Sikeliot's guide to Sicilian phenotypes UPDATED.

**~~Sikeliot~~** · 07-01-2017, 03:28 PM

This is an update of my thread from 4 years ago given that I have gained more nuanced knowledge now, more information, and felt it was necessary to do this over for accuracy's sake. Obviously, most of the island shares common phenotypes, but there are some distinct differences, so I am going to go through those here.

Here is a map of the island. Phenotypically and genetically, you can roughly divide the island into four pieces, and this is the order I will cover them in.

1) Northeast Sicily (Messina, Catania)
2) Southeast Sicily (Enna Ragusa, Syracuse)
3) West-Central Sicily (Caltanissetta, Agrigento, and Palermo)
4) Trapani

1) Northeast Sicily: Messina, Catania

Key phenotypes: Alpine, Gracile Med, East Med, Dinarid, Atlantid, Pontid, Nordid, Armenoid, and their derivatives and any combination thereof.
Closest genetic populations: Calabria/Campania, Crete, Aegean Islands, Cypriots, Southern Greeks, Ashkenazi/Sephardi Jews, Central Italians, Turks, Syrians/Lebanese.
Genetic distinctiveness: High affinity to the Caucasus, low North European input.
Phenotypical trend: Strongly gracile features, gravitating toward Cyprus.

Messina and Catania are typically gracile and of darker features, and resemble Dodecanese and Cretan Greeks and are nearly identical to the people of Calabria on the neighboring mainland, and all of these shift toward Cyprus. Migrations from the Byzantine Empire's holdings in West Asia during Byzantine rule may have augmented the affinity to the Caucasus and West Asia overall, even though the region does have a strong Greek influence right from the mainland as well as some Italic influence from the Siculi.

MESSINA photos:

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CATANIA photos:

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**~~Sikeliot~~** · 07-01-2017, 03:29 PM

2) Southeast Sicily: Enna, Ragusa, Syracuse

Key phenotypes: Dinarid, Alpine, Gracile Med, East Med, Atlantid, Pontid, Nordid, and their derivatives and any combination thereof.
Closest genetic populations: Southeast Italy (Apulia/Lucania), Greeks overall, Central Italians, Ashkenazi/Sephardi Jews, Albanians, Bulgarians, Macedonians.
Genetic distinctiveness: Higher Northeast European ("Balto-Slavic") and lowest North African and SW Asian on the island.
Phenotypical trend: Robust build breaking from the typically gracile orientation of the island, resembling Greeks from both mainland and islands as well as Balkanites overall.

This is the most consistently "European" region of the island both genetically and phenotypically, strongly resembling in both phenotype and genetics Apulia on the mainland south. Of the three regions, Enna is the lightest, most Alpinized, most robust in body frame, and has the lowest MENA input, with the phenotypes strongly resembling Peloponnesian Greeks, because many Greeks living on the east coast fled inland to Enna during the Arab conquest to escape Arabization. Syracuse and Enna look very close, due to high preservation of Greek ancestry. Ragusa is slightly darker and has absorbed slightly more MENA affinity, evident in their higher frequency of haplogroup J1 and their connections to Malta.

ENNA photos:

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RAGUSA photos:

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SYRACUSE photos:

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**~~Sikeliot~~** · 07-01-2017, 03:29 PM

3) West-Central Sicily: Palermo, Agrigento, Caltanissetta

Key phenotypes: Gracile Med, East Med, Dinarid, Armenoid, Atlantid, Nordid, Berid, South Med, and any combination thereof.
Closest genetic populations: Ashkenazi/Sephardi Jews, North African Jews, Cretans, Aegean islands, Central Italians, Southern Greeks, Cypriots, Syrians/Lebanese.
Genetic distinctiveness: Higher North African and Southwest Asian influence, minor Norman input in Palermo, and shift toward Moroccan Jews.
Phenotypical trend: Due to higher Afro-Asiatic input especially in Agrigento, the population phenotypically resembles many Jewish groups and to an extent, Levantines.

Agrigento is, for all intents and purposes, similar to Malta, having been the most thoroughly Arabized region of the island during Arab rule. Palermo and Caltanissetta are similar, only they have slightly higher continental European influence (5% or so) from Normans and the Crusades. Palermitans, in particular, strongly resemble Ashkenazim. There are Greek influences in these provinces, though less predominant than along the east coast and possibly the least proportionally Greek regions of the island.

PALERMO photos:

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AGRIGENTO photos:

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CALTANISSETTA photos:

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**~~Sikeliot~~** · 07-01-2017, 03:29 PM

4) Trapani

Key phenotypes: Gracile Med, East Med, Berid, Nordid, Dinarid, Atlantid, Armenoid, Subnordid, South Med, and any combination thereof.
Closest genetic populations: Central and southern Italians overall, Ashkenazi/Sephardi Jews, North African Jews, Greeks overall, North Italians, Iberians, Syrians/Lebanese.
Genetic distinctiveness: Lower genetic influence from the Caucasus than the rest of the island, higher Southwest Asian and North African, and higher North European than the rest of western Sicily from Normans.
Phenotypical trend: The region lacks the same degree of implicit Caucasian influence than the rest of the island and bears stronger influences from both Western Europe and North Africa than what is typical, with many individuals also resembling Jews and Levantines.

Trapani has been subject to repopulation from the Italian mainland after the Norman conquest and has a strong Greek influence, but the influence of MENA groups is still present genetically: all of these influxes collectively may have decreased the islands' Bronze Age Caucasus affinities, being lower than anywhere else on the island. This region has higher amounts of light hair and eyes than most of the island, and is neither distinctly gracile nor robust in build and facial structure but some combination of the two. Trapani is the most "mixed" region of Sicily in terms of its influences from all over Europe and the Near East.

TRAPANI photos:

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