Newsweek reports that DNA analysis of remains compared to modern populations show that some Crusaders didn’t just wage war in the Holy Land, but also mixed genetically. The study, reported in the American Journal of Human Genetics, notes that “armies intermixed with people living in the Near East, had families, and recruited them to their cause. But despite this intermixing, their genetic impact did not last in the long-term.”
It appears that there is some Crusader y-chromosome lineage evident in Lebanese populations today, but other than that the modern Lebanese genetic makeup does not indicate a significant impacted. More study will be necessary to draw broad conclusions, but it’s interesting to know that DNA changes may reflect part of documented history!
