Originally Posted by
Angela
The authors are quite aware that ancient dna from the Neolithic through to the Middle Ages is necessary to prove exactly how the Southern Italian/Sicilian genome came to be.
They mention it numerous times, including here:
"Differently from the rest of Europe, Greece and Southern Italy appear to havebeen less impacted by this demic dispersal [steppe], being characterized by an additional Iranian related ancestry (16–19). However, the lack of Southern Italian ancient genomes from theNeolithic period keeps open essential questions regarding this major cultural anddemographic transition in the region.
Mindful, however, that we can learn a lot from archaeology, they also state:
"Starting from the mid 3rd millennium Before Current Era(BCE) archaeological evidence allows to outline a network of cultural connections interactingalong the Adriatic-Ionian axis, operating between two or more different core areas andradiating across trajectories of link and expansion which likely triggered small human groupsmovements (20,21). As a matter of fact, from about 4.3 to 4 kya, the well-know Cetina-typecultural elements, also related to the Bell Beaker phenomenon in the North-WesternBalkans, played an active role spreading from the Dalmatian core area Southwards across the Adriatic in Northern Apulia and South-Eastern Italy also influencing the Ionian Islandsand Western Greece (22).Later on, during the 2nd millennium BCE a flourishing and continuous cultural relationshipwas established between Southern Italy and Aegean communities especially from theRecent Bronze Age (3.3 to 3.2 kya) onward (23,24). Although the demographic extent ofthese contacts is not clear, some valuable insights on mobility could be inferred fromceramic crafts. The most recent analytical evidence, relating to the Aegean-type pottery fromthe core sites of Punta di Zambrone (Tyrrhenian Calabria) and Roca Vecchia (SouthernAdriatic Apulia), allow to highlight a strong connection with the Western Greek regions(Ionian Islands, Acarnania, Achaea and Elis) and, to a lesser extent, with Western Crete(25)."
The following is also important:
"In the second half of the 7th century BCE, some of these settlements,specifically in South-Eastern Sicily (Siracusa and Megara Iblea) and Apulia (Taranto), wereattributed to Eastern Peloponnesian founders (31,32)"
The nature of the early settlements, the scale of their demographic impact and geneticlegacy are still a matter of debate. Some genetic studies (33,34) have tried characterise thedemographic impact of these processes in Southern Italy using present-day Italianpopulations, but none of them had the intent of finely dissecting these ancient components.Furthermore, a recent aDNA study (35) showed that Iron Age Apulians were not yetsuperimposable to contemporary Southern Italians, pointing to later processes as keys forthe understanding of present-day genetic diversity in Italy."
However, there is also this:
"In this study, we highlighted a high similarity between Southern Italy and the Peloponnese.In fact, our cluster analysis showed that present-day South-Eastern Peloponnesianpopulations have high genetic affinity with modern Apulians, Calabrians and South-EasternSicilians, all characterised by a cluster composition different from those displayed by otherGreek groups (Fig. 1B, Fig. S3). Additionally, individuals from Western Sicily showsimilarities with populations inhabiting the Western part of Peloponnese (Fig. 1B, Fig. S4).Although establishing the chronological context for this affinity using present-day genomesmight be challenging, our results are in accordance with archaeological and historicalsources that attributed the origin of Greek colonies in South-Eastern Sicily and Apulia frompopulations inhabiting the southern and Eastern parts of the Peloponnese (31,32).Uniparental Y-chromosome findings are also in agreement with these observations revealingEastern Peloponnesian ancestries in East Sicily (34) and shared haplogroups amongmodern-day Greeks and populations living in Southern Italian areas colonised by Greekssuch as the Salento (Apulia) and the Ionian coast of Calabria (56). The lower affinity withother Balkan populations could be attributed to a lower influence by inland populations, suchas Slavic-related people (57) and/or genetic drift in Tsakones and Maniots as suggested by historical sources (39). Therefore, our results imply a high affinity between Southern Italiansand Peloponnesians possibly abrupted very recently by major events of migrations and/oradmixture as the one recorded during the Middle Age period (58). However the observationthat, in some analyses, Southern Italians and ancient Greeks share more alleles thanmodern and ancient Peloponnesians, may suggest a scenario including the preservation ofan ancient population signal in the genome of Southern Italians that was likely diluted byinland migrations in Greece (Fig. 3)."
"Overall, these results are inagreement with the detection of a small proportion of Iranian-related ancestry in SicilianMiddle Bronze Age samples (17), which could be tentatively linked to the spread of theMycenaean culture (59). Interestingly, our results modelled the source of this contribution asa mixture of AN and Iran Chalcolithic ancestries (14). The latter was found consistentlyacross Southern Italy and the Peloponnese, confirming again common genetic sourcesshared between these two regions (Fig. 2)."
All of the above, btw, has been speculated here first based solely on history and archaeology then reinforced by dodecad anayses, and finally further reinforced and clarified by Jovialis' work.
As for the method used. The prior paper on the Peloponnese was in 2017. Obviously, the authors used different software from that available at that time, which was the point of my statement.
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