Sicilians are more Greek than Italian?

Question

Do Sicilians have a significant amount of Greek ancestry or not? Since Sicily was part of Magna Graecia.

Answer 1

Cultural legacy is not related to genetic ancestry.

Sorry, Sicilians have few if anything of Greek in their culture.

Answer 2

Well we both believe in... Family!!!!!! :-)

Answer 3

Hello,

It was colonized by Greece but also invaded by the Moors who introduced the orange there. Cynic is right on his observation. Read the brief history of Sicily. Her people are quite a mixed bag with also French and Spanish to boot.

Michael

http://www.knowital.com/history/sicily/s...

Answer 4

I thought they were more arab

Answer 5

Good question. But my guess would be yes, as after Greece became part of Roma, they have mostly integrate Greek culture and scientists, so it could have provide Sicilians with less sacrifices to do in order to remain greek, since they were already inside...

Answer 6

I believe that DNA is now showing that not only Sicilians, but also Etruscans, have a lot of Greek DNA. This comes as no real shocker when considering that historically, the main Greek ports of their merchant fleets were in Sicily and on the N. W. coast of Italy, Iberia (Spain) had Gades, (Cadiz) along with some in S. France, Crete, and Egypt.

There is also a theory that they traded for tin with S. Britain [Cornwall], and perhaps N. America...but this is mostly still just theory and based on the Piri Reis map.

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