Alexandros
Regular Member
- Messages
- 66
- Reaction score
- 10
- Points
- 0
- Ethnic group
- Greek
- Y-DNA haplogroup
- R1a1a (R-L1029)
- mtDNA haplogroup
- H14
I am on a search to identify Italian (mainly Venetian, as well as Genoese and Pisan) genetic lines in the Cypriot population. Italian populations have resided in Cyprus for almost four centuries and some Cypriots claim direct ancestry from those people. According to historical evidence, the majority of Italian residents of Cyprus were forced to flee the island after the Ottoman Turks defeated the Venetians and captured Cyprus in 1571. A few were allowed to stay behind however and have subsequently mixed with the local population. The main evidence I am searching is presence of Y-DNA haplogroup R1b in the Cypriot population. This haplogroup is almost nonexistent among indigenous Cypriots and thus any R1b is likely to have been introduced by the Italians. I have managed to identify 2 Greek Cypriots with an R1b haplogroup! Both of them are of subclade R1b1b2a (one is R1b1b2a plain and the other one a more detailed R1b1b2a1a2d3*). I was unable to find any information about this subclade on the web. What I would like to know is whether this R1b subclade could be identified as medieval Venetian/Genoese/Pisan. The other 2 possibilities for the source of R1b in Cyprus is via the ancient Greek migrations or via the several Armenian migrations from the 6th century AD onward.