aherne
07-13-2022, 07:53 PM
I've just returned from a gorgeous trip in Calabria and Eastern Sicily, so as usual I wanted to share some observations about phenotypes of Italian/Calabrian/Sicilian speaking people I saw there. Places I visited (enough to get a glimpse of locals phenotypes) were Tropea (Calabria) and Taormina (Sicily).
Tropea: majority phenotype among locals is pure ENF (med predominant with alpine and Semitic), very similar to Lebanese and Israelis actually (darker than Greeks except those from Cyprus). There is no local CM at all (probably indigenous population was so small it got absorbed completely when ENF came 8000 years ago), but there is a sizeable minority (maybe 10%) that looks like life size reconstruction of ancient Roman busts (very peculiar Italic types). I saw brunets like Caesar as well as blondes like Augustus: what unites them all is a specific skull type similar to Aryans' even though they are not majority blonde or even blue eyed. Extrapolating from figures I saw, blondes among Romans must have been in the ranges of 10-15%, but light eyed individuals in the ranges of 30-35%. No matter pigmentation, all people with Roman phenotypes are light skinned and resemble Central Europeans (never really brunet, nor really blonde). Outside Roman element, there is also an unreduced Steppe phenotype (small minority) which accounts for the majority of real blondes (always golden variety) which must also have been brought by Italics (same element as among some Amalfi coast fishermen I saw).
What I found the most striking is the relative abundance of Semitic looking individuals: it's not full scale Arabid as in Israelis, but a version with a narrow hooked nose resembling pre-Greek Cypriot votive figures. All these people tan very heavily under sun, but their unexposed real pigmentation is dusky olive.
Taormina: a very touristic city full of foreigners. Locals look similar to Calabrians, but they are more varied. First of all I saw no Semitic influence and considerably less Roman phenotypes, hence a more generic Southern European look (as in people of Palermo). I was unable to see any difference between locals of Messina, Catania, Palermo and Taormina: 70% look generic S European, 20% look exotic (somewhat similar to maghrebis) and 10% look Central European (mostly Italic)
Tropea: majority phenotype among locals is pure ENF (med predominant with alpine and Semitic), very similar to Lebanese and Israelis actually (darker than Greeks except those from Cyprus). There is no local CM at all (probably indigenous population was so small it got absorbed completely when ENF came 8000 years ago), but there is a sizeable minority (maybe 10%) that looks like life size reconstruction of ancient Roman busts (very peculiar Italic types). I saw brunets like Caesar as well as blondes like Augustus: what unites them all is a specific skull type similar to Aryans' even though they are not majority blonde or even blue eyed. Extrapolating from figures I saw, blondes among Romans must have been in the ranges of 10-15%, but light eyed individuals in the ranges of 30-35%. No matter pigmentation, all people with Roman phenotypes are light skinned and resemble Central Europeans (never really brunet, nor really blonde). Outside Roman element, there is also an unreduced Steppe phenotype (small minority) which accounts for the majority of real blondes (always golden variety) which must also have been brought by Italics (same element as among some Amalfi coast fishermen I saw).
What I found the most striking is the relative abundance of Semitic looking individuals: it's not full scale Arabid as in Israelis, but a version with a narrow hooked nose resembling pre-Greek Cypriot votive figures. All these people tan very heavily under sun, but their unexposed real pigmentation is dusky olive.
Taormina: a very touristic city full of foreigners. Locals look similar to Calabrians, but they are more varied. First of all I saw no Semitic influence and considerably less Roman phenotypes, hence a more generic Southern European look (as in people of Palermo). I was unable to see any difference between locals of Messina, Catania, Palermo and Taormina: 70% look generic S European, 20% look exotic (somewhat similar to maghrebis) and 10% look Central European (mostly Italic)