A genetic probe into the ancient and medieval history of Southern Europe and West Asia
Iosif Lazaridis, Songül Alpaslan-Roodenberg, Ayşe Acar, Ayşen Açıkkol, Anagnostis P. Agelarakis, Levon Aghikyan, Uğur Akyüz, Desislava Andreeva, Gojko Andrijašević, Dragana Antonović, Ian Armit, Alper Atmaca, Pavel Avetisyan, Ahmet İhsan Aytek, Krum Bacvarov, Ruben Badalyan, Stefan Bakardzhiev, Jacqueline Balen, Lorenc Bejko, Rebecca Bernardos, Andreas Bertsatos, Hanifi Biber, Ahmet Bilir, Mario Bodružić, Michelle Bonogofsky, Clive Bonsall, Dušan Borić, Nikola Borovinić, Guillermo Bravo Morante, Katharina Buttinger, Kimberly Callan, Francesca Candilio, Mario Carić, Olivia Cheronet, Stefan Chohadzhiev, Maria‐Eleni Chovalopoulou, Stella Chryssoulaki, Ion Ciobanu, Natalija Čondić, Mihai Constantinescu, Emanuela Cristiani, Brendan J. Culleton, Elizabeth Curtis, Jack Davis, Ruben Davtyan, Tatiana I. Demcenco, V. A. Dergachev, Zafer Derin, Sylvia Deskaj, Seda Devejyan, Vojislav Djordjević, Kellie Sara Duffett Carlson, Laurie Eccles, Nedko Elenski, Atilla Engi̇n, Nihat Erdoğan, Sabiha Erir-Pazarcı, Daniel Fernandes, Matthew Ferry, Suzanne Freilich, Alin Frînculeasa, Michael L. Galaty, Beatriz Gamarra, Boris Gasparyan, Bisserka Gaydarska, Elif Genç, Timur Gülteki̇n, Serkan Gündüz, Tamás Hajdu, Volker Heyd, Suren Hobosyan, Nelli Hovhannisyan, Iliya Iliev, Lora Iliev, Stanislav Iliev, İlkay İvgin, Ivor Janković, Lenče Jovanova, Panagiotis Karkanas, Berna KAVAZ KINDIĞILI, Esra Hilal Kaya, Denise Keating, Douglas J. Kennett, Seda Deniz Kesici, Anahit Yu. Khudaverdyan, Krisztián Kiss, Sinan Kılıç, Paul Klostermann, Sinem Kostak Boca Negra Valdes, Saša Kovačević, Marta Krenz‐Niedbała, Maja Krznarić Škrivanko, Rovena Kurti, Pasko Kuzman, Ann Marie Lawson, Cǎtǎlin Lazăr, Krassimir Leshtakov, Thomas E. Levy, Ioannis Liritzis, Kirsi O. Lorentz
Abstract
Literary and archaeological sources have preserved a rich history of Southern Europe and West Asia since the Bronze Age that can be complemented by genetics. Mycenaean period elites in Greece did not differ from the general population and included both people with some steppe ancestry and others, like the Griffin Warrior, without it. Similarly, people in the central area of the Urartian Kingdom around Lake Van lacked the steppe ancestry characteristic of the kingdom's northern provinces. Anatolia exhibited extraordinary continuity down to the Roman and Byzantine periods, with its people serving as the demographic core of much of the Roman Empire, including the city of Rome itself. During medieval times, migrations associated with Slavic and Turkic speakers profoundly affected the region.