The Iron Age saw the expansion of Phoenician and Greek colonies across the Mediterranean and the rise of Carthage as the major maritime power of the region. 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. To investigate population mobility and interactions directly, we sequenced the genomes of 30 ancient individuals from Carthaginian and Etruscan port cities around the central Mediterranean, in Tunisia, Sardinia, and central Italy. At all three locations, there is a meaningful contribution of autochthonous populations (from Bronze Age North Africa, Sardinia, and Italy, respectively), as well as highly heterogeneous ancestry including many individuals with ancestry from other parts of the Mediterranean region. These results highlight both the role of autochthonous populations and the extreme interconnectedness of populations in the Iron Age Mediterranean. By studying these trans-Mediterranean neighbors together, we explore the complex interplay between local continuity and mobility that shaped the Iron Age societies of the central Mediterranean.

Ancient DNA research in the past decade has revealed that European population structure changed dramatically in the prehistoric period (14,000-3,000 years before present, YBP), reflecting the widespread introduction of Neolithic farmer and Bronze Age Steppe ancestries. However, little is known about how population structure changed in the historical period onward (3,000 YBP - present). To address this, we collected whole genomes from 204 individuals from Europe and the Mediterranean, many of which are the first historical period genomes from their region (e.g. Armenia, France). We found that most regions show remarkable inter-individual heterogeneity. Around 8% of historical individuals carry ancestry uncommon in the region where they were sampled, some indicating cross-Mediterranean contacts. Despite this high level of mobility, overall population structure across western Eurasia is relatively stable through the historical period up to the present, mirroring the geographic map. We show that, under standard population genetics models with local panmixia, the observed level of dispersal would lead to a collapse of population structure. Persistent population structure thus suggests a lower effective migration rate than indicated by the observed dispersal. We hypothesize that this phenomenon can be explained by extensive transient dispersal arising from drastically improved transportation networks and the Roman Empire’s mobilization of people for trade, labor, and military. This work highlights the utility of ancient DNA in elucidating finer scale human population dynamics in recent history.

Objective: We assessed DNA conservation using a range of archaeological skeletal samples from Sudan (Missiminia in Upper Nubia, 350 B.C.E to 1400 C.E) from the unfavorable conditions of the Saharan milieu and humidity of the Nile valley by tracking maternal lineage on the 'X-Group' (Ballaneans).Method: We were able to extract, amplify, and sequence mt-DNA HVS-I (Sanger sequencing method) from 11 petrous bone samples, eight for the X-Group set and three for the reference set (one Christian, one Late Meroitic, and one Meroitic).Results: It was possible to find the haplogroups (L1b, L2, L3, H2, N, T1a, X and W) and to carry out comparative data analysis in relation to haplogroup data cited in the literature. This investigation into the maternal lineage of X-Group (350 to 500 C.E.) origins allowed us to validate the efficiency of petrous bone sampling from ancient human remains from the Nile-Saharan milieu and established that the Ballaneans experienced an in-situ development with more admixture from the Levant region and North Africa.Conclusions: Our study used mt-DNA (HVS-I) to look for the biological origins of the X-Group from Upper-Nubia and demonstrated the feasibility of ancient DNA research on skeletons from the Nile-Saharan environment. The use of Next Sequencing Generation (NGS) should optimize and improve the detection of shorter DNA strands and their sequencing in complete genomes from ancient skeletal remains (petrous bones) from hot and humid environments.