E1b1b and J2 component to the Greek and Southern Italian population came about as the result of a neolithic migration into Europe thousands of years ago comment

Alessandro DiVincenzi





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It is worth noting, however, that while the majority of Iberian Y-Chromosomes belong to the R1b (western European) haplotype, whereas the Greeks have a mixture between European and Near Eastern hapltypes, this does not in and of itself have much bearings on how dark or how light the populations are in terms of skin color, etc.

Basically, and correct me if I am wrong (I am not a population geneticist), but to the best of my understanding, the "near eastern" component to the Greek and Southern Italian population came about as the result of a neolithic migration into Europe thousands of years ago, not in recent times such as Moorish occupation, etc. Over the course of several milleniae, the populations coming out of the near east would have evolved their own phenotype to adapt to the local climate, etc.

In contrast, to the best of my knowledge, the Spaniards and the Portuguese are largely of the R1b haplogroup---which is the western european Y chromosome haplotype. In Northern Iberia it is 90%+ R1b. R1b, according to population geneticists such as Spencer G. Wells originally came out of Central Asia near the present day "Stan" countries, in Paleothic times.

Yet, given that Spain and Italy and Greece are all at similar latitudes, I would think that the populations, over thousands of years would have evolved similar colorings, regardless of their original lineages.

The reasons that Spaniards and Italians are lighter than Greeks (at least from what I have seen), propbably has more to do with, like you said, the Nordic invasions of Spain and Italy (Visigoths, Ostrogroths, etc) than anything else.

    Wesleyana Forever wrote:
    Central and northern Portuguese and Spaniards are the lightest southern Europeans, on average. There are regions of northern Spain and Portugal where Celtic DNA markers (Atlantic haplotype) run over 90%. There is also some level of Germanic and Nordic genetic influence. Example, the northern Portuguese city of Povoa de Varzim was founded by Vikingsin the 11th century and endogmy was strictly practiced until recently. The result is that particular region of Portugal has a substantial number of blond and blue eyed people.
    Greeks are by far the darkest. They are more Middle Eastern than European (only 39% European haplogroups) followed by southern Italians, some of the Balkan peoples, Spaniards and Portuguese from the far southern regions of Iberia and southwestern and southeastern French.


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