How did Sardinians remain so genetically isolated?

[Sikeliot]

How did Sardinia remain so genetically isolated? Especially from the Neolithic migrations that became such an important part of the genetic makeup of all of the other islands in the Mediterranean, especially Sicily, Crete, and even to an extent Corsica.

Look at where it is.



How did the West Asian Neolithic genetic component completely bypass Sardinia, but Corsicans have it in similar amounts to northern Italians? For Neolithic settlers to arrive in Corsica, they'd have had to go right past Sardinia to get there.

How did the Phoenicians and Romans have little to no genetic impact on Sardinians despite having both been present on the island at different times? Essentially how did an island that is in the middle of the Mediterranean somehow avoid all of the genetic influences that the other islands around it have?

[kabeiros]

For Neolithic settlers to arrive in Corsica, they'd have had to go right past Sardinia to get there.

not really, they could have gone there directly from northern Italy

[Sikeliot]

not really, they could have gone there directly from northern Italy

So you think Corsicans are descended in large part directly from Italian settlers, and that it's not like the island was settled significantly prior to that?

[Anusiya]

Sardinians don't belong to the greater rest of the italic peoples, that's highly likely.

[Sikeliot]

Sardinians don't belong to the greater rest of the italic peoples, that's highly likely.

I just don't know how they avoided getting West Asian genetic influence and Northern European. Even Sicilians and Cretans have more Northern European shift than do Sardinians. And their geographic location makes it seem difficult for them to have remained so isolated!

[kabeiros]

Have you consider inbreeding?

[Anusiya]

I just don't know how they avoided getting West Asian genetic influence and Northern European. Even Sicilians and Cretans have more Northern European shift than do Sardinians. And their geographic location makes it seem difficult for them to have remained so isolated!

Quite possibly they always lived in a part of the island that was not in a way of a trade route, or other important point of interest for noone. Lucky them!

[Anglojew]

How did Sardinians remain so genetically isolated?

Simple, have you seen their women?

(That's a joke).

[Ira di Dio]

So you think Corsicans are descended in large part directly from Italian settlers

It's not what he thinks, it's what did occur.

[Peyrol]

These parts are interesting:

The language (or the languages) spoken in Sardinia during the bronze age is unknown . According with some reconstructions the "Proto-Sardinian language" was a derivate of the Basque language with similarities with the ancient Iberian . Other scholars believe that there were various linguistic areas (two or more), possibly pre-indoeuropeans and indoeuropeans.

Sardinians share with the inhabitants of Japanese island of Okinawa the highest rate of centenarians in the world (22 centenarians/100,000 inhabitants).