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Argonauts of The West Balkans?
Argonauts of The West Balkans?
Argonauts of The West Balkans?
Contents
1 General introduction to Y-DNA research 1
7 Archeological insights 19
7.1 The Eneolithic (c. 3000 - c. 2300 BC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
7.1.1 Vucedol and the Early Helladic I to IIa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
7.1.2 The Post Vucedol period - EHIIb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
7.2 The early Bronze age (2300-2100 BC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
8 Balkan genetics 22
10 Further research 25
1 General introduction to Y-DNA research
All males in the world descend in a straight paternal line from one male who lived roughly
260.000 years ago in Africa (designated Y-Adam). All current living males have inherited his
Y-chromosome since this is passed on from father to son. However in all these thousands of
years mutations (SNP’s and STR’s, see further) happened on the Y-chromosome. These muta-
tions are passed on from father to son, and they allow us to identify different branches of the
Y-chromosome. Such a branch is called a haplogroup. The term haplogroup is generally reserved
for larger groups, underneath those terms like subbranch or subclade are used.
In Y chromosome research two types of mutations are examined: STR’s (Short Tandem Re-
peats) and SNP’s (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms). STR’s are small pieces of DNA that are
repeated multiple times in the chromosome. When DNA is copied errors might happen whereby
extra repeats are added, or some repeats are dropped. An STR-test tests a number of STR’s
(generally 12, 25, 37, 67 or 111) and reports back the number of repeats for each of them. These
STR-tests are useful for the very distant past and the very recent past, but not for the period
in between. In the very distant past STR are correlated to the largest haplogroups, and such
an STR-test will result in a prediction for a main haplogroup. There are several free predictors
available on the internet, a very good one can be found at www.nevgen.org.
The other mutation examined is the SNP. An SNP is a mutation of 1 letter of the Y-
chromosome (which is a chain of millions of such letters). SNP’s define different haplogroups,
and since they are more reliable for the last thousands of years SNP-testing is generally required
to pinpoint your exact haplogroup. For those who are unfamiliar with SNP testing there is a
very good lecture by John Cleary that is freely viewable online.1
Y Adam > A0T > A1 > A1b > BT > CT > DE > E > P 147 > P 177 > P 2 > M 215 >
M 35 > L539 > M 78 > Z1919 > L618 > V 13
Branches of E dominate sub-Saharan Africa today, but most are rare outside of this continent,
the exception being M35.2 The common ancestor of all M35 probably lived about 25000 years
ago, in the Horn of Africa. Some descendants migrated northwards through the Nile Valley and
would eventually be part of Neolithic migrations that brought farming to South-East Europe.
Z1919, whose common ancestor would have lived about 12000 years ago has sub branches in
Europe, the Levant (Middle east) and the Arabian peninsula. One subclade of Z1919 however,
L618, is limited to a European distribution. It likely mutated somewhere in Southeast Europe
about 8000-9000 years ago.
1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlxvdayxZiI
2 Off course the slave trade of the last 500 years brought a lot of these Sub-Saharan E-branches accross the
Atlantic ocean where they are now present in descendants of the former slaves.
1
2.2 The discovery of V13 and early theories
For a long period no sub branches under M78 were known. As a result genetic studies in the early
2000’s could only test up to this SNP and found it over all of Europe, North-Africa, the Levant
and in Arabia. This distribution seemed to defy the regional logic that was observed for other
haplogroups. If STR-profiles were taken into account the picture changed, STR-profiles were
clearly clusterd in geographic groups of which the European was dubbed α. Only in 2006 was
V13 finally discovered by a scientific team (together with five other sub M78 SNP’s). Testing of
M78+3 persons revealed that the European α-cluster of STR-profiles corresponded to the V13
SNP.4 Subsequent research in 2007 showed that V13 was present in most Western European
populations in 1-5%, but notably higher in most of Southeast Europe and in Southern Italy and
on Sicily. It reached its peak in Albania at 32%. Based on STR-diversity a bronze age expansion
of V13 was theorized.5 In 2008 Battaglia calculated a much older coalescence time6 for V13
(about 10000 years ago) and proposed that V13 was a Mesolithic Balkan line that had adopted
farming and spread it further into Europe.7 This theory would be prevalent over the next years.
positive for the marker but negative for all known subclades.
4 Cruciani et al., Molecular Dissection of the Y-Chromosome Haplogroup M-78 (E3b1a): A Posteriori Evalua-
dates are available from Yfull (www.Yfull.com/Tree/E-V13/) and are generally younger.
9 Bird, Haplogroup E3b1a2 as a Possible Indicator of Settlement in Roman Britain by Soldiers of Balkan Origin,
2007.
10 Di Gaetano et al., Differential Greek and northern African migrations to Sicily are supported by genetic
2
2.4 Geographic spread of V13 by region
The above map is taken from www.eupedia.com. It shows percentages of V13 over Europe,
based on scientific studies that try to remove any bias. It shows that nowadays the highest
percentages of V13 are in the Balkans with a peak in Kosovo.
logeny, 2013. With many thanks to the team for letting me study the raw data. Most of the samples are now
also available on the Yfull-tree (www.yfull.com/sardinians/)
14 http://www.internationalgenome.org/
3
The tree above is a simplified view of V13 and the major subclades that will be mentioned in
the next paragraphs.
There are also two ancient DNA samples that merit attention. Ancient DNA is a very
powerful tool as it confirms the presence of a group at a certain place and time. Unfortunately
ancient DNA studies have not uncovered a lot of V13 up to now. However a Spanish Neolithic
skeleton found in a cave turned out to be V13+, how is this reconcilable with a Bronze age
4
origin in the Balkans?15 V13 is only one of 33 SNP’s defining the V13 group. As everyone who
is V13+ is also positive for the 32 other SNP’s we have no way of knowing which of these 33
mutations happened first, and which one last. The Spanish sample most likely already had the
V13 mutation, but not all of the 32 V13-equivalent SNP’s (they were not tested so we can’t be
sure either way). This Spanish sample would represent a side branch of V13, of which there
might be no more descendants today. Another ancient DNA sample from the Neolithic Lengyel
culture in Hungary was found L618+, it’s not unlikely it’s also somewhere between L618 and
V13 (there is no test result known for V13).16
Map with localisable V13* samples. Red dots are from public FTDNA-projects, orange from
The National Geographic Societys Genographic Project. The samples in North-Western Europe
are concentrated mostly along the border regions of the Roman empire. The large number of
samples here is also connected to a large population, and large emigration to the USA in the past.
V13* is relatively scarce but is present in almost all of Europe. Since it’s not tested in sci-
entific studies with random selection it suffers from severe selection bias towards Anglo-Saxon17
15 Lacan et al., Ancient DNA reveals male diffusion through the Neolithic Mediterranean route, 2011.
16 Szcsnyi-Nagy, Molecular genetic investigation of the Neolithic population history in the western Carpathian
Basin, PhD thesis Johannes Gutenberg-Universitt in Mainz, 2015. And deeper classification in: Lipson et al.,
Parallel ancient genomic transects reveal complex population history of early European farmers, 2017.
17 In this text Anglo-Saxon denotes people with typical English surnames, generally living in the USA, but can
occassionaly also cover people living in countries with a large British heritage like Australia, or even Ireland and
5
samples. That makes it all the more surprising that on the British Isles it’s only present in
one Scottish, one Irish and three English samples. The Irish sample is closely connected to a
Macedonian sample, probably sharing a common ancestor about 2200 years ago, which strongly
suggests that the Irish sample descends from a Thracian soldier stationed in Britain. Apart
from these five British there are some other Western European V13*’s: 1 Danish, 1 Spanish, 1
Belgian, 1 Luxembourgish, 1 Dutch, 9 German, 8 Italian (from near Rome, Genoa (2), Mafalda
(Molise), Milan, Naples (2) and Salerno) and 2 Swiss. For the Italian samples it’s remarkable how
many seem to come from middle and northern-Italy rather than from Southern Italy (including
Sicily), as there is both a higher percentage of V13 in Southern Italy, as well as a larger historical
emigration towards the USA leading to more testers from this area. Outside of Western-Europe
we find 1 Hungarian, 2 Serbian-Croatians, 1 Serbian, 1 Greek, 2 Turkish, 1 Iranian, 1 Belarus
(Ashkenazi), 1 Polish and two Serbo-Montenegrin clans.
The first Serbian-Montenegrin clan are the Rajovici, a large family concentrated in the village
Zunjevice, close to the Serbian-Kosovar border. Their own oral history claims that in the 17th
century they moved here from the territory of the Kuci-tribe in Montenegro, led by a certain
Rajo. In this Kuci-region a small hamlet by the name of Rajovici (village of Rajo) exists, which
might lend some credibility to the story.18 The Kuci tribe lived in eastern Montenegro, close to
the border with Albania. It was mostly Greek-orthodox and most members had Serbian names,
but Albanian names were also common. The Kuci tribe (like a lot of other Greek-orthodox
tribes) claimed descendance from a medieval Serbian noble. This is possible, but another possi-
bility is that Albanian catholics converted to the Greek orthodox religion and took on a Serbian
identity.19 The Kuci also seem V13, but they don’t appear closely related to the Rajovici.
The other clan are the Vasojevici, they are a much larger group, living in an area northeast
of the Kuci. According to 15th century sources they originated more to the south, not very far
from where the hamlet Rajovici is situated. Like the Rajovici the Vasojevici identify as Serbian
and Greek-Orthodox, in the recent Montenegrin independence referendum they voted to stay
part of Serbia in overwhelming numbers. Also like the Rajovici they claim descendance from a
Serbian noble family from the Middle Ages.20
Recent research has also shown a new level between V13 and CTS5856, Z1057 (called
CTS8814 at FTDNA), from those tested the Scot was negative, and the Swiss, the Pole, the
Macedonian the Irishman and the Vasojevici positive. All these, except the Scot off course, were
also positive for PH1246 under Z1057. As stated above the Macedonian and the Irishman form
a branch together, as do the Swiss and the Pole.
6
3.5 CTS5856 > S3003
This rather large group is somewhat exceptional within CTS5856. Almost all S3003+ persons are
descended from one common ancestor that lived about 1500 years ago and had the L540 mutation.
These L540+ persons live mostly in Eastern Germany and Poland, with occasional members from
neighboring countries to the north and east. This seems to imply a medieval expansion that can
either be linked to the Slavic expansion in the early middle ages (500-1000AD), or colonization
(Ostsiedlung) by Germans in the high middle ages (1000-1500AD). Only one non L540 S3003
sample is known, a Hungarian from a scientific study. So S3003 is completely absent from the
Balkans in our current knowledge. Hopefully additional sampling in the future will shed light
on how S3003 fits in the CTS5856 puzzle. One of the L540’s has done extensive research into
this group and set up a website to document it: http://www.gwozdz.org/L540.html.
Within FGC44177 there is also a possible marker we can use to identify The National Ge-
ographic Societys Genographic Project samples. It seems this marker is quite a bit younger
than A8612: CTS1489. It is shared by the Belgian, an Irishman, a German (Bavaria) and two
Sicilians (Caccamo and agrigento). However this marker is also positive in other Haplogroups,
so its relevance is still under question.
7
branch is much earlier. Y16729 probably is a very small group, and maybe future research will
find some in the Balkans.
Some checks in other Haplogroups seem to confirm this pattern. It seems likely that this is a phenomenon from
the early Middle ages, probably linked to Slave trade from Bulgaria to Viking age Scandinavia. That would also
explain why we find V13 in this region where no Romans set foot.
8
widespread in the western Balkans, it has been found in several members of the Serbian Orlovici
tribe.22
3.11.3 CTS5856 > Z5017 > Z5016 > SK888 > CTS9320
Almost all of Z5016 belongs to SK888, the exceptions are a Tuscan from a scientific study
and a Spanish sample. Likewise almost all SK888 is also CTS9320+, with the exception of a
German from Hesse. This represents a sort of bottleneck as there is a period of about 1000 years
between Z5016 and CTS9320, and apparently sidebranches from this period only rarely survived.
CTS9320 is by far the most dominant group within Z5017. It is relatively recent, with a most
common ancestor that would have lived about 1500BC or slightly later. CTS9320 that cannot
be classified in one of the subgroups is found in a German, a Pole and a Greek (presumably from
Izmir/Smyrna).
The above map shows the members of the E-M35 project at FTDNA belonging to CTS9320 (as
far as a location for their oldest ancestor is known). Black dots represent CTS9320 that hasn’t
been tested deeper. The orange dots are CTS9320*. Red is Z17264, green Z1707, purple Z16988
and blue S19928. It’s clear that CTS9320 is most prominent in the Balkans. The small cluster
around Strassburg is probably related to the Roman military camp there.
22 communication by mail from a specialist in Balkan Genetics. This large cluster is also visible in Serbian DNA
results: http://dnk.poreklo.rs/tabela-pojedinacne-grupe/?grp-filter=E.
9
The same graph but with samples from the Genographic project. Again there is a concentration
in the Western-Balkans and a cluster around Strassburg, but there are also more Greek samples
visible here.
3.11.4 CTS5856 > Z5017 > Z5016 > SK888 > CTS9320 > S19928
Found in a Sardinian from a scientific study, a Frenchman from the Alsace, a Slovakian, an
Italian (from Trentino), two British and an Anglo-Saxon.
3.11.5 CTS5856 > Z5017 > Z5016 > SK888 > CTS9320 > Z16988
In the scientific study on Sardinian samples Z16988 was dominant within CTS9320 with five sam-
ples. Apart from that there is a German group (mostly from Baden), a few British/Anglosaxon,
a Frenchman, a Hispanic, a Pole (maybe from Slovakia), a Norwegian group, a Greek (maybe
with Albanian roots) and a Serb (from Southeast Serbia). The Pole and the Norwegians form
the Z27131 branch (common ancestor about 500BC), while the Hispanic, one German and two
Anglosaxons form the Z38664 branch. The French and Serbian belonged two neither of these
two groups, while the others weren’t tested underneath Z16988. In the Albania DNA project
Z16988 was found, and seems typical in the Kelmendi tribe.23 In Serbia this subclade also seems
well represented.24
3.11.6 CTS5856 > Z5017 > Z5016 > SK888 > CTS9320 > Z17107
A small subgroup of CTS9320, found in two Albanians (one from Western FYROM, one from
northern Albania), a Croatian, a Swede and a Russian. Apart from the Russian they all belong
to the subgroup Z38456 (with a common ancestor who probably lived after 1000BC). In the
Albania DNA project Z17107 was found, and seems typical in the Dibrri tribe.25 It seems very
absent from Serbian results, for the moment.26
23 https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/albanian-bloodlines/about/results
24 http://dnk.poreklo.rs/tabela-pojedinacne-grupe/?grp-filter=E
25 https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/albanian-bloodlines/about/results
26 http://dnk.poreklo.rs/tabela-pojedinacne-grupe/?grp-filter=E
10
3.11.7 CTS5856 > Z5017 > Z5016 > SK888 > CTS9320 > Z17264
Within this group there is a Bulgarian (from Northern Bulgaria), an Englishman, an Italian
(Naples area), a Russian, a Slovak and a Spaniard that are not tested further. Two Norwegians
form a group together. Another group is formed by a Sardinian from a scientific study, an
Anglo-Saxon and some other samples.
3.11.8 CTS5856 > Z5017 > Z5016 > SK888 > CTS9320 > Z37530
In this group one Swede wasn’t tested deeper than Z37530. Another Swede and a Bulgarian
form a separate group (A10953), a Belarussian was found Z37530+, A10953-.
11
3.12.5 CTS5856 > Z5018 > S2979
S2979 covers by far the biggest part of Z5018. S2979 itself falls mostly into Z16659 and
FGC11457, while there is also the smaller group FGC33621. One British man was found S2979*.
12
On this graph the red dots show the samples from the E-M35 project that are tested L241+.
On this graph the red dots show the samples that are L241+ from The National Geographic
Societys Genographic Project.
3.12.9 CTS5856 > Z5018 > S2979 > Z16659 > Y3183-S2972
Most of Y3183 is part of S2972, but an Austrian, a German, a Scot, an Irishman and a Bulgarian
were found Y3183*. Within S2972 an Englishman and an Anglo-American were found negative
13
for its two main groups: A7136 and Z16661. Within A7136 two Hispanics and an Irishman form
a group (A8458) while a Greek (Southern Peloponnese), a Macedonian, a Russian and an Italian
(Malta/Southern Italy) were found negative for this marker. Two Germans and an Anglo-Saxon
were not tested underneath A7136. Within Z16661 most samples belong to S2978: two Sardinian
samples from a scientific study, and three British samples. S2978- are a Bulgarian (Northern
Bulgaria) and an Italian, while a Pole was not tested beneath Z16661.
On this graph the red dots show the samples from the E-M35 project that are predicted to be
FGC11451+, or are confirmed FGC11451. The orange dots are FGC11451 from The National
Geographic Societys Genographic Project.
14
4 Possible clues about migrations by V13-descendants
The question many people ask is where V13 came from, and how and when it came to where
they live now. In the following paragraphs some clues from the spread and distribution of V13
and its daughter clades will be analyzed. Many V13-people in Northwestern European countries
can reliably trace back their ancestors to the Middle Ages. Generally there are no indications
they were part of a recent migration. Looking back at population movements during the Middle
Ages and the distribution of V13 it seems likely that V13 arrived at the latest in Roman times,
whatever the exact origins and path of migrations might have been. That means that V13 would
have arrived in Northwestern Europe before 200 AD. There is equally evidence to place at least
part the influx of V13 in exactly this period. Above the connection was mentioned between
an Irish V13* and a Macedonian (of possible Bulgarian descent) V13*. They seem to share a
common ancestor about 2300 years ago. The most logical connection between the two would be
a Roman soldier from Thracia/Macedonia being stationed in Northern England. While some
V13 might have another source (which would explain the deviating distribution of some groups
like L17.) a Roman source for the majority of North-Western V13 seems likely.
A second question is what the source of Roman V13 was. As shown above in at least one
case a link to the Balkans could be established, showing Thracian/Macedonian troops certainly
formed a source. So V13 must have been present there before 200AD also. However there are
also indications they might not have been the only source. V13 in the Balkans (with the excep-
tion of Greece) is dominated by the quite recent marker CTS9320. Preliminary results show it
forms about 50% of all V13 in most Balkan countries. This is not the case in North-Western
Europe where it is about 10%. If Roman soldiers from the Balkans were the sole source of
North-Western European V13 we might expect CTS9320 to be fairly close to 50% there also.
Two possible explanations are that either some V13 in North-West Europe has a pre-Roman
source (for example L17), or that there were other sources for Roman migrants outside of the
Balkans that also carried V13, but with a lesser percentage of V13. It was remarked above
that CTS9320 is lower in Greece but there are no sources showing Greek migration towards
North-Western Europe in Roman times (or before). A more credible source might be formed by
populations from Southern Italy and Sicily. Here V13 is present in higher percentages than in
other parts of Europe outside of the Balkans. The obvious source is Greek colonisation during
the last millenium BC. As Greece is already lower in CTS9320 this would explain the lower
levels found in North Western European V13’s. If we assume V13 was brought to Southern
Italy and Sicily by Greek colonists that provides an additional date. Given the fact that Greek
colonisation was mostly an affair of the 8th to 6th century BC, it’s clear V13 must have been
present sizable percentages in Greece by then.
The period between about 1200 and 800BC is called the Greek ”Dark Ages” as it is a period
where the advanced society of the Mycenaean age had crumbled, and population and economy
declined. Is it possible to derive whether V13 was already present in Greece during the Myce-
naean age or not? As shown above Greece, certainly the southern parts of it, has a lot less
CTS9320 than more northern parts of the Balkans. If V13 had arrived in Greece after the
CTS9320 boom we would expect that CTS9320 would be as dominant in Greece as in the rest of
the Balkans. As this is not the case we can conclude that V13 in Greece must have been present
before CTS9320 boomed, so we need to date this event. CTS9320 has a common ancestor that
lived about 1500BC or shortly afterwards. Nevertheless the CTS9320 expansion is likely an Iron
age phenomenon connected to Illyrian/Thracian tribes, so it does not allow to conclude that
V13 should have been in Greece before the dark ages. Yet if the fact that V13 seems to have
been present in all parts of Greece is taken into account, it does seem likelier that it was there
before the Dark Ages than not. Ancient DNA might be able to provide more solid conclusions
in the future.
A different clue might come from FGC11450. As explained above this marker has the advan-
tage of being perfectly correlated to an STR-marker, and a lot more people have been STR-tested
than SNP-tested. FGC11450 has a common ancestor about 4000 years ago. Its distribution seems
to correlate very well to a Greek colonisation pattern, with for example a lot of Italian samples.
15
At first glance it seems more rare north of Greece. One Albanian sample is known from a Scien-
tific study (also positive for FGC11450, but not for its daughters), while one Bulgarian Sample
has been SNP-tested and found FGC11450+, but negative for its subgroups. The problem is of
course that it cannot be excluded that the Albanian and Bulgarian samples are the result of later
Greek Colonisation of the coastal regions of these countries (like for example the Greek colony
of Apollonia in Albania), or even contacts in the Mycenaean period. Additionally, people from
the Balkans tend to be underrepresented in commercial tests compared to for example Italians.
They are also more likely to opt for a 12, 25 or 37 marker test than a 67 or 111 marker test, and
only the last two contain the marker that is significant for FGC11450. Nevertheless with caution
it can deduced that if migration to Greece had taken place long after the origin of FGC111451
it should be visible in more exclusive Balkan lineages. The fact that this is not the case but
there is some FGC11451 in the Balkans outside of Greece suggests it’s origins must be not a lot
sooner or later than the flow towards Greece.
FGC11451 is a daughter of FGC11457 whose sister clade FGC33621 seems to be more limited
to the Balkans. This seems to suggest that a few hundreds of years before 2000 BC the common
ancestor of both (S2979) would have lived north of Greece, and his descendants would partially
stay there, and partially migrate southwards. This also confirms that the migration took place
from north to south, as we have branches in the north that we don’t find in Greece, but not the
other way around. That is hard to explain if one would place the origin of V13 in Greece itself.
The dates given above should be interpreted with a margin, as there is always a variation on the
number of mutations per generation.
16
5 Genes, language and archeology
The previous chapter dealt with the question of the migration routes and regions of origins and
their timing. Another question a lot of people have is in which ”culture” V13 originated and
boomed, and which language the early V13-people may have spoken. For this, genetics have to
be compared to archeological evidence and linguistics, but this has proven very difficult. Any
group in the past would have formed a mix of different haplogroups, and only ancient DNA can
give us more certainty on the subject. Unfortunately, very little has been done in the field of
ancient DNA in the Balkans, certainly for the Bronze age period that is of most interest to V13.
Nevertheless, it’s clear that the common ancestor of all V13 (and CTS5856) must have belonged
to a certain group, and it’s reasonable to assume that the rapid expansion and spread of V13
should be somewhat correlated to archaeological phenomena. First the link between language
and archaeology will be examined to provide a solid starting point to try and fit in the genetics.
Over the last ten years genetics has been used to answer the question. Large studies have
confidently shown that the advent of farming introduced a lot of new genes into Europe, coher-
ent with a large migration. However, it also showed that most of these farmer-genes are not so
abundant in todays population. This was because a second gene flow could be identified at the
start of the Bronze age, this time from the Russian steppe. As such now even archaeologists
agree that the Anatolian hypothesis is no longer defendable, and the PIE-homeland is firmly
fixed on the Pontic steppe ca. 4000BC.27 As for the second question when and how these Steppe
people succeeded in spreading both languages and genes over such a wide area is still very much
an open question. One possibility that seems favored recently is that the plague was brought to
Europe by steppe people and caused large scale death within native populations.
What is now the link to V13? In the area where we suspect V13 to have originated (whether
the Western or the Eastern Balkans), and in all the areas where it is present in high levels
today, Indo-European languages were spoken in the last millennium BC. Most of those have
since disappeared and have in large part been replaced by Slavic languages. (Serbo-Croatian,
Bulgarian, Macedonian) that arrived in the middle ages with Slavic settlers. The two surviv-
27 Kristiansenet al., Re-theorising mobility and the formation of culture and language among the Corded Ware
Culture in Europe, 2017.
17
ing languages are Greek, spoken mostly in the Greek peninsula, and Albanian, mostly confined
to Albania and neighboring Kosovo. The disappeared languages are very scarcely attested, and
their relationship to each other and to Greek and Albanian is not clear. Generally, a difference is
made between Illyrian (spoken by Illyrian tribes near the Dalmatian coast), Thracian (Bulgaria)
and Dacian (Romania). Greek is one of the earliest attested Indo-European languages. It was
written down from about 1400BC in the Mycenaean palaces all over Greece. Soon after it also
replaced the non-Indo-European language that was previously used on Crete. This Mycenaean
Greek was not necessarily spoken all over Greece, it is known that even in the classical age some
areas spoke a non-Greek language, which might well have been older than Greek.
The Greek language is not the only Indo-European aspect we can find with the Mycenaeans.
From their writings we know which gods they worshipped and at least part of them seem to come
from the Indo-European pantheon. The Mycenaeans already worshipped Zeus who is identical
to Zeus Pater, the principal Indo-European god. For some of the early myths and literature
linguists have proposed parallels with Iranic and Indian works, and suggested they go back on
a shared Indo-European heritage.28 All of this suggests that by 1400BC Mycenaean palatial
society had a very Indo-European flavor. When it arrived remains an open question. According
to Anthony Indo-european migrations marked by Kurgans (tumuli or burial mounds) arrived at
the mounds of the Danuba about 3100BC.29 They belonged to the so-called Yamnaya-culture
that existed on the Pontic Steppe and that is generally seen as the source for most, if not all,
Indo-European languages. In the following 300 years they spread upstream through the Danube
valley, settling in Romania, Serbia and Hungary. The settlement in Hungary was by far the
largest. So broadly we are looking at a period between 3000 and 1500BC where Indo-Europeans
might have arrived in Greece.
As pointed out above, V13 likely arrived in Greece before the dark ages. So it’s possible
that the same processes that brought V13 to Greece also brought the Proto-Greek language
and an Indo-European culture to Greece. But even though we do not know where exactly V13
originated and boomed, it seems unlikely that it was in the Pontic Steppe that was the home
of Indo-European languages. So, at the very least, V13 should have originated in a region that
was already Indo-Europeanised, or at least was before V13 moved to Greece. On the other
hand, maybe the influx of V13 in Greece was completely independent of the process that Indo-
Europeanised Greece.
28 Mallory and Adams, The Oxford introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proro-Indo-European world,
p.423
29 D. Anthony, The horse, the wheel, the language, 2007, p. 345.
18
7 Archeological insights
As a next step, the archaeological cultures of the Balkans and Greece in the Third and second
millennia BC will be examined. As far as Greece is concerned, its prehistory has been examined
thoroughly and a lot of publications exist. For the Balkans the biggest problem is the lack of
research. What exists is often not published in English and reliable chronologies are mostly
lacking. Nevertheless, what follows is an attempt at a short summary by a layman.
In Montenegro a number of large Tumuli have been found containing very rich graves. The
burials date from the Eneolithic period (they are dated to about 3100-2500BC). They are con-
sidered princely graves, erected for elites. No comparable founds have been made in the Adriatic
in such concentration. The burial in tumuli seems to point towards a Yamnaya related culture,
possibly another group of the ones that settled in central Serbia and eastern Hungary that are
discussed by David Anthony.30 Apart from the use of tumuli itself the deceased were buried
in a flexed position facing east-west, as is typical for Yamnaya burials. It’s hard not to see
a connection between these tumuli and the first arrival of R1b-Z2103 in this region. It’s also
interesting that these tumuli are also located on the highland plains where the two V13* clans
that were mentioned earlier would have their origins. Of course, these tumuli were erected long
before these clans were first mentioned in the 15th century CE, and even their origin on these
highlands cannot be firmly proven.
The tumuli are at the south end of the area are thought to belong to the so called Vucedol
culture. This culture was named after a Croatian site that seems to have been very important
during the Eneolithic, and was right adjacent to the region in Serbia were Yamnaya Tumuli
turned up in this period. So it’s no surprise that Vucedol is seen as a fusion between Yamnaya
elements and local eneolithic cultures. In fact, one ancient DNA sample from a Vucedol site in
Hungary turned up R1b-M269+, and it’s likely he would have belonged to the Z2103 strand.
The Vucedol culture is roughly contemporary with the Early Helladic I (3100-2700BC) and IIa
(2700-2400) phases in Greece. The Early Helladic I is mostly a continuation of the previous Final
Neolithic phase. The Early Helladic IIa presents more of a break with the past as a stratified
society starts to develop.
30 D. Anthony, The horse, the wheel, the language, 2007, p. 345.
19
Map of the Vucedol-culture, source: Wikipedia.org
20
this explanation has been abandonded and internal evolutions have gotten more attention. The
proposed solutions are climatological catastrophes, land degradation and erosion.31
At the same time the Balkans and the Western Aegean saw the short-lived Cetina phe-
nomenon. In the previous phase Cetina was limited to the Dalmatian coast and its hinterland,
but around 2300 the Cetina pottery and other artefacts associated with this culture start rapidly
expanding and are found all along the Adriatic and Ionian coasts, from Istria to Malta and the
Peloponnese.32 Also associated with the Cetina culture are burials in Tumuli. In many places
settlements or burials associated with this Cetina material is seen as alien and intrusive, so
there seems to have been not only a rapidly booming trade network, but also some movement of
people. The spread of this seafaring population inspired Joseph Maran to dub them Argonauts
of the West Balkans.33
The network was also present in Greece, where tumuli were found in Olympia and Loutraki.
Olympia was also a main source of Cetina pottery finds, probably making it something of a trade
post. Typologically these tumuli closely resemble the widespread tumuli of the following Mid-
dle Helladic period (Ayios Ioannis-Papoulia,Vodokilia and Kastroulia in Messenia, Aphidna and
Vrana I in Attica, Argos I and possibly Asine in Argolis, and Drachmani in central Greece).34
Remarkable in Greece in this period is the use of so called Ritual mounds in these periods, for
example in Lerna. In Thebes a group of people were buried on a destruction level and covered
by a large mound.35 Although this would seem to suggest external influences specialists of the
Aegean Bronze Age are adamant that they were raised by locals.36
Another very prominent location of the Cetina phenomenon is Albania. Either during the
Cetina phenomenon or immediately following it (the chronology isn’t very clear) a large num-
ber of Cetina related material and tumuli appear all over Albania.37 This phenomenon would
still expand throughout most of the second millennium BC. Apulia (Puglia) is another region
featuring Cetina related material.38 For Friuli the presence of Cetina has been proven, its link
to the big fortress of Monkodonja, and its presence in Veneto have been proposed but may be
more speculative.39 About 2150BC the Cetina phenomenon seems to abruptly stop again, at
the start of the so called Middle Bronze age. This middle bronze age presented a period of a
few centuries with depopulation, little trade and no organized society. Recently a connection
between the onset of this period, the disruption of the Cetina tradenetwork and the bad climatic
conditions around 2200-2100BC (the 4.2kya event) have been suggested.40
More or less contemporary with the Cetina phenomenon two small, probably related Post-
Vucedol groups were present on the Central Balkans: Bubanj-Hum III in eastern Serbia and the
West of Bulgaria, and Armenochori in Macedonia.
31 S. Voutsaki, Mainland Greece, The Oxford handbook of Aegean Bronze age, p. 137.
32 J. Maran, Seaborne contacts between the Aegean, the Balkans and the central Mediterrenean in the 3d
millenium BC, 2007.
33 J. Maran, Seaborne contacts between the Aegean, the Balkans and the central Mediterrenean in the 3d
NW Greece (Epirus and the Ionian Islands) and Albania and its connections to settlement organization, 2011.
38 G. Recchia , Burial mounds and ”Specchie” in Apulia during the Bronze Age, 2011.
39 Elisabetta Borgna and Paola Cssola Guida, Seafarers and Land-Travellers in the Bronze Age of the Northern
Adriatic, 2009.
40 Reinhard Jung and Bernhard Weninger, Archaeological and environmental impact of the 4.2 ka cal BP event
in the central and eastern Mediterranean, 2014. D. Pullen, The Early Bronze Age in Greece, 2009, p. 36.
21
This map represents Early Bronze age cultures in the Balkans. The purple shaded area is the
core area of the Cetina-culture, while red dots represent places that are associated with the
Cetina-phenomenon (this might just imply trading contacts). The green shaded area is the
Armenochori culture, and the orange shaded is Bubanj Hum III.
8 Balkan genetics
Previously the distribution of V13 was discussed but here there will be some broader info about
other haplogroups that are common in the Balkans, as they will be necessary to understand the
whole picture. If we look at the distribution of some common groups in the Balkans we see that
V13 and R1b are amongst the highest. Important is to remark that we know from more detailed
tests that practically all R1b here (maybe with the exception of Croatia) is R1b-Z2103 and not
the R1b-L51 that is very common in Western-Europe.
Source: www.eupedia.com
Almost all R1a, I1 and I2b in this table is the result of Slavic migrations during the early
Middle Ages. We can remove these groups to get a very rough idea how te distribution was
before the Slavic migrations:
22
Source: www.eupedia.com
We see that V13 (as principal part of E1b1b) is very high over all of the Balkans, and that that
the previous peak in Albania isn’t that big anymore, but more due to less impact of later Slavic
migrations. Most of the other groups are very small, and are probably remnants of Neolithic
populations (groups like C, F,G, J1, E outside of V13), which seems supported by the fact that
these groups are generally more present in Greece than in the rest of the Balkans. Haplogroup G
seems somewhat higher ( 5%) in Serbia than in most parts of the Balkans (Macedonians are also
fairly high). G-L42 is most typical for Balkans apart from Greece and might represent a Celtic
migration into the Balkans in the last millennium BC, as it seems to originate from Switzerland.
The other two groups outside of V13 that have a high pre-Slavic presence are R1b and J2.
J2 is made up mostly of Neolithic branches, but there is one exception: J2-M241. Although
rare in most of the Balkans, it reaches about 15% in Albania. This might not just be a founder
effect, as J2 appears about as high in the rest of the Balkans when the recent Slavic groups
are removed. Samples from Albania and other parts of the Balkans all belong to the subclade
Z2507 which is about 4400 years old according to Yfull. Older subclades of M241 are mostly
limited to the Western-Mediterrenean, and absent from the Balkans. This seems to point to a
mobility in the Western Mediterrenean that might be linked to the spread of Megalithic cultures
like the Arzachena-culture on Sardinia.41 From the fourth to the third millenium BC there is
a long bottleneck in this group, followed by a renewed expansion underneath Z597. It appears
that this expansion happened somewhere around the Thyrrenian sea, but groups quickly spread
out to the Eastern-Mediterrenean, while keeping contact with their homeland. This expansion
might be linked to the ’international spirit’ of about 2500-2300 BC, as earlier it was shown that
contacts between Sardinia and the Ionian coast were suggested in the second half of the third
millennium BC. So it’s conceivable that M241 arrived in the Balkans in this period. But just like
with V13 it’s hard to pinpoint an exact timeframe and their arrival could also be in a later period.
In the Mycenaean period there were certainly contacts between Greece and the western
Mediterranean. It seems that the Mycenaeans had taken over the previous trading network of
the Minoans after the decline of this Cretan civilization. By the end of the Mycenaeen period
sources speak about raiders and one of these groups are called ’Sharden’, what some have ex-
plained as ’Sardinians’. If the Sardinians were competing with the Mycenaeans economically and
military, the latter probably in the form of raids and piracy in a Viking-style, an operational base
close to Greece but far enough so that Greek land troops or ships could not easily reach it would
be ideal. When sailing along the coast of Italy the Sardinians would find the shortest sea route
to the Greek coast by crossing the strait between the heel of Italy and Albania. From there they
could control lucrative shipping routes to Italy and the Adriatic coast and sail along the Greek
west-Coast to launch raids on Mycenaean settlements. Both their disruption of Mycenaean trade
as well as their raids might have contributed to the rapid decline of Mycenaean civilization. Of
course, once trade disappeared and societies declined the Sardinians would also have dwindled.
R1b xM269 is rare in most of the Balkans. On the other hand M269 xL23 is more common,
especially near Albania, this is R1b-PF7563, although quite removed from the R1b found in the
Yamnaya the most likely explanation seems it was part of Steppe people invading in the Balkans.
One possibility is that it’s the result of a later flow, for example through Cimmerians. R1b-L23
41 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arzachena culture
23
xL51 (or R1b-Z2103) is another group that is very important in the Balkans. As explained above
this group was found in genetic tests of Yamnayab burials in the Pontic steppe. So it seems
acceptable that the flow that brought R1B-Z2103 to the western Balkans is connected to the
Yamnaya-like tumuli that pop up in Serbia and Montenegro at about 3000 BC. Most likely this
flow introduced Indo-European languages and culture to the Western-Balkans.
When comparing to the archeological data the best fit for this second boom might be the
Cetina phenomenon. If there really was an intensive trade network in the Adriatic and beyond
this must have been a period of economic and demographic growth. People were needed to
produce and consume these goods, but evidence also points to at least some migrations. If V13
was caught up in these migrations it provides an elegant solution for the sub V13 branches that
were not found in the Balkans and sometimes have very peculiar distributions, like L17. They
might have migrated towards Italy or the Northern Adriatic coast or even mutated in migrated
communities there. That might also help understand why V13 is relatively high all over Italy,
and very present on the Italian-Swiss border. They might have been what Maran called ”the
argonauts of the West-Balkans”. The distribution of V13* as shown above seemed to have a
Western Balkan focus that agreed well with the core area of the Cetina culture near the Dal-
matic coast. The V13* in Italy also seemed to be a good fit for the distribution of Cetina-ware,
althought it also may be from a much later date. Still, it must be kept in mind that this does
not offer a good explanation for the high levels of V13 in Bulgaria, and the high diversity there.
Moreover Bulgaria was closer to the Indo-European homeland and seems like a logic pathway for
languages and cultures to flow to Greece and the western Balkans. However there does not seem
to be a process like the Cetina phenomenon to explain such a flow. A possible explanation might
be that CTS5856 boomed a little earlier and was present in different Post-Vucedol cultures, but
the current distribution does not suggest such a split in V13-subclades. More testing data might
clear up this point.
Although specialists of the Greek Bronze age dismiss any possibility of migration into Greece
at this period, it seems likely that there was also a movement of Cetina people to the south.
It has been suggested that the Cetina-network competed with a Eastern-Aegean network, and
that this competition was the reason for the destructions seen at the end of EHII.42 It seems
very likely that in the following EHIII period there was some presence of Cetina related people
in Olympia and in places along the coast of the Ionian Sea. At about 2200-2150 BC the whole
Mediterranean seems to have suffered a severe crisis, likely linked to very bad climatic conditions.
Although society crumbled and population shrinked, the Cetina-related tumuli seem to multiply
in Greece, spreading to all the areas were the later Mycenaean civilization would flourish. It
seems likely that in this period V13 spread out all over Greece. Afterwards V13 was spread
around the Mediterrenean by Greek colonists, and later on by Roman soldiers, both from Italy
and the Balkans, leading to its current pan-European distribution.
42 James Clinton Wright, Early Mycenaean Greece, The Cambridge Companion to the Aegean Bronze Age,
2008, p.232.
24
It’s not illogical to connect the influx of Cetina-related people into Greece with the proto-
Greek language and Indo-European-culture. The Cetina-people probably had an Indo-European
culture and language that was brought to the region by an earlier migration from the steppe,
that also brought the R1b-PF7562 and R1b-Z2103 haplogroups to the Western Balkans. Maybe
a third input to the Cetina cuture came from the Western Mediterennean, and the trading and
seafaring aspect of the Cetina culture might have come from Sardinia through people that also
brought haplogroup J-M241. As such the Western Balkans would have been a melting pot of
different genetic and cultural inputs.
10 Further research
The biggest missing puzzle piece is without a doubt ancient DNA. While hundreds of samples
have been analyzed from other parts of Europe, the Balkans and Greece have seen little results
except for the Neolithic period. This is surprising since Ancient DNA might largely settle some
of the big debates about the history of the regions, like the ”coming of the Greeks”. Ancient
DNA would also allow to better pinpoint the region of origin of V13 and whether there is a link
with the Cetina phenomenon. It is very well possible that it will lead to new insights that will
totally disprove the theories put forward above.
Apart from ancient DNA research where nothing seems to be forthcoming the research on
current DNA continues. NGS-testing is steadily fleshing out the tree of subbranches underneath
V13 while SNP-packs allow those with less financial means to profit of the new discoveries
of NGS-testing. Every test, whether NGS or SNP-pack, adds to the knowledge about the
distribution of the different subclades of V13. Without ancient DNA it’s risky to try and align
subclades to different regions or cultures, but hopefully more and more results will allow the big
picture to emerge.
25