On November 23 in St. Petersburg, at the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera), a seminar was held by the Caucasus Department of the MAE RAS “Caucasus: a crossroads of cultures”.

Esma Golandzia

During the seminar, a speech was given by senior researcher at the Department of Anthropology of the MAE RAS, Candidate of Biological Sciences Rosa Shalyakho.

She presented a report “Gene pools of the Abkhaz-Adygs: history of research and prospects.” Rosa Shalyakho introduced listeners to the history of research into Abkhaz-Adyg populations using a variety of genetic systems. She described key works devoted to this topic, and also cited the conclusions of researchers from Russia (Medical Genetics, UFC) and from abroad.

The main conclusion of all these studies is the same: all peoples speaking languages ​​of the Abkhaz-Adyg group are genetically close. These data confirm their ethnogenesis and linguistic relationship. The identified ancient connections with Western Asia are also reflected in the history of the settlement of the Caucasus. The report also describes published data from foreign laboratories on ancient DNA. In addition, Roza Arambievna told in detail about the prospects for further research concerning the peoples of the Caucasus.