Minoans from Anatolia not Africa

Minoans

Crete’s fabled Minoan civilization was built by people from Anatolia, according to a new study by Greek and foreign scientists that disputes an earlier theory that said the Minoans’ forefathers had come from Africa.

One correction to the story, the reporter gets there geography wrong, Anatolia is Turkey and a bit of Syria, not Iran, Iraq and Syria as they report.

I'm curious how anyone determines such things either way ?

How was it asserted in the first place that the Minoans were African ?

Are these conclusions based on DNA studies or what ?

Originally posted by sy.gunson
How was it asserted in the first place that the Minoans were African ?

Because it probably wasnt, lol. They give one name to the claim, a US scholar (no Greek???).

Besides, it stands to reason that men did not travel across the sea so readily in neolithic time: they went around the coast. Go from Africa east, a little north and then west again... You know where you end up

Howdy Merka & Sy-gunson

Martin Bernal (born 1937 in London) is a scholar of modern Chinese political history who claims classical civilization in Ancient Greece was founded on Afroasiatic and Semitic cultures, and not indigenous.

I believe the report is based on this study that I linked to below - but that is a quess. The writer of the news story was a non-scientist and some of the data is wrong.

www.blackwell-synergy.com... .x

Summary of the above

The earliest Neolithic sites of Europe are located in Crete and mainland Greece. A debate persists concerning whether these farmers originated in neighboring Anatolia and the role of maritime colonization. To address these issues 171 samples were collected from areas near three known early Neolithic settlements in Greece together with 193 samples from Crete. An analysis of Y-chromosome haplogroups determined that the samples from the Greek Neolithic sites showed strong affinity to Balkan data, while Crete shows affinity with central/Mediterranean Anatolia. Haplogroup J2b-M12 was frequent in Thessaly and Greek Macedonia while haplogroup J2a-M410 was scarce. Alternatively, Crete, like Anatolia showed a high frequency of J2a-M410 and a low frequency of J2b-M12. This dichotomy parallels archaeobotanical evidence, specifically that while bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) is known from Neolithic Anatolia, Crete and southern Italy; it is absent from earliest Neolithic Greece. The expansion time of YSTR variation for haplogroup E3b1a2-V13, in the Peloponnese was consistent with an indigenous Mesolithic presence. In turn, two distinctive haplogroups, J2a1h-M319 and J2a1b1-M92, have demographic properties consistent with Bronze Age expansions in Crete, arguably from NW/W Anatolia and Syro-Palestine, while a later mainland (Mycenaean) contribution to Crete is indicated by relative frequencies of V13.

So Merka, I wasn't able to find a simple explanation of how the DNA testing works. I believe Byrd had a link in a posting several months ago.