What ethnicity were the ancient spartans?

Question

I don't know if that's the right word. But spartans were doric, so were they more olive complected or what? How might they have looked?

I am interested in the anthropologic details, not your political or emotional slants about science.

The reasons I am curious about this is that Xenophon mentions or refers to the physique of the spartans in some of his writings. So, I thought that they must have been different somehow. How were the dorics different from the rest of the Hellenes? Were the dorics europeans originally from say the macedonia areas, or did they come from asia minor or egypt? Ethnicity has to do with science, not (as some of you would like to believe) some hidden agenda.

Answer 1

Dorian is a branch of Indo-Europen family, which could look as diverse as the Slavs, or the modren Greeks. I think Spartans would look close to how the were represented im the movie 300. Neither too dark, nor too light skinned.

Answer 2

All paintings of ancient Spartans and Greeks in general portray them as the olive skinned, dark haired people that you still see in the Mani region of the Peloponese and Sicily.

Ancient Greeks settled Ancient Greece in two waves. The first was the sea faring people of Pheonician stock, who were originally of Mesopotamian stock, who were originally of ancient Persian stock, who were originally of the original Indo-Aryan stock of India... Hence the dark looking appearances.

The second wave came from the Dorians, who were also originally of an ancient Persian stock but who migrated along the Caucasus through what we now know as Georgia and Turkey, crossed the straights and seeped into and settled into Ancient Greece. These people were more related to Scythians in appearance and customs, and also dark complexioned.

The "whitening" of the modern Greek nation came about through the Byzantine empire times, bringing with it a huge influx of Alpine and Nordic genotypes. The Eurocentric hijacking of Greek history that swept through Europe during the Middle Ages enlightenment period, and further pushed by the British empire and its anglosphere, helped to create a narrative that ancient Greeks were blond and blue eyed. The reality was that ancient Greeks were dark haired (black to brunette) and olive skinned for the most part, probably with differing degrees of lighter to darker skin color.

Answer 3

My grandfather was a native Spartan--admittedly centuries later than the ancient warriors. However, he had a bracheocephalic (round) skull, was stocky, short, and olive complexioned. I and my children have inherited his stature and skull shape--and that shape is one of the best clues outside of DNA to determining racial origin. From what I've been able to find, the Spartans differed in appearance from the dolichocephalic skulled Athenians who likely came from a different racial stock, suggesting that while the Spartan and Athenian cultures had much in common, they derived from different settlements of different racial stocks. The Spartans are decidedly more Semitic in appearance, suggesting an original migration from the eastern Mediterranean or Asia.

Answer 4

Greeks.... theirs was a warring tribe so they pretty much looked like warriors.. may be tall, strong but yes looks are decpetive. They only lived their lives to fight and wage wars, there was nothing to them apart from that. The Athenians were much better off. They were strong but also creative, artistic...
In Athens they had adopted a holistic approach to life... Spartan view world in a very monotonous manner.

Answer 5

Spartans are Greek. That's why Sparta is a GREEK city-state. However, they are known as Dorian Greek though because there are three other tribes of Greek and Dorian is one of the four Greek tribes.

Answer 6

Sparta was part of ancient Greece. They were very athletic, with larger builds. Other than that, they looked like the typical Greek person- darker skin, eyes and hair.

Answer 7

From what I've read, the Dorians derive from around Macedonia.
My guess is that they were of the same racial type as Alexander
and his army, whatever type that is.

Answer 8

They were Spartan for crying out loud!

Now I don't want to tar you with any particular brush but it strikes me as particularly pointless to talk about "ethnicity" all the time as our North American cousins appear inclined to. Two things:

- Surely we have seen so much conflict and suffering caused by people talking all the time about their "ethnicity" rather than their shared values, culture and history.

- WTF is "ethnicity" anyway? How do you define someone as "olive complected" - my wife who's family have lived in the same part of southern england for seven generations would certainly be considered "caucasian" or "white" yet her skin is a darker shade than at least two friends of mine who would be considered "black" or "african". My own beautiful nose is broader than many people who would be considered "black" and my tight curly hair could mark me out as having that "ethnicity", while my pale white, nearly blue skin surely mark me out as the nordic viking I so surely am.

I don't want to end up getting reported but to paraphrase my dear friend Ollie
"I hate using words like wanker in this forum, but with questions like these I don't have any fkn choice".

Why don't you get back to asking whether god loves texas more than florida and count the number of angels on the head of a pin.