and that ye may be grieved also regarding the evil that has befallen your brethren; and again, also, that ye may justify His judgment which He has decreed against you that ye should be carried away captives for what ye have suffered is disproportioned to what ye have done in order that, at the last times, ye may be found worthy of your fathers. Therefore, if ye consider that ye have now suffered those things for your good, that ye may not finally be condemned and tormented, then ye will receive eternal hope; if above all ye destroy from your heart vain error, on account of which ye departed, hence. For if ye so do these things, He will continually remember you, He who always promised on our behalf to those who were more excellent than we, that He will never forget or forsake us, but with much mercy will gather together again those who were dispersed.

From Wikipedia:

2 Baruch also known as the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch is a Jewish pseudepigraphical text written in the late 1st century CE or early 2nd century CE, after the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans in 70 AD. It is not part of the canon of either the Jewish or most Christian Bibles but is part of the Syriac Peshitta. It has 87 sections.

The original Aramaic text, along with a number of translations, can be found here:

http://ocp.acadiau.ca/?2Bar
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