Great read! Can you please clarify a little the Greeks' lineage? You say the 'Greeks' descended from the steppes via Europe - so where did the 'native' Minoans and pelastoi come from?
They were, for the most part, descendants of the initial wave of farmers that expanded out of Anatolia and into Europe, beginning around 9,000 years ago. Academic researchers are understandably reluctant to speculate about the link between language/culture and genetics, but I would guess the Minoan/Aegean-farmer language was distantly related to Basque to the west and Hattic (now dead) to the east. To a large degree, these farmers replaced the previous hunter-gatherer inhabitants of Europe.
The Greek language/culture could trace its origins back to the steppe (as with other Indo-European languages), but from a genetic/genealogical perspective it didn't really replace the farmer population. Perhaps a strongman elite gradually took over farmer areas and ended up "mixing" with the farmers over time. So, though the (distant ancestors of the) Minoan and Greek languages/cultures had diverged a long time before, the individuals who propagated those languages/cultures were genetically pretty similar -- a bit like how present-day Hungarians speak a non-Indo-European language but are genetically quite similar to their Indo-European-speaking neighbors.
This is amazing thank you!!!
Great read! Can you please clarify a little the Greeks' lineage? You say the 'Greeks' descended from the steppes via Europe - so where did the 'native' Minoans and pelastoi come from?
They were, for the most part, descendants of the initial wave of farmers that expanded out of Anatolia and into Europe, beginning around 9,000 years ago. Academic researchers are understandably reluctant to speculate about the link between language/culture and genetics, but I would guess the Minoan/Aegean-farmer language was distantly related to Basque to the west and Hattic (now dead) to the east. To a large degree, these farmers replaced the previous hunter-gatherer inhabitants of Europe.
The Greek language/culture could trace its origins back to the steppe (as with other Indo-European languages), but from a genetic/genealogical perspective it didn't really replace the farmer population. Perhaps a strongman elite gradually took over farmer areas and ended up "mixing" with the farmers over time. So, though the (distant ancestors of the) Minoan and Greek languages/cultures had diverged a long time before, the individuals who propagated those languages/cultures were genetically pretty similar -- a bit like how present-day Hungarians speak a non-Indo-European language but are genetically quite similar to their Indo-European-speaking neighbors.
Absolutely fascinating!