An international team of anthropologists, archaeologists and geneticists has learned more about the migration patterns of people living around the Mediterranean Sea during the Iron and Bronze ages. In their study, reported in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, the group conducted genetic sequencing on the remains of 30 people who lived during the Iron or Bronze Age in Italy, Tunisia and Sardinia.
Data overview and relevant geography and chronology. a, Locations of the 4 archaeological sites examined here, as well as a map of the areas settled by Phoenician, Greek and Etruscan speakers by 550 BCE. b, Timeline showing the dates for the newly reported individual genomes, with the methods of dating indicated. Indirect radiocarbon dating refers to using the radiocarbon date of a different individual in the same tomb.
As the researchers note, most knowledge of people living around the Mediterranean Sea during the Iron and Bronze Ages derives from study of artifacts they left behind. But such evidence, they point out, does not reveal much about the backgrounds of those people or where their ancestors came from. In this new effort, the research team sought to learn more about the backgrounds of such people by following migration patterns using genetic sequencing.
The researchers conducted shotgun sequencing on samples collected from unearthed bones of ancient people living in Italy, Tunisia and Sardinia to get a sense offor people living in the northern, central and southern parts of the eastern part of the Mediterranean during the Iron and Bronze Ages—a time, the researchers note, when people were traveling greater distances due to advances in boat and shipbuilding.
The research team suggests that there was an increase in migration, as expected during both the Iron and Bronze Ages, as people sailed the Mediterranean Sea for a myriad of reasons—and in so doing, shaped the ancestry of those who lived in the region.Hannah M. Moots et al, A genetic history of continuity and mobility in the Iron Age central Mediterranean,
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