By
Dr. Ricardo Duchesne
There is a mistaken assumption that the Ottoman occupation of Greece from the mid-15th century to the early 19th century had a major genetic impact on Greece, resulting in strong admixture with Turkic genes. Don't believe it. The Ottomans acted mainly as rulers, military overseers, and tax collectors. There was no Turkic settler population. The Greeks maintained social separation.
Ottoman rulers emphasized control and taxation (via the conscription of Christian boys into the Janissary elites, leading to their Islamization and separation from their Greek origins). But this involved a small number of Greeks. Greeks were left to self-govern themselves under the Orthodox Church.
Conversions to Islam among a few Greeks did occur (for tax relief or status), but these converts integrated into the Turkish identity. Turks did not integrate into Greek society. There are now genetic studies showing "minimal Turkish admixture in modern Greeks".Modern Greeks exhibit "strong continuity with ancient populations." Greeks share approximately 70-80% of their DNA with Indo-European Mycenaeans (Bronze Age Greeks) and Anatolian farmers who settled in ancient Greece before the Mycenaeans arrived.
After this genetic influx, the only external genetic influence into Greece came from Slavic medieval migrations around the 6th-10th centuries, not Ottoman Turks. The Slavic gene flow is evident particularly in the northern regions of Greece, Macedonia and Thessaly, estimated at 15 to 20%. In the southern regions, Slavic admixture is estimated at 5-10%. The Anatolian farmer migration occurred around 7000-6000 BC. This Anatolian influence is evident in many regions of Europe, particularly the south. It is known as the "Early European Farmer" (EEF) ancestry.These Anatolian Neolithic farmers were Caucasian, not Semitic, not Levantine, not Phoenicians or Hebrews. They represented a distinct "West Eurasian population", deriving most of their ancestry (80-90%) from local Anatolian hunter-gatherers. Their languages included "pre-Indo-European substrates" (ancestral to Hittite).
Yes, they were darker than modern Europeans, but all Europeans were "darker" back in prehistorical times, since the European-white race evolved in the course of time in the continent of Europe. There is no such thing as a primeval white population. Lighter skin pigmentation in Europe, after all, evolved gradually through selection and later admixtures over thousands of years. The Anatolian Neolithic farmers, who migrated into Europe (and Greece) already carried some alleles associated with lighter skin, though, overall, these farmers had olive to medium brown skin tones. The shift toward lighter skin in Europe, including among Greeks, occurred gradually due to lower UV radiation levels in Europe as compared to the Near East. These "white skin" variants were already present at "low frequencies" in some Neolithic populations in Europe, increasing in frequency in the course of time, particularly in northern Europe, where selection pressure was stronger due to lower UV exposure.
NOTE:
Omaimon Paradosis does not full agree with this article (Fex the info about Slavic gene is obviously exaggerated). But in general its in the right the direction about the Greek DNA through the centuries
SEE ALSO:
Carleton S. Coon - The Races of Europe
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