Sicily through GedMatch Harappa World

LeBrok

Elite member
Messages
10,261
Reaction score
1,617
Points
0
Location
Calgary
Ethnic group
Citizen of the world
Y-DNA haplogroup
R1b Z2109
mtDNA haplogroup
H1c
Recently I got a lot of kit numbers for Sicily, and having a bit of time on my hands today I compiled this table.

Europeans# of samplesS-IndianBalochCaucasianNE-EuroSE-AsianSiberianNE-AsianPapuanAmericanBeringianMediterraneanSW-AsianSanE-AfricanPygmyW-African
Sardinia 200231700000048110000
Italy, NE70720340000003160000
Italy, NW50620330000003460000
Italy, Tuscany40725280000003280000
Italy, South508321700000027130100
Sicily4408331600000026140101
Sicily, Messina507361400000026150101
Sicily, Catania808341500000026140101
Sicily, Siracuse309321800000027120101
Sicily, Ragusa307311801000026130102
Sicily, Caltanissetta518341500000026150100
Sicily, Agrigento608331600000026140101
Sicily, Palermo908321700000026140101
Sicily, Trapani507301900000029130100
Greece, mainland150831250000002690000
Greece, Macedonia50831250000002590000
Greece, Peloponnese50931240000002690000
Other mainland50730260000002690000
Greek, Islands, East509381400100023140000
Greek, island and mainland average09341900000024120000
Cyprus411044610000020170000


Quick observations.
- Sicily is fairly uniform genetically, except Trapani and Ragusa which shows more Steppe (?), with less caucasian and more NE Euro. There might be a bias with small sample numbers though.
- Places like Messina resembles Greek Islanders a lot.
- I'm surprised that Greek Macedonia and Peloponnese look exactly the same. Does PCA or other statistics confirm this?
- Can we get kit numbers for Epirus, West Islands and Crete?
 
Last edited:
I got more samples from Sicily so the table got updated. With more samples Palermo shifted toward BA Steppe, joining Trapani's trend.
 
Possible bias with "my sources" of Palermo kit numbers selection.
Sicily, PalermoPopulationS-IndianBalochCaucasianNE-EuroSE-AsianSiberianNE-AsianPapuanAmericanBeringianMediterraneanSW-AsianSanE-AfricanPygmyW-African
Source 15 0 8 35 14 0 0 - 0 0 0 26 15 0 1 0 1
Source 24 0 8 29 19 0 1 0 0 0 0 27 12 0 1 0 0

Samples from "Source 1" are shifted towards Greek Islanders (BA Anatolia), Source 2 samples skewed towards Central Italy. I'm not sure what to think about this. Could be coincidental due to small sample size?
 
I would hesitate to make any predictions about the population genetics of Sicily using samples from Palermo. As the capital, it has absorbed people from all over the island, the mainland, and even abroad.

Messina is even worse. It was hit by three massive earthquakes from the late 19th to early 20th century. The last one so devastated the town itself and killed so many people that the town had to be rebuilt from scratch and was repopulated with people from other parts of Sicily and the mainland. I don't know what we could tell from those results.

Also, unlike areas in the north where there was for centuries a patchwork of states, some ruled by foreign countries, and so it was difficult to move to other "jurisdictions", helping to maintain even sub-regional genetic structures, Sicily has always been one unit. People have been moving around for thousands of years. Even if you can find older people who have all four grandparents from one town, that doesn't mean there wasn't a lot of movement in the past. It's not like testing one mountain valley, as was the case with the Calabrian Greek speakers, who are a very drifted population where everyone is basically everyone else's cousin, and probably a certain admixture signature would be common to all of them.

Anyway, the academic papers so far haven't found a lot of sub-structure in Sicily, although if testing ever becomes popular or the academics have the interest in collecting lots of samples from different regions, some might show up.
 

This thread has been viewed 4883 times.

Back
Top