First DNA analysis of ancient Phoenician shows he had Europe ancestry

The first DNA analysis of 2,500-year-old remains from one of the great early civilisations of the Middle East, the Phoenicians, has shown the man had European heritage, researchers said Wednesday.

The mitochondrial DNA - or genetic information from his mother’s side - came from a man known as “Young Man of Byrsa” or “Ariche,” whose remains were uncovered in the Tunisian city of Carthage.

The findings in the journal PLOS ONE suggest his maternal lineage likely came from the north Mediterranean coast, on the Iberian Peninsula, perhaps near what is modern day Spain or Portugal.

Phoenicians are known as the creators of the first alphabet, and inhabited the coastal cities, Tyre, Sidon, Byblos and Arwad, in what is now Lebanon and southern Syria.

However, since their writings were made on papyrus, little remains except what has been written about them by Greek and Egyptian scholars.

According to lead study author Lisa Matisoo-Smith, a professor in the department of anatomy at New Zealand’s University of Otago, the remains reveal the earliest known evidence in North Africa of a rare European genetic population, or haplogroup, known as U5b2c1.