What is the DNA of the Cypriots?

Blog moved here: https://genesoftheancients.wordpress.com/

 

Click here to read more about the DNA of Greeks and Italians-> Ancient Greek ancestry in Greeks and Italians through G25 and qpAdm Analysis

This will be expanded and updated in the future

We lack extensive ancient DNA samples from Cyprus, except for low-coverage Neolithic and Chalcolithic data, which may not be relevant for this. Cypriots share genetic similarities with Roman-era Southern Greeks and West Anatolians, with an additional 25% Levantine admixture. The Anatolian like component in Cypriots aligns more with the Roman-era Aegean population from Southern Greece and West Anatolia than native iron age Central Anatolians, while modern Greek Central Anatolians primarily exhibit the Iron Age Central Anatolian type ancestry.

Modern Cypriot Greeks exhibit a stronger genetic similarity to Roman-era Southern Greeks than to modern Southern Greeks, primarily due to the Slavic and West Balkan admixture in modern mainland Greek populations. Cypriots are more similar genetically to Roman-era Southern Greeks and Dodecanese than to any other population today. After Roman-era Greeks and modern Aegean Greek islanders, Cypriots are also similar genetically to the Lebanese and Calabrians. Cypriots fall in the middle of the genetic spectrum/cline between the Calabrians and Lebanese.

While Southern Greeks today have approximately 25% Slavic admixture, Cypriots possess around 25% Levantine admixture. It's worth noting that Roman-era Southern Greeks shared a more significant genetic similarity with Levantines than with Slavs which is why modern Cypriots are still so similar to Roman-era Southern Greeks. Additionally, the modern Southern Greeks have Illyrian and Thracian admixture, possibly resulting from Thraco-Roman migrations during the late medieval and Ottoman periods. Roman-era Northern Greeks probably already had some Illyrian and Thracian admixture but there aren't any public DNA samples from post Bronze age Northern Greece yet.

The overall Bronze age Mycenaean admixture in Cyprus approximates 25%, which aligns with the levels observed in Crete and the Dodecanese. In contrast, mainland Greek Mycenaean admixture may be slightly lower due to the Slavic and Thraco-Roman migrations diluting Mycenaean admixture. The total Roman era (1-200AD) Greek ancestry in Cypriots is around 65% to 90% depending on if Roman era Cypriots had the same amount of excess Levantine, we are assuming that Cyprus had excess Levantine since then due to geographic proximity.

Nevertheless, the remaining admixture in all modern Greeks continues to exhibit similarities to that of their ancient Greek counterparts, owing to historical mixing with genetically similar neighboring populations. While we lack confirmed Dorian samples, it's reasonable to assume their genetic similarity to Illyrians due to their geographical proximity. Additionally, Thracians and ancient Anatolian DNA samples exhibit significant genetic resemblance to Mycenaean DNA samples.

G25 admixture chart comparing them to Roman era Greeks and Levantines:

Model without Armenian proxy because it seems to overfit on Dodecanese.

 

 

Source populations:

Greek: https://pastebin.com/XTFLtkjm

 

Balkan Thraco-Roman (Early Vlach and Early Albanian) vs Eastern Roman Aegean model:

 

Samples used: https://pastebin.com/eaLC1kED

Closest modern populations genetically to Cypriots:

Including some ancient populations for more context:because medieval mainland Greeks mixed with Slavs, the West Anatolian Greeks received less Slavic admix

 

This is a G25 neolithic chart so keep in mind its not as accurate as qpAdm. I will remake this chart with qpAdm.

Cypriot Greek phenotypes + folk music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fiu3i_Hln-I

What is the Proto Greek and Proto Illyrian ancestry in Mycenaeans and possible Dorian samples?

I will add more to this post in the future... 

We can't be sure who the Proto Greeks were exactly but this seems possible.

The Cetina admix seems to correlate with the Cetina archeological infuences. Nestor's palace is outside of that border and has no Cetina admix, it only shows up at 2.8% later but it could be noise or obviously some mixing later.

Phenotypes of Turkey according to Carleton S. Coon.

Related posts to read (click to open): 

1. Ancient Greek skulls from Athens compared to modern populations

This post is less scientific than my genetic posts, it relies on very old studies.

I don't know what Turkish regions they tested exactly in this skull study. Post was written by Onur

Summary

Going by what Coon writes in his book and draws on his map: the most major phenotype of Turks is Dinarid-Mediterranid. Dinarid and Armenoid come after it. Then come Alpine, Gracile Mediterranid and Pontid (East Mediterranid).

Ancient Greek skulls from Attica compared to modern populations

Related posts to read (click to open): 

1. Ancient Greek ancestry in Greeks and Italians through G25 and qpAdm Analysis
2. Phenotypes of Turkey according to Carleton S. Coon.

I will keep updating this post based on new information i learn about. I will also add more context and details.

This post will be less scientific than the other ones because the skull studies are old and i didn't compare the actual measurements my self, i'm just basing this on their conclusions. In the future i will gather all the skull measurements and compare them with some algorithm.

Summary:

According to many studies, the skulls of modern Southern Greeks, South Italians, and Greek islanders including Cypriot Greeks, show a striking resemblance to the ancient Southern Greeks. The ancient Greeks were characterized by a variety of phenotypes, which over time "homogenized", resulting in a spectrum of intermediate phenotypes observed in the modern Greek population. 

Ancient Ionians such as the Athenians (Attica) and Mycenaeans from Attica seem to look most similar to Cretans, Aegean islanders and Cypriots because Coon says that the Mediterranid types are most similar to Cretan types while the Dinarid/Dinaric-Mediterranean types which consist of 20% of the Mycenaean skulls from Attica are most similar to Cypriots. This makes sense DNA wise because Greek islanders received less Slavic admix than mainland Greeks.

https://archive.org/details/racesofeurope031695mbp/page/144/mode/2up?q=dinaric&view=theater

Basic Whites (East-Mediterranean/Pontid) and Gracile Mediterraneans dominate the ancient Greek series as a whole. Dinaric-Mediterranean, Nordic-Iranian, and Basic White types are nearest to the average metrically, with the small-headed Mediterraneans (Gracile-Med) particularly close in proportions.

Ancient Ionian Greeks not only had phenotypes typical of modern Greeks and South Italians but also shared similarities with other Mediterranean populations, such as the Iberians and the Lebanese. This reflects a broader trend of shared physical characteristics among various groups along the Mediterranean basin.

Chart comparing ancient Greek vs modern population skull results:

Pay attention to the explanations on top to see how the phenotypes formed.