The following blog post was written by Giles:
I have had extended correspondence with Dr. Eran Elhaik, which has been very appreciated. When I get into a subject, I go deep. If I am unclear about results, I will not throw them aside in frustration but will seek to understand them better. I now understand a few types of tests, and I hope it will be helpful to others, too. I have listed them below in categories. In the following, I would like to share what I have learned.
Culture tests
Cultural tests comprise the majority of Ancient DNA Hub tests. A ‘culture’ of a particular group of people whose DNA is extracted from their skeletons is compared to the DNA of the customer (i.e., my own DNA), and the similarity is calculated as whatever it shows in the results. The results do not show similarity due to ethnic differences, but ethnicity may be similar because of DNA similarities with the historical individuals.
The reason I may have ended up with a similarity percentage much higher than 10%, for example, with China: People of the Good Earth, is that I would have had relations with relatives of those individuals, as it is that far back, before the European Bronze Age. That is why I probably have other tests from thousands of years ago into the Bronze age, and before then, that have higher similarity to my DNA due to the fact that we all have almost countless ancestors, which would have mixed with others (but also likely with cousins and family relatives due to far less population levels further back thousands of years ago).
The Ancient British Isles Ancestry test also has its own 'culture test’ results in the 'ancient times' section. In that section, there were different 'English Saxon' categories (such as England Early Medieval-Saxon, England Saxon, and England Kent AngloSaxon Early Medieval, etc.) with different levels of percentages of similarities, some high (61.9% average as there were localities in that one) and some lower (such as 25.8%). I also took a separate Saxons of Medieval England test, and the results showed that about 11 individuals had similarities ranging from 32% to 47%, while the rest had no similarities at all. I took it that it is because these are different 'Saxons' tested from those tested in the British Isles test. A bit like Scottish Vikings in the British Isles test and Vikings in the Vikings of Scotland culture test.
Gene Pool Tests
There are several gene pool tests on the Ancient DNA Hub. They differ from cultural tests in that they use specialized gene pools to break down ancient ancestries in specific regions or, sometimes, across the whole world. The idea is to offer different levels of resolution into your ancestry, starting from a global one to the most specific ones. And no one can do a one-size-fits-all test because it is biologically impossible. Just like you have a telescope and a microscope, you need different tests to answer different questions.
The 50 rare Gene Pools and Mythological global ancestry tests offer you a macro view of your ancestry (these are your telescopes). They use different populations, for which I surprisingly got the exact same results for most, except the Persian, Chinese, and Indian (and Assyrian, of course). There are some differences in population between the mythological and the 50 gene pool tests. For example, Greco-Roman rather than Aegean. The reason Aegean and 'Greco-Roman' are the same is that their ethnicities are so intertwined.
After you took them, you can zoom in on specific regions with dedicated gene pool tests, as I did in the following (these are your microscopes).
The Ancient Semitic Ancestry gene pools are discussed based on the languages they spoke rather than the geographic regions they originated in. The 8% Ethiopic in my Gene pool composition for the Semitic test is part of the Levantine ancestry, as I would have had Levantine ancestors who spoke Ethiopic and some who spoke Hebrew (5.1%). Regarding the 1.3% Moabite and 2.7% Ammonite, it is possible that these gene pools are either noise or legitimate ancestry, given the percentages are under 4%. Percentages at 4.0% or below are likely noise unless there is evidence from other tests. That is the challenge. However because I have other tests with Semitic (except the 10 Gene Pools) the 4.1% Israelites with Ancient Semitic Ancestry test results I have is confirmation of ancient Semitic ancestry. This is a challenge with small percentages, but it can be resolved if there are two or more others with a small percentage of the gene pool. Indeed, the Semitic ancestry would match with 4.1% Israelites in both the Mythological and 50 Gene pool tests, and 1.6% Assyrian in the Mythological test. I would count the Moabite, Ammonite, and Assyrian as part of the broader Semitic heritage rather than specifically those gene pools, unless other tests specify them.
Returning to the Ancient British Isles Ancestry test (which is a combination of both gene pool and cultural trust), the results for gene pools, along with Semitic and 50 Gene pools (and mythological global), can be read together, as they intermix with all gene pools. The British Gene pools would have overlap and intertwining of DNA with, for example, Aegean or Nordic. However, the parallelism of similar percentages between, for example, Gaelic-Brythonic and Nordic is not exact, because while there is likely Nordic influence, there would have been other influences, such as Celtic.
This means that my British gene pools are admixed with gene pools from 10 gene pools test, 50 gene pool tests, and the Mythological - global ones too. Semitic was mixed into it, too, in England and Wales to a smaller degree from knowledge, but more so in Scotland. This means that my region, which I am predominantly from ethnically, and which I focus on, is the Ancient British Isles Test, and I zoom out to the global regions (mythological and 50 gene pools) to look at influences on the British gene pools. Indeed, this same principle of focusing on a region and zooming out applies to the Ancient Semitic Ancestry Test as well. The Ethiopic, Hebrew, and other Semitic-speaking peoples would have been influenced by regions beyond Africa and the Levant. The British Isles test is the main go-to Ethnic composition I look at since this is my ethnic makeup, but there are many influences from other gene pools outside of Britain that shape British gene pools. However, you can apply this same principle if your known ancestry is outside of Britain with the Native American tests or the Semitic test. I am sure that there will be new tests on the way for different specific regions.
Finally, the 50 gene pools test is much better than the 10 gene pools test in that the regions are more granular, but the 10 gene pools test is superior to the 50 gene Pools test in that they present different populations, for example, Bell-Beaker and Yamnaya, which the 50 gene pools test does not do. No one-size-fits-all, but all the tests have their strengths in different areas. So get different tests to have a better idea of your genetic influences and where your genetic heritage is from.
Giles is an affiliate partner of Ancient DNA Hub, using his website, where you can read more about his discoveries:
