More on Ethnogenesis in Southern Europe

Genes in der news.

A preprint, emphasis added:

A series of studies have documented how Steppe pastoralist-related ancestry reached central Europe by at least 2500 BCE, while Iranian farmer-related ancestry was present in Aegean Europe by at least 1900 BCE. However, the spread of these ancestries into the western Mediterranean where they have contributed to many populations living today remains poorly understood. We generated genome-wide ancient DNA from the Balearic Islands, Sicily, and Sardinia, increasing the number of individuals with reported data from these islands from 3 to 52. We obtained data from the oldest skeleton excavated from the Balearic islands (dating to ~2400 BCE), and show that this individual had substantial Steppe pastoralist-derived ancestry; however, later Balearic individuals had less Steppe heritage reflecting geographic heterogeneity or immigration from groups with more European first farmer-related ancestry. In Sicily, Steppe pastoralist ancestry arrived by ~2200 BCE and likely came at least in part from Spain as it was associated with Iberian-specific Y chromosomes. In Sicily, Iranian-related ancestry also arrived by the Middle Bronze Age, thus revealing that this ancestry type, which was ubiquitous in the Aegean by this time, also spread further west prior to the classical period of Greek expansion. In Sardinia, we find no evidence of either eastern ancestry type in the Nuragic Bronze Age, but show that Iranian-related ancestry arrived by at least ~300 BCE and Steppe ancestry arrived by ~300 CE, joined at that time or later by North African ancestry. These results falsify the view that the people of Sardinia are isolated descendants of Europe's first farmers. Instead, our results show that the island's admixture history since the Bronze Age is as complex as that in many other parts of Europe.

So, let’s assume this work is, at least in the broadest sense, accurate about Sardinia. Thus, the idea that Sardinians are merely unmixed Neolithic EEF farmers is false. This puts all the other work in the field showing Sardinians as of an unmixed ancestral component into question – or does it merely confirm what I have written, that the outcome of population genetics measurement depends on how it is performed?  Possibly the latter.  If you stop the analysis at one level, Sardinians are unmixed; however, if you dig deeper and look for more ancient ancestral components, with different reference samples (this is ALWAYS the key – it is always about the parentals), then different results are obtained.  One wonders though how long Der Movement will keep on mindlessly repeating - “Sardinians are pure EEF.”

More important perhaps is the “Iranian-related ancestry” - “which was ubiquitous in the Aegean”- being found in Sicily as far back as the Middle Bronze Age. Once again, my suppositions are supported, as I have suggested that the “Near Eastern/Middle Eastern, Southwest Asian, West Asian,” etc. ancestral components identified by the ancestry testing companies (and by some studies) in Mediterranean Europe, including the West Mediterranean islands, are for the most part of ancient origin, present in this part of Europe for thousands of years.  Hence, it is part of the ethnogenesis of various European ethnies, and should be considered indigenous European ancestry.  If the ancestry testing companies (and others) would properly include a broader range of populations as parentals, then results that cause spontaneous sweaty ejaculation among Nutzis would be presented quite differently.  Note the part of the abstract “many other parts of Europe” to describe ancient “admixture history.”  There are a variety of ancient ancestral components in Europe dating back thousands of years, if not by the Bronze Age then at least by the Classical Period. These are all elements contributing to the ethnogenesis of extant European ethnies.

The authors do state in the main text that population modeling demonstrates that some degree of North African ancestry was added on to these Western Mediterranean islands (e.g., Sardinia, Sicily) after the Bronze Age, some of which may be modern – although the authors talk of the “last two millennia.”  This minority ancestry – which is curiously absent from many ancestry testing company results and which therefore may be another artifact of population modeling – is, to the extent that it is real, part of the ethnogenesis of these European populations.   

However, the question of modeling influencing results, and the reality of those results, can be re-examined by taking another look at that table from Durocher’s latest onanism material.

Note that Germans are being used as the European component representative for the admixture analysis, and despite that, Northern and Central European populations are still getting percentages ascribed to “Saharawi” and “Qatari” components.  Given clinal gene frequencies, it is not surprising that Southern European populations are modeled as having North African and Near Eastern ancestral components compared to Germans, but what to make of, for example, such ancestry in Swedes, Norwegians, Scots, and the Irish?  I presume that Der Movement does not believe that such populations have any modern admixture from North African or Near Eastern sources. Therefore, the findings for those populations are artifacts from the modeling, ancient admixture, or both.  If that is so, then any “real” modern admixture in the Southern European populations has to be whatever small percentages in excess of that found in Northern and Central Europe, and even there, the clinal gene frequency issue has to be considered.  The same principles hold for the modeling in the preprint discussed above.

Consider also the old saying – “if you look for something, you will find it.”  Some population geneticists seem to have an agenda of wanting to find admixture in Europeans deriving from sources akin to those groups currently constituting the migrant invasion of our home continent.  Thus, from the preprint, emphasis added:

Thus, rather than being an island sheltered from admixture and migration since the Neolithic, Sardinia, like almost all other regions in Europe has, been a site for major movement and mixtures of people.

You are all admixed!  Resistance is futile!  You will be assimilated!