Historians have presumed for centuries that Rome's age-old foes, long-established Carthaginians, descended from Levantine Phoenicians. However, an unprecedented eight-year genetic research reveals a different, more complicated tale.
Researchers have analyzed ancient DNA from 210 individuals at sites in North Africa, Sicily, Iberia, and other areas inhabited by Carthaginians. What was discovered? The majority of Carthaginians shared little genetic ancestry with the Levant. Instead, they were genetically close to ancient Greeks, Sicilian Greeks particularly, with whom they intermingled. Even when retaining Phoenician religion and language, they were not eastern Mediterranean migrants. They were genetically hybrid people intermixing with local populations and regional populations. "This reveals how identity in ancient history was more cultural than genetic," suggests historian Eve MacDonald. To be a Carthaginian was a question not of blood, but of shared practice, speech, and myth. In Roman conflicts with Carthage during the Punic Wars, Rome's foe might have been more Mediterranean than Middle Eastern.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/24/science/archaeology-genetics-carthage-phoenician.html
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08913-3
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