Present-day Greeks are genetically similar to 2,000 BCE Aegeans from Northern Greece, a scientific study has found. According to the study, there is “Genomic homogeneity across the Aegean during the EBA despite distinct cultural backgrounds.”
EBA Aegeans have higher genetic similarity with present-day southern Europeans, particularly present-day Sardinians. In the classical multidimensional scaling (MDS) analysis, the projected genetic dissimilarities between pairs of individuals estimated by an identity-by-state distance matrix in two dimensions (STAR Methods) show that the four EBA individuals (Mik15, Pta08, Kou01, Kou03) and the two MBA individuals (Log02 and Log04) form two groups (Figure 2) in agreement with the f3 profiles.
The study was conducted by a group of Greek and foreign scientists lead by Christina Papageorgopoulou, Associate Professor and Director of the Physical Anthropology Laboratory, and Anna-Sapho Malaspinas, Associate professor at the Department of Computational Biology hosted by the University of Lausanne and at the Swiss Institute of Bio-Informatics, who published it together at the Biology scientific magazine “Cell.”
Some study excerpts below:
Highlights
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Bronze Age (BA) Helladic, Cycladic, and Minoan genomes from the Aegean were sequenced
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3,000 BCE Aegeans are homogeneous and derive ancestry mainly from Neolithic farmers
- Neolithic Caucasus-like and BA Pontic-Caspian Steppe-like gene flow shaped the Aegean
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Present-day Greeks are genetically similar to 2,000 BCE Aegeans from Northern Greece
Summary
The Cycladic, the Minoan, and the Helladic (Mycenaean) cultures define the Bronze Age (BA) of Greece. Urbanism, complex social structures, craft and agricultural specialization, and the earliest forms of writing characterize this iconic period.
We sequenced six Early to Middle BA whole genomes, along with 11 mitochondrial genomes, sampled from the three BA cultures of the Aegean Sea. The Early BA (EBA) genomes are homogeneous and derive most of their ancestry from Neolithic Aegeans, contrary to earlier hypotheses that the Neolithic-EBA cultural transition was due to massive population turnover. EBA Aegeans were shaped by relatively small-scale migration from East of the Aegean, as evidenced by the Caucasus-related ancestry also detected in Anatolians. In contrast, Middle BA (MBA) individuals of northern Greece differ from EBA populations in showing ∼50% Pontic-Caspian Steppe-related ancestry, dated at ca. 2,600-2,000 BCE. Such gene flow events during the MBA contributed toward shaping present-day Greek genomes.
Images of archaeological site Elati-Logkas
Dataset
Individual samples and radiocarbon dates
| Archaeological site | Sample ID | Time period | Culture | Age (cal BCE) | Shotgun DoC (all) |
Shotgun DoC (5 bp trim) | Capture DoC | Contam. mtDNA (%) | Contam. X (%) | Sex | mtDNA haplogroup | Y haplogroup |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manika | Mik15 | EBA | Early Helladic | 2890–2764 | 3.5 | 2.2 | – | 0.01–0.58 | – | XX | J2b1 | – |
| Petras | Pta08 | EBA | Early Minoan | 2849–2621 | 4.0 | 3.0 | 38.0 | 0.01–0.52 | 1.0–1.1 | XY | H | G2-L156 |
| Koufonisi | Kou01 | EBA | Early Cycladic | 2464–2349 | 2.6 | 2.0 | 42.9 | 0.02–0.97 | 0.6–0.8 | XY | K1a2c | J2a-M410 |
| Kou03 | EBA | Early Cycladic | 2832–2578 | 2.8 | 2.2 | – | 0.18–1.49 | – | XX | K1a | – | |
| Logkas | Log02 | MBA | Middle Helladic | 1924–1831 | 4.3 | 3.4 | 109.1 | 0.02–0.39 | – | XX | H55a | – |
| Log04 | MBA | Middle Helladic | 2007–1915 | 4.9 | 4.0 | – | 0.02–0.94 | – | XX | J1c+16261 | – |
Did they tell you to “come back tomorrow” as well?
Covid numbers haven’t changed in that time either……..
Apart from the fact that 98% of all readers will not be able to understand the true meaning of the above scientifically worded text, I really wonder what those researchers wanted to proof with this DNA study… perhaps that present day Greeks descend directly from the ancient Greeks and therefor are superior to other Europeans? (the story that I always hear when Greeks talk about their assumed importance for our planet).
Well, not much left of that. I think that if the ancient Greek would see what the modern Greek did to Greece they would be really p*ssed off.
The whole Western Balkans is pretty much the same as Greece in terms of kleptomania, nepotism and corruption. I know, I am from Serbia.
serious outbreak of kleptomania, nepotism and corruption in Austria too. Seems to be a pandemic
Seems to be a global pandemic…I guess it is as old as the world.