Comments by "A AG" (@aag3752) on "Celtic History Decoded" channel.

  1. Fascinating! In Lebanon we have a minority occurrence of blonde hair and blue eyes. Not nearly as high as in northern Europe, but on par with the West Asia/Levant section of the map you showed at the beginning. The connection between West Asia, Siberia and Western Europe in terms of genetics is really mind blowing and good to know. Thanks for the info.
    265
  2.  @chrisnewbury3793  Lol no. We are mostly Phoenician by dna, yet we don't mostly look Nordic. Most of us look like proper Mediterranean people.
    40
  3. Amazing! I'm Lebanese, and have "Byzantine" elements in my dna, according to admixture calculators. Also had some Steppe ancestry. We Mediterranean people (eastern and western) really have a lot in common.
    23
  4. Great vid, sir. Very balanced and informative. I'm also fascinated by the idea that the Vikings may have increased the rate of blue and gray eyes in the ME, which is where I'm from. It is plausible. But I just want to add that Lebanese and Syrians in particular have had the genes for blue eyes long before the Vikings had sailed and traded in the region. (Probably since the early Iron Age, according to recent genetic studies).
    22
  5. Yep, they definitely reached Turkey, and even the Levant! I'm Lebanese and apparently have a 13% "Viking index" according to Genomelink. A small amount, but hey, I'll take it 😄 ❤
    14
  6. Great to be part of the Indo-European line (either culturally, linguistically or genetically). Amazing vid as always 👏👏
    12
  7.  @JohnVKaravitis  Not at all actually. All the genetic tests show that the Crusaders barely left a mark. We get our light features from more ancient ancestors.
    11
  8. Because the Yamnaya replaced this with their language and mythology. Even in the Levant and Caucuses they had some impact, and that's a long way away. Their influence was not only great but long lasting even to the present day.
    10
  9.  @SrdjanBasaric-w2s  Umm...ever hear of Hinduism? Ever hear of Norse mythology? Those are its living descendants. Indeed its continuation in the present time.
    9
  10. The Sea Peoples teamed up with the Phoenicians as well. They were probably a conglomerate group at one point.
    8
  11. Thanks for another great vid! There's one thing I'm trying to figure out, namely, which ancient populations do we get our light features from (skin, hair and eyes)? Is it from the Steppe Herders? If so, then why are northern Europeans usually lighter than southern Europeans/Mediterraneans/Levantines, with more instances of blonde hair and blue eyes? Would it be because they have more Steppe ancestry? This is just a theory I heard, but I have no idea if it's true. If you're able to do a vid on that topic, that would be really awesome.
    6
  12. Love these videos. Please keep em up!
    6
  13.  @kayeninetwo3585  I don't think it involves different genes. Every European country has a higher number of blonde hair children than adults, even in Germany.
    5
  14.  @RokasStulga  From Lebanon, their first city was Tyre. They were Mediterranean of course, but not Greek, they spoke the Phoenician language.
    5
  15. @Bozvikvin  Yes. But the northern Levant (Lebanon and Syria) are more related to each other than the southern Levant.
    4
  16. Another banger. I find the near eastern mixture especially fascinating. Thanks for the detailed info.
    3
  17. Is that true? I don't think so. My blonde hair turned brown also, but my grandmother's stayed blonde. Do we have different genes for the blonde hair? That's not how it works.
    3
  18.  @alexandervanhove7327  Possible. Though according to the genetic studies the Crusaders didn't leave much of a genetic legacy in Lebanon. The Romans did have more of a genetic impact. The Varangians makes sense to me. Def possible.
    3
  19.  @aidanfeeney8128  On another note, the origin of red hair is an interesting subject. Since you mentioned the Celts, it is true that a lot of people think red hair originates among them. I understand the reasoning behind this but I'm not so sure it's true. Red hair is also seen in the Middle East, especially the Levant. I'm Lebanese and was actually born with red hair (before it darkened up). And while I wouldn't say it's very common, it does exist in pretty much every town in Lebanon. Even more so in Syria. I don't know how it could have come from the Celts if we have it too. While we do have some ancient DNA in common with Europeans, I don't think we mixed specifically with the Celts (or their descendants), as far as I know. So it might have actually come from the Middle East, and I've heard some people say that. Anyway, that's just a theory. Sorry for the rambling. This all started with what color hair the Vikings had lol.
    3
  20.  @shaolindreams  Yeah, I'm J2. Which is popular in the Mediterranean, Arabia, and parts of Europe. But haplotype is just a very small part of the genome. It's the autosomal dna that matters (the bulk of your dna you still carry from your ancestors).
    3
  21.  @jdnw85  No. See my comment above.
    3
  22. @StephenLondon-j6o  Lebanon is far from N. Africa, and is not part of the Muslim world.
    3
  23.  @ابغ1212  LMAO. No. It is not a Muslim country, go there and you'll find that out very easily. And what does that have to do with my comment about looks? nothing.
    3
  24.  @mk-sq7yo  The Greeks and Romans aren't whiter than Levantines. It's the same general area, with the same climate, and so we don't get it from them. Instead, what geneticists have discovered is that there has been mutual gene flow between west asia and europe for millennia. It's a continuum. This is why Europeans also have middle eastern dna (Anatolian Farmer, etc.).
    3
  25.  @celtichistorydecoded  One good study done by Haber et al is called "Continuity and Admixture in the Last Five Millennia of Levantine History". That's where they also mention that the Lebanese they tested had between 11% and 22% Steppe-related ancestry, and that this was a necessary component for modeling their dna. If I'm not mistaken, this may be one of the sources for light eyes in our population.
    2
  26. Did the Vikings have mostly red hair? or blonde?
    2
  27. @frostflower5555  Incorrect. Blue eyes have been in the Levant since even before the Bronze Age. Nice try though.
    2
  28. In addition to this, there was direct genetic input from the Romans, during the Roman and Byzantine Empires. We do have some direct European admixture as a result, but not very much. So, it doesn't seem likely this would have been the main contributing factor.
    1
  29.  @GlobDaSon  Which empires?
    1
  30.  @GlobDaSon  Ok I got what you're saying now. Well, the reason we have these genes is because of ancient populations from the Caucuses and Siberia. These are the same groups that gave "light" features to Europeans. So, it's not a separate mutation. (The groups I'm talking about are EHG, Eurasian Steppe, Anatolian Farmers). Yeah, I don't think we get it directly from Nordic people. For any Lebanese that has northern European admixture, this would be because of trade (the Vikings did reach the Levant, and then there's also the Varangian Guard). But for the most part, it's from our ancient ancestors.
    1
  31.  @rebeccabriggs2982  Nice. It's the opposite for me. Lebanese, small amount of northern European.
    1
  32.  @aidanfeeney8128  Thanks. I had read somewhere that those Vikings who didn't have naturally red hair were required by their clansmen to dye it. Yet when I look at Scandinavians today most of them aren't gingers.
    1
  33.  @MrOmegaRobloxIcon  Nope. Why?
    1
  34.  @RokasStulga  Though there is some evidence that the Phoenicians recruited some ancient Greeks. They collaborated for some time (and probably intermarried a bit, but this would have been minimal).
    1
  35.  @nosotrosloslobosestamosreg4115  The whitest Lebanese people are the Muslim ones actually.
    1
  36.  @ΑΝΑΣΤΑΣΊΑΜΟΙΡΑ  Dis gusting, ridic ulous comment. And false.
    1
  37.  @careytitan9097  No it is absolutely not. This is Lebanon we're talking about, which has always had these features, just not as frequent as in northern Europe. But it's still popular enough, it's in every family...the slave trade wouldn't be a sufficient cause for that.
    1
  38.  @careytitan9097  Blue eyes is ultimately as foreign to Lebanon as it is to western Europe. What is your point? In the end, these features have existed in the region for thousands of years, so we don't consider them foreign, just like western Europeans don't.
    1
  39.  @careytitan9097  Irrelevant. Because we did the same. Lebanon has snow and cold weather in the winter. But the point is that western europeans got it from invading migrants from the east (perhaps eastern europe, perhaps the Caucauses in West Asia--geneticists haven't determined it beyond doubt yet). But if you're from western europe, your ancestors got it from the outside, that's 100% fact.
    1
  40.  @ΑΝΑΣΤΑΣΊΑΜΟΙΡΑ  Sorry, but Greeks do in fact have some Phoenician and Canaanite dna. That's not Semitic, because Semitic is not a race, it's a language family. But it's in your blood, just like we also have some European DNA. Btw you guys are the least European-looking Europeans. Many of you are darker than us. So don't be arrogant.
    1
  41.  @neil3265  It's not less common in Lebanon than the European side of the Mediterranean, actually. Every Lebanese family has somebody with blonde hair. Blue eyes are probably less common, with brown, hazel and green being more popular.
    1
  42.  @ΑΝΑΣΤΑΣΊΑΜΟΙΡΑ  Semitic is a language family, not a race. No we're not the same but we do share some common ancestry (Greeks also have some Phoenician DNA from the Levant). If that bothers you then it's your problem, doesn't make a difference.
    1