myOrigins
The unique genetic assemblage that has been passed down to me in my autosomal DNA from my ancestors comes from 7 of the 24 reference populations around the world. This blog post will highlight major historical and genetic events, thus shedding light on the wild complexity of my genetic tapestry. Though we are all unique and distinct, we are also woven from the same fundamental elements. Here is a percentile breakdown of those populations to which my own aDNA is connected. This is also known as my ethnic makeup.
Trace* amounts from East Asian areas
>1% is from Siberia
>1% is from Siberia
Modern humans arrived in Siberia roughly 40,000 years ago after access to the region was opened up by retreating ice sheets. These ancient hunter-gatherer populations spread all across Siberia with some groups continuing east across the Bering Land Bridge to populate the Americas roughly 15,000–23,000 years ago. Because of this, there is still genetic relatedness between Siberian and Native American populations to this day.
As Siberian populations became more established in the area, their lifestyles changed little from the first bands of people; consisting largely of small semi hunter-gatherer and pastoral nomadic groups. Populations within this cluster experienced predominantly Chinese influence starting around 1000 BCE and later, influence from the Turkic-Mongols in the 3rd century BCE. Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire laid claim to Southern Siberia from the 13th to 14th century CE.
Colonization from Russian forces in the 16th century CE led to the destruction of many of the smaller tribes due to the spread of disease and exploitation from colonists. However, larger tribes, such as the Sakha (Yakut) and Buryat, utilized the colonists to gain profit and were largely incorporated into the colonizing society, while others were able to maintain their traditional practices. Present day populations of Sakha (Yakut) still practice a mostly pastoral lifestyle and continue to herd horses, cattle, and reindeer.
Today, the people of Siberia express closer relatedness to populations within East Asia and northern populations in Japan, suggesting more recent migrations from the south. There has also been increased relatedness between populations in Siberia and western Russia since Siberia’s integration as a Russian state.
>1% is from Northeast Asia
The Northeast Asia cluster encompasses present day China, Mongolia, Japan, Korea, Siberia, and Kazakhstan. Modern humans are believed to have arrived in this region of East Asia via two potential routes: a coastal route leading from the eastern regions of Africa and an early continental migration through western Eurasia.
The scope of the regions in which these ancient peoples settled was vast. Populations within this cluster mostly consisted of small mobile hunter-gatherer groups. These hunter-gatherer groups spread wide, and migrations took these hunter-gatherers into Siberia, Korea, and further east to Japan. During this time, sea levels were low enough that Japan was still connected to mainland Asia via a land bridge.
Farming practices were established roughly 10,000 years ago in the Loess Plateau and Central Yangzi River Valley and came later to peripheral areas in this cluster. Notably, the Jomon in Japan are recognized as one of the longest enduring hunter-gatherer groups in the world. On the Asian continent, early populations experienced continual tension with populations from the western steppe regions until the region was unified by the Qin dynasty in 221 BCE. Following the Qin, the Han dynasty and later the Mongol army of Genghis Kahn continued driving international expansion.
In Korea, the Han empire had established four provinces, maintaining control for the following 400 years. Regular contact between populations in China, Korea, and Japan is estimated to have started around 500 BCE. Later bronze and iron trade between Korea and Japan proved to be transformative for Japan and their weapon industry.
Populations within this cluster remained largely isolated until roughly 5,000 years ago. However, once this region was opened, other populations were quick to adopt many cultural and technological artifacts from the area and spread them around the world. Two of the most notable features of this region were the creation of the Great Wall and the Silk Road trading route. The Great Wall was initially created to defend China from the invading Xiongnu warriors from Mongolia and was later extended westward to protect merchants traveling along the Silk Road. The first leg of the Silk Road was marked by the Great Wall and proved to be enormously impactful to most of the Old World regions, as it facilitated previously limited or non-existent trade and interaction between largely separated cultures.
Trace* amounts from Middle Eastern area
> 2% is from West Middle East
The West Middle East cluster is comprised of present day populations from regions along the Eastern border of Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, and Palestine. Regions within the West Middle East and East Middle East clusters were areas of the first migrations out of Africa roughly 100,000 years ago. Nestled on the western edge of the Fertile Crescent, this cluster has been home to populations that have played a key role in the development of human civilization throughout history.
With the development of farming and the domestication of animals roughly 12,000 years ago, populations from the West Middle East are noted for the introduction of farming into Southern Europe. Populations in this cluster are also credited with establishing the first civilizations, thus laying the foundation for urbanism.
Populations in this cluster have been influential throughout history, though the most significant achievement could be said to have been made by the Phoenicians more than 3,000 years ago. Credited with establishing the foundation for all modern alphabetic writing systems, the Phoenician alphabet (created before 1000 BCE) directly influenced the writing systems of the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek civilizations. The Phoenicians established colonies throughout most of the Mediterranean, including the strategically important city of Carthage in Northern Africa. Carthage became the largest Phoenician colony and allowed them to control and monopolize trade throughout the Mediterranean. Trading within this region meant that as populations within this cluster expanded throughout the Old World, they came into contact with populations from as far away as Russia, Morocco, Spain, and even Viking traders from the north.
Populations within this cluster share genetic relatedness and a history of trade and conquest among many regions within the Mediterranean. Present day members of the West Middle East cluster share genetic similarity with members of the Druze religious sect primarily found in Lebanon and the nomadic Bedouin tribes found within the deserts of Jordan and Syria. Each of these cultures remains deeply rooted in the history of this region. The Druze are particularly noted as successfully resisting Crusader invasions along the Lebanese coast, and rebelling against the Ottoman Empire.
98% European areas
61% British Isles
Modern humans arrived on the British Isles roughly 40,000 years ago via a land bridge that connected these islands to continental Europe. Early hunter-gatherer populations were able to navigate into and out of this region until roughly 6000 BCE when melting ice sheets caused sea levels to rise and the connection was severed between the populations within the British Isles and continental Europe. Farming occurred largely as an indigenous adaptation with little evidence of acquiring this technology from surrounding colonizing regions. Small agricultural communities are even recorded as the primary lifestyle by Roman invaders in the early 1st century CE.
By the second millennium BCE, trade relationships spread, and under the control of the Chieftains of Wessex, trade routes spanned from Ireland into central and eastern continental Europe via waterways. The wealth amassed from this intensified trade likely enabled the Wessex Chieftains to begin construction on what would grow to become Stonehenge. These trade practices further solidified a deep genetic connection with populations in the West and Central Europe cluster and areas of Scandinavia.
By 43 CE, Roman forces had conquered Britain. However, by 500 CE, Germanic tribes (originating in present day Scandinavia and eastern Europe) and Asian forces toppled the Roman Empire, and the subsequent continental European expansions brought Saxon tribes into the British Isles. Powers in the British Isles also conscripted mercenary populations from continental Europe. The Saxons, Angles, and Jutes came over to support Briton forces defending against the Picts and Scots in the 6th century CE.
Starting in the late 8th century CE, the British Isles were invaded and settled by Viking parties during the Viking expansion. Normandy later invaded and solidified cultural and economic connections between the British Isles and continental Europe. To this day, these ancient occupations and trading practices left a lasting impression on the genetic relatedness between populations in the British Isles cluster and Southeast Europe, Scandinavia, and West and Central Europe clusters.
20% West and Central Europe
The West and Central Europe cluster consists of present day countries of France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic, and Germany. Modern humans began to populate West and Central Europe toward the end of the last ice age when the ice sheets north of the Mediterranean coast began to retreat.
Due to ancient interactions and exchanges with cultures from the British Isles, Scandinavia, Asia, and Africa, this cluster displays an incredible history of migration, invasion, and colonization resulting in continual shared genetic, cultural, and linguistic relatedness with nearly all of the other European clusters.
Long distance travel between continental Europe and populations in the British Isles are illustrated by the shared knowledge of specific pottery and metalworking technologies. Through analysis of his teeth, remains of an individual (the Amesbury Archer) buried around 2000 BCE near Stonehenge in England was proven to have grown up in mainland Europe, thus illustrating the close connections between these two clusters.
The development of complex city-states was first established along the southern coastlines of France. Colonies of Greek, Phoenician, and Carthaginian settlers were the first to establish these complex societies; Roman colonies were quick to follow transferring cultural practices, such as the importance of wine drinking for the elites in central and eastern France.
To the north, barbarian tribes maintained semi-nomadic settlements throughout most of the cluster. By roughly 300 CE, Jutes, Angles, and Saxons, having originated in Scandinavia, were pushed westward by invading forces from Attila the Hun, further intensifying tension between the Romans and the barbarian tribes. With Germanic tribes being pushed out of eastern Europe as well, Slavic speaking peoples settled in their wake, occupying areas leading up to east Germany. Continual raids from various European and Asian groups ended the Roman occupation of this area by roughly 500 CE. During this time period, these various groups continued migration to further reaches of land once unified by Rome. These regions included Northern Italy, most of Britain, modern day France, and Spain; they also conquered most of Northern Africa, Sardinia, and Rome in the process.
It is after this migration that populations within this cluster began to establish complex and diverse civilizations that are later recognized as some of the most powerful and influential cultures in the world. These ancient histories continue to influence identities and histories of present day populations in this cluster.
9% East Europe
The East Europe cluster consists of an area encompassing present day Latvia, south to Ukraine, Romania, and the northern part of Bulgaria, west along the eastern edge of the Balkan states to Poland and the eastern half of Germany.
The early populations in the East Europe cluster consisted largely of small agricultural communities. Some of these developed indigenously, while others were colonies of farming communities from Asia Minor. Eastern Europe played a significant role in the metalworking traditions of Scandinavia, and an intense metal trade was established between the two by 1500 BCE. In 1000 BCE invasions from the Celts (from Gaul and Germany) in 1000 BCE in the north and central regions and invasion from Iranian tribes to the south in interrupted this trade. By 200 BCE, Scandinavian groups drove southward and ended the Iranian control in the south.
Slavs from the North Carpathian Mountains were forced into the steppe regions of present day Ukraine and Belarus by the 5th century CE. The Turkish Empire controlled the Ukrainian steppe between 700–900 CE and used its location to improve their mercantile empire. By the Viking Age of the 8th century CE, trade between the Scandinavia cluster and the East Europe cluster continued. By the middle of the 9th century CE, Vikings took control of the trade route that ran from the Baltic Sea, along the Dnieper River, and into Constantinople in present day Turkey. The Vikings exploited the local Slavic peoples and established their stronghold in Kiev. These Viking merchants were to be the progenitors of the Kievan Princes. By the 11th century CE, the Viking Age ended, and in 1240, the Mongol army sacked Kiev, adding further cultural and genetic influence to this cluster. Since the invasion of Kiev, this arm of the Mongol army became known as the Golden Horde—the western portion of the Mongol Empire.
The East Europe cluster sits on two prominent trade routes, which resulted in a history complete with invasion and migration. As a result, the genetic relatedness of populations within this cluster is shaped by the water trade routes from Scandinavia and from the Baltic to (the Black Sea) Constantinople via the Volga, Dnieper, Dniester and the Danube, connecting Eastern Europe with Scandinavia and Siberia; it also includes the Steppe region, connecting Eastern Europe to Russia, Asia Minor, and the Eastern Middle East. Genetic diversity in this region is high.
8% Southeast Europe
The Southeast Europe cluster consists of present day populations from the areas of Italy, Greece, and the western Balkan states from Bulgaria to Croatia. Present day populations in the Southeast Europe cluster show some of the highest rates of genetic relatedness to the second wave of migration into Europe roughly 11,000 years ago. This wave of migration consisted of Neolithic farmers from the Fertile Crescent and expanded primarily into southern Europe, incorporating small scattered European hunter-gatherer communities along their path.
The island of Sardinia, having early evidence of post-glacial hunter-gatherer inhabitants, was not permanently settled until this migration of Neolithic farmers from the fertile crescent populated it roughly 8,000–7,000 years ago. Although a key position in early Mediterranean trade routes, the populations of Sardinia remained relatively isolated genetically and today, represent a particularly unique connection to Southeast European Neolithic ancestry.
Populations within the Italian peninsula and the Greek and Balkan states, however, display more genetic diversity having experienced waves of migration and the rise and fall of numerous civilizations. The ancient populations on the Italian peninsula generally consisted of the Greek colonies in the south, Etruscan cities in west-central Italy and north of Rome, and Italian groups, such as Samnites and the Umbrians, who inhabited Rome and central Italy. The western Balkan States mostly consisted of small kingdoms until the rise of Alexander the Great’s father Philip II of Macedon (present day Macedonia).
These early states had a wide influence as they were shaped by Alexander the Great’s campaigns, the Roman expansion, and migrations from Slavic tribes who were forced from the Carpathian Mountains by Germanic tribes in the 5th–6th centuries CE.
The Southeast Europe cluster is home to civilizations that many consider to have founded the principles of Western civilization and continue to influence modern politics, art, and architecture. Greek and Roman influence spans the western and southern regions of this cluster, while the influence of the Hellenistic world of Macedonia and Alexander the Great encompass the Western Balkan states.
Copied from https://www.familytreedna.com/learn/user-guide/family-finder-myftdna/myorigins-population-clusters/ with my DNA breakdown added.
*A trace percentage indicates a very small amount of shared DNA in common with the corresponding population. In some cases this minor percentage could be attributed to background noise.
Modern humans arrived in Siberia roughly 40,000 years ago after access to the region was opened up by retreating ice sheets. These ancient hunter-gatherer populations spread all across Siberia with some groups continuing east across the Bering Land Bridge to populate the Americas roughly 15,000–23,000 years ago. Because of this, there is still genetic relatedness between Siberian and Native American populations to this day.
As Siberian populations became more established in the area, their lifestyles changed little from the first bands of people; consisting largely of small semi hunter-gatherer and pastoral nomadic groups. Populations within this cluster experienced predominantly Chinese influence starting around 1000 BCE and later, influence from the Turkic-Mongols in the 3rd century BCE. Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire laid claim to Southern Siberia from the 13th to 14th century CE.
Colonization from Russian forces in the 16th century CE led to the destruction of many of the smaller tribes due to the spread of disease and exploitation from colonists. However, larger tribes, such as the Sakha (Yakut) and Buryat, utilized the colonists to gain profit and were largely incorporated into the colonizing society, while others were able to maintain their traditional practices. Present day populations of Sakha (Yakut) still practice a mostly pastoral lifestyle and continue to herd horses, cattle, and reindeer.
Today, the people of Siberia express closer relatedness to populations within East Asia and northern populations in Japan, suggesting more recent migrations from the south. There has also been increased relatedness between populations in Siberia and western Russia since Siberia’s integration as a Russian state.
>1% is from Northeast Asia
The Northeast Asia cluster encompasses present day China, Mongolia, Japan, Korea, Siberia, and Kazakhstan. Modern humans are believed to have arrived in this region of East Asia via two potential routes: a coastal route leading from the eastern regions of Africa and an early continental migration through western Eurasia.
The scope of the regions in which these ancient peoples settled was vast. Populations within this cluster mostly consisted of small mobile hunter-gatherer groups. These hunter-gatherer groups spread wide, and migrations took these hunter-gatherers into Siberia, Korea, and further east to Japan. During this time, sea levels were low enough that Japan was still connected to mainland Asia via a land bridge.
Farming practices were established roughly 10,000 years ago in the Loess Plateau and Central Yangzi River Valley and came later to peripheral areas in this cluster. Notably, the Jomon in Japan are recognized as one of the longest enduring hunter-gatherer groups in the world. On the Asian continent, early populations experienced continual tension with populations from the western steppe regions until the region was unified by the Qin dynasty in 221 BCE. Following the Qin, the Han dynasty and later the Mongol army of Genghis Kahn continued driving international expansion.
In Korea, the Han empire had established four provinces, maintaining control for the following 400 years. Regular contact between populations in China, Korea, and Japan is estimated to have started around 500 BCE. Later bronze and iron trade between Korea and Japan proved to be transformative for Japan and their weapon industry.
Populations within this cluster remained largely isolated until roughly 5,000 years ago. However, once this region was opened, other populations were quick to adopt many cultural and technological artifacts from the area and spread them around the world. Two of the most notable features of this region were the creation of the Great Wall and the Silk Road trading route. The Great Wall was initially created to defend China from the invading Xiongnu warriors from Mongolia and was later extended westward to protect merchants traveling along the Silk Road. The first leg of the Silk Road was marked by the Great Wall and proved to be enormously impactful to most of the Old World regions, as it facilitated previously limited or non-existent trade and interaction between largely separated cultures.
Trace* amounts from Middle Eastern area
> 2% is from West Middle East
The West Middle East cluster is comprised of present day populations from regions along the Eastern border of Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, and Palestine. Regions within the West Middle East and East Middle East clusters were areas of the first migrations out of Africa roughly 100,000 years ago. Nestled on the western edge of the Fertile Crescent, this cluster has been home to populations that have played a key role in the development of human civilization throughout history.
The West Middle East cluster is comprised of present day populations from regions along the Eastern border of Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, and Palestine. Regions within the West Middle East and East Middle East clusters were areas of the first migrations out of Africa roughly 100,000 years ago. Nestled on the western edge of the Fertile Crescent, this cluster has been home to populations that have played a key role in the development of human civilization throughout history.
With the development of farming and the domestication of animals roughly 12,000 years ago, populations from the West Middle East are noted for the introduction of farming into Southern Europe. Populations in this cluster are also credited with establishing the first civilizations, thus laying the foundation for urbanism.
Populations in this cluster have been influential throughout history, though the most significant achievement could be said to have been made by the Phoenicians more than 3,000 years ago. Credited with establishing the foundation for all modern alphabetic writing systems, the Phoenician alphabet (created before 1000 BCE) directly influenced the writing systems of the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek civilizations. The Phoenicians established colonies throughout most of the Mediterranean, including the strategically important city of Carthage in Northern Africa. Carthage became the largest Phoenician colony and allowed them to control and monopolize trade throughout the Mediterranean. Trading within this region meant that as populations within this cluster expanded throughout the Old World, they came into contact with populations from as far away as Russia, Morocco, Spain, and even Viking traders from the north.
Populations within this cluster share genetic relatedness and a history of trade and conquest among many regions within the Mediterranean. Present day members of the West Middle East cluster share genetic similarity with members of the Druze religious sect primarily found in Lebanon and the nomadic Bedouin tribes found within the deserts of Jordan and Syria. Each of these cultures remains deeply rooted in the history of this region. The Druze are particularly noted as successfully resisting Crusader invasions along the Lebanese coast, and rebelling against the Ottoman Empire.
98% European areas
20% West and Central Europe
61% British Isles
Modern humans arrived on the British Isles roughly 40,000 years ago via a land bridge that connected these islands to continental Europe. Early hunter-gatherer populations were able to navigate into and out of this region until roughly 6000 BCE when melting ice sheets caused sea levels to rise and the connection was severed between the populations within the British Isles and continental Europe. Farming occurred largely as an indigenous adaptation with little evidence of acquiring this technology from surrounding colonizing regions. Small agricultural communities are even recorded as the primary lifestyle by Roman invaders in the early 1st century CE.
By the second millennium BCE, trade relationships spread, and under the control of the Chieftains of Wessex, trade routes spanned from Ireland into central and eastern continental Europe via waterways. The wealth amassed from this intensified trade likely enabled the Wessex Chieftains to begin construction on what would grow to become Stonehenge. These trade practices further solidified a deep genetic connection with populations in the West and Central Europe cluster and areas of Scandinavia.
By 43 CE, Roman forces had conquered Britain. However, by 500 CE, Germanic tribes (originating in present day Scandinavia and eastern Europe) and Asian forces toppled the Roman Empire, and the subsequent continental European expansions brought Saxon tribes into the British Isles. Powers in the British Isles also conscripted mercenary populations from continental Europe. The Saxons, Angles, and Jutes came over to support Briton forces defending against the Picts and Scots in the 6th century CE.
Starting in the late 8th century CE, the British Isles were invaded and settled by Viking parties during the Viking expansion. Normandy later invaded and solidified cultural and economic connections between the British Isles and continental Europe. To this day, these ancient occupations and trading practices left a lasting impression on the genetic relatedness between populations in the British Isles cluster and Southeast Europe, Scandinavia, and West and Central Europe clusters.
The West and Central Europe cluster consists of present day countries of France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic, and Germany. Modern humans began to populate West and Central Europe toward the end of the last ice age when the ice sheets north of the Mediterranean coast began to retreat.
Due to ancient interactions and exchanges with cultures from the British Isles, Scandinavia, Asia, and Africa, this cluster displays an incredible history of migration, invasion, and colonization resulting in continual shared genetic, cultural, and linguistic relatedness with nearly all of the other European clusters.
Long distance travel between continental Europe and populations in the British Isles are illustrated by the shared knowledge of specific pottery and metalworking technologies. Through analysis of his teeth, remains of an individual (the Amesbury Archer) buried around 2000 BCE near Stonehenge in England was proven to have grown up in mainland Europe, thus illustrating the close connections between these two clusters.
The development of complex city-states was first established along the southern coastlines of France. Colonies of Greek, Phoenician, and Carthaginian settlers were the first to establish these complex societies; Roman colonies were quick to follow transferring cultural practices, such as the importance of wine drinking for the elites in central and eastern France.
To the north, barbarian tribes maintained semi-nomadic settlements throughout most of the cluster. By roughly 300 CE, Jutes, Angles, and Saxons, having originated in Scandinavia, were pushed westward by invading forces from Attila the Hun, further intensifying tension between the Romans and the barbarian tribes. With Germanic tribes being pushed out of eastern Europe as well, Slavic speaking peoples settled in their wake, occupying areas leading up to east Germany. Continual raids from various European and Asian groups ended the Roman occupation of this area by roughly 500 CE. During this time period, these various groups continued migration to further reaches of land once unified by Rome. These regions included Northern Italy, most of Britain, modern day France, and Spain; they also conquered most of Northern Africa, Sardinia, and Rome in the process.
It is after this migration that populations within this cluster began to establish complex and diverse civilizations that are later recognized as some of the most powerful and influential cultures in the world. These ancient histories continue to influence identities and histories of present day populations in this cluster.
9% East Europe
The East Europe cluster consists of an area encompassing present day Latvia, south to Ukraine, Romania, and the northern part of Bulgaria, west along the eastern edge of the Balkan states to Poland and the eastern half of Germany.
The early populations in the East Europe cluster consisted largely of small agricultural communities. Some of these developed indigenously, while others were colonies of farming communities from Asia Minor. Eastern Europe played a significant role in the metalworking traditions of Scandinavia, and an intense metal trade was established between the two by 1500 BCE. In 1000 BCE invasions from the Celts (from Gaul and Germany) in 1000 BCE in the north and central regions and invasion from Iranian tribes to the south in interrupted this trade. By 200 BCE, Scandinavian groups drove southward and ended the Iranian control in the south.
Slavs from the North Carpathian Mountains were forced into the steppe regions of present day Ukraine and Belarus by the 5th century CE. The Turkish Empire controlled the Ukrainian steppe between 700–900 CE and used its location to improve their mercantile empire. By the Viking Age of the 8th century CE, trade between the Scandinavia cluster and the East Europe cluster continued. By the middle of the 9th century CE, Vikings took control of the trade route that ran from the Baltic Sea, along the Dnieper River, and into Constantinople in present day Turkey. The Vikings exploited the local Slavic peoples and established their stronghold in Kiev. These Viking merchants were to be the progenitors of the Kievan Princes. By the 11th century CE, the Viking Age ended, and in 1240, the Mongol army sacked Kiev, adding further cultural and genetic influence to this cluster. Since the invasion of Kiev, this arm of the Mongol army became known as the Golden Horde—the western portion of the Mongol Empire.
The East Europe cluster sits on two prominent trade routes, which resulted in a history complete with invasion and migration. As a result, the genetic relatedness of populations within this cluster is shaped by the water trade routes from Scandinavia and from the Baltic to (the Black Sea) Constantinople via the Volga, Dnieper, Dniester and the Danube, connecting Eastern Europe with Scandinavia and Siberia; it also includes the Steppe region, connecting Eastern Europe to Russia, Asia Minor, and the Eastern Middle East. Genetic diversity in this region is high.
The Southeast Europe cluster consists of present day populations from the areas of Italy, Greece, and the western Balkan states from Bulgaria to Croatia. Present day populations in the Southeast Europe cluster show some of the highest rates of genetic relatedness to the second wave of migration into Europe roughly 11,000 years ago. This wave of migration consisted of Neolithic farmers from the Fertile Crescent and expanded primarily into southern Europe, incorporating small scattered European hunter-gatherer communities along their path.
The island of Sardinia, having early evidence of post-glacial hunter-gatherer inhabitants, was not permanently settled until this migration of Neolithic farmers from the fertile crescent populated it roughly 8,000–7,000 years ago. Although a key position in early Mediterranean trade routes, the populations of Sardinia remained relatively isolated genetically and today, represent a particularly unique connection to Southeast European Neolithic ancestry.
Populations within the Italian peninsula and the Greek and Balkan states, however, display more genetic diversity having experienced waves of migration and the rise and fall of numerous civilizations. The ancient populations on the Italian peninsula generally consisted of the Greek colonies in the south, Etruscan cities in west-central Italy and north of Rome, and Italian groups, such as Samnites and the Umbrians, who inhabited Rome and central Italy. The western Balkan States mostly consisted of small kingdoms until the rise of Alexander the Great’s father Philip II of Macedon (present day Macedonia).
These early states had a wide influence as they were shaped by Alexander the Great’s campaigns, the Roman expansion, and migrations from Slavic tribes who were forced from the Carpathian Mountains by Germanic tribes in the 5th–6th centuries CE.
The Southeast Europe cluster is home to civilizations that many consider to have founded the principles of Western civilization and continue to influence modern politics, art, and architecture. Greek and Roman influence spans the western and southern regions of this cluster, while the influence of the Hellenistic world of Macedonia and Alexander the Great encompass the Western Balkan states.
Copied from https://www.familytreedna.com/learn/user-guide/family-finder-myftdna/myorigins-population-clusters/ with my DNA breakdown added.
*A trace percentage indicates a very small amount of shared DNA in common with the corresponding population. In some cases this minor percentage could be attributed to background noise.
