Goals
The goal of our project is to research the population genomics of Afghans and their neighbours. We will especially focus on Y-DNA and help map out the genetic paternal lines, or Y-DNA haplogroups, of the people of Afghanistan and surrounding countries. Your DNA Test is not only relevant for your personal research, but it can give new insights into the ancient history of Afghanistan and its people. In light of the hiatus in archeological field research in Afghanistan, DNA testing is one of the best ways to answer some of the many questions we have about the ethnogenesis of modern and ancient people of Afghanistan. Thanks to DNA testing of modern and ancient people, we already broadened our understanding of the history and migrations of Afghanistan. We will try to present these new findings and explain what they tell us about the history of the ancient people of Afghanistan. We will also explain how you can do DNA tests and what your next steps will be after you take the test.
We have the following main goals:
1. Understand the ancient origin and Y-DNA, autosomal DNA and mtDNA genetic make up.
2. Map out the genetic paternal and maternal lines
3. Grouping of our members with their closest genetic cousins within the same haplogroup. 4. Identify tribal- and ethnic-specific lines.
5. Identify relationships from the time of the appearance of pre-Indo-Iranian cultures, early Indo-Iranian (Aryan), and other ancient groups such as Turkic-Mongolics, Dravidians,.. all the way to the genealogical time frame (last 1000 years).
6. Verify or debunk certain myths, such as, Greek ancestry in Dardics or Jewish in Pashtuns
7. Help members who need help with their results as well as questions about where their lineage and autosomal dna profile may hail from.
What can be tested and why?
Y-DNA:
Males can test their Y-DNA, which is male inherited from the Y-chromosome. As the Y-chromosome is passed on from a father to his sons, Y-DNA testing can be used to trace a clearly direct paternal line.
Y-DNA testing can also help you discover your direct paternal ancestry by connecting you with other modern and ancient tested individuals who are descendants of a shared common and direct patrilineal ancestor.
A Y-haplogroup is a group of men who share a common ancestor in a paternal line. This is called TMRCA, which stands for “The Most Recent Common Ancestor“. With a simple determination of the Y-haplogroup, the TMRCA can be about 5000 years or further beyond, but fully sequencing your Y-DNA may result in finding a much more recent TMRCA shared with other individuals.
Each Y-DNA haplogroup among Afghans has its own history and must be studied in depth to understand its origin and spread. Therefore, our goal is to present for each haplogroup potential archeological and historical implications for the understanding of the origin of Afghans.
Autosomal DNA:
Many have already done autosomal tests offered by commercial companies like 23andMe, MyHeritage, AncestryDNA, etc. These tests are very often advertised with “ethnicity estimation”, cheap prices, and expensive ads. Unfortunately, they often give poor estimates for people of Afghan origin and accurate ancestry estimates can only be done with external tools like Global25 and GEDmatch. Also, they only sequence a small part of your DNA making detailed research of your uniparental lines impossible.
Still, autosomal DNA can be very helpful for genealogy, because you can do the following with it:
- Getting modern and ancient autosomal ancestry estimates via tools like Global25 and GEDmatch.
- Verification of single ancestor lines of the family tree.
- Closing gaps in the family tree (e.g. finding out who the grandfather or great-grandfather was).
- Finding distant relatives who have emigrated (or who have not) and contacting them.
Mitochondrial DNA:
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is passed on from the mother to sons and daughters, and allows conclusions to be drawn about the relationship of the pure female line. It mutates very slowly and irregularly, so it remains unchanged even after many generations. This means that it will only be useful for genealogy in special cases, but this does not mean that it cannot provide valuable information, especially in migration pathways based on mt-haplogroups.
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