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Ancestry populations · Classical Antiquity

Epirote

The Classical Greeks of Amvrakia on the Ambracian Gulf, a Corinthian colony in Epirus and the nearest sequenced ancient population to southern Albania. One of the 38 curated source populations in the Classical Antiquity era of the Ancestrify qpAdm ancient-DNA analysis.

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Who they were

Artistic interpretation of the Epirote (AI-generated artwork, not documentary evidence)
Period
500 – 350 BC
Era in the analysis
Classical Antiquity
Region
Epirus, northwestern Greece
Role in the model
Source (left) population — a reference qpAdm tests against

Amvrakia, present-day Arta, was founded by Corinth around 625 BC on the Ambracian Gulf, at the meeting point of the Greek colonial world and the Epirote tribes of the interior — the Molossians, Chaonians and Thesprotians, whom ancient writers placed on the edge of the Greek world. The Epirote source is built from Classical-period burials of the city published by the APOIKIA project (Genome Biology 2026), five individuals dated between about 460 and 360 BC. Their genomes are overwhelmingly Anatolian-farmer in ancestry, with the Iranian- or Caucasus-related and steppe-related contributions that mark the Bronze Age Greek mainland, and they sit closer to the Peloponnese than to the Iron Age populations of the northern Balkans.

This is the nearest sequenced ancient population to southern Albania and Epirus, and the closest ancient reference for present-day Epirotes, Tosk Albanians and the Greeks of the northwest. No southern Illyrian or native Epirote cemetery of the period has yet been sequenced, so this source stands for a region whose Illyrian and Greek populations the record cannot yet separate. In the model it lies between the Illyrian source to the north and the Corinthian and Aegean sources to the south.

In Ancestrify's qpAdm service, Epirote is a source in the "Classical Antiquity" era. The report shows its weight with a standard error and a Z-score, so you can see not only how much of the model it carries but how confidently that share is separated from zero, and a model that cannot support it is rejected rather than published. For southern Albanian and northwestern Greek genomes it is often the source that carries the local Classical-era share; read it against the Illyrian and Corinthian sources, since the model may prefer one, the other or a mixture depending on the genome.

Y haplogroups J2, E-V13, R1b and G2a, and mtDNA H, K, T2 and U, are reported from Classical Greek sites of the region. A haplogroup alone is never evidence of a share.

In your report

The Classical Greeks of Amvrakia, present-day Arta, on the Ambracian Gulf in Epirus, a colony founded by Corinth around 625 BC at the edge of the Greek world, where the colonial cities met the Epirote tribes of the interior. Their genomes, five Classical-period burials of about 460 to 360 BC published by the APOIKIA project (Genome Biology 2026), carry the Anatolian farmer, Caucasus and Iranian related and steppe related ancestry of the Bronze Age Greek mainland and sit closer to the Peloponnese than to the Iron Age populations of the northern Balkans. This is the nearest sequenced ancient population to southern Albania and Epirus, and the closest ancient reference for present-day Epirotes, Tosk Albanians and the Greeks of the northwest; no southern Illyrian or native Epirote cemetery of the period has yet been sequenced. This is the source a southern Albanian or northwestern Greek genome is tested against for its Classical era local share.

Artwork is an AI-generated artistic interpretation informed by the archaeological record — not documentary evidence.

Where this population sits in the model

The Ancestrify qpAdm analysis models your genome once per era. The Classical Antiquity era has 38 curated source populations, and Epirote is one of them: every candidate model for that era is a combination of these sources, tested against a fixed set of outgroup populations, and only a model that passes the statistical fit check is published — with a p-value, and a standard error on every proportion.

A reference, not a verdict: every population on this page is a source the model tests your genome against — a well-sampled point in ancient genetic space that a mixture of ancestries can be expressed in terms of. A weight on it means your genome is well described as partly resembling those people; it is never a statement that they, specifically, were your ancestors, and a population that fits well is not the only one that could.

Read how the method works on the qpAdm analysis page, or the definitions in the glossary.

Model it yourself for free

The Ancestrify Lab runs in your browser, with no account. Paste a Global25 row into an admixture calculator that covers the Classical Antiquity era, rank the closest ancient populations in the distance tool, or run f4, qpWave and qpAdm on the public panel in the AdmixTools 2 workbench. These are Global25 fits and exploratory statistics, not the formal qpAdm model of the paid analysis.

Questions

  • Who were the Epirote (500 – 350 BC)?

    Epirote is one of the 38 curated source populations in the Classical Antiquity era of the Ancestrify qpAdm analysis: a group of published ancient genomes from one archaeological context, pooled as a single reference the model can test your genome against.

  • Does Epirote in my result mean they were my ancestors?

    No. A source population is a reference the model tests against, never a statement about who your ancestors were. A coefficient on this source means the ancestry those burials represent helps explain your genome to within statistical noise — similar ancestry composition, not descent from those individuals. Ancestrify never claims a population is your ancestor.

  • What does a Epirote percentage in a qpAdm model mean?

    qpAdm estimates the mixture proportions that best explain your genome as a combination of the chosen sources, given a fixed set of outgroup (right) populations, and reports a p-value for whether the model is statistically acceptable together with a standard error for every proportion. The percentage is that estimated share, with its uncertainty published beside it.

  • How do I get a qpAdm model that uses Epirote?

    Order the Ancestrify qpAdm analysis (€29.99, one-time) and upload the raw file you already have from a consumer test. Your genome is merged into the AADR reference panel and modelled across both eras; each era's model is built from that era's source populations, so a model for the Classical Antiquity era draws on Epirote where it improves the fit.

  • Can I model Epirote ancestry for free first?

    Yes. The Ancestrify Lab runs Global25 admixture calculators, a nearest-populations distance tool and an AdmixTools 2 workbench in your browser with no account, and several calculators cover the Classical Antiquity era. Those are G25 fits, not formal qpAdm models — the paid analysis is the one with a p-value.

More populations from the Classical Antiquity era

Browse the full directory of source populations, or continue with another population from the same era:

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