For the first time ever, researchers have sequenced the complete mitochondrial genome of a 2,500-year-old Phoenician. Dubbed the "Young Man of Byrsa," the genome was sequenced using DNA from remains from Carthage, North Africa and suggests maternal ancestry located on the North Mediterranean coast, most likely on the Iberian Peninsula.
The new data is the earliest known evidence of the European mitochondrial haplogroup U5b2cl in North Africa. Haplotypes are genetic groups that individuals inherit from a parent.
"U5b2cl is considered to be one of the most ancient haplogroups in Europe and is associated with hunter-gatherer populations there," said Lisa Matisoo-Smith from New Zealand's University of Otago and lead author of the study. "It is remarkably rare in modern populations today, found in Europe at levels of less than 1 percent."
"Interestingly, our analysis showed that Ariche's mitochondrial genetic makeup most closely matches that of the sequence of a particular modern day individual from Portugal," she added.
Phoenicians are believed to have originated from what is now Lebanon. However, they also created settlements and trading posts across the Mediterranean and west to the Iberian Peninsula. After establishing themselves in the city of Carthage in Tunisia, Phoenician colonists from Lebanon used the port for trade.
During the course of the study, the team examined the mitochondrial DNA of 47 modern Lebanese people and found that none were of the U5b2cl haplogroup.
A previous Nature Communications study revealed that U5b2cl was present in two ancient hunter-gatherers in an archaeological site in northwestern Spain, which led to Matisoo-Smith to consider the possibility that Phoenicians made their way to Carthage due to Punic and Phoenician trading.
"While a wave of farming peoples from the Near East replaced these hunter-gatherers, some of their lineages may have persisted longer in the far south of the Iberian peninsula and on off-shore islands and were then transported to the melting pot of Carthage in North Africa via Phoenician and Punic trade networks," she said.
Over the course of history, Phoenician culture and trade has played a large part in shaping Western civilization, including the introduction of the first alphabetic writing system.
"However, we still know little about the Phoenicians themselves, except for the likely biased accounts by their Roman and Greek rivals - hopefully our findings and other continuing research will cast further light on the origins and impact of Phoenician peoples and their culture," Matisoo-Smith said.
The findings were published May 25 in the journal PLOS ONE.
