The report covers the Greek-anchored Balkan and Eastern Mediterranean world: Greece, Cyprus, Türkiye (the Aegean coast and inland Anatolia), Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, Slovenia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Malta.
We drew the scope this way to anchor everything on Greece — which gives us the largest single-country share of the panel — and then extend across the genetically and culturally linked Balkan arc and the Aegean-Anatolian Mediterranean. Each country earns its place for a specific scientific reason:
Greece (the anchor). Every quality-passing Greek sample is kept. It covers Mainland Early Neolithic, Peloponnese Neolithic, Cycladic Early Bronze Age, Cretan Minoan, Mycenaean Late Bronze Age, Iron Age, Classical, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, and Medieval populations.
Türkiye (Aegean coast and inland Anatolia). Critical for the Anatolian Neolithic farmer source (Marmara, Barcın), Central Anatolian Pre-Pottery Neolithic (Boncuklu, Musular), Chalcolithic Arslantepe, Late Bronze Age Hatay/Alalakh, and Byzantine and Ottoman-era communities.
Croatia (eastern Adriatic). Covers Early Neolithic (Impresso), Middle/Late Neolithic, Early Bronze Age, Iron Age, and — heavily — Late Antiquity and Early Medieval Adriatic burials.
Serbia. Iron Gates Mesolithic foragers (Lepenski Vir, Vlasac), Vinča Neolithic, Vučedol, Bronze Age, and medieval populations.
Bulgaria. The Initial Upper Palaeolithic at Bacho Kiro Cave (~43,000 BP — among the earliest modern humans in Europe), Eneolithic Varna-horizon societies, Thracian Iron Age, Roman Moesia, and medieval populations.
Romania. Iron Gates Mesolithic, Cucuteni-Trypillia / Bodrogkeresztur Chalcolithic, Bronze Age, Dacian Iron Age, Roman Dacia, and medieval populations.
Albania. Korça Basin Neolithic, Çinamak Early Bronze and Iron Age, Iron Age Apollonia, Roman, Medieval Barç, and Post-Medieval.
Slovenia. Early Iron Age hillfort communities, Bronze Age, and Late Antiquity.
Montenegro. Bronze Age through Roman Doclea and medieval eastern Adriatic populations.
North Macedonia. Neolithic Amzabegovo, Bronze and Iron Age, Classical/Hellenistic, and Medieval.
Cyprus. Pre-Pottery Neolithic Khirokitia and Late Bronze Age Cypriot communities — sparse, but culturally central for the Greek Cypriot anchor.
Bosnia and Herzegovina. Just one quality-passing medieval sample exists in the source database, so we interpret Bosnian ancestry mainly through the overlapping Croatian and Serbian maps (see Question 9).
Malta. Early Bronze Age Tarxien-phase individuals — small, but kept for Mediterranean context.