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.

Did ancient Greeks leave a genetic impact on West Anatolia? qpAdm and G25 analysis

Blog moved here: https://genesoftheancients.wordpress.com/2023/12/10/did-ancient-greeks-leave-a-genetic-impact-on-west-anatolia-qpadm-and-g25-analysis/

Attempting to improve the qpAdm models from the new study: A genetic history of the Balkans from Roman frontier to Slavic migrations

Related post: Modelling the Roman era sample from Marathon Greece on qpAdm and G25

Study: A genetic history of the Balkans from Roman frontier to Slavic migrations

Post by Davidski about the study: https://eurogenes.blogspot.com/2024/01/romans-and-slavs-in-balkans-olalde-et.html

I used the reference/right populations as in that study but expanded upon them to decrease standard errors. If you have any criticism then tell me in the comments so i can improve the models.

The Balkan study didn't use a Balkan proxy for mainland Greeks even though they have a lot of Balkan Y-DNA from both sides of the Balkans, Arvanites/Albanians, Thracian etc, obviously in my models i have to take into account the Balkan admix. The models with South Slavic fit the best when rotating because they take into account the Balkan admx. They could have used a Balkan or South Slavic proxy if they added more right/reference populations + a lot of good quality Rome Imperial samples that are identical to Mugla West Anatolian samples to decrease the Standard Errors.

The "Ottoman Turkish" proxy of the study is also sus, the paper claims that it is central Asian mixed but i can't find any models showcasing how much Central Asian admix it has. My qpAdm models don't fail without Central Asian/East Asian despite using Mongolia_North_N in the reference/right pops. It seems that they might have used some very low Turkic mixed sample that is mostly Byzantine Greek and just tagged it as Ottoman Turkish. If i somehow missed their models about the Turkic admix of the "Ottoman Turkish" samples then tell me in the comments.

If you are curious about the absence of Mycenaean as a source in the qpAdm chart, please scroll down to the qpAdm reference section below for a detailed overview of the models utilized. The selection criteria prioritized models based on their P-values, with preference given to those demonstrating the highest statistical significance. Furthermore, modern Greeks scored less than 5% excess Mycenaean when using the Roman era Aegean proxy.

The Aegean proxy in my analysis consist of samples from the Roman-era Mugla in West Anatolia, along with Imperial Rome samples that are identical to those from Mugla. Furthermore, the Marathon sample from 300 AD southern Greece is identical to those samples. It scores a total of 30-50% Mycenaean admix depending on the proxies used so Mugla samples might be an actual good representative of Roman era Southern Greeks until we get more samples.

Explaining more about the Roman era Aegean proxy here:

Did ancient Greeks leave a genetic impact on West Anatolia? qpAdm and G25 analysis

More work will be be done on these models, i will update them in the future.

qpAdm models:

Scroll down to see all the models i ran.

Low P values (<0.01 / lower than 0.01) indicate poor fit of the tested model

Ancient Greek ancestry in Greeks and Italians through G25 and qpAdm Analysis

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

Related posts to read (click to open):

1. Attempting to improve the qpAdm models from the new study: A genetic history of the Balkans from Roman frontier to Slavic migrations
2. Did ancient Greeks leave a genetic impact on West Anatolia? qpAdm and G25 analysis
3. Modeling the Neolithic ancestry of Modern and Ancient Europeans/West Asians using qpAdm, including ancient Greeks/Mycenaeans, Minoans, Hittites, Phoenicians, Yamnaya
4. Modelling the Roman era sample from Marathon Greece on qpAdm and G25
5. What is the DNA of the Cypriots?
6. Ancient Greek skulls from Athens compared to modern populations

Updated 7/12/2023

Ancient Greek ancestry in Greeks and Italians through G25 and qpAdm Analysis

In this post, I will examine the genetic makeup of modern populations in comparison to the ancient Greeks, analyzing how their DNA differs and identifying any similarities that may exist.

Who is most similar genetically today to the ancient Greeks and Minoans? According to the study:

We estimated FST of Bronze Age populations with present-day West Eurasians, finding that Mycenaeans are least differentiated from populations from Greece, Cyprus, Albania, and Italy (Fig. 2), part of a general pattern in which Bronze Age populations broadly resemble present-day inhabitants from the same region (Extended Data Fig. 7).

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5565772/

Roman era Greek admixture of modern Greeks and Italians (updated 7/12/2023)

The Global25 admixture charts you see below illustrate the percentage mixtures needed to get the closest match to a modern target when comparing their DNA to ancient DNA samples. In simpler terms, they show how much mixing of different ancient DNA samples is required to match the genetic profile of present-day populations. This doesn't necessarily imply a direct descent from the exact population depicted; it could instead be from a population closely related or similar to the one shown.

If you want to see these models recreated in qpAdm then click here: Attempting to improve the qpAdm models from the new study: A genetic history of the Balkans from Roman frontier to Slavic migrations