Nature

, volume 643 , issue 8070 , pages 139-147

Punic people were genetically diverse with almost no Levantine ancestors

Harald Ringbauer ^{1, 2, 3}

Ayelet Salman Minkov ^{4, 5}

Dalit Regev ⁶

Iñigo Olalde ^{1, 7, 8}

Tomer Peled ⁴

Luca Sineo ⁹

Gioacchino Falsone ¹⁰

Peter van Dommelen ¹¹

Alissa Mittnik ^{1, 2, 3}

Iosif Lazaridis ^{1, 12}

Davide Pettener ¹³

Maria Bofill ¹⁴

Ana Mezquida ¹⁴

Benjamí Costa ¹⁴

Helena Jiménez ¹⁴

Patricia Smith ¹⁵

Stefania Vai ¹⁶

Alessandra Modi ¹⁶

Arie Shaus ^{1, 17, 18}

Kim Callan ^{12, 19}

Elizabeth Curtis ^{12, 19}

Aisling Kearns ¹²

Ann P. Lawson ^{12, 19}

Matthew Mah ^{12, 19, 20}

Adam Micco ¹²

Jonas Oppenheimer ^{12, 19}

Lijun Qiu ^{12, 19}

Kristin Stewardson ^{12, 19}

J Noah Workman ¹²

Nicholas Márquez Grant ²¹

Antonio M Saez Romero ²²

María Luisa Lavado Florido ²³

Juan Manuel Jiménez Arenas ²⁴

Isidro Jorge Toro Moyano ²⁵

Enrique Viguera ²⁶

José Suárez Padilla ²⁶

Sonia López Chamizo ²⁶

Tomàs Marquès-Bonet ^{27, 28, 29, 30}

Esther Lizano ^{31, 32, 33}

Alicia Rodero Riaza ³⁴

Francesca Olivieri ³⁵

Pamela Toti ³⁶

Valentina Giuliana ³⁷

Alon Barash ³⁸

Liran Carmel ³⁹

E. Boaretto ⁴⁰

Marina Faerman ⁴¹

Michaela Lucci ⁴²

Francesco La Pastina ^{9, 10, 42}

Alessia Nava ⁴³

Francesco Genchi ⁴⁴

Carla Del Vais ⁴⁵

Gabriele Lauria ⁹

Francesca Meli ¹⁰

Paola Sconzo ¹⁰

Giulio Catalano ⁹

Elisabetta Cilli ⁴⁶

Anna Chiara Fariselli ⁴⁶

Francesco Fontani ^{2, 3, 46}

Donata Luiselli ⁴⁶

Brendan J. Culleton ⁴⁷

Swapan Mallick ^{12, 19, 20}

Nadin Rohland ^{1, 12, 20}

Lorenzo Nigro ⁴⁸

Alfredo Coppa ^{49, 50, 51}

David Caramelli ¹⁶

Ron Pinhasi ^{49, 52}

Carles Lalueza-Fox ^{27, 53}

Ilan Gronau ⁴

David L. Reich ^{1, 2, 12, 19, 20}

Hide authors affiliations Show authors affiliations: 53 affiliations

Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA |

Max Planck Harvard Research Center for the Archaeoscience of the Ancient Mediterranean (MHAAM), Leipzig, Germany |

Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany |

⁴

Efi Arazi School of Computer Science, Reichman University, Herzliya, Israel |

⁵

Department of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis, USA |

⁶

Israel Antiquities Authority, Jerusalem, Israel |

⁷

BIOMICs Research Group, Department of Zoology and Animal Cell Biology, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain |

⁸

Ikerbasque—Basque Foundation of Science, Bilbao, Spain |

⁹

Dept. STEBICEF, Laboratory of Anthropology, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy |

¹⁰

Dept. Culture e Società, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy |

¹¹

Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, Brown University, Providence, USA |

¹²

Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA |

¹³

University of Bologna, bologna, Italy |

¹⁴

Archaeological Museum of Ibiza and Formentera, Eivissa, Spain |

¹⁵

Faculties of Medicine and Dental Medicine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel |

¹⁶

Department of Biology, University of Florence, Florence, Italy |

¹⁷

Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel |

¹⁸

Department of Data Science, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, USA |

¹⁹

Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA

Harvard University

Howard Hughes Medical Institute

²⁰

Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, USA |

²¹

Cranfield Forensic Institute, Cranfield University, Bedford, UK |

²²

Universidad de Sevilla, Seville, Spain |

²³

Archaeologist, independent researcher, Seville, Spain |

²⁴

Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain |

²⁵

Museo Arqueológico de Granada, Granada, Spain |

²⁶

Universidad de Málaga, Málaga, Spain |

²⁷

Institute of Evolutionary Biology (UPF-CSIC), PRBB, Barcelona, Spain

Barcelona Biomedical Research Park

Institut de Biologia Evolutiva

²⁸

Catalan Institution of Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain |

²⁹

CNAG, Centro Nacional de Analisis Genomico, Barcelona, Spain |

³⁰

Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

Autonomous University of Barcelona

Catalan Institute of Palaeontology Miquel Crusafont

³¹

Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (ICP-CERCA), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

Autonomous University of Barcelona

Catalan Institute of Palaeontology Miquel Crusafont

³²

Unidad de Paleobiología, ICP-CERCA, Unidad Asociada al CSIC por el IBE UPF-CSIC, Barcelona, Spain |

³³

Departament de Medicina i Ciències de la Vida, Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (CSIC-UPF), Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain |

³⁴

Museo Arqueológico Nacional Madrid, Madrid, Spain |

³⁵

Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Palermo, Italy |

³⁶

The Giuseppe Whitaker Foundation, Motya, Italy |

³⁷

University of Palermo, Department of Archaeology, Palermo, Italy |

³⁸

Bar Ilan University, The Azrieli Faculty of Medicine, Safed, Israel |

³⁹

Department of Genetics, The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel |

⁴⁰

Weizmann Institute of Science, Scientific Archaeology Unit, D-REAMS Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory, Rehovot, Israel |

⁴¹

The National Natural History Collections, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel |

⁴²

Department of Environmental Biology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy |

⁴³

Department of Odontostomatological and Maxillofacial Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy |

⁴⁴

Italian Institute of Oriental Studies, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy |

⁴⁵

Department of Literature, Languages and Cultural Heritage, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy |

⁴⁶

Department of Cultural Heritage, University of Bologna, Ravenna, Italy |

⁴⁷

Institute of Energy and the Environment, Penn State University, University Park, USA |

⁴⁸

Department of Ancient World Studies, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy |

⁴⁹

Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria |

⁵⁰

Department of History, Anthropology, Religion, Arts and Performing Arts, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy |

⁵¹

Department of Law and Digital Society, Unitelma Sapienza, Rome, Italy |

⁵²

Human Evolution and Archaeological Sciences - HEAS, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria |

⁵³

Natural Sciences Museum of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain |

Publication type: Journal Article

Publication date: 2025-04-23

Springer Nature

Nature

scimago Q1

wos Q1

SJR: 18.288

CiteScore: 78.1

Impact factor: 48.5

ISSN: 00280836, 14764687

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08913-3

Copy DOI

Abstract

The maritime Phoenician civilization from the Levant transformed the entire Mediterranean during the first millennium bce1–3. However, the extent of human movement between the Levantine Phoenician homeland and Phoenician–Punic settlements in the central and western Mediterranean has been unclear in the absence of comprehensive ancient DNA studies. Here, we generated genome-wide data for 210 individuals, including 196 from 14 sites traditionally identified as Phoenician and Punic in the Levant, North Africa, Iberia, Sicily, Sardinia and Ibiza, and an early Iron Age individual from Algeria. Levantine Phoenicians made little genetic contribution to Punic settlements in the central and western Mediterranean between the sixth and second centuries bce, despite abundant archaeological evidence of cultural, historical, linguistic and religious links4. Instead, these inheritors of Levantine Phoenician culture derived most of their ancestry from a genetic profile similar to that of Sicily and the Aegean. Much of the remaining ancestry originated from North Africa, reflecting the growing influence of Carthage5. However, this was a minority contributor of ancestry in all of the sampled sites, including in Carthage itself. Different Punic sites across the central and western Mediterranean show similar patterns of high genetic diversity. We also detect genetic relationships across the Mediterranean, reflecting shared demographic processes that shaped the Punic world. Levantine Phoenicians made little genetic contribution to Punic settlements in the central and western Mediterranean between the sixth and second centuries bce; instead, the Punic people derived most of their ancestry from a genetic profile similar to that of Sicily and the Aegean, with notable contributions from North Africa as well.

Found

Are you a researcher?

Create a profile to get free access to personal recommendations for colleagues and new articles.

Metrics

Cite this

GOST |

Cite this

GOST Copy

Ringbauer H. et al. Punic people were genetically diverse with almost no Levantine ancestors // Nature. 2025. Vol. 643. No. 8070. pp. 139-147.

GOST all authors (up to 50) Copy

Ringbauer H. et al. Punic people were genetically diverse with almost no Levantine ancestors // Nature. 2025. Vol. 643. No. 8070. pp. 139-147.

RIS |

Cite this

RIS

BibTex |

Cite this

BibTex (up to 50 authors) Copy

@article{2025_Ringbauer,

author = {Harald Ringbauer and Ayelet Salman Minkov and Dalit Regev and Iñigo Olalde and Tomer Peled and Luca Sineo and Gioacchino Falsone and Peter van Dommelen and Alissa Mittnik and Iosif Lazaridis and Davide Pettener and Maria Bofill and Ana Mezquida and Benjamí Costa and Helena Jiménez and Patricia Smith and Stefania Vai and Alessandra Modi and Arie Shaus and Kim Callan and Elizabeth Curtis and Aisling Kearns and Ann P. Lawson and Matthew Mah and Adam Micco and Jonas Oppenheimer and Lijun Qiu and Kristin Stewardson and J Noah Workman and Nicholas Márquez Grant and Antonio M Saez Romero and María Luisa Lavado Florido and Juan Manuel Jiménez Arenas and Isidro Jorge Toro Moyano and Enrique Viguera and José Suárez Padilla and Sonia López Chamizo and Tomàs Marquès-Bonet and Esther Lizano and Alicia Rodero Riaza and Francesca Olivieri and Pamela Toti and Valentina Giuliana and Alon Barash and Liran Carmel and E. Boaretto and Marina Faerman and Michaela Lucci and Francesco La Pastina and Alessia Nava and others},

title = {Punic people were genetically diverse with almost no Levantine ancestors},

journal = {Nature},

year = {2025},

volume = {643},

publisher = {Springer Nature},

month = {apr},

url = {https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08913-3},

number = {8070},

pages = {139--147},

doi = {10.1038/s41586-025-08913-3}

}

MLA

Cite this

MLA Copy

Ringbauer, Harald, et al. “Punic people were genetically diverse with almost no Levantine ancestors.” Nature, vol. 643, no. 8070, Apr. 2025, pp. 139-147. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08913-3.

Publisher

Springer Nature

Journal

Nature

scimago Q1

wos Q1

SJR

18.288

CiteScore

78.1

Impact factor

48.5

ISSN

00280836 (Print)

14764687 (Electronic)

Profiles