The people residing in the fertile crescent weren't ever smart by Northern European standards
Sure, I'm convinced that you have data on that from, say 1000 AD? 2000BC? You're making assertions based on nothing. Inbreeding has been common in various European areas as well, royal families, even the neanderthals. There's no reason to think that ancient Sumerian culture did things similarly to today in that regard. An no, coming up with nuclear physics does not really indicate any intrinsic superior intelligence of the whole population, when you build on what has been discovered before. Besides, many of the people who did some of the greatest contributions to just that have genetic markers from the Middle-East. Jews still do.
The first calculations of the size of the earth did not come from Northern Europe, it came from Southern Europe/Middle-East. Northern Europeans did not contribute that much until the last 500 years or so. If we checked overall contributions around 1000 AD we would probably agree with the Chinese, who thought themselves vastly superior to everyone else. It has everything to do with favorable environment, culture, trade connections vs isolation, and picking up on what was invented before.
You got a lot of these things upside down. Southern Europeans (Italy, Greece) have a lot in common with Middle-Eastern genes. Greece and Turkey are genetically almost indistinguishable, and always have been (Greece invaded, Turkey invaded, back and forth). Northern Europe was lagging behind so long because they hadn't come up with many things that spread from the M-E. When those ideas arrived, you had a population explosion, Age of Exploration (because Europe is in an excellent position with long coasts, bringing even more ideas in) followed by new inventions coming from Northern Europe itself. It proves nothing about the superiority of Northern European genes, since other regions have gone through similar things earlier. Any snapshot of time would show a different people being "in charge" including Arabs at one point.
Greece and Turkey are genetically almost indistinguishable, and always have been (Greece invaded, Turkey invaded, back and forth)
That is extremely untrue. Greeks are more genetically similar to Southern Italians and Sicilians. Turks are descended from Asiatic steppe people. There was some admixture during various invasions, but not enough to make the two groups even close to being "indistinguishable".
Sure, I'm convinced that you have data on that from, say 1000 AD? 2000BC? You're making assertions based on nothing. Inbreeding has been common in various European areas as well, royal families, even the neanderthals. There's no reason to think that ancient Sumerian culture did things similarly to today in that regard. An no, coming up with nuclear physics does not really indicate any intrinsic superior intelligence of the whole population, when you build on what has been discovered before. Besides, many of the people who did some of the greatest contributions to just that have genetic markers from the Middle-East. Jews still do.
The first calculations of the size of the earth did not come from Northern Europe, it came from Southern Europe/Middle-East. Northern Europeans did not contribute that much until the last 500 years or so. If we checked overall contributions around 1000 AD we would probably agree with the Chinese, who thought themselves vastly superior to everyone else. It has everything to do with favorable environment, culture, trade connections vs isolation, and picking up on what was invented before.
You got a lot of these things upside down. Southern Europeans (Italy, Greece) have a lot in common with Middle-Eastern genes. Greece and Turkey are genetically almost indistinguishable, and always have been (Greece invaded, Turkey invaded, back and forth). Northern Europe was lagging behind so long because they hadn't come up with many things that spread from the M-E. When those ideas arrived, you had a population explosion, Age of Exploration (because Europe is in an excellent position with long coasts, bringing even more ideas in) followed by new inventions coming from Northern Europe itself. It proves nothing about the superiority of Northern European genes, since other regions have gone through similar things earlier. Any snapshot of time would show a different people being "in charge" including Arabs at one point.
That is extremely untrue. Greeks are more genetically similar to Southern Italians and Sicilians. Turks are descended from Asiatic steppe people. There was some admixture during various invasions, but not enough to make the two groups even close to being "indistinguishable".
Modern Greeks are also still very similar genetically to their Mycenaean ancestors, who lived before Turks were anywhere near Anatolia.