Who were the Anatolian (1800 – 300 BC)?

Anatolian is one of the 27 curated source populations in the Classical Antiquity era of the Ancestrify qpAdm analysis: a group of published ancient genomes from one archaeological context, pooled as a single reference the model can test your genome against.

Does Anatolian in my result mean they were my ancestors?

No. A source population is a reference the model tests against, never a statement about who your ancestors were. A coefficient on this source means the ancestry those burials represent helps explain your genome to within statistical noise — similar ancestry composition, not descent from those individuals. Ancestrify never claims a population is your ancestor.

What does a Anatolian percentage in a qpAdm model mean?

qpAdm estimates the mixture proportions that best explain your genome as a combination of the chosen sources, given a fixed set of outgroup (right) populations, and reports a p-value for whether the model is statistically acceptable together with a standard error for every proportion. The percentage is that estimated share, with its uncertainty published beside it.

How do I get a qpAdm model that uses Anatolian?

Order the Ancestrify qpAdm analysis (€29.99, one-time) and upload the raw file you already have from a consumer test. Your genome is merged into the AADR reference panel and modelled across both eras; each era's model is built from that era's source populations, so a model for the Classical Antiquity era draws on Anatolian where it improves the fit.

Can I model Anatolian ancestry for free first?

Yes. The Ancestrify Lab runs Global25 admixture calculators, a nearest-populations distance tool and an AdmixTools 2 workbench in your browser with no account, and several calculators cover the Classical Antiquity era. Those are G25 fits, not formal qpAdm models — the paid analysis is the one with a p-value.

Anatolian — ancient DNA source population (qpAdm)

Who they were

Artistic interpretation of the Anatolian (AI-generated artwork, not documentary evidence)

Period: 1800 – 300 BC
Era in the analysis: Classical Antiquity
Region: Anatolian plateau
Role in the model: Source (left) population — a reference qpAdm tests against

Bronze and Iron Age Anatolia was home to the Hittites, Luwians, Phrygians and the many peoples of the Persian satrapies. Ancient genomes from across the plateau show that the population of this period descended overwhelmingly from the region's own Neolithic farmers with a substantial Caucasus- or Iranian-related component added during the Chalcolithic, and, strikingly, little or no steppe-related ancestry despite the Indo-European languages spoken there (Lazaridis et al. 2022; Skourtanioti et al. 2020).

This ancestry is the central layer of the present-day Anatolian gene pool, beneath the later Greek, Armenian, Balkan and Central Asian contributions that Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Turkic history added. It is also related to the populations of the Caucasus and the northern Levant with which Bronze Age Anatolia traded and fought. In the model it sits between the West Anatolian source, which carries more Aegean admixture, and the Iranian- and Caucasus-related side of West Eurasian variation.

In Ancestrify's qpAdm service, Anatolian is a source in the "Classical Antiquity" era. The report shows its weight with a standard error and a Z-score, so you can see not only how much of the model it carries but how confidently that share is separated from zero, and a model that cannot support it is rejected rather than published. For genomes from Turkey, Armenia and the northern Levant it is usually the anchoring source, and its weight should be read together with the West Anatolian and Eastern Mediterranean sources it overlaps.

Y haplogroups J2, G2a and R1b-M269 sublineages, and mtDNA H, K, U3 and HV, are reported from Bronze and Iron Age Anatolia. A haplogroup alone is never evidence of a share.

In your report
Represents the Anatolian Indo-European-speaking populations of the Bronze and Iron Ages, with the Hittites establishing one of the major Bronze Age empires of the Near East (~1650–1178 BCE). Ancient DNA shows that Proto-Hittite ancestry arrived in Anatolia from the Balkans via steppe-related migrations, blending approximately 10–20% steppe-derived ancestry with a dominant ~80% local northwest Anatolian Neolithic base. This pattern reflects a gradual admixture process during migration, where incoming Indo-European speakers progressively incorporated local populations. The Phrygians, who rose to prominence in central-western Anatolia after the Hittite collapse (~12th century BCE), share linguistic ties to the Graeco-Phrygian branch and likely carried a similar blend of Anatolian and steppe ancestry. Both populations exemplify how Indo-European language spread through elite cultural transmission rather than wholesale population replacement.

Artwork is an AI-generated artistic interpretation informed by the archaeological record — not documentary evidence.

Where this population sits in the model

The Ancestrify qpAdm analysis models your genome once per era. The Classical Antiquity era has 27 curated source populations, and Anatolian is one of them: every candidate model for that era is a combination of these sources, tested against a fixed set of outgroup populations, and only a model that passes the statistical fit check is published — with a p-value, and a standard error on every proportion.

A reference, not a verdict: every population on this page is a source the model tests your genome against — a well-sampled point in ancient genetic space that a mixture of ancestries can be expressed in terms of. A weight on it means your genome is well described as partly resembling those people; it is never a statement that they, specifically, were your ancestors, and a population that fits well is not the only one that could.

Read how the method works on the qpAdm analysis page, or the definitions in the glossary.

Model it yourself for free

The Ancestrify Lab runs in your browser, with no account. Paste a Global25 row into an admixture calculator that covers the Classical Antiquity era, rank the closest ancient populations in the distance tool, or run f4, qpWave and qpAdm on the public panel in the AdmixTools 2 workbench. These are Global25 fits and exploratory statistics, not the formal qpAdm model of the paid analysis.

Questions

Who were the Anatolian (1800 – 300 BC)?
Anatolian is one of the 27 curated source populations in the Classical Antiquity era of the Ancestrify qpAdm analysis: a group of published ancient genomes from one archaeological context, pooled as a single reference the model can test your genome against.
Does Anatolian in my result mean they were my ancestors?
No. A source population is a reference the model tests against, never a statement about who your ancestors were. A coefficient on this source means the ancestry those burials represent helps explain your genome to within statistical noise — similar ancestry composition, not descent from those individuals. Ancestrify never claims a population is your ancestor.
What does a Anatolian percentage in a qpAdm model mean?
qpAdm estimates the mixture proportions that best explain your genome as a combination of the chosen sources, given a fixed set of outgroup (right) populations, and reports a p-value for whether the model is statistically acceptable together with a standard error for every proportion. The percentage is that estimated share, with its uncertainty published beside it.
How do I get a qpAdm model that uses Anatolian?
Order the Ancestrify qpAdm analysis (€29.99, one-time) and upload the raw file you already have from a consumer test. Your genome is merged into the AADR reference panel and modelled across both eras; each era's model is built from that era's source populations, so a model for the Classical Antiquity era draws on Anatolian where it improves the fit.
Can I model Anatolian ancestry for free first?
Yes. The Ancestrify Lab runs Global25 admixture calculators, a nearest-populations distance tool and an AdmixTools 2 workbench in your browser with no account, and several calculators cover the Classical Antiquity era. Those are G25 fits, not formal qpAdm models — the paid analysis is the one with a p-value.