Jovialis
Advisor
- Messages
- 9,313
- Reaction score
- 5,878
- Points
- 113
- Ethnic group
- Italian
- Y-DNA haplogroup
- R-PF7566 (R-Y227216)
- mtDNA haplogroup
- H6a1b7
The idea that Sicilians and Southern Italians already had ancestry similar to ancient Greeks well before the Greek period starting in the 8th Century BC. comes first of all from common sense (I never bought the idea that the southern Italians were similar to the northern Italians of the Iron Age and then moved further south only thanks to the migrations of the imperial age), from archaeology that assumes deep contacts between southern Italy and the Aegean already in the bronze, and from ancient DNA, see recent studies that have analyzed samples of Sicily of the Bronze Age. The Italian cline was formed definitively after the fall of Rome, when in the Middle Ages the pre-unitary states began to form and Italians gruadually stopped for centuries to move from one part of the country to another. Of course, there continued to be small movements. Like that, for example, of the northern Italians who after the Norman conquest settled in Sicily and Basilicata, or like the Albanians, Balkanites and even Slavs who after the Turkish expansion migrated to Italy, especially in southern Italy.
Agreed, the other idea was more the position of racists, and ironically uber-liberals; who are ever the odd-bedfellows in questions of ethnicity, and history. I guess it takes an impartial and informed mind to see that it is a canard.