Genetic History of Greece

Yediay et al. (2024) published a large number of ancient DNA samples from Bronze Age Greece, which helps clarify the origins of the Greek population. If we set aside the still poorly sampled Paleolithic period, Greece appears to have experienced three major migrations in prehistoric times.

1. Neolithic Migration (around 7000 BCE)

The first migration involved Neolithic farmers from Anatolia, ultimately originating from the Urfa region. These farmers moved into Greece around 7000 BCE, introducing agriculture. Farming appeared in Greece earlier than in any other part of Europe, and from there agricultural populations expanded northward into the rest of the continent.

2. Chalcolithic Migration (around 4000–3000 BCE)

A second migration arrived from regions associated with historic Armenia during the Chalcolithic period. This movement is associated with the Chaff-Faced Ware (CFW) cultural horizon in Anatolia. In Greece, this migration had its strongest impact in Crete and the Cycladic islands of the Aegean and may be connected with the formation of Minoan civilization (Linear A culture). Heggarty (2023), however, attempted to associate this migration with the origins of the Greek language.

This migration introduced several new haplogroups and may also be partly responsible for the so-called Mediterranean substrate present in both Greek and Armenian. A linguistic example is Armenian iwl / el (իւղ, եղ) meaning “oil,” which can be compared with Greek elaion (ἔλαιον) meaning “olive oil.”

3. Steppe Migration (around 2200 BCE)

The third migration came from the Pontic–Caspian Steppe around 2200 BCE. Similar to developments in Armenia, the transition from the Early Bronze Age to the Middle Bronze Age in Greece is associated with migrations from the steppe.

These migrants introduced haplogroups such as R1b-Z2103 and R1b-PF7562, along with smaller numbers of I2 and J2b2a. Mycenaean Greeks also carried significant levels of J2-Z6055, a lineage that had already been present in Greece since the Neolithic. Its high frequency in the Bronze Age likely reflects a founder effect.

Mycenaean Period (1700–1100 BCE)

After a relatively short Middle Bronze Age period, steppe ancestry becomes diluted during the Late Bronze Age (1700–1100 BCE), which corresponds to the Mycenaean civilization (see chart).

The Linear B script has been deciphered and represents an early form of the Greek language. Mycenaean Greeks possessed ancestry both from local Neolithic farmers and from earlier migrants arriving from more eastern regions. In genetic charts, this eastern component is sometimes labeled Anatolia_C, which is related to populations associated with Chaff-Faced Ware cultures of historic Armenia.

Yediay et al. (2024) connect the steppe migration with Indo-European speakers associated with the Yamnaya horizon, thus providing a convincing explanation for the origins of the Greek population.

Late Bronze Age Collapse and Greek Expansion

Around 1200 BCE, the Mycenaean civilization collapsed, forcing many populations to migrate. During this period, several groups moved into the eastern Mediterranean and became known as the Sea Peoples. One of these groups eventually settled in Cyprus, where they introduced the Greek language.

Even earlier, Greeks had already begun settling along the western coast of Anatolia. In Hittite texts, these groups may correspond to the Ahhiyawa. Numerous conflicts were fought over control of these coastal regions. The memory of these wars is preserved in the Greek epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Modern Greek is generally considered to derive from the Attic–Ionic dialect group.