Italians 101

Evidence showing that Italians have remained the same since ancient times, and not mixed with Africans, Arabs or other non-Europeans, and that they're genetically and phenotypically Caucasoid and Southern European from North to South.

Italians Have Less Than 1% Black Admixture

Badly done studies have overestimated African admixture in Italy, but based on a large set of DNA markers, Italians have less African admixture (orange) than Northern Europeans have Asian admixture (pink).

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Italians Only Have ~1% Moorish Admixture

The Moors were Arab-Berber Caucasoids, not black as is often claimed, and Italians only have a tiny amount of recent Middle Eastern/North African admixture, because the Moors were expelled from Italy.

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Italians Are Distinct From Ashkenazi Jews

Ashkenazi Jews are very close to Europeans, mostly because they have a lot of Italian ancestry (not the other way around), but they're still genetically distinct from Italians.

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The Mediterranean Sea Is a Genetic Barrier

Italians remain genetically similar to other Europeans, and unmixed with Arabs or Africans, because the Mediterranean Sea has been a strong genetic barrier (thick red lines) since ancient times.

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Italians Cluster Near Their Ancient Ancestors

Modern Italians (orange "Europe S" dots) show genetic affinities to their Stone Age ancestors, plotting in the southern part of a European cluster in the same general area as Ötzi the Iceman.

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Modern Italians Are Similar to Ancient Romans

Ancient Romans from both before and after the empire (dark blue and yellow dots) cluster genetically with Modern Italians and Southern Europeans, showing strong continuity since the Iron Age.

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North and South Italians Are Genetically Close

North-South genetic distance in Italy is about the same as in Germany, and is a product of geographic distance and the clinal distribution of Mesolithic hunter, Neolithic farmer and Indo-European ancestry.

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All Italians Are Genetically Southern European

Northern and Southern Italians cluster in-between Southwestern (Spanish) and Southeastern (Greek) Europeans, just like on the map, and not with Northern Europeans or non-Europeans.

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Italians Have Caucasoid Cranial Traits

Based on the distribution of nonmetric cranial traits, Italians (highlighted) plot in the center of a European cluster (red) that also includes Caucasoid North Africans but is far from Sub-Saharan Africans (green).

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Similar Racial Types in North and South Italy

Despite some bizarre claims of big phenotypic differences between North and South, very similar sub-racial types predominate throughout Italy, and none of them are Nordic or particularly light or dark.

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Italians Look the Same From North to South

These facial composites of hundreds of randomly selected Italian soccer players, models and politicians look almost identical in both craniofacial anatomy and pigmentation (note: many were tanned).

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