Below is an edited admixture analysis image taken from a 2014 Harvard study on Proto-Indo-Europeans. The original study did not label the ancestral populations, and my labeling (“North European”, etc.) is a simplified approximation in laymen’s terms. As with all genetic studies, this isn’t 100% accurate, but it will give you a good idea of the genetic differences among various European populations.
I’ve divided the populations into rough genetic clusters. They exist on a gradient, so, obviously the division is somewhat arbitrary, but you have to draw the line somewhere:
- Sardinian (Unique Med populaton)
- Basque-related (West Sub-Med)
- Spanish (West Med)
- Italian (Central Med)
- Balkan/Greek (East Med)
- Central European
- Northwest European (could be grouped with Central)
- Northeast European
- Northeast (Siberian Admixture)
- Significant Siberian Admixture
Thuletide 
What about Romanians? Are they similar to Bulgarians and other peoples from the Balkans?
LikeLike
yep, here’s a study with some info. it’s on slavs but romanians are mentioned.
Click to access pone.0135820.pdf
LikeLike
Limitation of the study aside, I find it fascinating that out of the modern populations the greeks have the most ‘aryan’ / ‘indo european’ blood. Perhaps it is why they were so successful for so much of the ancient times. Would love to hear your thoughts as well on this.
LikeLike
Greeks don’t, Northern Europeans do, specifically Northeastern Europeans, like Finns and Russians
You can see on these two PCAs that Northeast Europeans are closest to Proto-Indo-Europeans, to the point of overlapping the Steppe MLBA (Corded Ware, Late-PIE) cluster
https://imgur.com/wDvvFqp
Genetic study on the Greeks here:
Genetic origins of the Minoans and Mycenaeans (Lazaridis et al., 2017)
Source: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14507
Summary:
Minoans were found to have been at least three-quarters EEF, descended directly from the first Neolithic farmers of Western Anatolia and the Aegean, with additional ancestry from a Caucasus-Hunter-Gatherer-related source. The Myceneans can be viewed as “Minoans who had 13-18% Bronze Age steppe DNA.” This study confirmed the theory that the Myceneans mark the introduction of Indo-European language, culture, and genetics into the Aegean region.
LikeLike
Ah I see! I must have misinterpreted Caucasus to mean steppe. Can you give me some info on this Caucasus heritage/people? Is there even any ? Also what ancestral group is represented by ‘South European’ ?
LikeLike
The ancestral population is “Caucasus Hunter-Gatherers.” I imagine they were similar to modern Chechens or Georgians, since that’s where they appear on principal component analysis, and they live in the exact same place.
The Proto-Indo-Europeans were a mix of Caucasus Hunter-Gatherer (women) and Eastern European Hunter-Gatherer (men).
“South European” corresponds to Early European Farmers of the Neolithic.
Take a look at this article, it’s kinda long and I should probably edit it but it contains everything you need to know:
https://thuletide.wordpress.com/2020/08/08/what-is-white-a-guide-for-complete-novices/
It’s summarized in this image:
LikeLike
Aren’t Caucasian like Georgians, Armenians, Abkhaz, Ossetians or Chechens ethnically white ? At least they honestly look like
LikeLike
The Caucasus peoples are their own unique genetic/ethnic cluster and, in my experience, they don’t really like being called Europeans. They have different facial bone structure, and are genetically much closer to modern Iranians than they are to Europeans. Some (or even many, in the case of populations like Chechens) share phenotypic features that are identical to modern Europeans (pale skin, blue eyes, blondism), but they are a distinct population. In fact, they face some stigma in Russia due to association with criminality, radical islam, and so on. They are certainly not regarded as Russian (ethnic Russian, people of the Rus’ tribes).
See this principal component analysis:
LikeLike
Hi, firstly I want to congratulate you for your excellent work. I am not lying if I tell you you have the most interesting blog to me. I just want to ask you about the south Italian sample. For where is it ? and is there anymore sample ?
Salute from south of France.
LikeLike
TY friend, very kind
“South Italian” is actually multiple samples. So are all of the other populations featured in the admixture analysis — except for Saami, which is one sample.
I assume, the South Italian samples are from the region highlighted in pink below (this image is from another study):
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Principal_Component_Analysis_of_the_Italian_population.pn
South of France is beautiful, I’ve visited many places there.
Salut
LikeLike
Why the french is the only nation with no caucasus gene ? What does that implies
LikeLike
Could be an error with the study, because they definitely have ancestry from the Caucasus, all Europeans do.
LikeLike
can you please do a post on Iberians / Spaniards
LikeLike