Move over Egypt, Europe�s pyramids are older and bigger!

Europe's first pyramid?

Bosnia's leading Muslim daily Dnevni Avaz writes excitedly about "a sensational discovery" of "the first European pyramid" in the central town of Visoko, just north of Sarajevo.

Excavations at a hill site above the town have been going on for several months and initial analyses "have confirmed the original claim that this is Europe's first pyramid and a monumental building, similar in dimensions to the Egyptian pyramids."

"The pyramid is 100 metres high and there is evidence that it contains rooms and a monumental causeway ... The plateau is built of stone blocks, which indicates the presence at the time of a highly developed civilisation," the daily explains.

"Archaeological excavations near the surface have uncovered a part of a wall and fragments of steps," it reveals.

"Visocica hill could not have been shaped like this by nature," geologist Nada Nukic tells the daily. "This is already far too more than we have anticipated, but we expect a lot more from further analysis," she concludes.

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Doesn't look good that our media is hyping the claims, but we'll see.

Genetic analysis of indigenousness

In 2005 various South European medical schools and institutions specializing in genetics did an analysis of the variation at 28 Y-chromosome biaUelic markers among a sample of males from throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, relatively equally split among all three major ethnic groups. The most notable find was the high frequency of the "Paleolithic European" halo group (Hg) I; specifically its sub-halo group I-P37. Indicative of Dinarics, the sub-halo group had a frequency of 71% among Bosnian Croats, 44% among Bosniaks, and 31% among Bosnian Serbs. A similar study in Croatia found that Croatian Croats had a frequency of about 45%, but that among them Croats in Dalmatia had a particularly high frequency (around two thirds).

The high frequency of I-P37 among Croats in Bosnia and Dalmatia can be explained by the fact that Catholics in those regions historically mixed very little with other people. The smaller frequency among Croats in Croatia and Bosniaks is probably due to the various foreigners that were assimilated over the years. The study mentioned above confirmed that the Bosniak gene pool was impacted by foreigners from various regions in the Ottoman Empire more so than that of the other two groups, but not in a significant amount overall.

It must be taken into account that out of the study's Bosniak subjects none came from Bosanska Krajina. Based on historical factors associated with the region, it could be expected that the inclusion of Bosniak subjects from this regions would have raised the frequency of I-P37 and Slav-associated sub-halo groups while lowering the frequency of Mediterranean related sub-halo groups among Bosniaks overall. Future genetic studies will hopefully shed more light on these issues. As it stands, current studies have shown that, genetically, Bosniaks are largely indigenous and have a large fraction of the ancient gene pool distinctive for the Balkan area.