Neolithic Cretan Origins in Anatolia

So-called “Minoans”

were the Philistines

 

Part Three:

Neolithic Cretan Origins in Anatolia

 

by

 

Damien F. Mackey

 

 

 

 

“... genetic researchers connected the source population of ancient Crete

to the well-known Neolitihic sites in Anatolia ...”.

 

Gavin Menzies and Ian Hudson

 

 

 

 

Gavin Menzies and Ian Hudson, in The Lost Empire of Atlantis: History's Greatest Mystery Revealed, introduce us to professor Constantinos Triantafyllidis of Thessaloniki’s Aristotle University and his important DNA studies of the Cretan so-called ‘Minoans’ (ch. 7):

 

Now that scientists are able to test genetic theories with rigour, I was here because of the new study reported by The Times. New work by an international group of geneticists showed that a section of Crete's Neolithic population (i.e. pre-Bronze Age) did indeed go there by sea from Anatolia – modern-day Turkey. Professor Constantinos Triantafyllidis of Thessaloniki’s Aristotle University had published the findings of a research group led by geneticists from Greece, the United States, Canada, Russia and Turkey. Professor Triantafyllidis states that their analysis indicated that the arrival of these new people on Crete had coincided with a social and cultural upsurge that had led to the birth of the Minoan civilisation around 7000 BC. Specifically, genetic researchers connected the source population of ancient Crete to the well-known Neolitihic sites in Anatolia:

 

The earliest Neolithic sites of Europe are located in Crete and mainland Greece. A debate persists concerning whether these farmers originated in neighbouring Anatolia and over the role of maritime colonisation. To address 171 samples were collected from areas near three known early Neolithic settlement areas in Greece together with 193 samples from Crete. An analysis of Y-chromosome hectographs determined that the samples from the Greek 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 white bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) is known from Neolithic Anatolia, Crete and southern Italy; [yet] it is absent from earliest Neolithic Greece ....

[End of quote]

 

From a biblical point of view, I think, the estimated date for “the birth of the Minoan civilisation around 7000 BC” would be very roughly 5000 years too early.

But the origin of the Neolithic ‘Minoans’ in Anatolia would be perfectly in order, considering that post-Flood man must have spread out from ancient Urartu (Kurdistan), eastern Anatolia:   

 

Mountain of landing for the Ark of Noah

 

https://www.academia.edu/35414295/Mountain_of_landing_for_the_Ark_of_Noah

 

and on to “Shinar” (NE Syria and northern Mesopotamia), and to “central/ Mediterranean Anatolia”.

 

Along the same lines, we read at:

https://mathildasanthropologyblog.wordpress.com/2008/04/14/the-minoans-dna-and-all/

 

The Minoans, DNA and all.

Posted on April 14, 2008 | ....

....

Starting with the breaking DNA news, and this rather sinks the ‘Black Athena’ theory from Bernal…

 

....

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.

The new study – a collaboration by experts in Greece, the USA, Canada, Russia and Turkey – drew its conclusions from the DNA analysis of 193 men from Crete and another 171 from former neolithic colonies in central and northern Greece.

The results show that the country’s neolithic population came to Greece by sea from Anatolia – modern-day Iran, Iraq and Syria – and not from Africa as maintained by US scholar Martin Bernal.

The DNA analysis indicates that the arrival of neolithic man in Greece from Anatolia coincided with the social and cultural upsurge that led to the birth of the Minoan civilization, Constantinos Triantafyllidis of Thessaloniki’s Aristotle University told Kathimerini.

“Until now we only had the archaeological evidence – now we have genetic data too and we can date the DNA,” he said.

Archeological dates for the colonisation of Crete are about 7,000 BC.

In more detail

The most frequent haplogroups among the current population on Crete were: R1b3-M269 (17%), G2-P15 (11%), J2a1-DYS413 (9.0%), and J2a1h-M319 (9.0%). They identified J2a parent haplogroup J2a-M410 (Crete: 25.9%) with the first ancient residents of Crete during the Neolithic (8500 BCE – 4300 BCE) suggesting Crete was founded by a Neolithic population expansion from ancient Turkey/Anatolia. Specifically, the researchers connected the source population of ancient Crete to well known Neolithic sites of ancient Anatolia: Asıklı Höyük, Çatalhöyük, Hacılar, Mersin/Yumuktepe, and Tarsus. Haplogroup J2b-M12 (Crete: 3.1%; Greece: 5.9%) was associated with Neolithic Greece. Haplogroups J2a1h-M319 (8.8%) and J2a1b1-M92 (2.6%) were associated with the Minoan culture linked to a late Neolithic/ Early Bronze Age migration to Crete ca. 3100 BCE from North-Western/Western Anatolia and Syro-Palestine (ancient Canaan, Levant, and pre-Akkadian Anatolia); Aegean prehistorians link the date 3100 BCE to the origins of the Minoan culture on Crete. Haplogroup E3b1a2-V13 (Crete: 6.7%; Greece: 28%) was suggested to reflect a migration to Crete from the mainland Greece Mycenaean population during the late Bronze Age (1600 BCE – 1100 BCE). Haplogroup J1 was also reported to be found in both Crete and Greece (Crete: 8.3%; Greece: 5.2%), as well as haplogroups E3b3, I1, I2, I2a, I21b, K2, L, and R1a1. No ancient DNA was included in this study of YDNA from the Mediterranean region. ....