Sicilian haplogroups by province according to Sicilian DNA Project.

[Sikeliot]

If there is one thing clear it's that with a larger sample size, R1b wins out in Palermo and J2 in Catania and Messina, and probably also in Agrigento as well. Trapani may be almost evenly split between the two.

Do you think it's fair to assume a Levantine origin for the J2 in the west, versus a Greek origin for that in the east?

What do you think of my R1a now -- probably Greek or Norman? I once thought it could be Norman since R1a is present in Scandinavia, but if so you'd be seeing it in Palermo and it didn't occur there in this sample but rather it occurred twice in Messina.

[alfieb]

Oops. I fucked up. There's 3 R1a's in Palermo, including one in the formerly named Castelnormanno.

[Sikeliot]

I expected R1a in Palermo to be Norman but what explains it in the east?

[alfieb]

Of the Eastern Sicilian R1a's on the map...

One of the R1a's in Messina is from Novara, whose entire population were imported from Northern Italy, and it is one of the few Gallo-Sicilian-speaking towns in Sicily.

Another is from Salina, in the Eoli Islands. I have no explanation for that.

Another is from Pachino, near Syracuse. No idea.

And the last one is in Caronia, in Messina, which is the home of a large Norman castle, indicating they had a significant presence in the area.

[Sikeliot]

What explanation would you give for western Sicily's E1b and J2?

[alfieb]

J2: Phoenician or Greek
E1b1b: Carthaginian, or Greek

I doubt all of the settlement from Carthage was by Levantines. Levantines created the Carthaginian Empire, and it spoke Phoenician, but there had to be a significant number of Berbers involved.

The E1b could even be Jewish. I believe about half the Jews in Sicily converted to Catholicism, and the others were deported.

[Sikeliot]

Well some of the J2 could be Jewish as well. The other thing is, going by haplogroups it would be impossible to tell if say, a J2 individual got it from a Phoenician or a Jewish ancestor since the original Jews were neighbors with the Phoenicians and probably very genetically similar. The idea that the Jews came from Mesopotamia originally has not been proven or agreed with by archaeologists, but rather they developed as a people right in the Levant.

[wvwvw]

The genetic contribution of Greek chromosomes to the Sicilian gene pool is estimated to be about 37%

In particular, the presence of a modal haplotype coming from the southern Balkan Peninsula and of its one-step derivates associated to E3b1a2-V13, supports a common genetic heritage between Sicilians and Greeks. The estimate of Time to Most Recent Common Ancestor is about 2380 years before present, which broadly agrees with the archaeological traces of the Greek classic era….

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gn.../#.UWbODssayK1
http://www.nature.com/ejhg/journal/v...g2008120a.html

[alfieb]

I wish they would do that study again. Five years old, given the technology now-vs-then, you can only imagine that the numbers would be different.

[Sikeliot]

I'd like to see the subclades of J2 in the east versus the west.