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Genetic history of Italy
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Genetic history of Italy
The genetic history of Italy includes information around the formation, ethnogenesis, and other DNA-specific information about the inhabitants of Italy. Modern Italians mainly descend from the ancient peoples of Italy, including Indo-European speakers (Romans and other Latins, Falisci, Picentes, Umbrians, Oscans, Sicels, Sicani, Elymians, and Adriatic Veneti, as well as Magno-Greeks, Cisalpine Gauls and Iapygians) and pre-Indo-European speakers (Etruscans, Ligures, Rhaetians, Euganei, Nuragic peoples). Based on DNA analysis, there is evidence of regional genetic substructure and continuity within modern Italy dating back to antiquity.
In their admixture ratios, Italians are similar to other Southern Europeans of the Mediterranean region, and that is being of primarily Neolithic Early European Farmer ancestry, along with smaller, but still significant, amounts of Mesolithic Western Hunter-Gatherer, Bronze Age Steppe pastoralist (Indo-European speakers) and Chalcolithic or Neolithic Caucasus/Iranian-related ancestry. According to multiple genome-wide studies, Southern Italians are closest to modern Greeks, while Northern Italians are closest to the Spaniards, the Portuguese, and the Southern French. There is Bronze/Iron Age Middle Eastern and Western Asian admixture in Italy, related to Caucasian hunter-gatherers and Iranian Neolithic-related ancestry, with a lower incidence in Northern Italy compared with Central Italy and Southern Italy. North African admixture dated to the Bronze Age, the Iron Age and the Middle Ages is found in Southern Italy, with the highest incidence in Sicily and Sardinia.
Multiple DNA studies confirmed that genetic variation in Italy is clinal, going from the Eastern to the Western Mediterranean. Reflecting the history of Europe and the broader Mediterranean basin, the Italian populations have been found to be made up mostly of the same ancestral components, albeit in different proportions, from the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age settlements of Europe.
The genetic gap between northern and southern Italians is filled by an intermediate Central Italian cluster, creating a continuous cline of variation that mirrors geography. The only exceptions are some minority populations (mostly Slovene minorities from the region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia) who cluster with the Slavic-speaking Central Europeans in Slovenia, as well as the Sardinians, who are clearly differentiated from the populations of both mainland Italy and Sicily. A study on some linguistic and isolated communities residing in Italy revealed that their genetic diversity at short (0–200 km) and intermediate distances (700–800 km) was greater than that observed throughout the entire European continent.
The genetic distance between Northern and Southern Italians, although large for a single European nationality, is similar to that between the Northern and the Southern Germans. Northern and Southern Italians began to diverge as early as the Late Glacial, and appear to encapsulate at a smaller scale the cline of genetic diversity observable across Europe.
Modern humans appeared during the Upper Paleolithic. Specimens of Aurignacian age were discovered in the cave of Fumane and date back about 34,000 years. During the Magdalenian period, the first humans from the Pyrenees populated Sardinia.
During the Neolithic period, farming was introduced by people from the east and the first villages were built. Weapons became more sophisticated and the first objects in clay were produced. In the late Neolithic era the use of copper spread, and villages were built over piles near lakes. In Sardinia, Sicily and a part of Mainland Italy the Beaker culture spread from Western and Central Europe. Sicily also suffered the influences of the Aegean in the Mycenaean period.
During the Late Bronze Age the Urnfield Proto-Villanovan culture appeared in Central and Northern Italy. It is characterized by the rite of cremation of dead bodies, which originated from Central Europe. The use of iron began to spread. In Sardinia, the Nuragic civilization flourished.
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Genetic history of Italy
The genetic history of Italy includes information around the formation, ethnogenesis, and other DNA-specific information about the inhabitants of Italy. Modern Italians mainly descend from the ancient peoples of Italy, including Indo-European speakers (Romans and other Latins, Falisci, Picentes, Umbrians, Oscans, Sicels, Sicani, Elymians, and Adriatic Veneti, as well as Magno-Greeks, Cisalpine Gauls and Iapygians) and pre-Indo-European speakers (Etruscans, Ligures, Rhaetians, Euganei, Nuragic peoples). Based on DNA analysis, there is evidence of regional genetic substructure and continuity within modern Italy dating back to antiquity.
In their admixture ratios, Italians are similar to other Southern Europeans of the Mediterranean region, and that is being of primarily Neolithic Early European Farmer ancestry, along with smaller, but still significant, amounts of Mesolithic Western Hunter-Gatherer, Bronze Age Steppe pastoralist (Indo-European speakers) and Chalcolithic or Neolithic Caucasus/Iranian-related ancestry. According to multiple genome-wide studies, Southern Italians are closest to modern Greeks, while Northern Italians are closest to the Spaniards, the Portuguese, and the Southern French. There is Bronze/Iron Age Middle Eastern and Western Asian admixture in Italy, related to Caucasian hunter-gatherers and Iranian Neolithic-related ancestry, with a lower incidence in Northern Italy compared with Central Italy and Southern Italy. North African admixture dated to the Bronze Age, the Iron Age and the Middle Ages is found in Southern Italy, with the highest incidence in Sicily and Sardinia.
Multiple DNA studies confirmed that genetic variation in Italy is clinal, going from the Eastern to the Western Mediterranean. Reflecting the history of Europe and the broader Mediterranean basin, the Italian populations have been found to be made up mostly of the same ancestral components, albeit in different proportions, from the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age settlements of Europe.
The genetic gap between northern and southern Italians is filled by an intermediate Central Italian cluster, creating a continuous cline of variation that mirrors geography. The only exceptions are some minority populations (mostly Slovene minorities from the region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia) who cluster with the Slavic-speaking Central Europeans in Slovenia, as well as the Sardinians, who are clearly differentiated from the populations of both mainland Italy and Sicily. A study on some linguistic and isolated communities residing in Italy revealed that their genetic diversity at short (0–200 km) and intermediate distances (700–800 km) was greater than that observed throughout the entire European continent.
The genetic distance between Northern and Southern Italians, although large for a single European nationality, is similar to that between the Northern and the Southern Germans. Northern and Southern Italians began to diverge as early as the Late Glacial, and appear to encapsulate at a smaller scale the cline of genetic diversity observable across Europe.
Modern humans appeared during the Upper Paleolithic. Specimens of Aurignacian age were discovered in the cave of Fumane and date back about 34,000 years. During the Magdalenian period, the first humans from the Pyrenees populated Sardinia.
During the Neolithic period, farming was introduced by people from the east and the first villages were built. Weapons became more sophisticated and the first objects in clay were produced. In the late Neolithic era the use of copper spread, and villages were built over piles near lakes. In Sardinia, Sicily and a part of Mainland Italy the Beaker culture spread from Western and Central Europe. Sicily also suffered the influences of the Aegean in the Mycenaean period.
During the Late Bronze Age the Urnfield Proto-Villanovan culture appeared in Central and Northern Italy. It is characterized by the rite of cremation of dead bodies, which originated from Central Europe. The use of iron began to spread. In Sardinia, the Nuragic civilization flourished.
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