Are Italians/Greeks overwhelmingly Middle Eastern?

[David24]

I'm an Ashkenazi Jew (parents from Latvia and Russia). I was interested in knowing what would I score in a DNA test.

It seems that I'm genetically overwhelmingly Middle Eastern with minor European! I get fits like 70% Samaritan 30% German in GEDMatch, sometimes Samaritan is replaced with Palestinian.

What surprised is me is that I'm very close to Italians and Greeks genetically despite being overwhelmingly Middle Eastern.

How did Greeks and Italians gain this big amount of Middle Eastern DNA (70%)? Would appreciate it if someone's gonna explain.

Below my GEDMatch results, here you can see me getting 70% Samaritan (whom are one of the purest Middle Easterners) and 30% German:

Spoiler!

Mixed Mode Population Sharing:

# Primary Population (source) Secondary Population (source) Distance
1 54.7% Ashkenazy_Jews (Behar) + 45.3% Sephardic_Jews (Behar) @ 0.51
2 88.5% Ashkenazy_Jews (Behar) + 11.5% Samaritians (Behar) @ 0.61
3 92.4% Sephardic_Jews (Behar) + 7.6% Mordovians (Yunusbayev) @ 0.69
4 85.8% Sephardic_Jews (Behar) + 14.2% Bulgarian (Dodecad) @ 0.7
5 86.2% Sephardic_Jews (Behar) + 13.8% Bulgarians (Yunusbayev) @ 0.74
6 86.6% Sephardic_Jews (Behar) + 13.4% Romanians (Behar) @ 0.75
7 92.6% Sephardic_Jews (Behar) + 7.4% Russian_B (Behar) @ 0.77
8 92.7% Sephardic_Jews (Behar) + 7.3% Russian (HGDP) @ 0.78
9 88.3% Ashkenazi (Dodecad) + 11.7% Samaritians (Behar) @ 0.79
10 85.3% Sicilian (Dodecad) + 14.7% Samaritians (Behar) @ 0.8
11 72.9% Sephardic_Jews (Behar) + 27.1% Greek (Dodecad) @ 0.83
12 92.2% Sephardic_Jews (Behar) + 7.8% Mixed_Slav (Dodecad) @ 0.85
13 92.1% Sephardic_Jews (Behar) + 7.9% Ukranians (Yunusbayev) @ 0.88
14 69.7% Samaritians (Behar) + 30.3% German (Dodecad) @ 0.88
15 54.3% Ashkenazi (Dodecad) + 45.7% Sephardic_Jews (Behar) @ 0.89
16 93.5% Sephardic_Jews (Behar) + 6.5% FIN30 (1000Genomes) @ 0.92
17 93.5% Sephardic_Jews (Behar) + 6.5% Finnish (Dodecad) @ 0.92
18 90.5% Ashkenazy_Jews (Behar) + 9.5% Yemen_Jews (Behar) @ 0.96
19 92.9% Sephardic_Jews (Behar) + 7.1% Belorussian (Behar) @ 0.96
20 93.3% Sephardic_Jews (Behar) + 6.7% Lithuanian (Dodecad) @ 0.96

Below my "closeness" model:

Spoiler!

Admix Results (sorted):

Single Population Sharing:

# Population (source) Distance
1 Ashkenazy_Jews (Behar) 3.83
2 Ashkenazi (Dodecad) 3.93
3 Sephardic_Jews (Behar) 4.62
4 Sicilian (Dodecad) 5.06
5 S_Italian_Sicilian (Dodecad) 6.08
6 Morocco_Jews (Behar) 6.44
7 Greek (Dodecad) 12.28
8 Cypriots (Behar) 13.41
9 C_Italian (Dodecad) 13.5
10 Tuscan (HGDP) 19.71
11 Lebanese (Behar) 19.89
12 TSI30 (Metspalu) 20.06
13 Palestinian (HGDP) 20.33
14 Samaritian (Behar) 21.43
15 O_Italian (Dodecad) 21.63
16 Syrians (Behar) 22.06
17 Druze (HGDP) 22.61
18 Turkish (Dodecad) 23.11
19 Turks (Behar) 23.41
20 Bedouin (HGDP) 27.27

[Ayetooey]

Those fits are bad. Ashkenazi Jews are modelled best as a mix of Southern European and Near Eastern populations and have minimal to no Germanic, this is what dna studies and custom made models show. Sicilians and Cretans/Dodecanese Islanders are a similar Southern European/Near Eastern mix hence the vague similarity. But actual ibd cross over between say Cretans and Jews is close to zilch.

Cypriots are full blown Levantines and cluster to the south east of Jews.

[David24]

Those fits are bad. Ashkenazi Jews are modelled best as a mix of Southern European and Near Eastern populations and have minimal to no Germanic, this is what dna studies and custom made models show. Sicilians and Cretans/Dodecanese Islanders are a similar Southern European/Near Eastern mix hence the vague similarity. But actual ibd cross over between say Cretans and Jews is close to zilch.

Cypriots are full blown Levantines and cluster to the south east of Jews.

Southern Europeans themselves have Near Eastern ancestry so a whole a lot of Near Eastern DNA of Jews gets eaten by that Southern European label. Here you can see the Portuguese ate a chunk of Samaritan if you replace the German with it:
58.8% Samaritian + 41.2% Portuguese @ 1.6

[Ayetooey]

Southern Europeans themselves have Near Eastern ancestry so a whole a lot of Near Eastern DNA of Jews gets eaten by that Southern European label. Here you can see the Portuguese ate a chunk of Samaritan if you replace the German with it:
58.8% Samaritian + 41.2% Portuguese @ 1.6

North Italian is a better proxy for Jewish Southern European dna I think.

[Arūnas]

I was watching the second half of yesterday's football match Italy - Turkey, and all what I can tell - very interesting phenotypes they have, for example the goalkeeper

[Avgvstvs]

I was watching the second half of yesterday's football match Italy - Turkey, and all what I can tell - very interesting phenotypes they have, for example the goalkeeper

If interesting means south european then yes, very interesting phenotypes

Donnarumma is the only weird one

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[Fedora]

If interesting means south european then yes, very interesting phenotypes

Donnarumma is the only weird one

He looks Azerbaijani/Armenian/Iranian.

[Avgvstvs]

He looks Azerbaijani/Armenian/Iranian.

I'm aware of that, indeed he stands out in the italian team, clearly exotic when compared with normal italians like Bonucci, Barella, Locatelli or Florenzi.

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