for CTG and others interested: Aryans: origins, genes and race in Iranians

Part I

Some asked what was the origin of "Aryans".

first of all, who are the Aryans? Although we believed that the term
applied only to those Indo-Europeans that trekked eastwards across the
steppes of Central Asia and ended up into Iran and India, the term
Aryan "noble" seems to have been the root of all the people we now call
"Indo-European", the latter being a modern appelation.
Some believe that the origin of the word "Eire" (Ireland), descnded
from the Celtic-speaking tribe of Errain may also refer to the term
"Aryan". Also, the term is found in "Aristocracy", because the Aryans
were warriors who, after the Bronze and Iron ages established a
military rule over many non-Indo-European speaking people from Europe
to Asia and subsequently became the ruling elite.
One can also see the term "Aryan" in the ancient Hellenic (Greek) and
Illyrian "Ariothez" and Celtic "Aire".


What was the origin of the Aryans?
while it is more or less possible to trace the homeland and spread o
fmany of the "Caucasian" races of Mankind, it is dificult to do so for
the Aryans.
Physical anthropologists Gunther, Wheeler, Lahovary and Coon among
others have looked for answers by refering to the skeletons and
anthropometric measurements of ancient skeletons in order to see
exactly when the "Nordic" type associated initially wh the original
Aryans came into being.

Apparently, no physical anthropologist has been able to find evidence
of a Nordic race (which means that it is a result of post-glacial
mutation) prior to 8,000 years ago, unliek the descendants of the
"Brunn/Cro-Magnon type or race who first appeared in Europe 40,000
years ago, and still continue to constitute major components of
European populations, especially among the Irish, Germans,
Scandinavians, Uralic speakers and some Berbers even.
linguistically, Cavalli-Sforza and others have suggested a date between
6,000 to a maximum of 8,500 years ago, with most people believing
Indo-Europeans to be no older than 8,500 years old, both genetically
and linguistically.

The homeland of Aryans is also difficult to assert and a number of
suggestions were made, from Anatolia to the Balkans but again, we have
to look at what the majority of scholars believe and the overwhelming
majoirty believe it to be in an area between the eastern Urkaine and
southeastern Russia. Supporters of this view include Khazanov,
Danilenko, Bosh-Gimpera, Goergiev and so forth.
Geneticist Cavalli-Sforza believes that according to mtDNA research,
the Aryan/Nordic population expanded first out of what is the eastern
Ukraine and southern Russia north of the Caucasus.

Around 8,000 years ago, the Aryans (Indo-Europeans) began to expand out
of their homeland. Some went west where they encountered the
descendants of the Paleolithic descendants of the Aurignacian and
Magdalenian cultures, still living in eastern and Central Europe. Those
that went North mixed wth them and formed the Germanic nations. Others
began a trek eastwards and the earliest example of Aryans in Asia comes
from the Afanasievo culture, dated some 5,500 years ago; The founders
of this culture seem to have been the forerunners of the TOkharians, or
perhaps, as of yet unidentified IE speakers.

What concerns us here however, is the Iranians. The Indo-Aryan identity
was forged no earlier than 4,700 years ago and by that time, the horse
had been domesticated and so allowed the Aryans to travel eastwards at
a faster rate than previously. By that time, the Aryans were in what is
now Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the "Aryana Vaeja" of the Avesta.

Part II will reveal information on genes, race and racial identity of
IRANIAN Aryans as they were observed by early historians and writers.
I will include a list of sources at the end of part II or part III
depending on how long this takes.

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