Genetics of the Crusaders in the Near East

[Token]

During the medieval period, hundreds of thousands of Europeans migrated to the Near East to take part in the Crusades, and many of them settled in the newly established Christian states along the Eastern Mediterranean coast. Here, we present a genetic snapshot of these events and their aftermath by sequencing the whole genomes of 13 individuals who lived in what is today known as Lebanon between the 3rd and 13th centuries CE. These include nine individuals from the “Crusaders’ pit” in Sidon, a mass burial in South Lebanon identified from the archaeology as the grave of Crusaders killed during a battle in the 13th century CE. We show that all of the Crusaders’ pit individuals were males; some were Western Europeans from diverse origins, some were locals (genetically indistinguishable from present-day Lebanese), and two individuals were a mixture of European and Near Eastern ancestries, providing direct evidence that the Crusaders admixed with the local population. However, these mixtures appear to have had limited genetic consequences since signals of admixture with Europeans are not significant in any Lebanese group today—in particular, Lebanese Christians are today genetically similar to local people who lived during the Roman period which preceded the Crusades by more than four centuries.
https://www.cell.com/ajhg/fulltext/S...297(19)30111-9

[Token]

The European Crusaders were Southwestern Europeans:

We found that all individuals from Lebanon’s Roman period (Lebanon_RP) clustered with Near Easterners and were close to present-day Lebanese. In contrast, the Crusaders’ pit individuals were more diverse and we classified them into three groups based on their PCA position. First, a group of four individuals appeared to be local Near Easterners since they clustered with the Roman period and present-day Lebanese. Second, three individuals appeared to be Europeans and clustered with different European populations (two clustered with Spaniards and were close to Basque, French, and Northern Italians, and the third clustered with Sardinians). Third, two individuals appeared to have an intermediate position between Europeans and Near Easterners: individual SI-41 overlapped with Neolithic Anatolians on the PCA and was distant from any modern West Eurasian population, and individual SI-53 overlapped with Ashkenazi Jews and South Italians.

...

Therefore, the PCA results point to a diverse origin for the individuals buried in the Crusaders’ pit. We sought to confirm these results by testing the genetic affinity of the individuals to West European Hunter-Gatherers (WHG), who contributed ancestry to all Europeans but not to Near Easterners. We used the SGDP set to compute the statistic f4(Lebanese_RP, A; WHG, Chimpanzee). This is expected to be negative when A is European because of the excess of WHG ancestry in Europeans compared with the Roman period Lebanese, but should not be significantly different from zero when A is a Near Easterner. As expected, we found a significant contrast between Europeans and Near Easterners from their genetic affinity to WHG (Figure 2), confirming the diversity of the Crusaders’ pit individuals: three were Europeans, four were Near Easterners, and the two who had ambiguous ancestry on the PCA appear, based on the f-statistic, to have had European ancestry but with less WHG ancestry than the other Europeans found in the pit.

[Dna8]

Beautiful title.

[Lucas]

The European Crusaders were Southwestern Europeans:

We found that all individuals from Lebanon’s Roman period (Lebanon_RP) clustered with Near Easterners and were close to present-day Lebanese. In contrast, the Crusaders’ pit individuals were more diverse and we classified them into three groups based on their PCA position. First, a group of four individuals appeared to be local Near Easterners since they clustered with the Roman period and present-day Lebanese. Second, three individuals appeared to be Europeans and clustered with different European populations (two clustered with Spaniards and were close to Basque, French, and Northern Italians, and the third clustered with Sardinians). Third, two individuals appeared to have an intermediate position between Europeans and Near Easterners: individual SI-41 overlapped with Neolithic Anatolians on the PCA and was distant from any modern West Eurasian population, and individual SI-53 overlapped with Ashkenazi Jews and South Italians.

...

Therefore, the PCA results point to a diverse origin for the individuals buried in the Crusaders’ pit. We sought to confirm these results by testing the genetic affinity of the individuals to West European Hunter-Gatherers (WHG), who contributed ancestry to all Europeans but not to Near Easterners. We used the SGDP set to compute the statistic f4(Lebanese_RP, A; WHG, Chimpanzee). This is expected to be negative when A is European because of the excess of WHG ancestry in Europeans compared with the Roman period Lebanese, but should not be significantly different from zero when A is a Near Easterner. As expected, we found a significant contrast between Europeans and Near Easterners from their genetic affinity to WHG (Figure 2), confirming the diversity of the Crusaders’ pit individuals: three were Europeans, four were Near Easterners, and the two who had ambiguous ancestry on the PCA appear, based on the f-statistic, to have had European ancestry but with less WHG ancestry than the other Europeans found in the pit.

Those few which were analized. But most likely they were from southern France (those Iberian-like). Many Templar Knights were from Languedoc. I don't know about too many Spaniards among Levant Crusaders. They had their own Reconquista...

[Token]

Those few which were analized. But most likely they were from southern France (those Iberian-like). Many Templar Knights were from Languedoc. I don't know about too many Spaniards among Levant Crusaders. They had their own Reconquista...

One of them looks like a Northern Spaniard/Southwestern French/Basque, but like you said most certainly a Southern French. The another one, even though he cluster close to the first, looks quite different on their qpAdm runs. He had a lot of EHG and considerably less WHG.

[Token]

Can someone upload them on Gedmatch?

https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ena/data/view/ERS3189349
ERS3189349 SI-38 Sidon medieval – 33711271 4 0.5 72 male J1b4a1 E-L677
ERS3189350 SI-39 Sidon medieval 1191–1283 35804710 3 0.6 60 male H5′36 R-P312
ERS3189351 SI-40 Sidon medieval – 21871263 2 0.4 38 male U5a1g R-P311
ERS3189352 SI-41 Sidon medieval 1187–1266 169086445 11 3 198 male HV0a R-DF27
ERS3189353 SI-42 Sidon medieval 1154–1281 37079898 5 0.7 68 male J1b1a1 T-M70
ERS3189348 SI-44 Sidon medieval – 25262493 3 0.4 52 male HV1b J-M304
ERS3189355 SI-45 Sidon medieval 1219–1278 193449685 12 3.75 275 male J1d1a1 Q-M346
ERS3189357 SI-47 Sidon medieval – 26722544 2 0.4 44 male H2a5 R-M269

[CommonSense]

SJWs and libtards aren't going to like hearing that among the crusaders there were brown Middle Easterners killing their own muslim bretheren. Another 'white supremacy' myth busted.

[TeutonicBoyars]

Do thy know what years these are from? I believe the Third Crusade was the most extensive in terms of European involvement, but most of the crusaders were German.

Edit: Forgot Freddy Red-Beard drowned on the way to the Levant and most his retinue was pretty about this so they went back home. So I guess most of the crusaders probably came from France regardless.

[Smeagol]

Do thy know what years these are from? I believe the Third Crusade was the most extensive in terms of European involvement, but most of the crusaders were German.

13th century, so one of the later ones.

[Teutone]

Do thy know what years these are from? I believe the Third Crusade was the most extensive in terms of European involvement, but most of the crusaders were German.

Edit: Forgot Freddy Red-Beard drowned on the way to the Levant and most his retinue was pretty about this so they went back home. So I guess most of the crusaders probably came from France regardless.

good point