Nature. 2017 Aug 2. pii: nature23310. doi: 10.1038/nature23310 |
Genetic origins of the Minoans and Mycenaeans. |
Lazaridis I1, Mittnik A2, Patterson N3, Mallick S4, Rohland N5, Pfrengle S6, Furtwängler A7, Peltzer A8, Posth C9, Vasilakis A10, McGeorge PJP11, Konsolaki-Yannopoulou E12, Korres G13, Martlew H14, Michalodimitrakis M15, Özsait M16, Özsait N17, Papathanasiou A18, Richards M19, Roodenberg SA20, Tzedakis Y21, Arnott R22, Fernandes DM23, Hughey JR24, Lotakis DM25, Navas PA26, Maniatis Y27, Stamatoyannopoulos JA28, Stewardson K29, Stockhammer P30, Pinhasi R31, Reich D32, Krause J33, Stamatoyannopoulos G34 |
Abstract The origins of the Bronze Age Minoan and Mycenaean cultures have puzzled archaeologists for more than a century. We have assembled genome-wide data from 19 ancient individuals, including Minoans from Crete, Mycenaeans from mainland Greece, and their eastern neighbours from southwestern Anatolia. Here we show that Minoans and Mycenaeans were genetically similar, having at least three-quarters of their ancestry from the first Neolithic farmers of western Anatolia and the Aegean, and most of the remainder from ancient populations related to those of the Caucasus and Iran. However, the Mycenaeans differed from Minoans in deriving additional ancestry from an ultimate source related to the hunter-gatherers of eastern Europe and Siberia, introduced via a proximal source related to the inhabitants of either the Eurasian steppe or Armenia. Modern Greeks resemble the Mycenaeans, but with some additional dilution of the Early Neolithic ancestry. Our results support the idea of continuity but not isolation in the history of populations of the Aegean, before and after the time of its earliest civilizations. |
Publikations ID: 28783727 Quelle: öffnen |