February 25, 2004
Investigation of Greek ancestry in populations of Pakistan
Human Genetics
Investigation of the Greek ancestry of populations from northern Pakistan
Atika Mansoor et al.
Three populations from northern Pakistan, the Burusho, Kalash, and Pathan, claim descent from soldiers left behind by Alexander the Great after his invasion of the Indo-Pak subcontinent. In order to investigate their genetic relationships, we analyzed nine Alu insertion polymorphisms and 113 autosomal microsatellites in the extant Pakistani and Greek populations. Principal component, phylogenetic, and structure analyses show that the Kalash are genetically distinct, and that the Burusho and Pathan populations are genetically close to each other and the Greek population. Admixture estimates suggest a small Greek contribution to the genetic pool of the Burusho and Pathan and demonstrate that these two northern Pakistani populations share a common Indo-European gene pool that probably predates Alexanderrsquos invasion. The genetically isolated Kalash population may represent the genetic pool of ancestral Eurasian populations of Central Asia or early Indo-European nomadic pastoral tribes that became sequestered in the valleys of the Hindu Kush Mountains.
Posted by Dienekes at February 25, 2004 04:22 AM | PermaLinkThe article below seems to suggest that at least culturally, the Kalash are very similar to the Macedonians:
http://www.creternity.com/article.phtml?articleID=7&page=1&catID=3
Could it be that the study reported in Human Genetics didn't show a genetic link between Kalash and Greeks, but would have shown a link between Kalash and Macedonians?!
I guess what needs to be considered is whether the Macedonians are similar genetically to their neighbours the Greeks or not. The modern day Macedonians speak Macedonian, a Southern Slavic language totally unrelated to Greek, and Alexander was supposed to have been blonde and blue-eyed. So the question is what percentage of Alexander's army was Macedonian and what percentage was Greek - and particularly which group was left behind in Pakistan.
Comments anyone?
Cheers,
Paul
Modern-day "Macedonians" are Slavs who arrived in the Balkan peninsula in the 6th c. AD. There are many Greek Macedonians. Alexander had brown hair and one brown and one light eye.
Posted by: Dienekes at May 27, 2004 04:29 PM