The 'Whitest Levantines': Cypriots, Are they White? They're the closest ME group to Europeans

[daedal1]

We reconstructed the genetic structure of the Levantines and found that a pre-Islamic expansion Levant was more genetically similar to Europeans than to Middle Easterners.

http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/...l.pgen.1003316


Our time estimate of divergence between the Levantine and European components (~15,900-9,100 y.a) overlaps with the transition to agriculture in the Levant ~11,000 y.a but is also slightly earlier than the proposed expansion to Europe starting at ~9,000 y.a. [23]–[25]. In agreement with this, a recent study of complete mtDNA sequences also proposed earlier expansion dates (19,000-12,000 y.a) of certain female lineages from the Near East to Europe [26]. These results suggest that population migration to Europe from the Near East could have started after the LGM warming and continued until the Neolithic. In addition, these results show that the modern European genetic component is more recent than would be expected from a component that developed from the initial peopling of Europe in the Upper Paleolithic ~40,000 y.a

Which europeans relative to other ME?

Some Europeans like Tuscans, maybe, but they also have some additional neolithic ancestry. Keyword being 'MOST'.

[ariel]

Which europeans relative to other ME?

Some Europeans like Tuscans, maybe, but they also have some additional neolithic ancestry. Keyword being 'MOST'.

levantines are levantines, distinct group and not "middle eastern". we are just levantines.

green mslim levantines, blue levantines

[Peikko]

Finland jews are the whitest.

[Trun]

The Druze are actually much lighter skinned on average.

What I have noticed on 23andme on the clustering map, and on other analyses, is a clustering that goes like this, in order of proximity:

Tuscans/Central Italians/some Greeks and southernmost Balkan groups (Albanians, Bulgarians, some Greeks) ---> Sicilians/Calabrese/Anatolian Greeks/Greek islanders --> Cypriots --> Levantines.

Bulgarians cluster next to Northern Italians and Tuscans, not Central Italians.

[Smeagol]

Druze are lighter than the muslims.

[StonyArabia]

Druze are lighter than the muslims.

and Cypriots.

[Shah-Jehan]

Druze are lighter than the muslims.

The druze consider their religion to be an expansion of Islam adding their own principles...

[daedal1]

levantines are levantines, distinct group and not "middle eastern". we are just levantines.

green mslim levantines, blue levantines

They are still closer to other 'Middle Easterners' than they are to most europeans. They are Middle Eastern.

You're talking about the term 'Near East', which encompasses Turkey, the Levant and Iraq. Now on the subject of the 'Near East', this region was originally inhabited by West Asians and Sumerian-Type people. The Northwest Caucasian languages have confirmed linguistic relations to ancient Mesopotamia (which is recorded as being originally inhabited by sumerians) as well as Ancient Anatolia. So, how much of the Levantine ancestry is actually 'semitic' and how much of it is pre-semitic west-asian/sumerian/caucasian?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hattians

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hattic_language

[MarkyMark]

I want to ask, are we considering Muslims from Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine as a Levantine group? Because I have the firm belief that most Muslim Levantines are hellenized Ghassanids. Both Greeks and Arabs were never native Levantine....But the combination creates the illusion that they are when it comes to average plots.

They are still closer to other 'Middle Easterners' than they are to most europeans. They are Middle Eastern.

You're talking about the term 'Near East', which encompasses Turkey, the Levant and Iraq. Now on the subject of the 'Near East', this region was originally inhabited by West Asians and Sumerian-Type people. The Northwest Caucasian languages have confirmed linguistic relations to ancient Mesopotamia (which is recorded as being originally inhabited by sumerians) as well as Ancient Anatolia. So, how much of the Levantine ancestry is actually 'semitic' and how much of it is pre-semitic west-asian/sumerian/caucasian?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hattians

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hattic_language

Well to begin with, I was under the impression that Semites started out in anatolia and migrated southwards from there. well at least thats what some Assyrians said on forum biodiversity. Also, I thought that Caucasus people were Indo-Iranians mixed with Scythians and anatolians.... So until we know exactly the genetic makeup of original semites and original Indo-Iranians can this question be answered. Also to what specific groups of west asians are you referring to?

[Insuperable]

First of all, if these people are white, I don't know how you could logically deduce that Anatolian Turks are non-white, since these average Cypriots seem even slightly woggier than average Anatolians. Second of all, if Chechens and Caucasians are 'blackasses', what they hell are Cypriots?

The answer is quite easy. None of them is white (Balkan people included of course).