MtDna variability from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age in the Balearic Islands

Bernard Sergent in 1995 suggested that Poladans were the first Ligurians, Italic is more recent and perhaps linked with the Terramare (Polada+Danubian influences). In Catalunya Polada material is associated with brachycephalic skulls of the "alpine type".

We don't have Polada DNA yet but the archaeological record suggest a considerable immigration from the northern side of the Alps to the Po Valley (Barfield 1994) that replaced Remedello and the local Late Bell Beaker. From the North of Italy gradually Polada expanded in Liguria, Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany and the two islands, all territories were Bell Beaker was still dominant (except Corsica).

I'm inclined to see it this way as well.
 
@Cato

What is against to believe in such ancient identification between classic corsicans and those old Sardinian samples is the case that Seneca explains that the Corsi mingled their own language with the languages spoken before there: Greek and Cantabrian (Hispanoceltic language)

https://books.google.es/books?id=CO...y#v=onepage&q=seneca ligurians letter&f=false

IMO Seneca is not 100% reliable, from an historical and archaeological point of view we can rule out a migration of Ligurians and "Spaniards" in the late I millennium BC, at that time Corsica was under Greek and Etruscan control...it's more likely that they both settled in the island many centuries before the VI century BC (Iberians=Megalithics? Ligurians=Poladans?). see: https://books.google.it/books?id=T1...NAhWFORoKHckSDEsQ6AEIIDAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

A quote from R. Zucca-La Corsica romana

I costumi funerari (ma anche alcune tipologie di monumenti a torre) della Corsica meridionale richiamano strettamente le manifestazioni culturali coeve della Gallura, offrendo nel lungo periodo eneolitico e delle fasi dell'età del bronzo varie possibilità di inquadramento del trasferimento di comunità di Corsi in Sardegna ricordato da Pausania. Alquanto problematica ci appare la documentazione relativa agli insediamenti corsi della età del Ferro. In effetti non è rilevabile alcuna rottura tra il Bronzo Finale e l'età del Ferro: l'occupazione delle «torri» e dei «Castelli» prosegue ininterrottamente insieme allo sviluppo della statuaria megalitica

https://core.ac.uk/download/files/380/11693051.pdf
 
(Iberians=Megalithics? Ligurians=Poladans?)

I'll try to explain better :)

In the middle neolithic a type of megalithic grave (megalithic circle or coffre) spread from Catalunya/Southern France to Corsica and north-east Sardinia (Iberians ?). During the metal ages there was no iberian influence in Corsica, in the copper age the terrinien was a local culture, bell beaker is virtually absent except for one fragment in the south, early bronze age was characterized by a material culture similar to that of polada/bonnannaro (first ligurians?), in the middle/late bronze (torrean) there were both nuragic (south) and appennine culture influx, in the early iron age ligurian influences appeared in the north (second ligurian wave?).

From what i know ancient Balearics were almost 100% spanish bell beakers (there were few neolithic settlements in the archipelago), so obviously there were genetic differences between the populations of the two islands..
 
It's not so good to dismiss the information of Seneca so easily, i provide the comment:

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Of_Consolation:_To_Helvia

Seneca comments the changes of peoples in Corsica as an example of population change, he was Hispanoroman and he surely know something about the recently conquered Cantabrians (I think Britons were catched some years before than they), and he was exiled to Corsica some time, so I think that even if it's necessary to take all with caution, the comments must have a valid base: he speaks about wear, head-coverings, shoes and words shared with Cantabrians, but of course I don't think about Cantabrians migrating to the island but better a possible common source for both; as Catabrians used to be Celtics, then the "Celtocorsicans" might come from North Italy, Ligurians could have reached the island much before... or even after them if they were expelled by Gaulish Celts in Old Liguria.

With that said it is why i'm doubtful that a sample of 1000 BC could be easily labeled as a classic "Corsi", and what is more, the reference of Pausanias about Corsi going to Sardinia is after sedition against their "Lybian" conquerors (Carthaginians), so this migration was quite recent if we follow this author.
 
With that said it is why i'm doubtful that a sample of 1000 BC could be easily labeled as a classic "Corsi", and what is more, the reference of Pausanias about Corsi going to Sardinia is after sedition against their "Lybian" conquerors (Carthaginians), so this migration was quite recent if we follow this author.

Don't know if they were the classical Corsi cited by the ancient authors, Germanà label the bronze age people of Gallura (where Santa Teresa is located) as Paleo-Corsi, Lilliu & Ugas call them Corsi..surely south Corsica and Gallura had been culturally connected since the neolithic (if not before). Perhaps there had been a second post-bronze age migration of Corsicans (the ones mentioned by Pausanias?) to Sardinia.

my guess was that nuragic samples from north-west Sardinia (strong Maritime Bell Beaker influence) may share more similarities with the talayotics than those from Gallura
campaniforme2.png

here is an updated map of bell beaker finds in Sardinia (p.9): http://www.lapars.it/site/contenuti/ricerca/contesti/pdf/se10.pdf
map of nuragic tribes: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-p5zfNtREwyM/T_nRyLU-PiI/AAAAAAAAEdg/qeyfhtl2giA/s1600/ug+4.png
 
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