Hitler regarded northern Italians to be strongly Aryan,[113] but not southern Italians.[114] He even said that the Ahnenerbe, an archaeological organization associated with the SS, asserted that archaeological evidence proved the presence of Nordic-Germanic peoples in the region of South Tyrol in the Neolithic era that it claimed proved the significance of ancient Nordic-Germanic influence on northern Italy.[115] The NSDAP regime regarded the ancient Romans to have been largely a people of the Mediterranean race; however, they claimed that the Roman ruling classes were Nordic, descended from Aryan conquerors from the North; and that this Nordic Aryan minority was responsible for the rise of Roman civilization.[116] The National Socialists viewed the downfall of the Roman Empire as being the result of the deterioration of the purity of the Nordic Aryan ruling class through its intermixing with the inferior Mediterranean types that led to the empire's decay.[116] In addition, racial intermixing in the population in general was also blamed for Rome's downfall, claiming that Italians were a hybrid of races, including black African races.