Movatterモバイル変換

[0]ホーム
URL:

Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Advertisement

Nature Ecology & Evolution
  • Article
  • Published:

A genetic history of continuity and mobility in the Iron Age central Mediterranean

Nature Ecology & Evolutionvolume 7, pages1515–1524 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

The Iron Age was a dynamic period in central Mediterranean history, with the expansion of Greek and Phoenician colonies and the growth of Carthage into the dominant maritime power of the Mediterranean. These events were facilitated by the ease of long-distance travel following major advances in seafaring. We know from the archaeological record that trade goods and materials were moving across great distances in unprecedented quantities, but it is unclear how these patterns correlate with human mobility. Here, to investigate population mobility and interactions directly, we sequenced the genomes of 30 ancient individuals from coastal cities around the central Mediterranean, in Tunisia, Sardinia and central Italy. We observe a meaningful contribution of autochthonous populations, as well as highly heterogeneous ancestry including many individuals with non-local ancestries from other parts of the Mediterranean region. These results highlight both the role of local populations and the extreme interconnectedness of populations in the Iron Age Mediterranean. By studying these trans-Mediterranean neighbours together, we explore the complex interplay between local continuity and mobility that shaped the Iron Age societies of the central Mediterranean.

This is a preview of subscription content,access via your institution

Access options

Access through your institution

Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals

Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription

9,800 Yen / 30 days

cancel any time

Subscribe to this journal

Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles

￥14,900 per year

only ￥1,242 per issue

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to the full article PDF.

￥ 4,980

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Data overview and relevant geography and chronology.
Fig. 2: PCA of Bronze and Iron Age ancient genomes.
Fig. 3: Genetic overview of central Mediterranean populations during the Bronze and Iron Ages.
Fig. 4: qpWave analysis of Mediterranean populations.
Fig. 5: Visualization of qpWave clustering.

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

All tools and data needed to reproduce and evaluate the conclusions in this paper are presented in the main text and theSupplementary Information. Alignment files for the DNA sequences for all newly reported individual genomes are available at the European Nucleotide Archive (ENA) database under project accession numberPRJEB49419.

References

  1. López-Ruiz, C. & Doak, B. R.The Oxford Handbook of the Phoenician and Punic Mediterranean (Oxford Univ. Press, 2019).

  2. Quinn, J. C. & Vella, N. C.The Punic Mediterranean: Identities and Identification from Phoenician Settlement to Roman Rule (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2014).

  3. Turfa, J. M.The Etruscan World (Routledge, 2014).

  4. Benelli, E. inItaly and the West: Comparative Issues in Romanization (eds Keay, S. J. & Terrenato, N.) 7–16 (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2001).

  5. Broodbank, C.The Making of the Middle Sea: A History of the Mediterranean from the Beginning to the Emergence of the Classical World (Oxford Univ. Press, 2013).

  6. Fernandes, D. M. et al. The spread of steppe and Iranian-related ancestry in the islands of the western Mediterranean.Nat. Ecol. Evol.4, 334–345 (2020).

    Article PubMed PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Marcus, J. H. et al. Genetic history from the Middle Neolithic to present on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia.Nat. Commun.11, 939 (2020).

    Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Antonio, M. L. et al. Ancient Rome: a genetic crossroads of Europe and the Mediterranean.Science366, 708–714 (2019).

    Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  9. Posth, C. et al. The origin and legacy of the Etruscans through a 2000-year archeogenomic time transect.Sci. Adv.7, eabi7673 (2021).

    Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  10. Reitsema, L. J. et al. The diverse genetic origins of a Classical period Greek army.Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA119, e2205272119 (2022).

    Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  11. Matisoo-Smith, E. A. et al. A European mitochondrial haplotype identified in ancient Phoenician remains from Carthage, North Africa.PLoS ONE11, e0155046 (2016).

    Article PubMed PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  12. Saupe, T. et al. Ancient genomes reveal structural shifts after the arrival of steppe-related ancestry in the Italian Peninsula.Curr. Biol.31, 2576–2591.e12 (2021).

    Article CAS PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Haber, M. et al. A genetic history of the Near East from an aDNA time course sampling eight points in the past 4,000 years.Am. J. Hum. Genet.107, 149–157 (2020).

    Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  14. Haber, M. et al. Continuity and admixture in the last five millennia of levantine history from ancient Canaanite and present-day Lebanese genome sequences.Am. J. Hum. Genet.101, 274–282 (2017).

    Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  15. Olalde, I. et al. The genomic history of the Iberian Peninsula over the past 8000 years.Science363, 1230–1234 (2019).

    Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  16. Zalloua, P. et al. Ancient DNA of Phoenician remains indicates discontinuity in the settlement history of Ibiza.Sci. Rep.8, 17567–17515 (2018).

    Article PubMed PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  17. Schuenemann, V. J. et al. Ancient Egyptian mummy genomes suggest an increase of Sub-Saharan African ancestry in post-Roman periods.Nat. Commun.8, 15694 (2017).

    Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  18. Villalba-Mouco, V. et al. Genomic transformation and social organization during the Copper Age–Bronze Age transition in southern Iberia.Sci. Adv.7, eabi7038 (2021).

    Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  19. Feldman, M. et al. Ancient DNA sheds light on the genetic origins of early Iron Age Philistines.Sci. Adv.5, eaax0061 (2019).

    Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  20. Agranat-Tamir, L. et al. The genomic history of the Bronze Age Southern Levant.Cell181, 1146–1157.e11 (2020).

    Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  21. Fregel, R. et al. Ancient genomes from North Africa evidence prehistoric migrations to the Maghreb from both the Levant and Europe.Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA115, 6774–6779 (2018).

    Article PubMed PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  22. Patterson, N., Price, A. L. & Reich, D. Population structure and eigenanalysis.PLoS Genet.2, e190 (2006).

    Article PubMed PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  23. Patterson, N. et al. Ancient admixture in human history.Genetics192, 1065–1093 (2012).

    Article PubMed PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  24. Harney, É., Patterson, N., Reich, D. & Wakeley, J. Assessing the performance of qpAdm: a statistical tool for studying population admixture.Genetics217, iyaa045 (2021).

  25. Fantar, M. H. inFenicios y Territorio: Actas del II Seminario (ed. Prats, A. G.) 71–88 (Instituto Alicantino de Cultura Juan Gil-Albert Alfredo, 2000).

  26. Fantar, M. H. Le cavalier marin de Kerkouane.Africa1, 19–32 (1988).

    Google Scholar 

  27. Fantar, M. H.Kerkouane: Cité Punique du Cap Bon (Tunisie) (Institut National d’Archéologie et d’Art, 1984).

  28. Miles, R.Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Mediterranean Civilization (Allen Lane, 2010).

  29. Fantar, M. Espaces culturels à Kerkouane.C. R. Acad. Sci. Inscr. Belles Lett.147, 817–824 (2003).

    Google Scholar 

  30. Fantar, M. H.Kerkouane: Une Cité Punique au Cap-Bon (Institut national d'archéologie et d'art, 1987).

  31. Salas, A. et al. The making of the African mtDNA landscape.Am. J. Hum. Genet.71, 1082–1111 (2002).

    Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  32. Lazaridis, I. et al. Genetic origins of the minoans and mycenaeans.Nature548, 214–218 (2017).

    Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  33. Loogväli, E.-L. et al. Disuniting uniformity: a pied cladistic canvas of mtDNA haplogroup H in Eurasia.Mol. Biol. Evol.21, 2012–2021 (2004).

    Article PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. Skourtanioti, E. et al. Ancient DNA reveals admixture history and endogamy in the prehistoric Aegean.Nat. Ecol. Evol.7, 290–303 (2023).

    PubMed PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  35. Hunter, V. Review ofFamilies in Classical and Hellenistic Greece: Representations and Realities by Pomeroy, S. B.Phoenix 52, 395–398 (1998).

  36. Gallego Llorente, M. et al. Ancient Ethiopian genome reveals extensive Eurasian admixture in eastern Africa.Science350, 820–822 (2015).

    Article CAS PubMed  Google Scholar 

  37. Fregel, R. et al. Mitogenomes illuminate the origin and migration patterns of the indigenous people of the Canary Islands.PLoS ONE14, e0209125 (2019).

    Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  38. Arauna, L. R. et al. Recent historical migrations have shaped the gene pool of Arabs and Berbers in North Africa.Mol. Biol. Evol.34, 318–329 (2017).

    CAS PubMed  Google Scholar 

  39. Matisoo-Smith, E. et al. Ancient mitogenomes of Phoenicians from Sardinia and Lebanon: a story of settlement, integration, and female mobility.PLoS ONE13, e0190169 (2018).

    Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  40. Modi, A. et al. Genetic structure and differentiation from early Bronze Age in the Mediterranean island of Sicily: insights from ancient mitochondrial genomes.Front. Genet.13, 945227 (2022).

    Article PubMed PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  41. Modi, A. et al. The mitogenome portrait of Umbria in Central Italy as depicted by contemporary inhabitants and pre-Roman remains.Sci. Rep.10, 10700 (2020).

    Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  42. Aneli, S. et al. The genetic origin of Daunians and the pan-Mediterranean southern Italian Iron Age context.Mol. Biol. Evol.39, msac014 (2022).

    Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  43. Serventi, P. et al. Iron Age Italic population genetics: the Piceni from Novilara (8th–7th century BC).Ann. Hum. Biol.45, 34–43 (2018).

    Article PubMed  Google Scholar 

  44. Sarno, S. et al. Insights into Punic genetic signatures in the southern necropolis of Tharros (Sardinia).Ann. Hum. Biol.48, 247–259 (2021).

    Article PubMed  Google Scholar 

  45. Moorjani, P. et al. The history of African gene flow into Southern Europeans, Levantines, and Jews.PLoS Genet.7, e1001373 (2011).

    Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  46. Koptekin, D. et al. Spatial and temporal heterogeneity in human mobility patterns in Holocene Southwest Asia and the East Mediterranean.Curr. Biol.33, 41–57.e15 (2023).

    Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  47. Antonio, M. L. et al. Stable population structure in Europe since the Iron Age, despite high mobility. Preprint atbioRxivhttps://doi.org/10.1101/2022.05.15.491973 (2022).

  48. Botigué, L. R. et al. Gene flow from North Africa contributes to differential human genetic diversity in southern Europe.Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA110, 11791–11796 (2013).

    Article PubMed PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  49. Fentress, E. inThe Hellenistic West: Rethinking the Ancient Mediterranean (eds Prag, J. & Quinn, J.) 157–178 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2013).

  50. Sereno, P. C. et al. Lakeside cemeteries in the Sahara: 5000 years of holocene population and environmental change.PLoS ONE3, e2995 (2008).

    Article PubMed PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  51. Sommer, M. inMoney, Trade and Trade Routes in Pre-Islamic North Africa (eds Dowler, A. & Galvin, E. R.) 61–64 (British Museum, 2011).

  52. Hérodote.Textes relatifs à l’histoire de l’Afrique du Nord. Hérodote [L. IV, ch. 168–199; l. II, ch. 31–33; l. IV, ch. 42–43], par Stéphane Gsell. [Texte, traduction, commentaire. Fragments d’Hécatée relatifs à la Libye.] (A. Jourdan, 1915).

  53. Hodos, T. Colonial engagements in the global Mediterranean Iron Age.Camb. Archaeol. J.19, 221–241 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  54. Whittaker, C. R. inImperialism in the Ancient World:The Cambridge University Research Seminar in Ancient History (eds Garnsey, P. & Whittaker, C.) 59–90 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1979).

  55. Freund, K. P. A long-term perspective on the exploitation of Lipari obsidian in central Mediterranean prehistory.Quat. Int.468, 109–120 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  56. Pinhasi, R., Fernandes, D. M., Sirak, K. & Cheronet, O. Isolating the human cochlea to generate bone powder for ancient DNA analysis.Nat. Protoc.14, 1194–1205 (2019).

    Article CAS PubMed  Google Scholar 

  57. Pinhasi, R. et al. Optimal ancient DNA yields from the inner ear part of the human petrous bone.PLoS ONE10, e0129102 (2015).

    Article PubMed PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  58. Meyer, M. & Kircher, M. Illumina sequencing library preparation for highly multiplexed target capture and sequencing.Cold Spring Harb. Protoc.2010, pdb.prot5448 (2010).

    Article PubMed  Google Scholar 

  59. Renaud, G., Slon, V., Duggan, A. T. & Kelso, J. Schmutzi: estimation of contamination and endogenous mitochondrial consensus calling for ancient DNA.Genome Biol.16, 224 (2015).

    Article PubMed PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  60. Allen Ancient DNA Resource: Downloadable Genotypes of Present-day and Ancient DNA Data (David Reich Lab, 2021);https://reich.hms.harvard.edu/allen-ancient-dna-resource-aadr-downloadable-genotypes-present-day-and-ancient-dna-data (2021).

  61. Mallick, S. et al. The Allen Ancient DNA Resource (AADR): a curated compendium of ancient human genomes. Preprint atbioRxivhttps://doi.org/10.1101/2023.04.06.535797 (2023).

  62. Kuhn, M., Manuel, J., Jakobsson, M. & Günther, T. Estimating genetic kin relationships in prehistoric populations.PLoS ONE13, e0195491 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  63. Maier, R. & Patterson, N. admixtools2 (Github, 2022).

  64. ESRI. World Basemap v2.World Topographic Map (ArcGIS Online, 2017);https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=7dc6cea0b1764a1f9af2e679f642f0f5

Download references

Acknowledgements

This project was partially supported by the Stanford Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellowship (H.M.M.) and grants from the Stanford Archaeology Centre (H.M.M.), the Europe Center Austria Exchange Program (H.M.M.) and the Stanford Anthropology Department (H.M.M.), a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (M.A.), the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) M3108-G (S.S.), the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (J.K.P.), a grant from the National Institutes of Health RO1 HG011432 (C.L.W.), the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (A.C., M.L., F.C., F.L.P., F.G.), the Istituto Per l’Oriente CA Nallino (A.C., M.L., F.C., F.L.P., F.G.), and a Ministro dell’Istruzione, Università e Ricerca (MIUR) project grant via the International Association for the Mediterranean and Oriental Studies (A.C., M.L., F.C., F.L.P., F.G.). We thank all members of the Pritchard and Pinhasi labs for their thoughtful and valuable feedback; P. W. Faber and the University of Chicago Genomics Facility for providing sequencing services for the ancient genomes reported here.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Ron Pinhasi

    Present address: Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

  2. Hannah M. Moots

    Present address: Department of Human Genetics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

  3. Victoria Oberreiter, Brina Zagorc & Olivia Cheronet

    Present address: Human Evolution and Archaeological Sciences, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

  4. These authors contributed equally: Margaret Antonio, Susanna Sawyer, Jeffrey P. Spence, Victoria Oberreiter, Clemens L. Weiß, Michaela Lucci, Yahia Mehdi Seddik Cherifi.

  5. These authors jointly supervised this work: Ziyue Gao, Mounir Fantar, Alfredo Coppa, Jonathan K. Pritchard, Ron Pinhasi.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stanford Archaeology Center, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Hannah M. Moots

  2. Department of Anthropology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Hannah M. Moots

  3. Biomedical Informatics Program, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Margaret Antonio

  4. Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Susanna Sawyer, Victoria Oberreiter, Yahia Mehdi Seddik Cherifi, Elisa Praxmeier, Brina Zagorc, Olivia Cheronet, Lea Demetz & Daniel Fernandes

  5. Human Evolution and Archaeological Sciences, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Susanna Sawyer

  6. Department of Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Jeffrey P. Spence, Clemens L. Weiß & Jonathan K. Pritchard

  7. Dipartimento di Biologia Ambientale, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy

    Michaela Lucci, Francesco La Pastina & Francesco Genchi

  8. Cardiolo-Oncology Research Collaborative Group (CORCG), Faculty of Medicine, Benyoucef Benkhedda University, Algiers, Algeria

    Yahia Mehdi Seddik Cherifi

  9. Molecular Pathology, University Paul Sabatier Toulouse III, Toulouse, France

    Yahia Mehdi Seddik Cherifi

  10. Department of Oriental Studies, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Francesco Genchi

  11. Department of History and Art History, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands

    Kadir T. Özdoğan

  12. LBEIG, Population Genetics and Conservation Unit, Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology–Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Sciences and Technology Houari Boumediene, Algiers, Algeria

    Selma Amrani

  13. Museo delle Civiltà, Italian Ministry of Culture, Rome, Italy

    Francesca Candilio

  14. Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Tarquinia, Direzione Generale Musei Lazio, Rome, Italy

    Daniela De Angelis

  15. Soprintendenza Archeologia, belle arti e paesaggio per le province di Sassari e Nuoro, Sassari, Italy

    Gabriella Gasperetti

  16. CIAS, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Daniel Fernandes

  17. Department of Genetics, University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Ziyue Gao

  18. Département des Monuments et des Sites Antiques–Institut National du Patrimoine INP, Tunis, Tunisia

    Mounir Fantar

  19. Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Alfredo Coppa

  20. Dipartimento di Storia Antropologia Religioni Arte Spettacolo, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy

    Alfredo Coppa

  21. Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Jonathan K. Pritchard

  22. Department of Human Genetics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Ron Pinhasi

Authors
  1. Hannah M. Moots
  2. Margaret Antonio
  3. Susanna Sawyer
  4. Jeffrey P. Spence
  5. Victoria Oberreiter
  6. Clemens L. Weiß
  7. Michaela Lucci
  8. Yahia Mehdi Seddik Cherifi
  9. Francesco La Pastina
  10. Francesco Genchi
  11. Elisa Praxmeier
  12. Brina Zagorc
  13. Olivia Cheronet
  14. Kadir T. Özdoğan
  15. Lea Demetz
  16. Selma Amrani
  17. Francesca Candilio
  18. Daniela De Angelis
  19. Gabriella Gasperetti
  20. Daniel Fernandes
  21. Ziyue Gao
  22. Mounir Fantar
  23. Alfredo Coppa
  24. Jonathan K. Pritchard
  25. Ron Pinhasi

Contributions

R.P., J.K.P, A.C. and M.F. designed research; R.P., S.S., V.O., E.P., O.C., K.T.O., L.D., H.M.M. and D.F. performed and supervised laboratory work; A.C. and M.F. designed the collection strategy for archaeological material; M.F., A.C., M.L., F.L.P., F.G., F.C., D.D.A., G.G., H.M.M., Y.M.S.C. and S.A. assembled skeletal material and provided archaeological background; H.M.M., M.A., S.S., J.P.S., V.O., C.L.W., E.P., B.Z. and Z.G. curated and analysed data with input from J.K.P., R.P., A.C., D.F. and Y.M.S.C.; H.M.M., J.K.P., R.P., J.P.S., M.A., S.S., C.L.W., Y.M.S.C. and Z.G. wrote the paper with input from all collaborators.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence toJonathan K. Pritchard orRon Pinhasi.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Peer review

Peer review information

Nature Ecology & Evolution thanks Rosa Fregel, Josephine Crawley Quinn and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–15, Discussion/Text, Table 1, and captions for Datasets 1–5.

Supplementary Data 1

Newly reported ancient individuals.

Supplementary Data 2

Ancient individual genomes used in analyses.

Supplementary Data 3

AMS dating and isotope analysis results.

Supplementary Data 4

Admixture and cladistic analysis using qpAdm and qpWave.

Supplementary Data 5

Admixture analysis using qpAdm, including Levantine source populations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Moots, H.M., Antonio, M., Sawyer, S.et al. A genetic history of continuity and mobility in the Iron Age central Mediterranean.Nat Ecol Evol7, 1515–1524 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02143-4

Download citation

This article is cited by

Access through your institution
Buy or subscribe

Advertisement

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for theNature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox.Sign up for Nature Briefing
[8]ページ先頭
©2009-2026 Movatter.jp