Monnereau, Aurore Marie Rose ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4683-2529 (2021) Tracking Ancestry: ancient genomic analysis of multi-faith populations from medieval Sicily. PhD thesis, University of York.
Abstract
Medieval Sicily, at a crossroad between European, Eastern and African worlds saw the development of a multi-faith society. Sicily witnessed many political changes linked to successive regimes dominations of the Byzantines (Greek Christian), Aghlabids (Sunni Islam), Fatimids (Shi’ite Islam) and finally the Normans and Swabians (Latin Christian). These transitions might have generated cultural customs changes, different trading systems, new social rules, and potentially population movements. Ultimately, the coexistence of Greek Christians, Muslims, and Latin Christians under different regimes shaped a plural society. This PhD thesis applied a biomolecular investigation of ancient DNA to characterise the multi-faith medieval Sicilian society across space and time. Ancient DNA analysis was performed on 118 human remains sampled across the entire island with a date range between the 5th and the 15th centuries CE. A case study on the archaeological site of Segesta provides one perspective on neighbouring Christian and Muslim cemeteries which date between the end of the Islamic Period and beginning of the Norman and Swabian Periods. The genetic analysis showed genetic structuring according to burial rites. A wider genetic analysis of all medieval Sicilians in this study provided a comprehensive view of uniparental and nuclear markers and highlighted the complexity and difficulty of illuminating the impact of these recent conquests. The uniparental markers revealed that African mitochondrial genomes as well as North African and African Y chromosome haplogroups were mainly associated with Muslim burial rites, therefore could potentially be associated with Islamic expansion. The nuclear analyses enlightened that the Islamic conquest was not exclusively responsible for the North African and sub-Saharan ancestry, neither was a massive population replacement observed, although arrival of incomers from the Africa continent was possibly detected. Finally, the whole study provided an opportunity to document the genetic diversity during a period that has not yet been extensively studied.
Metadata
Supervisors: | Alexander, Michelle and Wales, Nathan and Speller, Camilla |
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Keywords: | Ancient DNA, Middle Ages, Sicily, multi-faith populations, mtDNA, Y chromosome, nuclear analysis |
Awarding institution: | University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Archaeology (York) |
Depositing User: | Miss Aurore Marie Rose Monnereau |
Date Deposited: | 24 Mar 2022 10:02 |
Last Modified: | 24 Mar 2022 10:02 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:etheses.whiterose.ac.uk:30412 |
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