Originally posted by drgonzaga
Given that the ethnic identity of modern Greeks is hardly an uncontroversial topic as touches upon direct descent from classical antiquity, one must tend to wonder the reason for searching an Alexandrine descent on a remote Asian plateau. Certainly all evidence of linguistic descent is entirely absent, and if historical Macedonians are absent from the plains of Philippi, is it reasonable to expect them on the fringes of the Hindu-Kush? |
The issue of whether modern Greeks are descended from ancient Greeks is not that controversial anymore, with the advent of genetic testing. Though ancient Greek DNA has not yet been analyzed, there is strong inferential evidence that modern Greeks are in significant part descended from ancient Greeks. The controversy around modern Greeks' population genetics should be: from which other peoples are modern Greeks descended? Modern Greeks are probably a mix of putatively Neolithic types who were probably present in ancient Greeks and others like people who were medieval Slavs, Albanians, Vlachs, etc.