The Geography of Jewish Ethnogenesis

2019/05/08 by Aram Yardumian, Theodore G. Schurr · 2 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Arts and Humanities · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Forensic and Genetic Research #Archaeology and Historical Studies #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Ethnogenesis #Judaism #Indigenous #Mosaic #Slavic languages #History #Ancient history #Ethnic group #Middle East #Byzantine architecture #Palestine #Geography #Ethnology #Classics #Genealogy #Anthropology #Archaeology #Sociology #Biology

paper · doi:10.1086/702709

openalex publication_date 2019/05/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

A reevaluation of the anthropological genetics literature on Jewish populations reveals them not simply to be a body of genetically related people descending from a small group of common ancestors, but rather a “mosaic” of peoples of diverse origins. Greek and other pre-medieval historiographic sources suggest the patterning evident in recent genetic studies could be explained by a major contribution from Greco-Roman and Anatolian-Byzantine converts who affiliated themselves with some iteration of Judaism beginning in the first and second centuries ce and continuing into the Middle Ages. These populations, along with Babylonian and Alexandrian Jewish communities, indigenous North Africans, and Slavic-speaking converts to Judaism, support a mosaic geography of Jewish ancestry in Europe and Western Asia, rather than one arising from a limited set of lineages originating solely in Palestine.

Citations

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Cited by

• Genome-wide data from medieval German Jews show that the Ashkenazi founder event pre-dated the 14th century
• Ashkenazi Jews [wikipedia]