Study 1A
DNA study finds South West European populations have the most genetic
diversity among Europeans, suggesting gene flow from sub-Saharan Africa
(the most genetically diverse area on the planet) into Southwest Europe.

QUOTE:
"Using the 25 SNP haplotype windows outlined above,
we found that South West Europe had the highest proportion of
haplotypes that are shared with YRI (Supplemental Table S5).
Furthermore, there were significantly more shared haplotypes
between SouthWest Europe and YRI relative to South East Europe
and YRI (P-value 0.0072; Mann-Whitney U-test), which suggests
that the unusually high haplotype diversity in South Western
Europe is indicative of gene flow from Africa."

--Auton A., Katarzyna B., Boyko A.R., et al. (2009).
Global distribution of genomic diversity underscores
rich complex history of continental human populations.
Genome Research 19: 795-803.

Southwest Europe zone has highest diversity- African gene flow

Study #1B
Greeks may have shared some ancient gene flow with Africans according to
data on limited HLA DNA markers - this does not mean historic Greeks "come
from Africa." The Out of Africa migrations were millennia before the historic
Greek period.

HLA genes in Macedonians and the sub-Saharan origin of the Greeks
A. Arnaiz-Villena, K. Dimitroski, A. Pacho, J. Moscoso, E. Gómez-Casado, et. al
Tissue Antigens (2001) Volume 57, Issue 2 , Pages118 - 127

sub-Saharan affinities of the Greeks based on HLA data. Only limited HLA markers were used.

Vp>Quote:
"[i]Thus, it is hypothesized that there could have been a migration from southern Sahara which mixed with ancient Greeks to give rise to a part of the present day Greek genetic background. The admixture must have occurred in the Aegean Islands and Athens area at least (Figs 1 and 2). .. Also, the time when admixture occurred could be after the overthrown of some of the Negroid Egyptian dynasties (Nubian or from other periods) or after undetermined natural catastrophes (i.e.: dryness)...[/i]

Study #2

From:
"Population genetic relationships between Mediterranean populations determined by HLA allele distribution--a historic perspective." 
A. Arnaiz-Villena , E. Gomez-Casado,  J. Martinez-Laso. 
Tissue Antigens, Volume 60, Number 2, August 2002, pp 111-121(11)

QUOTES:

"HLA genomics shows that: 1) Greeks share an important part of their genetic pool with sub-Saharan Africans (Ethiopians and West Africans) also supported by Chr 7 Markers. The gene flow from Black Africa to Greece may have occurred in Pharaonic times or when Saharan people emigrated after the present hyperarid conditions were established (5000 years BC)... some of the Negroid populations may have migrated (16, 19, 31) towards present-day Greece . This could have occurred when arid Saharan conditions became established and large-scale migrations occurred in all directions from the desert. In this case, the more ancient Greek Pelasgian substratum would come from a Negroid stock.(2)" 

"Other Negroid genes have also been found in Greeks. They are the only Caucasoid population who bears cystic fibrosis mutations typical of Black Africans (Chromosome 7). See Dork, et al. In Am. J. Hum. Genet, 1998: 63: 656-682."

"A more likely explanation is that some time during Egyptian pharaonic times a Black dynasty with their followers were expelled and went towards Greece . Indeed, ancient Greeks believed that their religion and culture came from Egypt (37, 38). Also, Herodotus (37)states that the daughters of Danaus (who were black) came from Egypt in great numbers to establish a presence in Greece . Otherwise, the Hyksos pharaohs and their people were expelled from Egypt and may have reached Greece by 1540 B.C. However, the Hyksos are believed to come from modern Israel and Syria . Other gene input from Ethiopians (meaning ‘‘Blacks’’ in ancient Greek) may have come from King Memmon from Ethiopia and his troops, who went to help the Greeks against Troy according to Homer’s Iliad. Having identified an African input to the ancient Greek genetic pool, it remains to determine the cultural importance of this input for constructing the classical Hellenistic culture..

Study #3

"HLA genes in Southern Tunisians (Ghannouch area) and their relationship with other Mediterraneans."
European Journal Medical Genetics. 2006 Jan-Feb;49(1):43-56. 
A, Hmida S, Kaabi H, Dridi A, Jridi A, El Gaa l ed A, Boukef K. 

QUOTES:

"South Tunisian HLA gene profile has studied for the first time. HLA-A, -B, -DRB1 and -DQB1 allele frequencies of Ghannouch have been compared with those of neighboring populations, other Mediterraneans and Sub-Saharans. Their relatedness has been tested by genetic distances, Neighbor-Joining dendrograms and correspondence analyses. Our HLA data show that both southern from Ghannouch and northern Tunisians are of a Berber substratum in spite of the successive incursions (particularly, the 7th-8th century A.D. Arab invasion) occurred in Tunisia. It is also the case of other North Africans and Iberians. This present study confirms the relatedness of Greeks to Sub-Saharan populations. This suggests that there was an admixture between the Greeks and Sub-Saharans probably during Pharaonic period or after natural catastrophes (dryness) occurred in Sahara."

Archaeological and anthropological data

Older anthropological research- Anthropologists, studying old remains of Greeks, sometimes found sub-Saharan-like individuals:

J. Lawrence Angel, in American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol. 74, No. 1/2 (Feb. - Apr., 1972) [review of Frank Snowden's "Blacks in Antiquity" book] reports:

Quote:
In my own skeletal samples from Greece I note apparent negroid nose and mouth traits in two of fourteen Early Neolithic (sixth millenium B.C.), only two or three more among 364 from fifth to second millenium B.C., one among 113 Early Iron Age, one or two among 233 Classic and Hellenistic skeletons, but four clear Negroids (all from one area of Early Christian Corinth) among ninety-five Roman period, two among eighty-five Medieval, and of course ten among fifty-two Turkish period Greeks, yet none among 202 of Romantic (nineteenth century) date.


Quote from Biological Relations of Egyptians and Eastern Mediterranean Populations during pre-dynastic and Dynastic Times, Journal of Human Evolution, 1972 (1) pp. 307-313:

Quote:
"Against this background of disease, movement and pedomorphic reduction off body size one can identify Negroid (Ethiopic or Bushmanoid?) traits of nose and prognathism appearing in Natufian latest hunters (McCown, 1939) and in Anatolian and Macedonian first farmers (Angel, 1972), probably from Nubia via the predecesors of the Badarians and Tasians [. . .]"


Frank Snowden, who passed away in 2007 at age 96, had researched the presence of blacks in the ancient Greece from the standpoint of art and literature. His findings include:

Quote:
Both the literary and archaeological evidence points to a not infrequent crossing between blacks and whites. Nothing in the observations on such unions, whether marriage or concubinage, resembles certain modern strictures on racial mixture.

Of course one reason for the color bar which recently existed in the West was the belief that it was race mixing which led to the collapse of Greek, Roman, and other civilizations. . . .

No laws in the Greco-Roman world prohibited unions of blacks and whites. Ethiopian blood was interfused with that of Greeks and Romans. No Greek or Roman author condemned such racial mixture. . . . The scientists Aristotle and Pliny, like Plutarch, commented as scientists on the physical appearance of those born of black-white racial mixture but included nothing resembling certain modern strictures on miscegenation. . . . It is safe to assume, therefore, that in course of time many Ethiopians were assimilated into a predominantly white population. (Blacks in Antiquity, 193-195)


With respect to the number of blacks in ancient Greece, Snowden states: Quote:
Even though we cannot state, in the manner of modern sociologists and historians,the ratio of Blacks to Whites in either Greece or Italy, we can say that Ethiopians were by no means few or rare sights and that their presence, whatever their numbers, constituted no color problem. (Blacks in Antiquity, 186)

Snowden also mentions: Quote:
Black-white sexual relations were never the cause of great emotional crises and many blacks were physically assimilated into the predominantly white populations of the Mediterranean world.

...the number of references to Ethiopians in Greek literature of the fifth century BC, on the appearance of mulatto children following the presence of blacks in Greece in the army of Xerxes, and on the many artistic representations of the mid- and late-fifth century BC reflecting this anthropological evolution.

Other DNA studies using different African populations than Arnaiz-Villena found the same clustering of Africans. Egyptians, grouped closer with other Africans like Mandenka, and Moroccans, than with Europeans.

Petlichkovski et. al. High-resolution typing of HLA-DRB1 locus in the Macedonian population. Tissue Antigens. 2004 Oct;64(4):486-91.

"A phylogenetic tree constructed on the basis of the high-resolution data deriving from other populations revealed the clustering of Macedonians together with other Balkan populations (Greeks, Croats, Turks and Romanians) and Sardinians, close to another "European" cluster consisting of the Italian, French, Danish, Polish and Spanish populations. The included African populations grouped on the opposite side of the tree..."

"As expected, the included African populations (Moroccans, Egyptians, Mandenka, and Algerians) were grouped on the opposite side of the tree... Bearing in mind the differences in the allele frequencies in the Macedonians in our study and those in the study of Arnaiz-Villena et al., we believe that the discordance of the observations in both the studies investigating the HLA polymorphism is probably due to the selection of different subject populations."

Mainstream histories note significant cultural interchange from Egypt and the Near East to Greece

"No aspect of this question is more
discussed at present than the relation
between Greece and the near East,
especially Egypt. Some
nineteenth-century scholars wished to
downplay or deny any significant cultural
influence of the Near East on Greece, but
that was plainly not the ancient Greek
view of the question. Greek intellectuals
of the historical period proclaimed that
Greeks owed a great deal to the older
civilization of Egypt, in particular in
religion and art. Recent research agrees
with this ancient opinion. Greek
sculptors in the Archaic Age chiseled
their statutes according to a set of
proportions established by Egyptian
artists. Greek mythology, the stories that
the Greeks told themselves about their
deepest origins and their relations to the
gods, was infused with stories and motifs
of Near Eastern origin. The clearest
evidence of the influence of Egyptian
culture in Greek is the store if seminal
religious ideas that flowed from Egypt to
Greece: the geography of the
underworld, the weighing of the souls of
the dead in scales, the life-giving
properties of fire as commemorated in
the initiation ceremonies of the
international cult of the goddess Semeter
of Eleusis (a famous site in Athenian
territory), and much more.

These influences are not
surprising because archaeology reveals
that the population inhabiting Greece had
diplomatic and commercial contact with
the Near East as early as the middle of
the second millennium B.C... When the
Greeks learned from the peoples of the
Near East, they made what they learned
their own. This is how cultural identity is
forged, not by mindless imitation or
passive reception." (pg. 21)

"The civilizations of Mesopotamia and
Anatolia particularly overshadowed those
of Crete and Greece in the size of their
cities and the development of extensive
written legal codes. Egypt remained an
especially favored destination of
Mycenean voyagers throughout the late
Bronze Age because they valued the
exchange of goods and ideas with the
prosperous and complex civilization of
that land." (pg 30)

-- (From: Thomas R. Martin (2000)
Ancient Greece: From Prehistoric to
Hellenistic Times. Yale University Press,
pg 21, 30)

Greeks, Egypt and the Near East - some influences

Architecture:

"[i]It is not, of course, to be supposed that these coastmen and islanders of the Ægean were without some rudimentary notions of art of their own. In the time of Thothmes III., there were already Cypriote settlers making Cypriote pottery, and inscribing their pots with Cypriote characters at Tell Gurob. In the time of Meneptah, the Lycians and Carians and Achæans were ship-builders and workers in bronze; and we may take it for granted that they fashioned rude Cyclopean temples, like the primitive temple discovered a few years ago in Delos, with probably an upright stone for a god. But architecture, sculpture, and original decorative art, we may be sure they had none.

And the proof that they had none is found in the fact that the earliest known vestiges of Greek architecture, Greek sculpture, and Greek decorative art are copied from Egyptian sources.

It is [b]not at all strange that the Greeks should have borrowed their first notions of architecture and decoration from Egypt[/b], the parent of the arts; but that they should have borrowed architectural decoration before they borrowed architecture itself, sounds paradoxical enough. Yet such is the fact; and it is a fact for which it is easy to account.

The most ancient remains of buildings in Greece are of Cyclopean, or, as some have it, of Pelasgic origin; and the most famous of these Cyclopean works are two subterraneous structures known as the Treasury of Atreus and the Treas- [Page 168] ury of Minyas–the former at Mycenæ, in Argolis, the latter at Orchomenos, in Boeotia. Both are built after the one plan, being huge dome-shaped constructions formed of horizontal layers of dressed stones, each layer projecting over the one next below, till the top was closed by a single block. The whole was then covered in with earth, and so buried. Such structures scarcely come under the head of architecture, in the accepted sense of the word.

Now, whether the Pelasgi were the rude forefathers of the Aryan Hellenes, or whether they were a distinct race of Turanian origin settled in Greece before Hellas began, is a disputed question which I cannot pretend to decide; but what we do know is, that the prehistoric ruins of Mycenæ and Orchomenos are four hundred, if not five hundred, years older than the oldest remains of the historic school. Of all that happened during the dark interval which separated the prehistoric from the historic, we are absolutely ignorant.

If, however, the builders of Mycenæ and Orchomenos were Pelasgians, and if the builders of the earliest historic temples were Hellenes, it is, at all events, [b]certain that the Pelasgians went to Egypt for their surface decoration[/b], and the [b]Hellenes for their architectural[/b] models. Moreover–and this is very curious–[b]they both[/b] appear to have [b]gone to school to the same place[/b]. That [b]place is on the confines of Middle and Upper Egypt[/b], about one hundred and seventy miles above Cairo, and its modern name is Beni-Hasan.

The rock-cut sepulchres of Beni-Hasan are among the famous sights of the Nile. They are excavated in terraces at a great height above the river, and they were made for the great feudal princes who governed this province under the Pharaohs of the Twelfth Dynasty. Their walls are covered with paintings of the highest interest; their ceilings are rich in polychromatic decoration; and many are adorned with pillared porches cut in the solid rock. (43)

It is to be remembered that the foundation of the Twelfth Egyptian Dynasty–the great dynasty of the Usertesens and Amenemhats–dates from about 3000 to 2500 years before [Page 169] Christ. These Beni-Hasan sepulchres are therefore older by many centuries than the so-called "Treasuries" of Orchomenos and Mycenæ.

Now, [b]at Mycenæ, near the entrance to the Treasury of Atreus[/b], there stands the base and part of the [b]shaft of a column decorated with a spiral ornament[/b], which here [b]makes its first appearance on Greek soil[/b]. This spiral (though it never achieved the universal popularity of the meander, or "key pattern," or of the misnamed "honeysuckle pattern" ) [b]became in historic times a stock motive of Hellenic design[/b]; and [b]all three patterns–the spiral, the meander, and the honeysuckle–have long been regarded as purely Greek inventions. But they were all painted on the ceilings of the Beni-Hasan tombs full twelve hundred years before a stone of the Treasuries of Mycenæ or Orchomenos was cut from the quarry[/b]. The [b]spiral, either in its simplest form, or in combination with the rosette or the lotus, is an Egyptian design. The rosette is Egyptian; and the honeysuckle, which Mr. Petrie has identified as a florid variety of the lotus pattern, (44) is also distinctly Egyptian[/b].[/i]" - by Amelia Edwards, 
[i]Pharaohs Fellahs and Explorers[/i]; Chapter 5: [i]Egypt the Birthplace of Greek Decorative Art.[/i], 1891. Source: [URL=digital.library.upenn.edu/women/edwards/pharaohs/pharaohs-5.html=]Link[/URL] 


"[i]A striking change appears in Greek art of the seventh century B.C., the beginning of the Archaic period. The [b]abstract geometric patterning that was dominant between about 1050 and 700 B.C. is supplanted in the seventh century by a more naturalistic style reflecting significant influence from the Near East and Egypt[/b]. Trading [b]stations in the Levant and the Nile Delta[/b], continuing Greek colonization in the east and west, as well as contact with eastern craftsmen, notably on Crete and Cyprus, [b]inspired Greek artists to work in techniques as diverse as gem cutting, ivory carving, jewelry making, and metalworking (1989.281.49-.50)[/b]. Eastern pictorial motifs were introduced—palmette and lotus compositions, animal hunts, and such composite beasts as griffins (part bird, part lion), sphinxes (part woman, part winged lion), and sirens (part woman, part bird). [b]Greek artists rapidly assimilated foreign styles and motifs into new portrayals of their own myths and customs, thereby forging the foundations of Archaic and Classical Greek art.[/b][/i]"
  - Source: Greek Art in the Archaic Period | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art


"[i]Design [b]was monumental but not architecturally complex and employed posts and lintels, rather than arches[/b], although [b]Egyptian expertise in stone had a strong influence on later Greek architecture[/b]....

The history of art and architecture in Ancient Greece is divided into three basic eras: the Archaic Period (c.600-500 BCE), the Classical Period (c.500-323 BCE) and the Hellenistic Period (c.323-27 BCE). [b]About 600 BCE, inspired by the theory and practice of earlier Egyptian stone masons and builders, the Greeks set about replacing the wooden structures of their public buildings with stone structures - a process known as 'petrification'[/b]. Limestone and marble was employed for columns and walls, while terracotta was used for roof tiles and ornaments. Decoration was done in metal, like bronze...

[b]Architectural Methods of Ancient Greece[/b] 

[b]Like the Egyptians[/b], the Greeks used simple post-and-lintel building techniques.[/i]" 
- Source: [i]visual-arts-cork.com[/i]

I think the following sums up undeniable 'western' fascination with and romanticization of ancient Egypt:

[i]A SCHOLAR of no less distinction than the late Sir Richard Burton wrote the other day of [b]Egypt as "the inventor of the alphabet, the cradle of letters, the preacher of animism and metempsychosis, and, generally, the source of all human civilization." This is a broad statement; but it is literally true.[/b] Hence the [b]irresistible fascination of Egyptology[/b]–a fascination which is quite [b]unintelligible to those who are ignorant of the subject[/b].[/i] 
- Amelia Edwards, 1891.

SUMMARY - various lines of evidence show cultural exchange and gene flow
between Greece and Africa in ancient times. Some of this evidence such as the
HLA data above is limited, but there is a clear trail of such population and
cultural exchange in various eras. This does not mean that Greeks "originate"
in Africa as claimed by some.

They include:

- Benin sickle cell data
- skeletal data
- cystic fibrosis mutation on Chromosome 7
- E3B Y-data
- cultural data showing African presence or influences
-- HLA data

[b]1-- HLA evidence showing gene exchange betwwen Africa and Greece for
SOME Greeks, not all. [/b]
Vilenna notes such exchange Geeks of the Aegean and some near A
thens in his sampling, and does not claim an African origin
for ALL Greeks. This wouldnot be possible using limited HLA markers.

[IMG]img696.imageshack.us/img696/5141/hlagenesgreeks2001.jpg[/IMG]


[b]
2-- SOme studies notes that Greeks are related to Africans via cystic fibrosis mutations.
[/b]
[IMG]img842.imageshack.us/img842/181/greeknegroidaffinities.jpg[/IMG]


[b]3-- HLA genes are highly variable and occur in different populations.
However the presence of Japanese clustering with south Africans is not as far fetched
as it seems. HLA genes are useful in analyzing certain
arthritis conditions.[/b] There is hard medical data
in various HLA studies that indeed show Japanese
and south African blacks grouping together in
relation to arthritis conditions. See the data below.

[IMG]img580.imageshack.us/img580/6479/hlaethnicarthritis.jpg[/IMG]


[b]4-- Anthro/Archaeo data show the presence of African
traits (and remember Africans have a wide variety of traits)
in the Neolithic data. The full info has already been posted
but here is some anthro/archaeo data affirming the presence
of "negroid" traits from early times:[/b]
quote: [i]"The female of forty-plus years of age from Grave 2
was examined by J. L. Angel who noted what he interpreted as
a number of 'negroid' .. traits in the face." The skull is fairly
complete, but not enough so for discriminant function analysis."
There is marked maxillary prognathism and the orbits may be
described as rectangular, traits frequently used in forensic
diagnosis of Negro crania... "[/i]
-- Skeletons of Lerna Hollow. Al B. Wesolowsky. Hesperia, Vol. 42, No. 3. (Jul. - Sep., 1973), pp. 340-351.

[i]"Early Neolithic Macedonia centered on a Dinaric-Mediterranean (type F)
average but with an extremely broad nose, more prognathism, and a
little more mouth tilt than expected (all, perhaps from negroid
development of the incisor region.." [/i]
-- The people of Lerna: analysis of a prehistoric Aegean population. J.L Angel 1971

[i]"The portrayal on the 'minature fresco' from Thera, and on the other,
very fragmentary Aegean frescoes, of diverse stylistic elements- flora a
nd fauna, 'negroid' human representations, the riverine setting, of the
'minature fresco,' etc- that seem to be north African, 'Libyan' or Egyptian in origin." [/i]
--The Aegean and the Orient in the second millennium:
proceedings of the 50th anniversary symposium, Cincinnati, 18-20 April 1997

[i]"The inhabitants of the Aegean area in the Bronze Age may have
been much like many people in the Mediterranean basin today,
short and slight of build with dark hair and eyes and sallow
complexions. Skeletons show that the population of the Aegean
was already mixed by Neolithic times, and various facial types,
some with delicate features and pointed noses, others pug-nosed,
almost negroid, are depicted in wall paintings from the 16th century BC..."[/i]
-- The Home of the Heroes: The Aegean Before the Greeks (1967)


------------------ [b]Scholars also link the Negroid elements to sickle-cell anemia------- [/b]
QUOTE:
[i]"The female from Grave 2 is among those with thickened parietals.
It should be pointed out that maxillary prognathsm, one of the skeleton's
"Negroid" features, is characteristic both of thalassemia and sickle-cell anemia."[/i]
-- Skeletons of Lerna Hollow. Al B. Wesolowsky. Hesperia, Vol. 42, No. 3. (Jul. - Sep., 1973), pp. 340-351.

[IMG]dwb.unl.edu/Teacher/NSF/C08/C08Links/www.mcet.edu/genome/sicklecell/graphics/3/abc/overtime.gif[/IMG]


[b]5-- Other elements like Benin Sickle Cell traits
are also found among the Greeks and various Africans
and some skeletal/cranial studies find African
elements in Greece (Angel 1972 for example)[/b]
QUOTE:

[i]"A late Pleistocene-early Holocene northward migration (from Africa to the Levant and to Anatolia) of these populations has been hypothesized from skeletal data (Angel 1972, 1973; Brace 2005) and from archaeological data, as indicated by the probable Nile Valley origin of the "Mesolithic" (epi-Paleolithic) Mushabi culture found in the Levant (Bar Yosef 1987). This migration finds some support in the presence in Mediterranean populations (Sicily, Greece, southern Turkey, etc.; Patrinos et al.; Schiliro et al. 1990) of the Benin sickle cell haplotype. This haplotype originated in West Africa and is probably associated with the spread of malaria to southern Europe through an eastern Mediterranean route (Salares et al. 2004) following the expansion of both human and mosquito populations brought about by the advent of the Neolithic transition (Hume et al 2003; Joy et al. 2003; Rich et al 1998). This northward migration of northeastern African populations carrying sub-Saharan biological elements is concordant with the morphological homogeneity of the Natufian populations (Bocquentin 2003), which present morphological affinity with sub-Saharan populations (Angel 1972; Brace et al. 2005). In addition, the Neolithic revolution was assumed to arise in the late Pleistocene Natufians and subsequently spread into Anatolia and Europe (Bar-Yosef 2002), and the first Anatolian farmers, Neolithic to Bronze Age Mediterraneans and to some degree other Neolithic-Bronze Age Europeans, show morphological affinities with the Natufians (and indirectly with sub-Saharan populations; Angel 1972; Brace et al 2005), in concordance with a process of demic diffusion accompanying the extension of the Neolithic revolution (Cavalli-Sforza et al. 1994)." [/i]

-- F. X. Ricaut, M. Waelkens. (2008). Cranial Discrete Traits in a Byzantine Population and Eastern Mediterranean Population Movements Human Biology - Volume 80, Number 5, October 2008, pp. 535-564

[b]6-- Greeks, Africans and African-influenced Arab populations share
a unique common cystic fibrosis mutation[/b]

[i]"The observed identity of extended CFTR haplotypes
for the 312011GrA alleles in the Arab, African, and
African American patients strongly suggests that this
mutation has a common origin in these groups. This
finding is not surprising in the case of Africans and African
Americans, since the latter group has originated
mostly from the western African coast and came to
North America between the 16th and 19th centuries,
which is too recent to allow origination of significant
CFTR-mutation haplotype changes restricted to African
Americans. It is not quite so simple to explain the presence
of the 312011GrA mutation in African and Saudi Arab patients.

However, a continuous gene flow between Arab and African populations probably
has persisted for many centuries, in association with
trading and with the spread of the Islamic religion. Thus
far, the Greeks are the only Caucasian population in
which the 312011GrA mutation has been identified. A
recurrent mutational event seems to be unlikely, because
the Greek haplotype differs from the others in only two
minor respects..

Greek and Arab/African haplotypes of the 312011GrA mutation thus
may have diverged from a common ancestor and then
evolved separately in the respective populations.
In summary, our present analysis provides the
first evidence for a common origin of CF among African,
Arab, Greek, and African American populations. The
shared extra- and intragenic 312011GrA–associated
haplotype is most easily explained by the assumption of
a single origin for this mutation. 312011GrA appears
to be an ancient mutation that may be more common
than previously thought, in populations of the tropical
and subtropical belt, where CF probably is an underdiagnosed
disorder."[/i]
--Dörk, et al. (August 1998). "Evidence for a common ethnic origin of cystic fibrosis mutation

[b] 7-- Other cultural/archaeo data testify to the African presence, africans again having a wde range of features[/b]

QUOTES
[i]"THE FORERUNNERS During the Early Minoan period the population of southern Crete may have included a Negroid element. The presence of such an element from Libya in the Cretan population has been argued on the basis of an inlay of shell now in the Ashmolean Museum. This inlay may have come from an early circular tomb at Ayios Onouphrios. It depects a bearded face, with thick lips and snub nose. Other objects might lead to the same observaton for later periods. Among the faiences showing house fronts (Middle Minoan II)15 there is one in which are seen the prow of a ship and swarthy, prognathous, clearly Negroid people, some steatopygic...
It is uncertain, however, what role to assign to the non-Minoan figures in this scene, which it has been suggested, may represent the represent the siege of a seacoast town. Scholars are in greater agreement with respect to their interpretations of the coal black spearmen who appear in a fragment of a fresco, which Evans called The Captain of the Blacks, belonging to Late Minoan 145 II.18 The fresco depicts a Minoan captain, wearing a yellow kilt and a horned cap of skin, who leads, at the double, a file of black men similarly dressed." [/i]
-- The image of the Black in Western art: Volume 4, Part 1 Jean Vercoutter, Ladislas Bugner, Jean Devisse. 1976

"The Theran is a young man whose black wavy hairm rather thick lips, and nose with reduced platyrrniny are clearly shown. Although he acknowledges that these traits suggest a NEgrito or Nubian, Marinatos avoids precise anthropological definition and concludes that the characteristics seem to indicate an "African".


"An intrepretation of NEgroes in Crete and Pylos as soldiers would have some support in the example of Egypt, with its long tradition of Nubian mercenaries. A striking example, belonging somewhat earlier period that that of the Minoan Captain of the Blacks fresco, is provided by the wooden models of forthy black archers in Cairo, found in a tomb of a prince of Assiut." pg 138

L. Bertholon and E. Chantre have analyzed results of black-white crossings in their detailed anthropoligical study of ancient and modern Tripolitiana, Tunisia, and Algeria. They call attention to the degrees of Negro admixture as evidenced by the extent to which Negroid features appear in mixed North African peoples. R. Bartoccini in his study of the somatic characteristics of anciet Libyans, illustrates his observations on racial crossings between Libyans and Negroes from the interior by pointing to the Negroid nose (broad) and hair (curly or wooly) .."

"Some of the physical features of this type are: dark or black color expressed in a variety of ways, tightly curled platyrrhine nose, and thick, often everted lips. '

"In a scene on a red-figured calyx-krater of the peropd from Canicattoni, now in Syracuse, a female dancer, fully draped, stands on tiptoe. The treatment of the nose, the lips and the tightly curled hair indicates that Negroid features were intended.. the realism and anthropological fidelity of those cited above leave no doubt as to the artists' intent.." pg 171
-- The image of the Black in Western art: Volume 4, Part 1 Jean Vercoutter, Ladislas Bugner, Jean Devisse. 1976

-------------------------------

[b]8- ADDITIONAL DATA: AFRICAN HAPLOGROUP E FOUND IN GREEKS[/b]


QUOTE:
[i]"Underhill et al. (2001) showed that the frequency of the
YAP+ Y haplogroup commonly referred to as haplogroup E or
(III) is relatively high (about 25%) in the Middle East
and Mediterranean. This haplogroup E is the major haplogroup
found in sub-Saharan Africa (over 75% of all Y chromosomes).
SPecifically, Europeans contain the E3b subhaplogroup, which
was derived from haplogroup E in sub-Saharan Africa and
currently is distributed along the North and East of Africa..
It appears that the 171 AIM test subject of this chapter may
recognize the haplogroup E character as West African."[/i]

--T. Frudakis. 2008. Molecular photofitting: predicting ancestry and phenotype using DNA


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[b]On the web, a vast number of supremacists, touting a "Mediterranean Race Supreme",
deny that there are any links between Greece and Africa. Such links would soil the "pure
Mediterranean Race" of ancient times it is argued. It is also held that all Greek learning
and methods, derive no influence from Egypt or the Middle East, but was created independently.
This is ahistorical. The Greek alphabet for example was derived from Middle Easterners.
Supremacists seize on criticism of HLA gene studies to push a "Mediterranean Race Supreme"
line on the web. HLA criticism is valid on some points, and HLA use is limited since only
few markers are used. However, supremacists have hijacked scholarly criticism of HLA
to push their "pure race" fantasies. HLA gene data is only one of several lines of evidence
demonstrating gene flow and cultural contacts between Greece and Africa in ancient.
times. These multiple lines of evidence are NOT the same as a single one- namely HLA.

Unfortunately critics at times have framed their objections in misleading ways, producing
distorted pictures of HLA sampling and grouping categories. These distortions have
weakened what would otherwise be solid critiques of HLA research. [/b]

The finding that Greeks and Africans/African admixed populations share certain unique
cystic fibrosis mutations is generally admitted but minimized in a
misleading way. Critics admit that Dörk et al. did find an
African-type of cystic fibrosis mutation in Greeks, however saying this
mutation was extremely rare; it was detected only in three Greek families.
WHat they conveniently leave out is that the Greek families were part of a
batch of 17 samples under detailed analysis. 3 out of 17 is approx 18%,
but they attempt to make it appear as if it is only 3 families out of all
of Greece where the cystic fibrosis mutation occurs. See Dork ref.
Dörk T, El-Harith EH, Stuhrmann M, et al. (August 1998).
"Evidence for a common ethnic origin of cystic fibrosis mutation 3120+1G-->A
in diverse populations". Am. J. Hum. Genet. 63

Critics then offer a 2000 study by Richards that
found "very little" African gene flow in Greece, but in
fact, Richards's study specifically EXCLUDED African samples.
Critics further proffer Maaspina 2000 as another
example, saying that the "only African" dna trace in a Greek
sample was hg "A" at less than 1%. The only thing that they
conveniently forget to tell the reader is that the African
samples were mostly Arabized types from Egypt, not sub-Saharan
Africa, crucially East Africa/Ethiopia where an apples to apples
comparison could be done.

Critics also cite a study by A. Petlichkovski on Macedonians
showing where "sub-Saharans" groups away from
the Macedonians thus allegedly "contradicting" Vilenna.
Again they onveniently leave out that the samples
of Petlichkovski were NOT from the same area of
Africa as Vilenna's Ethiopians, his main group
that clustered with Greeks. The sampling was not
an apples to apples comparison. Interestingly enough,
Petlichkovski's study groups Egyptians with other
African populations.
[IMG]egyptianmandenka.jpg[/IMG]


A number of critics continue some misleading portrayals by proferring
another study by Weale 2001, but this study concerned Armenians
and had few African samples. Other claims by critics attempt
to use an obscure Siberian haplotype as some sort of "stand in" for
Africans but indeed the studies proferred for Greek-African comparisons
are notable for the ABSENCE or very minor use of African samples.

Semino 2004 is used by some supremacists to argue the "Medicentrist" line,
alleging that the Greeks show little of the "North African marker" J-M267,
essentially setting up a strawman true type to "refute." But in fact Semino's
Greek samples howed significant amounts of E-M78, a haplotype itself originating
in East Africa per Semino.
J-M267 is important however, because the Dork cystic fibrosis
study found a link with Saudi populations which have much J-M267. But what
some critics conveniently leave out is that other studies
of Saudis such as Amero 2008, found almost 14% of the Saudi samples
to have sub-Saharan DNA markers, confirming Dork's view of long-standing
Africa-Arabia gene flow. Hence it is not merely "North African" J-M267
that could cause a link with the Greek and Africans, but long-standing African
markers. The link shows up in people who are African or African influenced
like Saudis or African-Americans.

Some critics also proffer a critique by Jobling of Vilenna's sub-Saharan tracers,
but Jobling did not dispute the presence of such African alleles only
how they were used in creating a chart, since their origin was known
before the study. But such is standard procedure in other DNA studies
run by European race category proponents. Only this time, it showed
the Greek- African links rather than the usual "true type" segregation format.

Several critics also refer to Karatzios et al rebutting Vilenna.
Some criticisms of Karatzios are accurate, such as Vilenna's broad
claims and multiple revisions, but they promote a strawman as the center of their
argument- namely that Vilenna is arguing for the sub-Saharan
origin of ALL Greeks. Vilenna however, refers only to part of the
Greek population. Karatzios mentions other studies that contradict
Vilenna- namely Slavs and Greeks being genetically related. This
is likely accurate, but none of the Slav studies do an apples to
apples comparison with the African populations used by VIlenna.
---
This is the crucial comparison. Karatziou points out that Vilenna 2001
earlier groups Greeks with Italians, but in that study the grouping
was for Greeks as a whole, and did not break out the Aegean/Athens
area outliers. Karatzios also criticizes a study by Hajjeji 2006
that appears to confirm Vilenna saying Hakkeji' used Vilenna's
same analysis. However Hajjeji's data slso shows the African Rimaibe
clustering with Cypriot Greeks. Karatzios makea a comparison with another
study clustering Basques and Congolese via HLA, arguing that the study
used too few Congo markers to make a definitieve statement.
This is a valid criticism, but it is based on an ancient 1972 study where
HLA study tools and techniques were much less accurate that 2001.
Karatzios also point out the Japanese clustering but fail to mention
that other medical researches have found such links where certain
rheumatoid arthritis conditions are found.
---
Karatzios also makes the valid point that numerous sub-Saharan alleles can be found
in distant non-African populations. This is true but highlights
the double standard used when African data is concerned. If non-
African alleles are found in East African populations for example,
many are quick to pronounce such groups as "mixed race." But when
the situation is reversed, and Europeans are demonstrated to have
African alleles, then the "mixed race" narrative is almost never
invoked by European scientists. Why the double standard?
---
Some critics also refer to criticism of Vilenna by "three respected geneticists"
Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Alberto Piazza and Neil Risch. But the three men
over no detailed rebuttal of Vilenna's results, only "puzzlement" over
how Greeks link with Africans and how Japanese could be in the mix.
They express puzzlement on how: "[i]Greeks are very similar to Ethiopians
and east Africans but very distant from other south Europeans; and that the
Japanese are nearly identical to west and south Africans."[/i]
----
But the three scholars misrepresent Vilenna with false strawmen. Vilenna
is not referring to ALL Greeks but part of them, as seen in certain samples from
the Aegean and near Athens. The "all Greeks" charge is bogus, just as
the "identical Japanese" is similarly bogus. The three sages conveniently
fail to mention that HLA genes, in association with certain rheumatoid arthritis
MEDICAL conditions, can show similarity across several distant populations,
and thus accounting for why Japanese would share certain arthritis
conditions with South African San. This doesn't mean there was historic gene flow between
them, only that the gene mutations involved in the particular rheumatoid
arthritis conditions may hit both peoples in a similar way.
( Rimoin and Emery 2006 Principles and pratice of medical genetics).

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The above is only offered as counter to the vast number of supremacists
who argue for a "Mediterranean race supreme" on the web, using criticism
of HLA studies to bolster their "pure Mediterranean race" model and to deny
any gene or cultural exchange between Greece and Africa in historic ancient times.
.Hijacking by these supremacists does not mean that there are no legitimate criticisms of HLA data.
There are. However HLA data is a minor part of the overall picture. Gene, archaeao/antrho,
and cultural data also testify to ancient Greece- Africa gene and cultural exchange over many centuries.