Indeed, I am of neapolitan descent. And ever since, not thinking aboit why, when I had to do with Grreks I felt like I was talking to my family. And indeed, turned out, not far from the truth. My greek DNA is 36,4 % turns out. We share also of common gestures, ways of communicating and just ways to socialize. It is indeed fascinating, how certain things are passed down through the centuries.
@@miryamamar9471 It should not be as there is a very heavy Greek DNA presence in Southern Italy. In ancient times, Southern Italy was known as Magna Grecia, Greater Greece. Weell into the Middle Ages Greek was spoken by the inhabitants.. To this day, there are remote villages in that area where the vpopulation speak an old fashioned Greek.
Check out the DNA study “Genomic history of the Italian population recapitulates key evolutionary dynamics of both Continental and Southern Europeans.” The study clearly states differences in northern Italians and southern Italians. Linking those differences both to geographic location causíng evolutionary changes and different genetic lineages. Here are some exerts from the study: “ the well-established cultural and genetic diversity of the Italian population, some of the most outstanding among those observable across the entire European continent” - So the study sets out to find out why there are observable and outstanding differences between northern and southern Italians. “To date, remarkable efforts have elucidated important aspects of the demography of the ancestors of modern Italians, which have contributed to their heterogeneous genetic background”. - Heterogenous means unalike or distinct from one another backgrounds. The researchers noted two different lineages going back to separate places. The team identified traces of post-glacial migrations in those living in northern Italy, who also presented a close relation to ancient European cultures. On the other hand, southern Italians were found to have a close relation with Neolithic human remains from Anatolia, modern-day Turkey, and the Middle East, and with Bronze-Age remains from a region that extends into Africa. “Italian samples turned out to be located on two considerably divergent branches “ - This is the result, we come from two different branches of the evolutionary tree. That along with the fact that our geographic differences also contributed to additional evolutionary genetic differences between the two. 'In the subjects from northern Italy, we observed changes in the gene networks regulating insulin and body-heat production as well as in those responsible for fat tissue metabolism.' When it came to southern Italian peculiarities, the researchers found the genes that modify the production of melanin, which is the pigment that provides skin color that resulted in darker skin and hair. These are just a couple examples of many in differences between the north and south; in differences between two already different branches of the evolutionary tree. Yes, mixing has also occurred and this subject has a lot of variables that most also be considered.
@@miryamamar9471 It’s true the Ancient Romans called Southern Italy “Magna Graecia” (which means Greater Greece.). Even today some local Italian dialects still show a Greek influence as the other reply also stated. Calabrians will describe themselves and Greeks as being “one race, one face.”
Generally speaking Sicilians (and southern Italians) are darker than Northern Italians. In Sicily the Norman conquest didn’t leave much genetíc influence. Although, there is definitely some but most differences you see today are from more recent movement and the impact of an open EU.
Scottish irish celt here, I have a deep love for italy i love the architecture, sculptures, pictures, food, women lol everything touches my soul i have tattoos of Michelangelo's David and of him toiling with painting the Sistine chapel. Ive never been to Italy but im going to change that. I feel Europe is in really dark times the whole of Europe l to think all that Europe has given the world and its in jeopardy really really breaks my heart i cant even put it into words its heavy hearted and hurts so much. I love my continent so much and just want the best for her i want all the countries in Europe to save their wonderful traditions because we've given so much. I love you my european brothers and sisters from the bottom of my heart i truly do, much love from Scotland 🏴 Europe the best continent in the world ...
Yes, Europe must be vigilant in retaining it's culture and history. The migration from other continents must be legal and controlled. Same here in the US. On another subject, which is kind of ironic - I am of Italian heritage, but my DNA shows English and Scottish-Norwegian ancestry. Apparently there was a Norwegian migration into Scotland. I have been told some English and Scots found their way to Italy and stayed. So as I have always had a fondness for the people of the British Isles the reason may have been my ancestral heritage was connecting me.
We shall overcome the terrible attempt by crazy politics to annilihate our individual culture as european nation and the wonderful cocktail of cultures of the different european populations❤
Actually, at this moment it's very difficult to distinguish Southern Italian DNA from the Greek one. There is yet a scientific problem to solve. Maybe in the future.
@@electra1920 What I said. The refinement of the analyzes is not yet such as to be able to distinguish with certainty the Greeks and the Italians of the South. This is what the geneticists say, not the undersigned who has a degree in law. The only thing you see is that there are commonalities. The problem is that these common traits can also be formed differently from the direct derivation of one people from the other.
@@giorgiodifrancesco4590 True. MAny people in South Italy think that if they show Greek they must be Greek..LOL When it's just similar components probably predating even Magna Grecia.
I'm of Italian and Spanish descent born in Brazil, last year I took a DNA test, and my results were 90.4% European, broken down like this: Northern Italian, Southern Italian, Maltese, Russian, Hungarian, Greek, Iberian, British and Irish. 8.6% Berber and 1% Palestinian. Among my relatives, all descendants of the same Italian grandparents, we have brunettes, pinkish whites with dark hair, blonds with blue eyes, and a few redheads.
Southern italians are actually the closest genetically speaking to the romans of classical antiquity (of the kingdoms, republic, and roman empire) who were around 60 percent plus (so, majority) anatolian neolithic farmer dna profile, which is most similar to dna found in the middle eastern populations. The greeks of classical anitquity had 70 percent anatolian neolithic farmer, which makes sense since the mediterranean and the middle eastern areas had civilization since 4000 bc, it was around 480 ad that europe (not including italy and areas of current day greece) started to develop.
Thanks, I wish more people would understand how diverse Italy is. Everytime I go abroad I get comments like "but are your parents German?" or "Are you sure you are not Dutch?" Completely baffled by my lack of melanin 😂 And I'm not even the whitest or blondest in my friend group!
yeah though one can be blond and blue eyes occasionally without having as high of an yamnaya ancestry like norwegians, its more like a likelihood thing. like if you look at Norwegian or better Finnish people, u see less variation in terms of hair color because of less variation in these admixtures
@@armin3057 Yes. My parents both have recessive genes, they both got their blue eyes from parents with green/brown eyes. At that point my sister and I were bound to inherit them.
@@tommasovasta8323 You are absolutely correct. Often, people will ask me what is my ethnicity. I don't fit the Italian stereotype still portrayed by the American film industry. It is kind of shocking that there are still Americans who either are biased or ignorant of Italian appearance, culture and history. Just something laughable to make my point, some years ago a woman I met through business asked me who in my family was in the Mafia. I informed her my Father was a pharmacist and asked her about her Father. She did not answer me.
Don't forget Corsicans, who speak an Italian dialect called Corsicano. Until 1769, they'd always been ruled by various Italian entities from Tuscany to Genoa.
Italian ‘dialect’ is fascist terminology. Corsu/Corso/Corsican is a separate language to Italian. Given however that it has strong influences from Tuscan, from which the Italian language has been constructed, the two are somewhat similar - they are Italo Dalmatian languages after all. However, Sardinian or the Gallo Romance languages spoken in the north (which are closer to French) are way further apart from Italian than Corsican.
My father was born in Sicily, in a tiny village outside Agrigento. All anyone has to do is read about the history of Sicily. Since the beginning of recorded time the island has experienced wave after wave of both invaders and settlers. From the Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Normans, Spanish, French, and especially the Arab slavers and traders who found Sicilian girls and women with blond or red especially prized in the Arab slave markets, Sicily has been a DNA, cultural, artistic, and culinary melting pot. Even the Vikings found their way to Sicily (probably for the cannolis). I doubt that anyone in Sicily or Italy has pure "Sicilian" or "Italian" DNA because there's no such thing.
My grandfather is Sicilian and my Aunts and uncles had blonde or Red hair, I had straight dirty blonde hair until 8th grade where it changed to dark / medium brown and it turned very wavy. Sometimes people would ask me if I was mixed.
Long, long before the Germanic influences, there were the Celts of Gaul. Milan, Bologna(Boi Gauls) were Celtic along with other areas of Northern Italy, The Gauls (Celts) of Northern Italy were well established in Italy. The Germanic tribes came a thousand years later! This is continually overlooked! Yes and as you stated the Italian language is closely related to Celtic languages too. My thought is that we will not get the full picture of Europes history in antiquity until the enigmatic and mysterious Celt is placed in its proper place.
OK, understood! But that area was under considerable influence of Boii tribe. I could be wrong but thought even name of city was directly tied to this Gaulic tribe?
Interesting. I am an Italian living in central Italy. You have forgotten the populations of Celtic origin, called "Galli senoni", who descended from northern Italy to the northern borders of the "Marche" region, in the center. Then the Normans to the south and in Sicily. These ethnic groups are now merged and not separated.
Yes Italy nowadays is very mixed, although the Southern italians who have anatolian neolithic farmer admixture, are actually the closest genetically speaking to the romans of classical antiquity (of the kingdoms, republic, and roman empire) who were around 60 percent plus (so, majority) anatolian neolithic farmer dna profile.
I’m a Sicula-American… Very proud of my heritage. My mother’s brother did his DNA testing a few years ago… it was so interesting… my mom’s side has predominately Italian background but it gave allot of Middle Eastern ties and he proceeded to discover a tie to the Scots/Irish.. supports your discovery. Also, we must consider that the three tribes… Elymi, Siculi and Sicani were inhabiting the islands and they traded with Greece , Phoenicia and Carthage. But skipping over so much history , the island had been inhabited by so many ppl .. so although we are classified as being darker in skin and in hair and eyes, some of my family has fair skin, blue eyes and other traits…. So interesting . My best to all and to all my paesani!
Sicily was also conquered by Normans (Nordmaenner=Men of the North), a Viking population from Denmark and Norway, so today many sicilians are blonde with blue eyes.
@@hollymedici2936 I have commented many times that Italy was conquered by the Celts, Goths, Visigoths, Normans, Lombards' and more. The problem is the claims of Italy being occupied by the Moors or Arabs is 100% inaccurate. Again, the Moors were in Spain and Portugal for hundreds of years, not Italy.
Thanks you for sharing this information on DNA. I just recently had my DNA results- 3.6% Italian & 3.0% Greek Southern Italian, I grew up knowing only Irish & German heritage. Fascinating results and various places my ancestors migrated from.
I did a dna test and I’m 100% Italian and when I did my ancient populations test I am 100% Roman basically and with some Ancient Greek. I’m a pretty rare guy lmao.
100% italian makes no sense because the italian genome doesn't exist the concept of italian is political and geographical not genetic. And 100 % roman makes no sense either. Sorry but you've probably beeen duped by some fake test or you simplified its results.
@@littlemouse7066he tested for 100% anatolian neolithic farmer middle eastern dna (which is strange) since thats what romans were during classical antiquity (they were 60 percent plus, of that)
@@lyricofwise6894 Neolitich farmers had nothing to do with modern Middle Easterners of today who are a mixed bag. Sardinians are the descendants of Neolthic farmers and are genetically isolated infact and very far away from every MENA. Imperial Romans ( some remains tested not all infact it's all still unclear what happened unless they don't test thousand of remains and even people from South Italy) Were Greek like due to a shift, not certainly like modern Egyptians or Lebanese. LOL
My grandparents are from Albania. I had taken a dna test that said I am 100% southern Balkan, but I have several famous Italian relatives from the 15th to17th centuries
@@section5760 it depends on the test, if he took a DNA test like MyHeritage it means his DNA seems 100% from that region, that doesn't mean he has doesn't have lots of centimorgans of DNA which aren't from there but maybe they're not big enough to be relevant. Also if your direct ancestors always remained in Africa you're 100% African... Although that means absolutely nothing actually because it's not like our genesis started in the Homo Sapiens Sapiens, or history goes back beyond that
My grandparents come from Venice, but to look at my family’s facial features you’d swear we were British, Scottish, Welsh or Irish looking. Many Celts were in Venice at a certain point in history
That makes sense. You should check out the study, “Genomic history of the Italian population recapitulates key evolutionary dynamics of both Continental and Southern Europeans.” The study clearly states differences in northern Italians and southern Italians. Linking those differences both to geographic location causíng evolutionary changes and different genetic lineages. Here are some exerts from the study: “ the well-established cultural and genetic diversity of the Italian population, some of the most outstanding among those observable across the entire European continent” - So the study sets out to find out why there are observable and outstanding differences between northern and southern Italians. “To date, remarkable efforts have elucidated important aspects of the demography of the ancestors of modern Italians, which have contributed to their heterogeneous genetic background”. - Heterogenous means unalike or distinct from one another backgrounds. The researchers noted two different lineages going back to separate places. The team identified traces of post-glacial migrations in those living in northern Italy, who also presented a close relation to ancient European cultures. On the other hand, southern Italians were found to have a close relation with Neolithic human remains from Anatolia, modern-day Turkey, and the Middle East, and with Bronze-Age remains from a region that extends into Africa. “Italian samples turned out to be located on two considerably divergent branches “ - This is the result, we come from two different branches of the evolutionary tree. That along with the fact that our geographic differences also contributed to additional evolutionary genetic differences between the two. 'In the subjects from northern Italy, we observed changes in the gene networks regulating insulin and body-heat production as well as in those responsible for fat tissue metabolism.' When it came to southern Italian peculiarities, the researchers found the genes that modify the production of melanin, which is the pigment that provides skin color that resulted in darker skin and hair. These are just a couple examples of many in differences between the north and south; in differences between two already different branches of the evolutionary tree. Yes, mixing has also occurred and contributed to changes in the population. However, the two Italian populations are in fact different and distinct from each other.
Northern Italy was called Cisalpine Gaul - “Gaul on this side of the Alps”- for centuries before it was incorporated into the rest of Italy. The people were of different ethnic stock right from the beginning, even before the Lombards showed up.
My father was adopted, he found his bio mother when he was an adult, their last name was Lombardo. I always assumed that surname was from the Lombardy region of Italy but when we did a DNA test it showed mostly French (My mothers side, of which my great grandmother and grandmother were born in Bardonecchia) and a relatively even split of German and Italian. However, none of us look like anything German, especially when it comes to skin tone, eye color and hair color.
The meaning of the Lombardo surname differs according to the place of origin of the family that bears it. For example, in Sicily, descendants of repopulators who came to inhabit the island from the rest of Italy are called Lombardo. Many came from Monferrato, Piedmont, but others from the continental south of Italy. Lombardo did not mean "originating from the region called Lombardy." Lombardo meant "born in a region that was part of the domain of the Germanic people of the Lombards." In a letter written to the pope by the inhabitants of Bari, in Apulia, in the XIIth century, the same people said they were "poor Lombards" who were being distressed by the new conquering Normans. The Lombards had their own kingdom in northern Italy, with Pavia as capital, but also Duchies in central and southern Italy. Instead, when the Lombard surname is Piedmontese, it is peculiar to alpine areas where Occitan was spoken and stood for an outsider who spoke another neo-Latin idiom of the lowland. In your case, if your family comes from the Susa Valley, in Piedmont, it means that your ancestor, when he arrived in that place, was not a native, who spoke Occitan, but probably a person who came from another area, even nearby, where medieval Piedmontese was spoken. I tell you this as a historian who has studied Piedmont in depth. Indeed, in the Upper Po Valley, in the Municipality of Paesana, the territory was divided into "terzieri" and one of these was called "Lombard", precisely because Piedmontese was spoken there, while Occitan was spoken in the others. A few kilometers away, in the Occitan municipality of Ostana, Lombardo is a very common surname.
Piedmontese DNA could not be very different from a french DNA of the neighboring transalpine areas. On the other hand, it is still difficult for geneticists to distinguish between a Frenchman and a German. Many testing companies still put the two peoples in the same category (as they do for southern Italians and Greeks). However, when you see a percentage of German it could just mean that some genes are frequently found in German populations, but since an individual's genome comes from the father and mother, that single portion could come from a recombination of two contributions and be entirely new.
@@giorgiodifrancesco4590 wow, thanks for the write up, much appreciated. I have always wondered how modern testing companies come up with their conclusions as they tend to use modern day geographical borders as a point of reference. Again, thank you!!
Can you please do a video on French DNA? Breaking down the regions of France just like you have done with this and other videos? If so, that would be amazing! Thanks.
4:52 while debated, Italy had many different languages ( not dialected). Each of them stemmed from latin, and it was only from Boccaccio / Dante / Petrarca that there was an idea of "italian language".
This was so interesting! I would love to see a video on the DNA story of Ashkenazi Jews! I have a lot of Ashkenazi ancestry and would love to know more.
You can start your explorations with the book "The Maternal Genetic Lineages of Ashkenazic Jews" by Kevin Alan Brook and the genetic study "Genome-wide data from medieval German Jews show that the Ashkenazi founder event pre-dated the 14th century" by Shamam Waldman and her team.
In addition, I can recommend Razib Khan's December 2022 UA-cam video entitled "The Medieval Origins of the Ashkenazim" where he interviewed Joshua Lipson, Ariel Lomes, and Leo Cooper about the varieties of Jewish DNA in 14th-century Germany that are directly ancestral to Ashkenazi Jews today.
Maybe its just your complex, arabs were present only in sicily for 150 years in middle ages, and italy is genetically frozen since the pre-roman era. The fact is that in italy there's a lot of sun in spring and summer and some people get tanned, like all humans
@@horsekfobster7823 in fact he is wrong, the aplogroup of North africa dna is not more than 5% in South italy, you can go to wikipedia to check. Sicilians have middle eastern admixture.South italians descend from ancient romans and greeks, no one had a better dna background than them
@@horsekfobster7823 im saying that you ave misuunderstood, the african and arabic component in sicily its not more than 5%-10%, u can littery go to wikipedia to check or any other genetic study. The thing his that some people get more tanned than other in the summer.
This is one of the first few unbiased and objective videos I've watched about italian ancestry, in a short concised manner. Very interesting. Well done.
@@ELIAS-hm5no never said that it was not the case, early roman were mostly anatolian farmer with a bit of cro magnon and around 20-25% indo european. Wich today would be the closest to south french, so phenotypicly we can assume they had the same percentages of light eyes and hair. I am just pointing out imperial romans were not the same, much more middle eastern
Just a point, in south of Italy there is a particoular heritage from Vikings people, in fact just in south we can find people with blonde/red hair , despite in the north there is a greater presence of germanic genome. Anyway it's a great video, Greetings from Italy
The people of Sardinia have kept a large percentage of DNA from the people of Anatolia. Inside the island, the percentage is greater. They are similar to the DNA of the skeletons of the first farmers
You're referring to southern European DNA, which originates in ancient Anatolia and the Steppe. Modern Anatolians are not the same people. They are more similar to Iranians and Palestinians as they are a mix of southern Europeans and Semitic groups not find in Italians.
Sardinians are a separate nation who have always been under foreign rule. At least, the other Italic people like Venetians, Lombards and Ligurians were sovereign states at one point. Sardinians never really had a choice.
THE FRENCH PEOPLE FROM FRANCE, ARE NOT THE SAME RACE OF PEOPLE, AS THE GERMANS. NOT THE SAME, GENETICALLY, CULTURALLY, MENTALITY AND ALSO IN TERMS OF LANGUAGE. FRENCH PEOPLE ARE NOT JUST MIXED WITH THE LATIN SPEAKING PEOPLE, OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, A LARGE PERCENTAGE OF THEM ALSO HAVE IBERIAN DNA, ESPECIALLY, THOSE FROM SOUTHERN FRANCE, WHO MOST ARE MEDITERRANEAN LOOKING IN APPEARANCE. YES, IN DIFFERENT REGIONS OF FRANCE, PEOPLE ARE VERY DIFFERENT BUT THAT IS THE SAME IN EVERY COUNTRY, ALL OVER THE WORLD AND NOT JUST FRANCE. THE NORTHERN FRENCH PEOPLE ARE MORE CELTIC THAN THE PEOPLE, ANYWHERE ELSE IN FRANCE. THE ONLY FRENCH PEOPLE WHO WOULD BE MORE RELATED TO THE GERMANS, ARE THOSE WHO ARE FROM THE PART OF FRANCE WHICH IS ON THE BORDERS WITH GERMANY BUT NO WHERE ELSE.
This is so true i am italian and in my dna test showed i have ancestors from welsh england ect so Celt related and Northern italy and sardinia. So true
My family is Sicilian. We have a high percentage of Albanian and Iberian DNA. Was interesting to find the records of my Great Grandfather who had light colored hair and bright blue eyes
po more emrin celt (gjërmant) në gjuhën shqipe do thot ai që ka lekuren e bardh floket bjond edhe syt e kalter quhet i çelt, një njeri i ndriçuar. gjuha shqipe edhe populli shqiptar jan nje çels i kultures europiane por keqperdoren per fatin e keq. une linda nje djal me sy te kalter me floket bjond kaçurrele me lekure te bardhe edhe kuptova se djali ime ësht një pasardhes ilir
They have an incredible history, as they created all of western civilization through classical antiquity, and were players during the bc history eras (which is most of the history of civilization).
I had an interesting result from my FamilyTree autosomal DNA test. My heritage is 100% pre-Revolutionary American, so when that company's test results indicated a small fraction of 1% as being consistent with Balkans. I recognized this as being consistent with the Tagliaferro/Taliaferro/Tolliver/Toliver lineage. As this video pointed out, north Italians show a significant proportion of Balkans genetics. The family mentioned is listed as among the First Families of Virginia, and they trace back to a Venetian businessman who settled in London in the mid 16th century. The proportion found is also consistent with the emigration from the Venetian Republic to England. My autosomal test updates have shifted, so that instead of Balkans, this tiny proportion seems to now be labeled as central Europe.
I took a DNA test with ancestry years ago, decade. Initially it came back 90% southern Italian, rest was a mix of Macedonia, Turkey and Caucuses. A couple years later they revised it to 100% southern Italian. I hope that means the initial was a definition of southern Italian.l, was more interesting . I would hate to think my family stayed in Italy for millennia although wouldn’t blame them we were part of the Roman republic from the beginning lol
The DNA test was measuring shared DNA between the three groups. Italians are pretty pure but Caucasus mountain people and Turks are very mixed. Since they have proto Italian in them it confuses the DNA test. But Italians don't have modern Anatolian in them.
it all depends on how they define it. it can be both true depending on the definition for instance jews can be labeled as "100%" ashkenazi jewish now, that doesn't mean that they dont have European ancestry from 2000 years ago, or no levantine ancesty but since they drifted away, and the fact that stem from a couple of families, u can label their own group likewise it is easy to say who is fully southern Italian or not, as they are mingling among themselves for thousand of years , even if genes from else where introduced some time back
@@armin3057 That's an improper analogy. Problem arises because of a false conflation created when translators transcribed, "Yahudim" (Judahites/Judaens) to include Eastern European Ashkenazim. Ashkenazim are not Semitic, even though most can read & write Hebrew. I'm honestly not wanting to create discord, but it's incorrect to conflate Hebrews with modern Jews. The vast majority of people that identify as being Jew-ish are descendants of Japeth (Togomar/Ashkenaz).
One should note that Italy had been populated by non-Indo-european speaking folks called themselves Etruscans and perhaps other indigenous (Non-indo-european ) ethnicities such as " Sea Peoples" prior to having been colonised by Indo-european speaking Latin ( Roman) peoples .
Wrong. They havent colonized nothing. Italy was populated by a multitude of Italic tribes. Etruscans were not IE speakers, but they have continuity with Tuscany and Latium inhabitants. Latins have not colonized Italy , they conquered it. The guy here is talking about admixture, but Italy is genetically frozen to pre-Roman times. For example most of the inhabitants of Abruzzo today have genetic continuity with Samnites.
Oh and Sea People are proved to be Sardinian Nuragic people. The mummies of the Sea peoples employed as Pharaoh guards are ancient Nuragics, and they got genetic continuity with almost every modern Sardinian. Etruscans on the other way, their specific genome sequence is present only on a handful of Tuscans, Umbrians and Latians, but they were almost equal to Latins genetically...so...
@@FlexibleFlyer50 Yes as I had mentioned in my comment they were genuine indigenous inhabitants of Italy however their language was not related to Latin ( Indo-European ), same is true of Basque people in Spain though being the oldest inhabitants of Spain, their language "Euskera " is not related to Spanish(Indo-European ) .
@@fredmoltisanti114 Italy is not genetically frozen in pre-Roman times. I have to comment again on information regarding Italians. Italy was invaded by the Celts, Normans, Goths, Visigoths and others. Italians have more what is referred to as "add ons" than any other ethnic people.
My mom's side is part Italian (from Apulia/Puglia and Calabria) from Southern Italy. Interesting enough when she took a DNA test the results showed a high genetic affinity towards central Italy (especially Tuscany). We definitely had Etruscan and Roman ancestors I think in making sense out of it and somewhere down the timeline they must have settled into Southern Italy. Family as far as I know on her Italian side was entirely dark hair, dark eyes, and variations of olive skin.
well, all the agriculture come from Anatolia. All Europeans share the DNA of the same three migrations but in different proportions: Anaolian neolithic farmers, European hunter gatherer and Yamnaya which were indo europeans coming from the steppes
I am Italian American both sides came from Italy, Naples area. I did Ancestry I am 85% Italian, southern Italian, the rest Greek, the Levant, Cyprus, & surprisingly 2% Welsh
Thank you for this, my father, father's parents are from small little mountain towns in Cosenza. San sisto dei valdesi, Montalto uffugo, San Fili, etc .. his ydna is G2a, which I read is from the antorolian neolithic farmers. He is half Calabrian he has about 50% antorolian neolithic Farmer DNA. Yes I have a bunch of family DNA kits on all the major DNA websites:).
I'm descended from a northern Italian and a southern Italian. I can see every one of those characteristics in my family and absolutely understand their origin. I'm definitely looking at doing a comprehensive DNA analysis.
ive been studying italian genetics for quite some time, and realistically the people of italy reflect our ancestors. Our admixture is relative to our position and place, the invasions didnt actually leave much genetic legacy. Besides maybe the normans who settled pretty heavily in italy. The arab lie is such revision, and comes from the ancestral north african dna and levantine j2 which was present in greeks as well. I had a genetic test done for my family, in a rather comprehensive medical research program. The results reflected Greek and Italic primacy with 81% of AHG, and Indo-aryan associated r1b. Theres this obsession with people attempting to paint italians as completely different people than the romans or the other italics, its simply not true. The average italian is much more like the populations of the late roman empire (pre-diocletian and post-diocletian west).
The Roman Empire is now considered a "genetic fridge" which left the population substantially unchanged. This happened not only across the empire but also within the Italian peninsula. In this sense the term "average Italian" has strictly no sense, due to the dramatic genetic differences before and after the empire. More correctly you should say "the average Italian, region per region, reflects the different pre-roman populations". From a demographic perspective the share of Lombards on the total Italian population may be, probably, estimated from a 5% to 8%. It was a "special invasion" in the sense that all people (men, women, children, senior people) moved and settled in Italy (see Historia Langobardorum by Paul the Deacon).
@@mrspoorwegovergang1185 I say average italian in the sense of our national identity. Our genetics peninsula wide are different, so as much as i appreciate the correction. It was rather unnecessary, as the spectrum of italian genetics is rather self-explanatory. South being more greek, north being more celto-germanic. Its historically and culturally evident, the genetics are the same in regards to admixture. Ive rarely met any southerners who have admixture of langobard also...so id like to know where they gathered the people for these genetic group studies. I can tell you that they were most likely not southerners.
@@Bidenisapedonope you are jelous how beutiful they are. And then gypsy are from eastern europe. Arabs were present only in sicily for 150 years, they never entered the italian peninsula
DNA testing has shown little to none Middle Eastern and Arab ancestry in Southern Italy. They may have some Greek ancestry. Italian American are in large numbers taking 'DNA tests and the findings are Italians have other European ancestry. As I mentioned in another comment, I am of Neapolitan heritage with some Northern Italian ancestry and my DNA shows Scottish and Norwegian ancestry. I have Italian American friends who have German, and French ancestry.
If there is , it may come from the west end of Sicily where there was more of a presence of Arabs and people from the Maghreb. I'm of Sicilian heritage, both sides of the family are from the same town on the north coast of Sicily near Palermo. My DNA is mostly southern Italy and a fair amount of northern Italy after that it's smaller amounts of Greek, Albanian, Maltese, and French.
Southern Italians, including Sicilians are on average only 6% of Arab ancestry. This is despite the Sicilian Emirate and all the supposed immigration. There simply is not as much Arab as people continue to think. Are southern Italians related to Arabs? Yes, but not because of Arab ancestry from the last 10,000. They're related because if you go back further, they have a common ancestry, but we're not even talking about arabs anymore at that point.
Your statement is not true for my family in southern Italy. We have a fairly large Middle Eastern component, with no northern Italian component. Italian-Americans often have a more mixed ancestry from marrying other ethnic groups in the U.S.
@@markantony3875 I am not talking about Italian Am who marry other groups. Give me some credit, I would know the difference. The DNA testing of Italian Americans who are fully Italian, and there are still millions of them have shown little to none Arab or Middle Eastern ancestry. The phrase Italian American means a person who is of only Italian heritage. If there is another ethnicity they would be called, for example; Italian-German American. Also the ancestry corporations have found Italians in general do not have Arab ancestry. Now of course there are exceptions, and your family may be one. I have commented on this subject many times, because I have found people in general are clueless when it comes to the Italian people and their history. By the way, I still need to respond to another comment of yours.
@@dina113east How do you know there are "millions"? Have you analyzed millions of results yourself? Italian-American does not mean only of Italian heritage. It means you had an ancestor who came from Italy. There is nothing in the definition that says all your ancestors had to come from Italy. In fact, an American only needs ONE ancestor from Italy to be still legally a citizen of Italy and be issued an Italian passport. There are 20 million+ people in the U.S. of Italian ancestry. Seems to me that you appointed yourself to speak for all of them. Awaiting you response from my other comment. It should be fun to read.
I am a full blood Italian but my kids are mostly red heads and my Italian niece is red head too. They could easily blend with the Scottish and the Irish.
Not unusual. My maternal Grandmother was a redhead. Her family came from Avellino. When I was in high school there were three redheads in my class. All of them were Italian. I have met many Italians who are redheaded, including the most beautiful shade of strawberry blonde that I have ever seen - on two girls, both of them Italian Neapolitan origins. On one of my trips to Italy I went to the province of Naples and saw a procession of schoolgirls. Also redheads were among them. So it is not surprising to be a redheaded Italian.
Don't forget Puglia region, that is a mix century by century of so many different cultures and invasions, very difficult to say all of that. For example: Normans, Saracens, Svevi, Greeks, Latins, Borbonics, Aragonensis and many others...
Both of my parents were born and raised in Sicily, provincia di Messina, the northeastern corner of the island. My Italian relatives are all over the place in terms of appearance; basically everything mentioned in this video. Some are blonde-haired, blue eyed with milk white complexions. Others are "Mori" -- "Moors" -- a term used by Italians to describe those who are more olive skinned in complexion. And others are like myself, somewhere in the middle. I've done both 23 and Me and Ancestry DNA. Despite some minor differences, they both agree that I'm roughly 80% Southern Italian/Sicilian (I thought the percentage would be higher). Surprisingly, the biggest contributor to my DNA outside of Italy was Cyprus at 10% (I was expecting Greek, but maybe this is more or less the same thing). The rest: Balkans, Greece/Albania, and a small smattering of the area encompassing Turkey.
I'm mostly Sicilian and also was surprised to see Cyprus as well as Greece and North Africa, in my DNA. My brother has Scottish but I don't, but complexion-wise, he's darker than I am. When my results returned "Southern Italian" and "Northern Italian" (my paternal grandfather was Tuscano) it was clear that they don't take Sicily into consideration. I wish there were a DNA company that would focus on Sicily.
@@GrecoByzantine1821 I'm familiar with Sicilian history and expected to see a decent amount of Greek DNA. Instead, only 2% Greek and Albanian. The biggest non-Italian DNA in my results was 10% Cypriot -- which might be an indirect connection to Greek ancestors.
For the Latins, so far it seems that they arose after the flight of a part of the defeated army of the "peoples from beyond the sea" to the Apennine peninsula. They subjugated the partially proto-Slovenian original inhabitants there and spread to other parts of Europe as the Roman Empire. Some Latin-like features can be seen in the Baltic languages, including Estonian, but not in Finnish and Slavic. Data on the distribution, origin and development of the Y-haplogroup T, as well as the Akkadian etymology of many Greek and Latin words indicate the direction in which to look for the origin of latinity.
as an Argentinian with 75% Italian ancestry is fun to see the cultural clashes that Italians have within themselves, my great-grandparents form my dad's side come from imperia in the region of Liguria really just near France, while the ones from my dad's mom's side came from a city in the east and had much more Balkan influence and from a maternal branch, Sicilian ancestry, not only that but my grandpa has German ancestry too, , from my om I have Italian ancestry, who's great grandparents both came from Rome, and from my mom's mom side they have Hungarian and Galician decent, pretty crazy how colonization brought all these bloodlines together as me.
My ancestors immigrated to America in 1898, they were from the village of Fontana located in Calabria, None of this information was I aware of in 1954, all I knew about the family history was they left Italy because of the uprising. While in the military in the 50’s I visited Fontana, while there I had the feeling I was home, this is where I belong. Total strangers would smile and recognize my presence even though I was in uniform,I was offered food and wine from people completely unknown to me, nothing like this had happened before or Since. I had spent time in Naples and knew this was unusual behavior. 1980 rolls around and I attended a funeral in Missouri where a cousin lived, the cousin was a historian who related to me the part about the ancestors coming from Fontana. After learning a bit about genetics it really makes me wonder.
As an Italian born overseas who could come back home (more or less, my family is mostly from Potenza and I live in Torino😅), I wish my grandparents who were your age more or less had been able to do so too, so I'm glad you could do it. The first half of the XXth century was very harsh on Italians in Italy and the second half was very harsh on Italians in Argentina, where my family lived... It was so harsh it inspired Ivano Fossati's song "Italiani d'Argentina" Greetings! 🇮🇹💪🏻
Without the singlest doupt, Greeks were the ethnik group that have mostly contributed to the Italian DNA, more importantly genetists can't define what is Greek and what is Italian as both genetic fingertips are tremendously similar, as a Spaniard i like both nations a lot!!!
Every country has some differences within, and Italy is not different in that. As a sicilian myself, I'm conscious of my past, although we should consider that the earliest tribes of Sicily are basically our most direct ancestors. Dna from the invasions are just a small portion of our ethnic background, except the greek one
@Graeme Duncan Modern day Greeks have maximum less than 10% Slavic DNA. Basically slavic Bulgarians, Albanians and people from coastal Black Sea cities in Romania, Ukraine,Russia, Turkey, Georgia can trace more Greek DNA comparatively on how much Slavic DNA the mainland Greeks have. All of those areas where FULL of Greek colonies. Btw your comment has nosense.
Nope. Only Sicily has a significant quantity and it's like 25%. If one studies the history over time, even just looking at maps showing the different peoples living there, it doesn't make sense that Greek is present as much as people tend to think.
@@DrRomaioi The Greek colonization in southern Italy was the biggest comparing to any other group moved there. Greek cities like Syracuse had over 250,000 population each one. Just by looking the map you can't judge. Greek colonization to southern Italy also continued through the Byzantine Empire, during Capetanate of Italy.ua-cam.com/video/lq-SZj0EM3Q/v-deo.html Nowadays southern Italians undertake DNA tests like MyHERITAGE DNA test and post it all over UA-cam. Most of them have 40-70% Greek DNA. It's all over UA-cam.
Hi @@GrecoByzantine1821, I think that guys theories are questionable. Would like to see his sources. The Greeks from those magna greacia colonies were NOT the only ones flooding to Rome. Plus, in 250bc, before all those Greeks flooded in, Rome already had a population of 400k, according to some researchers. Syracuse, like Rome, was an anomaly size wise, the rest were under 50k. Look at a map of Italy from 400bc. So many other people's present occupying the vast majority of land. The Etruscans among them, who were an advanced indigenous (as dna research has just proven this past decade) civilisation. This is not to discredit Greek culture, its influence was far greater than any other (except maybe Etruscan?) far greater than its dna input. And Syracuse, that anomaly it is, by the 6th century AD when everyone in Italy was a Latin speaker first, that wasn't the case around Syracuse, were Greek remained the first language. Then, of course, the Eastern Romans resulted in a bit of resurgence of Greek language after they reoccupied the territory.
We the Greeks, consider Southern Italians something like brothers, cousins, something like family anyway.
Really? That is news to me.
Indeed, I am of neapolitan descent. And ever since, not thinking aboit why, when I had to do with Grreks I felt like I was talking to my family. And indeed, turned out, not far from the truth. My greek DNA is 36,4 % turns out. We share also of common gestures, ways of communicating and just ways to socialize. It is indeed fascinating, how certain things are passed down through the centuries.
@@miryamamar9471 It should not be as there is a very heavy Greek DNA presence in Southern Italy. In ancient times, Southern Italy was known as Magna Grecia, Greater Greece. Weell into the Middle Ages Greek was spoken by the inhabitants.. To this day, there are remote villages in that area where the vpopulation speak an old fashioned Greek.
Check out the DNA study “Genomic history of the Italian population recapitulates key evolutionary dynamics of both Continental and Southern Europeans.”
The study clearly states differences in northern Italians and southern Italians. Linking those differences both to geographic location causíng evolutionary changes and different genetic lineages.
Here are some exerts from the study:
“ the well-established cultural and genetic diversity of the Italian population, some of the most outstanding among those observable across the entire European continent”
- So the study sets out to find out why there are observable and outstanding differences between northern and southern Italians.
“To date, remarkable efforts have elucidated important aspects of the demography of the ancestors of modern Italians, which have contributed to their heterogeneous genetic background”.
- Heterogenous means unalike or distinct from one another backgrounds. The researchers noted two different lineages going back to separate places. The team identified traces of post-glacial migrations in those living in northern Italy, who also presented a close relation to ancient European cultures. On the other hand, southern Italians were found to have a close relation with Neolithic human remains from Anatolia, modern-day Turkey, and the Middle East, and with Bronze-Age remains from a region that extends into Africa.
“Italian samples turned out to be located on two considerably divergent branches “
- This is the result, we come from two different branches of the evolutionary tree. That along with the fact that our geographic differences also contributed to additional evolutionary genetic differences between the two. 'In the subjects from northern Italy, we observed changes in the gene networks regulating insulin and body-heat production as well as in those responsible for fat tissue metabolism.' When it came to southern Italian peculiarities, the researchers found the genes that modify the production of melanin, which is the pigment that provides skin color that resulted in darker skin and hair. These are just a couple examples of many in differences between the north and south; in differences between two already different branches of the evolutionary tree.
Yes, mixing has also occurred and this subject has a lot of variables that most also be considered.
@@miryamamar9471 It’s true the Ancient Romans called Southern Italy “Magna Graecia” (which means Greater Greece.). Even today some local Italian dialects still show a Greek influence as the other reply also stated. Calabrians will describe themselves and Greeks as being “one race, one face.”
You did not mention the Norman Conquest of southern Italy and Sicily, a very important part of Italian history.
True, and for this reason I think, you can meet a lot of people with blonde hair and blue eyes in Sicily and southern Italy in general
@@thelightdivining I’m part Sicilian and my Sicilian family are mostly blue-eyed as is myself and we all have different color hair.
@@donbuff110 I'm Italian living in northern Italy but my family is from Sicily and we all have dark hair and brown eyes 🙂
@@thelightdivining My family is from Sicily as well and everyone has very dark hair (błack hair or very near black) and brown or hazel eyes.
Generally speaking Sicilians (and southern Italians) are darker than Northern Italians. In Sicily the Norman conquest didn’t leave much genetíc influence. Although, there is definitely some but most differences you see today are from more recent movement and the impact of an open EU.
I am Florentine and proud of my heritage, but I love all italy from the alps to Sicily... VIVA L'ITALIA ❤
South tyrole is Not Italia. ITS German Austrian
@@fuxihutterer8088 OK Mr. Adolf 😎
@@marcorioti6932 thanks🗿💀🐺
You are arab not white ethnic European...the arabs conquered that region making you
@@fuxihutterer8088Neither is Acosta Valley their French
Scottish irish celt here, I have a deep love for italy i love the architecture, sculptures, pictures, food, women lol everything touches my soul i have tattoos of Michelangelo's David and of him toiling with painting the Sistine chapel. Ive never been to Italy but im going to change that. I feel Europe is in really dark times the whole of Europe l to think all that Europe has given the world and its in jeopardy really really breaks my heart i cant even put it into words its heavy hearted and hurts so much. I love my continent so much and just want the best for her i want all the countries in Europe to save their wonderful traditions because we've given so much. I love you my european brothers and sisters from the bottom of my heart i truly do, much love from Scotland 🏴 Europe the best continent in the world ...
amen
❤. True.
Bravo😊❤
Yes, Europe must be vigilant in retaining it's culture and history. The migration from other continents must be legal and controlled. Same here in the US. On another subject, which is kind of ironic - I am of Italian heritage, but my DNA shows English and Scottish-Norwegian ancestry. Apparently there was a Norwegian migration into Scotland. I have been told some English and
Scots found their way to Italy and stayed. So as I have always had a fondness for the people of the British Isles the reason may have been my ancestral heritage was connecting me.
We shall overcome the terrible attempt by crazy politics to annilihate our individual culture as european nation and the wonderful cocktail of cultures of the different european populations❤
I'm Greek, and I have 34% Italian DNA. My partners family is from Sicily. She has 40% Greek DNA.
Actually, at this moment it's very difficult to distinguish Southern Italian DNA from the Greek one. There is yet a scientific problem to solve. Maybe in the future.
@@giorgiodifrancesco4590 what?
It's a small world after all.😊
@@electra1920 What I said. The refinement of the analyzes is not yet such as to be able to distinguish with certainty the Greeks and the Italians of the South. This is what the geneticists say, not the undersigned who has a degree in law.
The only thing you see is that there are commonalities. The problem is that these common traits can also be formed differently from the direct derivation of one people from the other.
@@giorgiodifrancesco4590 True. MAny people in South Italy think that if they show Greek they must be Greek..LOL
When it's just similar components probably predating even Magna Grecia.
I'm of Italian and Spanish descent born in Brazil, last year I took a DNA test, and my results were 90.4% European, broken down like this: Northern Italian, Southern Italian, Maltese, Russian, Hungarian, Greek, Iberian, British and Irish. 8.6% Berber and 1% Palestinian. Among my relatives, all descendants of the same Italian grandparents, we have brunettes, pinkish whites with dark hair, blonds with blue eyes, and a few redheads.
Super iper European!
Germanic traits
Southern italians are actually the closest genetically speaking to the romans of classical antiquity (of the kingdoms, republic, and roman empire) who were around 60 percent plus (so, majority) anatolian neolithic farmer dna profile, which is most similar to dna found in the middle eastern populations.
The greeks of classical anitquity had 70 percent anatolian neolithic farmer, which makes sense since the mediterranean and the middle eastern areas had civilization since 4000 bc, it was around 480 ad that europe (not including italy and areas of current day greece) started to develop.
Your breakdown looks made up, 8.6% Berber??? Not even Spaniards score that on genetic companies. 1% Palestine? LOL what DNA company did you take?
Where did u took the test ? Is any specific name center
Thanks, I wish more people would understand how diverse Italy is. Everytime I go abroad I get comments like "but are your parents German?" or "Are you sure you are not Dutch?" Completely baffled by my lack of melanin 😂 And I'm not even the whitest or blondest in my friend group!
yeah though one can be blond and blue eyes occasionally without having as high of an yamnaya ancestry like norwegians, its more like a likelihood thing. like if you look at Norwegian or better Finnish people, u see less variation in terms of hair color because of less variation in these admixtures
You have germanic DNA
Because most of people base their idea on the stereotypes made by Hollywood. And Hollywood reflects the american ignorance.
@@armin3057 Yes. My parents both have recessive genes, they both got their blue eyes from parents with green/brown eyes. At that point my sister and I were bound to inherit them.
@@tommasovasta8323 You are absolutely correct. Often, people will ask me what is my ethnicity. I don't fit the Italian stereotype still portrayed by the American film industry. It is kind of shocking that there are still Americans who either are biased or ignorant of Italian appearance, culture and history. Just something laughable to make my point, some years ago a woman I met through business asked me who in my family was in the Mafia. I informed her my Father was a pharmacist and asked her about her Father. She did not answer me.
Don't forget Corsicans, who speak an Italian dialect called Corsicano. Until 1769, they'd always been ruled by various Italian entities from Tuscany to Genoa.
You’re right. It’s “Corso” though, or “Corsu” (lingua Corsa), not Corsicano.
Italia aeterna! She still rules.
Moreover, he forgot Sardinia which is Italian
Italian ‘dialect’ is fascist terminology. Corsu/Corso/Corsican is a separate language to Italian. Given however that it has strong influences from
Tuscan, from which the Italian language has been constructed, the two are somewhat similar - they are Italo Dalmatian languages after all. However, Sardinian or the Gallo Romance languages spoken in the north (which are closer to French) are way further apart from Italian than Corsican.
We'll Trade u Corsica for Acosta Valley
My father was born in Sicily, in a tiny village outside Agrigento. All anyone has to do is read about the history of Sicily. Since the beginning of recorded time the island has experienced wave after wave of both invaders and settlers. From the Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Normans, Spanish, French, and especially the Arab slavers and traders who found Sicilian girls and women with blond or red especially prized in the Arab slave markets, Sicily has been a DNA, cultural, artistic, and culinary melting pot. Even the Vikings found their way to Sicily (probably for the cannolis). I doubt that anyone in Sicily or
Italy has pure "Sicilian" or "Italian" DNA because there's no such thing.
Nobody and nothing is pure, except cheese made from only goat's milk.
Over thousands of years, Europeans have become a mixture from North to South
My grandfather is Sicilian and my Aunts and uncles had blonde or Red hair, I had straight dirty blonde hair until 8th grade where it changed to dark / medium brown and it turned very wavy. Sometimes people would ask me if I was mixed.
@@richardadorno9187 You are european. Stop. It's full of wavy europeans, in the whole Europe.
@@giorgiodifrancesco4590 Gio I never stated anything about where I’m from, just the difference in hair color and how it changed.
You literally just broke down every piece of my Ancestry DNA test results. Thank you for this video!!!
No he didn't. Everything he said was false
@@stfffcdCope more
Wonderfully concise and very informative. Thank you!
Fascinating! I'm of English and Romanian ancestry. Love and prayers to my friends in Italy! Many thanks, Ancestralbrew!
Long, long before the Germanic influences, there were the Celts of Gaul. Milan, Bologna(Boi Gauls) were Celtic along with other areas of Northern Italy, The Gauls (Celts) of Northern Italy were well established in Italy. The Germanic tribes came a thousand years later! This is continually overlooked! Yes and as you stated the Italian language is closely related to Celtic languages too. My thought is that we will not get the full picture of Europes history in antiquity until the enigmatic and mysterious Celt is placed in its proper place.
Yes, he left out the Celts. They had an influence in Northern Italy, as well as the Germanic tribes.
Not to mention how the name Bohemia descends from the Boii.
Kevin Queen BOLOGNA was founded by ETRUSCAN PEOPLE, his name was FELSINA, and it was part of the twelve cities of Po' valley ETRURIA
OK, understood! But that area was under considerable influence of Boii tribe. I could be wrong but thought even name of city was directly tied to this Gaulic tribe?
Did not know that! Makes sense!!@@Ingulf_The_Mad
Interesting. I am an Italian living in central Italy. You have forgotten the populations of Celtic origin, called "Galli senoni", who descended from northern Italy to the northern borders of the "Marche" region, in the center. Then the Normans to the south and in Sicily. These ethnic groups are now merged and not separated.
Galli cenomani
Yes Italy nowadays is very mixed, although the
Southern italians who have anatolian neolithic farmer admixture, are actually the closest genetically speaking to the romans of classical antiquity (of the kingdoms, republic, and roman empire) who were around 60 percent plus (so, majority) anatolian neolithic farmer dna profile.
Interesting stuff! Love the background music too!
Great video, love the infographics. 🤩
An excellent video!! I enjoyed it a lot. Please, when a video about the population of my land, the Iberian Peninsula??
I’m a Sicula-American…
Very proud of my heritage. My mother’s brother did his DNA testing a few years ago… it was so interesting… my mom’s side has predominately Italian background but it gave allot of Middle Eastern ties and he proceeded to discover a tie to the Scots/Irish.. supports your discovery. Also, we must consider that the three tribes… Elymi, Siculi and Sicani were inhabiting the islands and they traded with Greece , Phoenicia and Carthage. But skipping over so much history , the island had been inhabited by so many ppl .. so although we are classified as being darker in skin and in hair and eyes, some of my family has fair skin, blue eyes and other traits…. So interesting . My best to all and to all my paesani!
Sicily was also conquered by Normans (Nordmaenner=Men of the North), a Viking population from Denmark and Norway, so today many sicilians are blonde with blue eyes.
Tell know it all Dina that..
@@hollymedici2936 I have commented many times that Italy was conquered by the Celts, Goths, Visigoths, Normans, Lombards' and more. The problem is the claims of Italy being occupied by the Moors or Arabs is 100% inaccurate. Again, the Moors were in Spain and Portugal for hundreds of years, not Italy.
@@dina113east i said nothing about the moors..omg
@@hollymedici2936 I added the Moors, because they were from North Africa and at the time they occupied Sicily they were referred to as Arabs.
Fascinating! I love learning how mixed we all are.
Thanks you for sharing this information on DNA. I just recently had my DNA results- 3.6% Italian & 3.0% Greek Southern Italian, I grew up knowing only Irish & German heritage. Fascinating results and various places my ancestors migrated from.
I did a dna test and I’m 100% Italian and when I did my ancient populations test I am 100% Roman basically and with some Ancient Greek. I’m a pretty rare guy lmao.
100% italian makes no sense because the italian genome doesn't exist the concept of italian is political and geographical not genetic. And 100 % roman makes no sense either. Sorry but you've probably beeen duped by some fake test or you simplified its results.
where'd you get an ancient pop test?! thats so cool
@@littlemouse7066the italian genome actually exist
@@littlemouse7066he tested for 100% anatolian neolithic farmer middle eastern dna (which is strange) since thats what romans were during classical antiquity (they were 60 percent plus, of that)
@@lyricofwise6894 Neolitich farmers had nothing to do with modern Middle Easterners of today who are a mixed bag. Sardinians are the descendants of Neolthic farmers and are genetically isolated infact and very far away from every MENA. Imperial Romans ( some remains tested not all infact it's all still unclear what happened unless they don't test thousand of remains and even people from South Italy) Were Greek like due to a shift, not certainly like modern Egyptians or Lebanese. LOL
I find DNA, ad mixture, haplo groups and genetic analysis most fascinating! An informative and educational video! Thx for sharing. 🇮🇹🇨🇦
thanks for video! greetings from Sweden
My grandparents are from Albania. I had taken a dna test that said I am 100% southern Balkan, but I have several famous Italian relatives from the 15th to17th centuries
No such thing has in 💯 percent fella. That’s bull shit.
@@section5760 I wonder what is your ethnicity?
@@blerimimodaable just keep wondering then. If it makes you feel better.
Most popular DNA tests stick to your most recent 6 -/+ generations, so the older ethnicities don't make the cut.
@@section5760 it depends on the test, if he took a DNA test like MyHeritage it means his DNA seems 100% from that region, that doesn't mean he has doesn't have lots of centimorgans of DNA which aren't from there but maybe they're not big enough to be relevant. Also if your direct ancestors always remained in Africa you're 100% African... Although that means absolutely nothing actually because it's not like our genesis started in the Homo Sapiens Sapiens, or history goes back beyond that
My grandparents come from Venice, but to look at my family’s facial features you’d swear we were British, Scottish, Welsh or Irish looking. Many Celts were in Venice at a certain point in history
Venice in ancient days extended into Istria where even further back in time lived the ilyrians. Some of my ancestors were Italian istrians..
Turks as well
Venice was a superpower of that time (like Singapore today or NYC ) so even a merchants nation!
That makes sense. You should check out the study, “Genomic history of the Italian population recapitulates key evolutionary dynamics of both Continental and Southern Europeans.”
The study clearly states differences in northern Italians and southern Italians. Linking those differences both to geographic location causíng evolutionary changes and different genetic lineages.
Here are some exerts from the study:
“ the well-established cultural and genetic diversity of the Italian population, some of the most outstanding among those observable across the entire European continent”
- So the study sets out to find out why there are observable and outstanding differences between northern and southern Italians.
“To date, remarkable efforts have elucidated important aspects of the demography of the ancestors of modern Italians, which have contributed to their heterogeneous genetic background”.
- Heterogenous means unalike or distinct from one another backgrounds. The researchers noted two different lineages going back to separate places. The team identified traces of post-glacial migrations in those living in northern Italy, who also presented a close relation to ancient European cultures. On the other hand, southern Italians were found to have a close relation with Neolithic human remains from Anatolia, modern-day Turkey, and the Middle East, and with Bronze-Age remains from a region that extends into Africa.
“Italian samples turned out to be located on two considerably divergent branches “
- This is the result, we come from two different branches of the evolutionary tree. That along with the fact that our geographic differences also contributed to additional evolutionary genetic differences between the two. 'In the subjects from northern Italy, we observed changes in the gene networks regulating insulin and body-heat production as well as in those responsible for fat tissue metabolism.' When it came to southern Italian peculiarities, the researchers found the genes that modify the production of melanin, which is the pigment that provides skin color that resulted in darker skin and hair. These are just a couple examples of many in differences between the north and south; in differences between two already different branches of the evolutionary tree.
Yes, mixing has also occurred and contributed to changes in the population. However, the two Italian populations are in fact different and distinct from each other.
Northern Italy was called Cisalpine Gaul - “Gaul on this side of the Alps”- for centuries before it was incorporated into the rest of Italy. The people were of different ethnic stock right from the beginning, even before the Lombards showed up.
Excellent post 👍🏻
Best video I've ever seen like this.
North: celtic culture
Center: latin culture
South: greek culture
My father was adopted, he found his bio mother when he was an adult, their last name was Lombardo. I always assumed that surname was from the Lombardy region of Italy but when we did a DNA test it showed mostly French (My mothers side, of which my great grandmother and grandmother were born in Bardonecchia) and a relatively even split of German and Italian. However, none of us look like anything German, especially when it comes to skin tone, eye color and hair color.
The meaning of the Lombardo surname differs according to the place of origin of the family that bears it. For example, in Sicily, descendants of repopulators who came to inhabit the island from the rest of Italy are called Lombardo. Many came from Monferrato, Piedmont, but others from the continental south of Italy. Lombardo did not mean "originating from the region called Lombardy." Lombardo meant "born in a region that was part of the domain of the Germanic people of the Lombards." In a letter written to the pope by the inhabitants of Bari, in Apulia, in the XIIth century, the same people said they were "poor Lombards" who were being distressed by the new conquering Normans.
The Lombards had their own kingdom in northern Italy, with Pavia as capital, but also Duchies in central and southern Italy.
Instead, when the Lombard surname is Piedmontese, it is peculiar to alpine areas where Occitan was spoken and stood for an outsider who spoke another neo-Latin idiom of the lowland. In your case, if your family comes from the Susa Valley, in Piedmont, it means that your ancestor, when he arrived in that place, was not a native, who spoke Occitan, but probably a person who came from another area, even nearby, where medieval Piedmontese was spoken.
I tell you this as a historian who has studied Piedmont in depth.
Indeed, in the Upper Po Valley, in the Municipality of Paesana, the territory was divided into "terzieri" and one of these was called "Lombard", precisely because Piedmontese was spoken there, while Occitan was spoken in the others. A few kilometers away, in the Occitan municipality of Ostana, Lombardo is a very common surname.
Piedmontese DNA could not be very different from a french DNA of the neighboring transalpine areas. On the other hand, it is still difficult for geneticists to distinguish between a Frenchman and a German. Many testing companies still put the two peoples in the same category (as they do for southern Italians and Greeks).
However, when you see a percentage of German it could just mean that some genes are frequently found in German populations, but since an individual's genome comes from the father and mother, that single portion could come from a recombination of two contributions and be entirely new.
@@giorgiodifrancesco4590 wow, thanks for the write up, much appreciated. I have always wondered how modern testing companies come up with their conclusions as they tend to use modern day geographical borders as a point of reference. Again, thank you!!
Nice history piece.
Fascinating stuff.
Can you please do a video on French DNA? Breaking down the regions of France just like you have done with this and other videos?
If so, that would be amazing! Thanks.
French DNA as said Celine is a mixture of all the garbage races of Europeans who couldn’t go further because of the Atlantic Ocean😂😂😂
4:52 while debated, Italy had many different languages ( not dialected). Each of them stemmed from latin, and it was only from Boccaccio / Dante / Petrarca that there was an idea of "italian language".
Well, you did a great job!
Excellent thank you
Such a nice admixture and people
This was so interesting! I would love to see a video on the DNA story of Ashkenazi Jews! I have a lot of Ashkenazi ancestry and would love to know more.
You can start your explorations with the book "The Maternal Genetic Lineages of Ashkenazic Jews" by Kevin Alan Brook and the genetic study "Genome-wide data from medieval German Jews show that the Ashkenazi founder event pre-dated the 14th century" by Shamam Waldman and her team.
In addition, I can recommend Razib Khan's December 2022 UA-cam video entitled "The Medieval Origins of the Ashkenazim" where he interviewed Joshua Lipson, Ariel Lomes, and Leo Cooper about the varieties of Jewish DNA in 14th-century Germany that are directly ancestral to Ashkenazi Jews today.
Bravissimo! Thanks for making this video mate. You look Italian yourself.
Nice presentation by Sylvester.
I took a DNA test through Ancestry, and I got Lombard, Greek, Aegean and Levant mixed with the Italian DNA.
I had an Italian manager but I literally thought he was an Arab until I saw his name, that explains why some Italians look Arab
Maybe its just your complex, arabs were present only in sicily for 150 years in middle ages, and italy is genetically frozen since the pre-roman era. The fact is that in italy there's a lot of sun in spring and summer and some people get tanned, like all humans
@@blessed7614 It’s not a tan, the guy in the video literally says southern Italians have North African and Middle Eastern admixture
@@horsekfobster7823 in fact he is wrong, the aplogroup of North africa dna is not more than 5% in South italy, you can go to wikipedia to check. Sicilians have middle eastern admixture.South italians descend from ancient romans and greeks, no one had a better dna background than them
@@blessed7614 So you want me to trust the guy who uses Wikipedia as a source over the guy who’s whole channel is about DNA? Ok
@@horsekfobster7823 im saying that you ave misuunderstood, the african and arabic component in sicily its not more than 5%-10%, u can littery go to wikipedia to check or any other genetic study. The thing his that some people get more tanned than other in the summer.
Hi there, very interesting video, very well made. And I love all the comments as well, many interesting information in the comments as well 😊
Thank you for your fascinating video🎉!!!
Excellent! 👍👍
Lest we forget the Normans in Sicily and the reason why there are blond, blue-eyed Sicilians.
When Pisa lost the final battle against Florence many Germans of that sea republic relocated in Sicily
Their DNA influence in Sicily is very small though.
This is one of the first few unbiased and objective videos I've watched about italian ancestry, in a short concised manner. Very interesting. Well done.
We do not know this person's credentials.
False he conflated Brown imperial romans with ancient roman, there was a massive replacement during the imperial era.
@@ELIAS-hm5no never said that it was not the case, early roman were mostly anatolian farmer with a bit of cro magnon and around 20-25% indo european. Wich today would be the closest to south french, so phenotypicly we can assume they had the same percentages of light eyes and hair. I am just pointing out imperial romans were not the same, much more middle eastern
Bro this video is biased af what are u even talking about💀💀
@@tothem1997 Yes, the early Romans were mostly Anatolian farmer, meaning brown hair and eyes.
Well done!!!! Bye from TARCHUNA🇮🇹
I’d love to know more about the mix of Sorbs and Sami if you can do this please!
Just a point, in south of Italy there is a particoular heritage from Vikings people, in fact just in south we can find people with blonde/red hair , despite in the north there is a greater presence of germanic genome. Anyway it's a great video, Greetings from Italy
The people of Sardinia have kept a large percentage of DNA from the people of Anatolia. Inside the island, the percentage is greater. They are similar to the DNA of the skeletons of the first farmers
Im from Sardinia
He didn't even mention Sardinia and quite frankly that pissed me off
You're referring to southern European DNA, which originates in ancient Anatolia and the Steppe. Modern Anatolians are not the same people. They are more similar to Iranians and Palestinians as they are a mix of southern Europeans and Semitic groups not find in Italians.
Sardinians are a separate nation who have always been under foreign rule. At least, the other Italic people like Venetians, Lombards and Ligurians were sovereign states at one point. Sardinians never really had a choice.
@@bboyonit96 Okay, but if they've never been an independent nation in their history, it's a bit presumptuous to say they're a "separate nation"
Thanks for a wonderful amount of information, so many incorrect videos, I’m half Italian, my great grandfather was from Genoa. I’m so proud ❤
Wow. I like your videos
COULD YOU DO A VIDEO ABOUT THE FRENCH ANCESTRY ? IT WOULD BE INTERESTING TO KNOW ABOUT THEIR ORIGINS.
THE FRENCH PEOPLE FROM FRANCE, ARE NOT THE SAME RACE OF PEOPLE, AS THE GERMANS. NOT THE SAME, GENETICALLY, CULTURALLY, MENTALITY AND ALSO IN TERMS OF LANGUAGE. FRENCH PEOPLE ARE NOT JUST MIXED WITH THE LATIN SPEAKING PEOPLE, OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, A LARGE PERCENTAGE OF THEM ALSO HAVE IBERIAN DNA, ESPECIALLY, THOSE FROM SOUTHERN FRANCE, WHO MOST ARE MEDITERRANEAN LOOKING IN APPEARANCE. YES, IN DIFFERENT REGIONS OF FRANCE, PEOPLE ARE VERY DIFFERENT BUT THAT IS THE SAME IN EVERY COUNTRY, ALL OVER THE WORLD AND NOT JUST FRANCE. THE NORTHERN FRENCH PEOPLE ARE MORE CELTIC THAN THE PEOPLE, ANYWHERE ELSE IN FRANCE. THE ONLY FRENCH PEOPLE WHO WOULD BE MORE RELATED TO THE GERMANS, ARE THOSE WHO ARE FROM THE PART OF FRANCE WHICH IS ON THE BORDERS WITH GERMANY BUT NO WHERE ELSE.
Even the person making this presentation can pass for a southern Italian from sicilly lol
Interestingly enough he is Persian/Iranian.
@@alwizardus he could also pass for North African
He looks like Silvester Stallone
@@Based556 because he looks Italian ? 😅😅
No, he couldn't.
Excellent 👍👍
This is so true i am italian and in my dna test showed i have ancestors from welsh england ect so Celt related and Northern italy and sardinia. So true
My family is Sicilian. We have a high percentage of Albanian and Iberian DNA. Was interesting to find the records of my Great Grandfather who had light colored hair and bright blue eyes
Don't forget about the DARKER PART of yourself either.
@@Virus-xm7qc not sure what that means?
po more emrin celt (gjërmant) në gjuhën shqipe do thot ai që ka lekuren e bardh floket bjond edhe syt e kalter quhet i çelt, një njeri i ndriçuar. gjuha shqipe edhe populli shqiptar jan nje çels i kultures europiane por keqperdoren per fatin e keq. une linda nje djal me sy te kalter me floket bjond kaçurrele me lekure te bardhe edhe kuptova se djali ime ësht një pasardhes ilir
please please do a video on Indonesia!! love your perspective
descendants of Anatolian natives continue their lives in southern Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Türkiye:)
They have an incredible history, as they created all of western civilization through classical antiquity, and were players during the bc history eras (which is most of the history of civilization).
I had an interesting result from my FamilyTree autosomal DNA test. My heritage is 100% pre-Revolutionary American, so when that company's test results indicated a small fraction of 1% as being consistent with Balkans. I recognized this as being consistent with the Tagliaferro/Taliaferro/Tolliver/Toliver lineage. As this video pointed out, north Italians show a significant proportion of Balkans genetics. The family mentioned is listed as among the First Families of Virginia, and they trace back to a Venetian businessman who settled in London in the mid 16th century. The proportion found is also consistent with the emigration from the Venetian Republic to England.
My autosomal test updates have shifted, so that instead of Balkans, this tiny proportion seems to now be labeled as central Europe.
Good video
This is extraordinary, to much for my brain to comprehend.
I took a DNA test with ancestry years ago, decade. Initially it came back 90% southern Italian, rest was a mix of Macedonia, Turkey and Caucuses. A couple years later they revised it to 100% southern Italian. I hope that means the initial was a definition of southern Italian.l, was more interesting . I would hate to think my family stayed in Italy for millennia although wouldn’t blame them we were part of the Roman republic from the beginning lol
The DNA test was measuring shared DNA between the three groups. Italians are pretty pure but Caucasus mountain people and Turks are very mixed. Since they have proto Italian in them it confuses the DNA test. But Italians don't have modern Anatolian in them.
they try and lie to say we were raped by arabs, my maternal DNA came back damn near 90% southern italic and greek
it all depends on how they define it. it can be both true depending on the definition
for instance jews can be labeled as "100%" ashkenazi jewish
now, that doesn't mean that they dont have European ancestry from 2000 years ago, or no levantine ancesty
but since they drifted away, and the fact that stem from a couple of families, u can label their own group
likewise it is easy to say who is fully southern Italian or not, as they are mingling among themselves for thousand of years , even if genes from else where introduced some time back
@@armin3057 That's an improper analogy. Problem arises because of a false conflation created when translators transcribed, "Yahudim" (Judahites/Judaens) to include Eastern European Ashkenazim. Ashkenazim are not Semitic, even though most can read & write Hebrew. I'm honestly not wanting to create discord, but it's incorrect to conflate Hebrews with modern Jews. The vast majority of people that identify as being Jew-ish are descendants of Japeth (Togomar/Ashkenaz).
One should note that Italy had been populated by non-Indo-european speaking folks called themselves Etruscans and perhaps other indigenous (Non-indo-european ) ethnicities such as " Sea Peoples" prior to having been colonised by Indo-european speaking Latin ( Roman) peoples .
Wrong. They havent colonized nothing.
Italy was populated by a multitude of Italic tribes. Etruscans were not IE speakers, but they have continuity with Tuscany and Latium inhabitants.
Latins have not colonized Italy , they conquered it. The guy here is talking about admixture, but Italy is genetically frozen to pre-Roman times. For example most of the inhabitants of Abruzzo today have genetic continuity with Samnites.
Oh and Sea People are proved to be Sardinian Nuragic people. The mummies of the Sea peoples employed as Pharaoh guards are ancient Nuragics, and they got genetic continuity with almost every modern Sardinian.
Etruscans on the other way, their specific genome sequence is present only on a handful of Tuscans, Umbrians and Latians, but they were almost equal to Latins genetically...so...
The Etruscans were native to Italy.
@@FlexibleFlyer50 Yes as I had mentioned in my comment they were genuine indigenous inhabitants of Italy however their language was not related to Latin ( Indo-European ), same is true of Basque people in Spain though being the oldest inhabitants of Spain, their language "Euskera " is not related to Spanish(Indo-European ) .
@@fredmoltisanti114 Italy is not genetically frozen in pre-Roman times. I have to comment again on information regarding Italians. Italy was invaded by the Celts, Normans, Goths, Visigoths and others. Italians have more what is referred to as "add ons" than any other ethnic people.
You’re the man, bro.
I love you for this! ❤️
My mom's side is part Italian (from Apulia/Puglia and Calabria) from Southern Italy. Interesting enough when she took a DNA test the results showed a high genetic affinity towards central Italy (especially Tuscany). We definitely had Etruscan and Roman ancestors I think in making sense out of it and somewhere down the timeline they must have settled into Southern Italy. Family as far as I know on her Italian side was entirely dark hair, dark eyes, and variations of olive skin.
Interestingly, the first settlers of Ireland also came from the Middle East, Anatolian farmers.
Many of my Irish cousin matches on Ancestry have small percentages of Middle Eastern or West Asian
The Celt language is close to Hebrew Arabic.
The Etruscans who founded Rome were from the Levant, perhaps Phoenicians
well, all the agriculture come from Anatolia. All Europeans share the DNA of the same three migrations but in different proportions: Anaolian neolithic farmers, European hunter gatherer and Yamnaya which were indo europeans coming from the steppes
I am Italian American both sides came from Italy, Naples area. I did Ancestry I am 85% Italian, southern Italian, the rest Greek, the Levant, Cyprus, & surprisingly 2% Welsh
Thank you for this, my father, father's parents are from small little mountain towns in Cosenza. San sisto dei valdesi, Montalto uffugo, San Fili, etc .. his ydna is G2a, which I read is from the antorolian neolithic farmers. He is half Calabrian he has about 50% antorolian neolithic Farmer DNA. Yes I have a bunch of family DNA kits on all the major DNA websites:).
I'm descended from a northern Italian and a southern Italian. I can see every one of those characteristics in my family and absolutely understand their origin. I'm definitely looking at doing a comprehensive DNA analysis.
ive been studying italian genetics for quite some time, and realistically the people of italy reflect our ancestors. Our admixture is relative to our position and place, the invasions didnt actually leave much genetic legacy. Besides maybe the normans who settled pretty heavily in italy. The arab lie is such revision, and comes from the ancestral north african dna and levantine j2 which was present in greeks as well. I had a genetic test done for my family, in a rather comprehensive medical research program. The results reflected Greek and Italic primacy with 81% of AHG, and Indo-aryan associated r1b. Theres this obsession with people attempting to paint italians as completely different people than the romans or the other italics, its simply not true. The average italian is much more like the populations of the late roman empire (pre-diocletian and post-diocletian west).
Thank you ,from Italy
where did the romans ancestors come from? racist,lets found out yea they come from middle east migrations
The Roman Empire is now considered a "genetic fridge" which left the population substantially unchanged. This happened not only across the empire but also within the Italian peninsula. In this sense the term "average Italian" has strictly no sense, due to the dramatic genetic differences before and after the empire. More correctly you should say "the average Italian, region per region, reflects the different pre-roman populations". From a demographic perspective the share of Lombards on the total Italian population may be, probably, estimated from a 5% to 8%. It was a "special invasion" in the sense that all people (men, women, children, senior people) moved and settled in Italy (see Historia Langobardorum by Paul the Deacon).
@@mrspoorwegovergang1185 from where did the romans come from
@@mrspoorwegovergang1185 I say average italian in the sense of our national identity. Our genetics peninsula wide are different, so as much as i appreciate the correction. It was rather unnecessary, as the spectrum of italian genetics is rather self-explanatory. South being more greek, north being more celto-germanic. Its historically and culturally evident, the genetics are the same in regards to admixture. Ive rarely met any southerners who have admixture of langobard also...so id like to know where they gathered the people for these genetic group studies. I can tell you that they were most likely not southerners.
I’m Italian and I am proud of it. I see with pleasure you try to look the Italians not true the stupid America Anglo Saxon stereotypes.
You are gypsy.
Don't be ashamed of our black race my fellow Italian brothas 💪🏿🇮🇹
@@Bidenisapedonope you are jelous how beutiful they are. And then gypsy are from eastern europe. Arabs were present only in sicily for 150 years, they never entered the italian peninsula
That Age of Mythology soundtrack in the backround thou..
Thank you, very interesting.
May I ask which software you are using to manage your DNA dBase?
DNA testing has shown little to none Middle Eastern and Arab ancestry in Southern Italy. They may have some Greek ancestry. Italian American are in large numbers taking 'DNA tests and the findings are Italians have other European ancestry. As I mentioned in another comment, I am of Neapolitan heritage with some Northern Italian ancestry and my DNA shows Scottish and Norwegian ancestry. I have Italian American friends who have German, and French ancestry.
If there is , it may come from the west end of Sicily where there was more of a presence of Arabs and people from the Maghreb. I'm of Sicilian heritage, both sides of the family are from the same town on the north coast of Sicily near Palermo. My DNA is mostly southern Italy and a fair amount of northern Italy after that it's smaller amounts of Greek, Albanian, Maltese, and French.
Southern Italians, including Sicilians are on average only 6% of Arab ancestry. This is despite the Sicilian Emirate and all the supposed immigration. There simply is not as much Arab as people continue to think. Are southern Italians related to Arabs? Yes, but not because of Arab ancestry from the last 10,000. They're related because if you go back further, they have a common ancestry, but we're not even talking about arabs anymore at that point.
Your statement is not true for my family in southern Italy. We have a fairly large Middle Eastern component, with no northern Italian component. Italian-Americans often have a more mixed ancestry from marrying other ethnic groups in the U.S.
@@markantony3875 I am not talking about Italian Am who marry other groups. Give me some credit, I would know the difference. The DNA testing of Italian Americans who are fully Italian, and there are still millions of them have shown little to none Arab or Middle Eastern ancestry. The phrase Italian American means a person who is of only Italian heritage. If there is another ethnicity they would be called, for example; Italian-German American. Also the ancestry corporations have found Italians in general do not have Arab ancestry. Now of course there are exceptions, and your family may be one. I have commented on this subject many times, because I have found people in general are clueless when it comes to the Italian people and their history. By the way, I still need to respond to another comment of yours.
@@dina113east How do you know there are "millions"? Have you analyzed millions of results yourself? Italian-American does not mean only of Italian heritage. It means you had an ancestor who came from Italy. There is nothing in the definition that says all your ancestors had to come from Italy. In fact, an American only needs ONE ancestor from Italy to be still legally a citizen of Italy and be issued an Italian passport. There are 20 million+ people in the U.S. of Italian ancestry. Seems to me that you appointed yourself to speak for all of them. Awaiting you response from my other comment. It should be fun to read.
ProtoTurks from Phocia/Anatolia
You Turks were in Mongolia at that time
Hahahaha the music is the age of mytology soundtrack.. looool.
please make videos about dna results Yaghnobies(ancient Sogdians) and Pamiris(especially rushan pamiri) of tajikistan.
I am a full blood Italian but my kids are mostly red heads and my Italian niece is red head too. They could easily blend with the Scottish and the Irish.
My grandmother came from Italy and had true auburn hair
Yuck!
Not unusual. My maternal Grandmother was a redhead. Her family came from Avellino. When I was in high school there were three redheads in my class. All of them were Italian. I have met many Italians who are redheaded, including the most beautiful shade of strawberry blonde that I have ever seen - on two girls, both of them Italian Neapolitan origins. On one of my trips to Italy I went to the province of Naples and saw a procession of schoolgirls. Also redheads were among them. So it is not surprising to be a redheaded Italian.
Gorgeous people!!!!
How fascinating! Who knew how diverse the Italian DNA is, and what an incredible history!
Don't forget Puglia region, that is a mix century by century of so many different cultures and invasions, very difficult to say all of that. For example: Normans, Saracens, Svevi, Greeks, Latins, Borbonics, Aragonensis and many others...
Both of my parents were born and raised in Sicily, provincia di Messina, the northeastern corner of the island. My Italian relatives are all over the place in terms of appearance; basically everything mentioned in this video. Some are blonde-haired, blue eyed with milk white complexions. Others are "Mori" -- "Moors" -- a term used by Italians to describe those who are more olive skinned in complexion. And others are like myself, somewhere in the middle. I've done both 23 and Me and Ancestry DNA. Despite some minor differences, they both agree that I'm roughly 80% Southern Italian/Sicilian (I thought the percentage would be higher). Surprisingly, the biggest contributor to my DNA outside of Italy was Cyprus at 10% (I was expecting Greek, but maybe this is more or less the same thing). The rest: Balkans, Greece/Albania, and a small smattering of the area encompassing Turkey.
I'm mostly Sicilian and also was surprised to see Cyprus as well as Greece and North Africa, in my DNA. My brother has Scottish but I don't, but complexion-wise, he's darker than I am. When my results returned "Southern Italian" and "Northern Italian" (my paternal grandfather was Tuscano) it was clear that they don't take Sicily into consideration. I wish there were a DNA company that would focus on Sicily.
Southern Italian it is mostly Greek, so yes you have big percentage of Greek DNA. 🇬🇷🇮🇹
@@GrecoByzantine1821 I'm familiar with Sicilian history and expected to see a decent amount of Greek DNA. Instead, only 2% Greek and Albanian. The biggest non-Italian DNA in my results was 10% Cypriot -- which might be an indirect connection to Greek ancestors.
"mori" is used for people with back hairs, not olive skin
@@gabrielboi3465 Do you mean hair on the back or black hair??
The age of mythology music was the perfect touch
I'm reminded of the Sicilian scene in "True Romance".
Great video. There is one characteristic that all Italians share, that they have in common - they are all BEAUTIFUL!!!!!! Chao!!!!
Sweet comment, among all the inaccurate and uneducated guesses on this thread.
Man i guess I'm the exception that confirms the rule 🥲 well thank you
For the Latins, so far it seems that they arose after the flight of a part of the defeated army of the "peoples from beyond the sea" to the Apennine peninsula. They subjugated the partially proto-Slovenian original inhabitants there and spread to other parts of Europe as the Roman Empire. Some Latin-like features can be seen in the Baltic languages, including Estonian, but not in Finnish and Slavic. Data on the distribution, origin and development of the Y-haplogroup T, as well as the Akkadian etymology of many Greek and Latin words indicate the direction in which to look for the origin of latinity.
as an Argentinian with 75% Italian ancestry is fun to see the cultural clashes that Italians have within themselves, my great-grandparents form my dad's side come from imperia in the region of Liguria really just near France, while the ones from my dad's mom's side came from a city in the east and had much more Balkan influence and from a maternal branch, Sicilian ancestry, not only that but my grandpa has German ancestry too, , from my om I have Italian ancestry, who's great grandparents both came from Rome, and from my mom's mom side they have Hungarian and Galician decent, pretty crazy how colonization brought all these bloodlines together as me.
I think thats why I like it there. the people just never start to bore me.
My ancestors immigrated to America in 1898, they were from the village of Fontana located in Calabria, None of this information was I aware of in 1954, all I knew about the family history was they left Italy because of the uprising. While in the military in the 50’s I visited Fontana, while there I had the feeling I was home, this is where I belong. Total strangers would smile and recognize my presence even though I was in uniform,I was offered food and wine from people completely unknown to me, nothing like this had happened before or Since.
I had spent time in Naples and knew this was unusual behavior.
1980 rolls around and I attended a funeral in Missouri where a cousin lived, the cousin was a historian who related to me the part about the ancestors coming from Fontana.
After learning a bit about genetics it really makes me wonder.
As an Italian born overseas who could come back home (more or less, my family is mostly from Potenza and I live in Torino😅), I wish my grandparents who were your age more or less had been able to do so too, so I'm glad you could do it. The first half of the XXth century was very harsh on Italians in Italy and the second half was very harsh on Italians in Argentina, where my family lived... It was so harsh it inspired Ivano Fossati's song "Italiani d'Argentina"
Greetings! 🇮🇹💪🏻
@@SharkJ002 ❤️🇺🇸🇮🇹❤️
@@SharkJ002 Another fact comes too mind with my stay in Fontana, Deja vous on more than one incident.🇺🇸🇮🇹
Without the singlest doupt, Greeks were the ethnik group that have mostly contributed to the Italian DNA, more importantly genetists can't define what is Greek and what is Italian as both genetic fingertips are tremendously similar, as a Spaniard i like both nations a lot!!!
True
Every country has some differences within, and Italy is not different in that. As a sicilian myself, I'm conscious of my past, although we should consider that the earliest tribes of Sicily are basically our most direct ancestors. Dna from the invasions are just a small portion of our ethnic background, except the greek one
I'm Algerian and I feel family with Italians specially southern italianos
At least with sicilians
We are the most diverse people in Europe
Yes
Spaniard looking at you be like:👁️👄👁️
Funny to see someone from abroad who talks about us as if we are some sort of dogs breed without having a clue lol .
What are you talking about? He was respectful and just stating some facts even though they may not all be correct, no one is 100% correct.
My grandparents came from southern Italy my mom and dads side. I miss my big Italian family ❤️❤️
Proud to be Italian🐺🇮🇹
Most of Southern Italians have 25-65% Greek DNA in average. 🇬🇷🇮🇹
@Graeme Duncan
Modern day Greeks have maximum less than 10% Slavic DNA. Basically slavic Bulgarians, Albanians and people from coastal Black Sea cities in Romania, Ukraine,Russia, Turkey, Georgia can trace more Greek DNA comparatively on how much Slavic DNA the mainland Greeks have. All of those areas where FULL of Greek colonies. Btw your comment has nosense.
Nope. Only Sicily has a significant quantity and it's like 25%. If one studies the history over time, even just looking at maps showing the different peoples living there, it doesn't make sense that Greek is present as much as people tend to think.
@@DrRomaioi The Greek colonization in southern Italy was the biggest comparing to any other group moved there. Greek cities like Syracuse had over 250,000 population each one. Just by looking the map you can't judge. Greek colonization to southern Italy also continued through the Byzantine Empire, during Capetanate of Italy.ua-cam.com/video/lq-SZj0EM3Q/v-deo.html Nowadays southern Italians undertake DNA tests like MyHERITAGE DNA test and post it all over UA-cam. Most of them have 40-70% Greek DNA. It's all over UA-cam.
@@DrRomaioi ua-cam.com/users/shortsQvuapLrJOhI?feature=share
Hi @@GrecoByzantine1821, I think that guys theories are questionable. Would like to see his sources. The Greeks from those magna greacia colonies were NOT the only ones flooding to Rome. Plus, in 250bc, before all those Greeks flooded in, Rome already had a population of 400k, according to some researchers. Syracuse, like Rome, was an anomaly size wise, the rest were under 50k. Look at a map of Italy from 400bc. So many other people's present occupying the vast majority of land. The Etruscans among them, who were an advanced indigenous (as dna research has just proven this past decade) civilisation. This is not to discredit Greek culture, its influence was far greater than any other (except maybe Etruscan?) far greater than its dna input. And Syracuse, that anomaly it is, by the 6th century AD when everyone in Italy was a Latin speaker first, that wasn't the case around Syracuse, were Greek remained the first language. Then, of course, the Eastern Romans resulted in a bit of resurgence of Greek language after they reoccupied the territory.
The north has a celtic influence, the south had a greek influence.
I've got Greek southern Italian and regular Italian in my dna never knew I had Italian ancestors