Showing the Khazar fallacy with open genomics tools
This is the third part of my Khazar special series. Read part I, and part II if you haven't already.
In my previous posts, I've reviewed both the academic papers refuting the Khazar "hypothesis", as well as busting the most "serious" attempt to actually prove this narrative (Elhaik et al., Das et al., etc.).
However, since most people would find it difficult to actually understand everything that is written in those studies, I think the best way to find out something is to do it yourself.
Fortunately, nowadays, simple DNA ancestry tests done at home - such as 23andme, AncestryDNA, MyHeritage etc. are easily accessible and can prove the same conclusion detailed in those peer reviewed publications without much effort. And thanks to open source/data communities, we are now at the age that any person with a simple GEDmatch (an open data personal genomics database and genealogy website) account and little bit of technical capability can verify this by themselves in no time.
There are number of ADMIXTURE calculators on GEDmatch which one can use to run yours or any other kit to see both the closest populations or the closest ADMIXTURE.
For example, let's run my own kit - a full East European Ashkenazi Jew:
Eurogenes K13 calculator results:
Single Population Sharing:
As can be seen - the closest single population to my kit are other Ashkenazi Jews, followed by East Mediterranean non-Jewish populations and other (Western) Jewish populations.
My ADMIXTURE results also show I am pretty much your average Ashkenazi Jew:
puntDNAL K13 Global:
Single Population Sharing:
MDLP K23b:
Single Population Sharing:
And so forth. As can be seen, this is pretty consistent with what we've seen in the PCA I've posted in previous entry:
There are number of ADMIXTURE calculators on GEDmatch which one can use to run yours or any other kit to see both the closest populations or the closest ADMIXTURE.
For example, let's run my own kit - a full East European Ashkenazi Jew:
Eurogenes K13 calculator results:
Single Population Sharing:
| # | Population (source) | Dist. |
| 1 | Ashkenazi | 4.14 |
| 2 | East_Sicilian | 9.03 |
| 3 | Italian_Jewish | 9.18 |
| 4 | Central_Greek | 9.64 |
| 5 | South_Italian | 9.73 |
| 6 | Algerian_Jewish | 10.09 |
| 7 | Sephardic_Jewish | 10.66 |
| 8 | West_Sicilian | 10.91 |
| 9 | Italian_Abruzzo | 12.03 |
| 10 | Greek_Thessaly | 12.33 |
| 11 | Tunisian_Jewish | 12.9 |
| 12 | Libyan_Jewish | 13.8 |
| 13 | Cyprian | 15.76 |
| 14 | Tuscan | 16.14 |
| 15 | Lebanese_Muslim | 19.41 |
| 16 | Bulgarian | 19.63 |
| 17 | Lebanese_Druze | 20.7 |
| 18 | Syrian | 20.9 |
| 19 | Samaritan | 21.17 |
| 20 | Palestinian | 21.84 |
As can be seen - the closest single population to my kit are other Ashkenazi Jews, followed by East Mediterranean non-Jewish populations and other (Western) Jewish populations.
My ADMIXTURE results also show I am pretty much your average Ashkenazi Jew:
Mixed Mode Population Sharing:
# Primary Population (source) Secondary Population (source) Distance
1 97.2% Ashkenazi + 2.8% Lebanese_Druze @ 4.1
2 100% Ashkenazi + 0% Abhkasian @ 4.14
3 100% Ashkenazi + 0% Adygei @ 4.14
4 100% Ashkenazi + 0% Afghan_Pashtun @ 4.14
5 100% Ashkenazi + 0% Afghan_Tadjik @ 4.14
6 100% Ashkenazi + 0% Afghan_Turkmen @ 4.14
7 100% Ashkenazi + 0% Aghan_Hazara @ 4.14
8 100% Ashkenazi + 0% Algerian @ 4.14
9 100% Ashkenazi + 0% Algerian_Jewish @ 4.14
10 100% Ashkenazi + 0% Altaian @ 4.14
11 100% Ashkenazi + 0% Armenian @ 4.14
12 100% Ashkenazi + 0% Assyrian @ 4.14
13 100% Ashkenazi + 0% Austrian @ 4.14
14 100% Ashkenazi + 0% Austroasiatic_Ho @ 4.14
15 100% Ashkenazi + 0% Azeri @ 4.14
16 100% Ashkenazi + 0% Balkar @ 4.14
17 100% Ashkenazi + 0% Balochi @ 4.14
18 100% Ashkenazi + 0% Bangladeshi @ 4.14
19 100% Ashkenazi + 0% Bantu_N.E. @ 4.14
20 100% Ashkenazi + 0% Bantu_S.E. @ 4.14
And if I'll try some other calculators, I get pretty much the same picture:
puntDNAL K13 Global:
Single Population Sharing:
| # | Population (source) | Distance |
| 1 | Ashkenazy_Jew | 3.82 |
| 2 | Italian_Sicilian | 4.67 |
| 3 | Greek_Central | 5.86 |
| 4 | Italian_Abruzzo | 6.52 |
| 5 | Sephardic_Jew | 7.16 |
| 6 | Greek_Thessaly | 10.54 |
| 7 | Albanian | 11.07 |
| 8 | Kosovar | 12.41 |
| 9 | Italian_Tuscan | 13.03 |
| 10 | Turkish | 13.23 |
| 11 | Cypriot | 14.68 |
| 12 | Turkish_Aydin | 15.13 |
| 13 | Turkish_Kayseri | 15.74 |
| 14 | Bulgarian | 16.74 |
| 15 | Macedonian | 17.24 |
| 16 | Syrian | 18.37 |
| 17 | Romanian | 18.58 |
| 18 | Lebanese_Christian | 18.95 |
| 19 | Italian_Bergamo | 18.99 |
| 20 | Lebanese_Druze | 19.19 |
MDLP K23b:
Single Population Sharing:
| # | Population (source) | Distance |
| 1 | Ashkenazi_Jew ( ) | 3.04 |
| 2 | Sicilian_West ( ) | 4.78 |
| 3 | Sicilian_Siracusa ( ) | 5.21 |
| 4 | Sicilian_Agrigento ( ) | 5.45 |
| 5 | French_Jew ( ) | 5.72 |
| 6 | Maltese ( ) | 5.87 |
| 7 | Turk_Jew ( ) | 5.9 |
| 8 | Sephardic_Jew ( ) | 5.98 |
| 9 | Greek_Peloponnesos ( ) | 6.27 |
| 10 | Sicilian_Trapani ( ) | 6.28 |
| 11 | Sicilian_East ( ) | 6.3 |
| 12 | Italian_Jew ( ) | 6.39 |
| 13 | Ashkenazi ( ) | 6.65 |
| 14 | Greek_Northwest ( ) | 7.14 |
| 15 | Greek_Thessaloniki ( ) | 7.53 |
| 16 | Greek_Thessaly ( ) | 7.54 |
| 17 | Bulgarian ( ) | 7.56 |
| 18 | Macedonian ( ) | 7.7 |
| 19 | Moroccan_Jew ( ) | 7.82 |
| 20 | Romanian_Jew ( ) | 8.56 |
And so forth. As can be seen, this is pretty consistent with what we've seen in the PCA I've posted in previous entry:
Ashkenazi Jews, like their genetically closest population, Sephardic Jews, are grouped together as part of the Western Jews cluster, which in a larger scope can be viewed as part of the East Mediterranean Continuum, which again means Ashkenazi Jews cluster genetically with other non-Jewish East Mediterranean populations - Aegean Greek populations (like from Crete, Rhodes etc.), Sicilians, Maltese and Cypriots.
The PCA above is made from academic samples gathered as part of Davidski's Global25 en-devour, and it also includes coordinates for 471 Ashkenazi individuals (colored in grey) from Bray et al. 2010, which as can be seen they all cluster tightly together, as expected from such an endogenic population.
Examining these ~500 Ashkenazi samples to find their lowest genetic distance, the shortest is to the Ashkenazi Global25 reference panel, followed by various East Mediterranean populations:
The same trend can be observed in other PCAs, based on Eurogenes K36 (one of the ADMIXTURE calculators found on GEDmatch) values, using a mix of both academic and non-academic samples:
As can be seen, with open genetic data now available, and people getting their own ancestry profile and raw DNA in less than a $100 these days, it's quite easy to refute the Khazar myth with about 5 minutes work, by simply showing that Ashkenazi Jews cluster with all other Western Jews and tightly to other Mediterranean people.
But don't just take my word for it.
If you're of Ashkenazi origin, or know someone who has done one of those home ancestry tests, ask their raw data, and upload them to GEDmatch.
Run any of the ADMIXTURE calculators.
And if you want to dive deeper, you can research nMonte, PAST3, and the other open source tools that I used to make the PCAs included in this post. There’s a vast world of information that’s easily accessible to anyone curious about genetics and wants to test theories out for themselves.
So far I've used autosomal analyses to refute the Khazar narrative. This means that I’ve dealt with overall ancestry and not with any sex-specific chromosomes.
In my next post, I will tackle uniparental lineages: the X and Y chromosomes that are passed down through generations from father to son and mother to daughter. These can offer more detailed information in some areas that can complement what we’ve already seen. Stay tuned!
The PCA above is made from academic samples gathered as part of Davidski's Global25 en-devour, and it also includes coordinates for 471 Ashkenazi individuals (colored in grey) from Bray et al. 2010, which as can be seen they all cluster tightly together, as expected from such an endogenic population.
Examining these ~500 Ashkenazi samples to find their lowest genetic distance, the shortest is to the Ashkenazi Global25 reference panel, followed by various East Mediterranean populations:
Ashkenazi_G25_reference 1.031630
Maltese 1.995762
Italian_South 2.020773
Sicilian_East 2.166531
Sicilian_West 2.313971
Italian_Abruzzo 2.593161
Italian_Jew 2.757282
Greek_Crete 2.930938
The same trend can be observed in other PCAs, based on Eurogenes K36 (one of the ADMIXTURE calculators found on GEDmatch) values, using a mix of both academic and non-academic samples:
As can be seen, with open genetic data now available, and people getting their own ancestry profile and raw DNA in less than a $100 these days, it's quite easy to refute the Khazar myth with about 5 minutes work, by simply showing that Ashkenazi Jews cluster with all other Western Jews and tightly to other Mediterranean people.
But don't just take my word for it.
If you're of Ashkenazi origin, or know someone who has done one of those home ancestry tests, ask their raw data, and upload them to GEDmatch.
Run any of the ADMIXTURE calculators.
And if you want to dive deeper, you can research nMonte, PAST3, and the other open source tools that I used to make the PCAs included in this post. There’s a vast world of information that’s easily accessible to anyone curious about genetics and wants to test theories out for themselves.
So far I've used autosomal analyses to refute the Khazar narrative. This means that I’ve dealt with overall ancestry and not with any sex-specific chromosomes.
In my next post, I will tackle uniparental lineages: the X and Y chromosomes that are passed down through generations from father to son and mother to daughter. These can offer more detailed information in some areas that can complement what we’ve already seen. Stay tuned!
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