Lassithi plateau (Grèce): the Minoans were indigenous Europeans.
Katerina Papathanasiou
“The first advanced Bronze Age civilization of Europe was established by the Minoans about 5,000 years before present,” the new article, entitled “A European population in Minoan Bronze Age Crete,” that was recently published in the peer-reviewed open access scientific journal Nature Communications reads, suggesting simultaneously that the Minoans were indigenous Europeans.
Although several archaeologists and other scientists have speculated on the real origin of the Minoans proposing various claims in the past, the new study that was conducted under the guidance of George Stamatoyannopoulos proposes a more realistic approach that came to light after serious and in-depth analyses.
The researchers cooperated in analyzing the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) extracted from the teeth of 37 individuals that were buried around 4,400-3,700 years ago in a cave on the Lassithi plateau of Crete. Then, they decided to compare the frequencies of distinct mtDNA lineages (haplogroups) with similar data from 135 other populations, refuting Sir Arthur Evans’ preponderant hypothesis that the Minoans’ origins can be found in North Africa.
“Minoans show the strongest relationships with Neolithic and modern European populations and with the modern inhabitants of the Lassithi plateau,” the study concluded reinforcing “the hypothesis of an autochthonous development of the Minoan civilization by the descendants of the Neolithic settlers of the island.”
A European population in Minoan Bronze Age Crete
Nature Communications 4, Article number: 1861 doi:10.1038/ncomms2871
Source - http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v4/n5/full/ncomms2871.html#abstract
Abstract
The first advanced Bronze Age civilization of Europe was established by the Minoans about 5,000 years before present. Since Sir Arthur Evans exposed the Minoan civic centre of Knossos, archaeologists have speculated on the origin of the founders of the civilization. Evans proposed a North African origin; Cycladic, Balkan, Anatolian and Middle Eastern origins have also been proposed. Here we address the question of the origin of the Minoans by analysing mitochondrial DNA from Minoan osseous remains from a cave ossuary in the Lassithi plateau of Crete dated 4,400–3,700 years before present. Shared haplotypes, principal component and pairwise distance analyses refute the Evans North African hypothesis. Minoans show the strongest relationships with Neolithic and modern European populations and with the modern inhabitants of the Lassithi plateau. Our data are compatible with the hypothesis of an autochthonous development of the Minoan civilization by the descendants of the Neolithic settlers of the island.