Ancient DNA Unveils the Cosmopolitan Heart of the Phoenician-Punic Civilization

Imagine a bustling port in ancient Carthage, circa 600 BCE, where Phoenician sailors unload fragrant cedarwood from Lebanon, North African potters shape intricate ostrich-egg urns, and Sicilian merchants barter for shimmering Aegean textiles. This was the Punic world—a dazzling crossroads of cultures, united not by conquest but by the restless tides of trade and human connection. For centuries, historians believed the Phoenicians, famed for their alphabet and seafaring prowess, spread their influence through mass migration from the Levant. Yet an ancient DNA study, published in Nature, shatters this assumption, revealing a civilization woven from diverse threads across the Mediterranean. A Genetic Mosaic of the Punic World Researchers from the Max Planck-Harvard Research Center for the Archaeoscience of the Ancient Mediterranean analyzed DNA from 73 individuals buried at 14 archaeological sites, from the Levant to North Africa, Iberia, and islands like Sicily, Sardinia, and Ibiza. S ... Read full article.