DNA test on continuity between Ancient-Mod.Greeks?

[lycaon]

Hallo to all, as I'm new to the forum i suspect that this subject has been brought up again, so my sincere apologies in such a case. Word is that there was a DNA test that proved genetic continuity of 97% between Ancient and modern Greeks, if there is actually one could someone point an on line source of it?

Thanks in advance.

[Dean]

I believe the elusive (hard to find) study was conducted by the University of Milan. I read this, I believe, on a message board and searched for the study, but I couldn't find it. If I remember correctly, the study involved the comparison of modern Greeks to Neolithic inhabitants of the Greek peninsula.

The only studies, to my knowledge, that seek to verify anthropological continuity in Greece were conducted and overseen by Aris Poulianos. There are Y DNA studies on Greek populations, but these are from major Greek cities and haven't been done, to my knowledge, to attempt to prove genetic continuity in Greece.

It's easy to see that modern Greek phenotypes are largely representative of ancient Greeks. It's not likely that any conquering force invading Greek lands was either large enough to eliminate Greeks or had the desire to eliminate Greeks--you can't have an empire without subjects.

There are areas in Greece of significant interest from a population genetics study perspective--how many times have I said this? In the Peloponnese, there is Arcadia, which has a tangled history, and relatively isolated places such as inner Mani and the Tsakonian-speaking region on the Peloponnesian east coast. The genetic studies to date are few and small and again, only involve major cities.

[buddyrydell]

lycaon said:

Hallo to all, as I'm new to the forum i suspect that this subject has been brought up again, so my sincere apologies in such a case. Word is that there was a DNA test that proved genetic continuity of 97% between Ancient and modern Greeks, if there is actually one could someone point an on line source of it?

Thanks in advance.

I'm also aware of such a study that illustrated the continuity between ancient and modern Greeks. A look at Greek phenotypes today seems to confirm this. Interestingly, not only is there strong continuity between ancient and modern Greeks, but through this ancient Greek connection, modern Greeks are shown to be closely related to other peoples with a considerable Greek past, such as the southern Italians/Sicilians and western Turks. As we know, these areas were collectively referred to as Magna Graecia (Greater Greece) during ancient Greek times.

[Vitor]

Of course they are the same!

some "ancient" historians (Before XXI century), gaved too much importance to invading armies...

extensive Genocide did only occur in the XX century, before that, some kills ok...but not extensive genocides.

So greeks are the same ones!

[One Humanity]

The Mongols in China and the whites in America did actually kill a lot of people before.

[Crimson Guard]

The Romans where esspecially noted for wiping out people in the millions like in Gaul(France) and Dacia-Thracia(Romania).

[Vitor]

The monguls did that...
but if the opposing force fall without a fight, they would be safe...

Romans, didn't kill people by the millions, everone knew the power of rome, some regions fought nevertheless (like in iberia), but surrendered, the romans were smart, they didn't kill everyone around.
The lusitanos (people living in southwest iberia), were defeated when Roma killed their's leader Viriatus.

Romans did lost all previous fights with him (viriatus)...
after that they used those Iberians for the roman army, the typical sword of the romans after this was the Iberian sword!

If they had killed all the people they conquered (even 1/3 of them), Roma would get a very weak empire...
;D

[Dienekes]

Lycaon, there has been no such test. There are lots of stories floating around, but so far there has been no major genetic study of ancient Greek cranial remains. Techniques for extracting DNA from bones are still at the very early stages, because (i) DNA gets damaged in bones, (ii) there is very little of it preserved in bones, and (iii) depending on where a skull has been before it gets to the DNA lab, it's possible that it's "contaminated", i.e., that it has some modern biological material in it.

Nevertheless, there will probably be studies on Ancient Greek skeletal remains in the next few years. We must also remember that the Ancient Greeks lived throughout the Mediterranean and Black Sea in classical times, so we shouldn't expect to see a single homogeneous ancient Greek DNA gene pool, although some genetic markers were probably frequent in them.