More information regarding the movement patterns of individuals who lived nearby the Mediterranean Sea throughout the Iron and Bronze centuries has been discovered by an international team of anthropologists, archaeologists, and geneticists. The team sequenced the genetic material from the remains of 30 people who lived in Sardinia, Tunisia, and mainland Italy during the Iron or Bronze Age for their study, which was published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.
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. A single date estimate for each individual in the study was determined by the average of lower and upper estimates of the 95% confidence interval when using accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dates and the average of the lower and bound inference dates when using archaeological and historical context for dating. The full 95% confidence intervals are reported in Supplementary Dataset 3. The map was generated using the World_Basemap_v2 from the ArcGIS online platform. Credit: Nature Ecology & Evolution (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41559-023-02143-4
The majority of what is known about humans who lived in the Mediterranean region during the Iron and Bronze Ages comes from research on the objects they left behind, as the researchers point out. However, they note that such evidence does not reveal much about those people's backgrounds or where their ancestors originated. In this new study, the research team used DNA sequencing to track movement patterns in order to better understand the origins of these individuals.
In order to understand migration patterns for 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 farther due to advancements in boat and shipbuilding—the researchers conducted shotgun sequencing on samples collected from unearthed bones of ancient people living in Italy, Tunisia, and Sardinia. The scientists then contrasted its findings with those of other sequencing projects carried out on both contemporary and prehistoric inhabitants of the area.
They discovered signs of extensive migration around the Mediterranean, pointing to close relationships between far-flung groups. Indicating an increase in migration, they also discovered heterogeneity in Iron Age populations and changes in ancestry in Sardinia and North Africa throughout the Bronze Age. More particular, the study showed that neolithic farmers moved more frequently from what is now Morocco and Iran to Sardinia and Tunisia, and considerably less frequently to what is now Italy.
The research team contends that as more individuals traveled the Mediterranean Sea for a variety of reasons during the Iron and Bronze Ages, migration increased as was to be expected, influencing the heritage of those who resided in the area.
