Data Mining Autosomal Archaeogenetic Data to Determine Minoan Origins

Abstract

This paper presents a method for data mining archaeogenetic autosomal data. The method is applied to the widely debated topic of the origin of the Bronze Age Minoan culture that existed on the island of Crete from 5000 to 3500 years ago. The data is compared with some Neolithic and early Bronze Age samples from the nearby Cycladic islands, mainland Greece and other Neolithic sites. The method shows that a large component of the Minoan autosomal genomes has sources from the Neolithic areas of northern Greece and the rest of the Balkans and a minor component comes directly from Neolithic Anatolia and the Caucasus.