Genetics of the peloponnesean populations and the theory of extinction of the medieval peloponnesean Greeks.

ABSTRACT: Peloponnese has been one of the cradles of the Classical European civilization and an important contributor to the ancient European history. It has also been the subject of a controversy about the ancestry of its population. In a theory hotly debated by scholars for over 170 years, the German historian Jacob Philipp Fallmerayer proposed that the medieval Peloponneseans were totally extinguished by Slavic and Avar invaders and replaced by Slavic settlers during the 6th century CE. Here we use 2.5 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms to investigate the genetic structure of Peloponnesean populations in a sample of 241 individuals originating from all districts of the peninsula and to examine predictions of the theory of replacement of the medieval Peloponneseans by Slavs. We find considera

SUBMITTER: Stamatoyannopoulos G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5437898 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature