Ancient Balkan Modern Italian Genetics

Comparison.

See this.

And note this comment:

Sarah Nikas said...

Those are also some pretty neat maps. I agree that it looks like a modern or near modern italian profile seemed to be more widespread in the ancient world. Kind of pathetic that the same profile is now spoken down upon for not conforming to the genetics of modern central or slavic europe like many of these regions now do.

Of particular interest: "Kind of pathetic that the same profile is now spoken down upon for not conforming to the genetics of modern central or slavic europe..."

Quite right. Previous genetic studies have shown one major genetic gradient in Europe is crossing the Alps (so much for those "Celto-Germanic Northern Italians").  Two major reasons for that are: (1) the geographical boundary of the Alps, and (2) Italy had a high population density since ancient times and was thus less influenced even by those migrations that crossed the Alps (or crossed the Mediterranean Sea barrier from the other direction).  Thus, Italy was less affected by demographic events that strongly influenced the bulk of (continental) Europe, such as Slavic migrations, etc., resulting in the aformentioned genetic gradient. As Nikas suggests these differences are "spoken down upon" (e.g., likely ascribed to "Roman slaves" or "Moors") while they in fact, as the Italianthro post suggests, reflect ancient Southeastern European demographic influences.

Now, true enough, from the biopolitical standpoint, all of this "where do modern genetics derive from" is essentially irrelevant; all that matters is what the modern genetics are and how they affect EGI. However, the "movement" is obsessed with "where do modern genetics derive from" and from that perspective it is relevant to note the points made in this post (and the points made by Italianthro and Nikas).