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VALENTINO ROMANO

The Greeks in the West: genetic signatures of the Hellenic colonisation in southern Italy and Sicily.

  • Authors: Tofanelli, S.; Brisighelli, F.; Anagnostou, P.; Busby, G.; Ferri, G.; Thomas, M.; Taglioli, L.; Rudan, I.; Zemunik, T.; Hayward, C.; Bolnick, D.; Romano, V.; Cali, F.; Luiselli, D.; Shepherd, G.; Tusa, S.; Facella, A.; Capelli, C.
  • Publication year: 2016
  • Type: Articolo in rivista (Articolo in rivista)
  • OA Link: http://hdl.handle.net/10447/264193

Abstract

Greek colonisation of South Italy and Sicily (Magna Graecia) was a defining event in European cultural history, although the demographic processes and genetic impacts involved have not been systematically investigated. Here, we combine high-resolution surveys of the variability at the uni-parentally inherited Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA in selected samples of putative source and recipient populations with forward-in-time simulations of alternative demographic models to detect signatures of that impact. Using a subset of haplotypes chosen to represent historical sources, we recover a clear signature of Greek ancestry in East Sicily compatible with the settlement from Euboea during the Archaic Period (eighth to fifth century BCE). We inferred moderate sex-bias in the numbers of individuals involved in the colonisation: a few thousand breeding men and a few hundred breeding women were the estimated number of migrants. Last, we demonstrate that studies aimed at quantifying Hellenic genetic flow by the proportion of specific lineages surviving in present-day populations may be misleading.