The presence or absence of genetic heterogeneity in Sicily has long been debated. Through the analysis of the variation of Y-chromosome lineages, using the combination of haplogroups and short tandem repeats from several areas of Sicily, we show that traces of genetic flows occurred in the island, due to ancient Greek colonization and to northern African contributions, are still visible on the basis of the distribution of some lineages. The genetic contribution of Greek chromosomes to the Sicilian gene pool is estimated to be about 37% whereas the contribution of North African populations is estimated to be around 6%.
In particular, the presence of a modal haplotype coming from the southern Balkan Peninsula and of its one-step derivates associated to E3b1a2-V13, supports a common genetic heritage between Sicilians and Greeks. The estimate of Time to Most Recent Common Ancestor is about 2380 years before present, which broadly agrees with the archaeological traces of the Greek classic era....
We always knew Greeks settled and multiplied in Sicily. It was after all the linchpin of Magna Graecia. But what genetic imprint did they have? Were the native Sicels and Sicani numerous? The historical evidence suggests a very strong male skew to the migration, and the procurement in a very utilitarian fashion of wives from the native peoples, in particular the Sicels. The data above apply to Y chromosomal lineages, so this would likely be the strongest impact of the Greek influx you would see in the genome; the autosomal total genome content would be diluted, and the mtDNA would be skewed toward the pre-Greek populations. The North African contribution would likely be due both to the Roman period, when Carthage and Sicily were connected by trade, as well as the later period of Islamic rule when Sicily was a possession of the Aghlabid's.
Combined with the genetic data on the exogenous origins of the Etruscans, we're getting a much better grip on the population movements of antiquity. The great thing about the ancient Mediterranean is that the people were so much like us; Herodotus wrote histories and the Greeks speculated on the origins of their neighbors. And their heirs during the Roman period and the Christian Church along with Arab transmitters handed down these independent extra-genetic data to serve independent methodological pegs to guide and contextualize the genetic data. The nice thing about genetics is that you can say something like "37% Greek" within a particular 95% confidence interval. You might be wrong, but at least you're clearly wrong.
Via Dienekes.
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yes, you're lying. No one who really believes that spells that well or gets through a paragraph without using all caps or an exclamation mark.
Western Sicily was actually quite heavily settled by Carthaginians, they weren't just trading, so you'd expect quite a substantial genetic input.
Isn't Western Sicily where the mafia originated?
Western Sicily was actually quite heavily settled by Carthaginians, they weren't just trading, so you'd expect quite a substantial genetic input.
their genes weren't that much in evidence as i don't believe there was a statistical difference.... in any case, the carthaginian sojourn on sicily was relatively short-lived, as you might recall the romans kicked them out of there (cause belli for one of the punic wars).
I think you would find a greater turnout of Greek genes in the Campagna area than on Sicily. Much considering the area saw an enourmous influx of Greeks during both the conquest of Greece by the Romans and the fall of Byzantium at the hands of the Turks.
Isn't Western Sicily where the mafia originated?
The Mafia did in fact originate in Sicily. You might however have in mind the Calbrian Ndrangheta from the Greek word for bravery and heroism "andragatheia". There are still a few thousand Greeks in southern Italy, called Grekanos by the Italians. In any event Greek descend is not really relevant to being Greek, i.e. Sicilians today are not Greeks while other populations who are not descended from Greeks, like the Arvanites or Vlachs, are.
Is 37% an average figure?
One would probably find relatively little Greek ancestry in parts of western and central Sicily (e.g. Enna, Trapani) and certain areas with very high Greek ancestry in eastern and northeastern Sicily (on par with Calabria across the Straits of Messina).
Markers of Greek identity (Greek language and adherence to Eastern Christianity) survived longest(into the period of Spanish rule)in the area of Messina and Taormina.
Very interesting study. Being an American of Sicilian ancestry myself I've always been interested in which groups of invaders had the greatest impact. I've always speculated that the Greeks made a stronger contribution to the gene pool than most of the other invaders just based on both the history I've read and from just looking at Sicilians. I'm not at all surprised at the much lower figure for North African contributions because it is said that the Arab and Berber Muslims living on the island when the Normans arrived in the 11th century left in large numbers after the Normans completed the conquest of Sicily. Furthermore, Frederick II is said to have expelled some of them a century or so later after repeated uprisings took place across Sicily. Simultaneously, during the 11th and 12th centuries, there was substantial immigration from the Italian mainland and even from France as Romance speech and Catholicism gradually supplanted the Greek and Arabic languages and Orthodox/Muslim religions.
Most Sicilians also don't look very much like North Africans, although this is also partially because today's North Africans have more sub-Saharan admixture via the trans-Saharan slave trade. Medieval Arabs and Berbers were simply Mediterranean Caucasoids who would've only been slightly darker than the southern Europeans they encountered. A similar explanation can be given for the rather minimal North African admixture in Iberians due to the several centuries of Moorish domination there. I think I came across a study that indicated that only about 10% of their gene pool is of North African origin, the rest being derived from the previous inhabitants.