Cádiz, (EFE).- Scientists have confirmed through DNA analysis that several individuals whose remains have been found in different excavations in Cádiz were Phoenicians from or descendants of individuals from France.
The research, led by the Complutense University of Madrid, has analyzed the maternal lineage of 16 individuals. Dating between the V centuries BC and V AD whose remains have been found in Cádiz.
They are the first molecularly identified remains in the Spanish mainland from or descending from individuals from Phoenicia. One of the most influential peoples of Antiquity that spread through what is now Syria, Lebanon and northern Israel. This is how the UCM explains it in a press release.
“There was a question as to whether the individuals were ‘real Phoenicians’ or whether they ‘identified with that culture’ and were buried that way. With our study, we have shown that this population was from Phoenicia or, at least, they were descendants of ‘Phoenicians from Phoenicia’”. According to Cláudia Gomes, a researcher at the UCM Department of Legal Medicine, Psychiatry and Pathology, in the press release.
The Phoenicians established remote connections to the West from the Near East throughout the Bronze Age.
Gades (later Gadir, present-day Cádiz) was one of the most important Phoenician cities outside of Gades.
The Phoenician origin of the remains
Remains from this period have been found in different locations in Cádiz. The human remains analyzed in this work were located in the archaeological sites of Campo de Hockey, Plaza de Asdrúbal, Cuarteles de Varela, Teatro Cómico or Hospital de la Misericordia de San Juan de Dios.
The novelty that the research brings now is that for the first time it obtains biological results of individuals dating from that time in this city.
“There are many archaeological, anthropological and medical studies carried out, but never before had a genetic result been obtained from so many Phoenician individuals. In order to understand the importance and impact of our work, in 2016 the genetic analysis of a single Phoenician individual from North Africa was published in PLoS ONE. In our case, we obtained results from eight individuals”, highlights Gomes.
The work confirms that five of the sixteen individuals analyzed have Phoenician origin. In another three individuals, their Phoenician origin could not be confirmed or ruled out, because they presented a typical European lineage –ancestors–, and in one of them an African lineage was identified. The remaining eight individuals have not allowed obtaining results, due to their extreme degradation.
The researchers have also concluded that the individuals analyzed did not have a typical Phoenician biological lineage. “They had embraced that culture as their own, taking on the burial traditions and rituals in such a way that they couldn’t be distinguished from each other,” Gomes explains.
Molecular analysis was performed only through mitochondrial DNA markers, in order to assess the maternal lineage of the individuals.
forensic applications
The scientists explain that information from the paternal lineage, the Y chromosome, is found in the cell nucleus. And due to the high state of degradation of the individuals, these data could not be obtained.
In addition to the historical relevance of the findings, this study has forensic applications.
“Working with extremely degraded old samples serves to improve and test new forms of analysis for their subsequent application to current forensic cases,” says Cláudia Gomes.
In addition to the UCM, the Cádiz City Council, the Hospital Clínico San Carlos Health Research Institute, the University Hospital of Puerto Real (Cádiz) and the company Tripmilenaria, among others, have participated in the research papers published in Genealogy. EFE