The Ancient Puerto Ricans

Tibes, near Ponce, was a ceremonial centre of pre-contact Puerto Rico, its plazas and ball courts laid out for gatherings whose rules we can only guess at. The people buried there, at Paso del Indio and at other sites around the island carried the Ceramic Age ancestry that had travelled north from South America through the Antilles. Their maternal lineages are strikingly concentrated: mitochondrial haplogroups C1 and A2 together account for well over four-fifths of the island's ancient dead. The twelve here lived between the sixth and fourteenth centuries, generations before the first European sails. Puerto Ricans who hold Taíno heritage do so in their own right; the genetics here describe the ancient islanders themselves.

The genome-wide data behind this entry was published in A genetic history of the pre-contact Caribbean.

Every Ancestry Map includes the free Notable Matches lens: your coordinates are compared to every sequenced member of every catalog entry, and the distance to the closest member is reported, a Euclidean distance in the same 25-dimensional space the Distance lens uses. Because these are a small group of real individuals, not a population average, distances naturally run larger than population distances. That is expected, not a poor result. And one thing is never claimed: a small distance means similar ancestry composition, not that the Ancient Puerto Ricans are your ancestor. See how it looks in the live demo or read about Ancestry Map, the full Global25 report.

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  Who were the Ancient Puerto Ricans?

  The Ancient Puerto Ricans (c. 550-1350 CE, Tibes, Paso del Indio and other sites, Puerto Rico) are one of the Iconic discoveries entries in our Notable Matches catalog, represented by 12 sequenced ancient genomes published in the study "A genetic history of the pre-contact Caribbean".

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  What does "matching" the Ancient Puerto Ricans mean?

  Your Global25 coordinates are compared to the entry's sequenced members and the distance to the closest one is reported, a Euclidean distance in the same 25-dimensional reference space the Distance lens uses. A notable entry is one person or one small burial group, not a population average, so distances naturally run larger than population distances.

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  Are they my ancestor?

  No, and no DNA test can show that. A small distance means your genome sits near theirs in a shared reference space: similar ancestry composition, not descent. Ancestrify never claims a notable individual is your ancestor or relative.

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  How do I see my own distance to the Ancient Puerto Ricans?

  Notable Matches is a free lens on every Ancestry Map, never sold separately. Order Ancestry Map, our Global25 analysis (29.99 EUR), and your report ranks your coordinates against the full catalog, with a portrait, dossier and map for every entry. The public demo shows the lens with example data.

The catalog holds every published entry across three tiers. Browse the full Notable Matches directory. Nearby entries:

• The Taíno Woman of Preacher's Cavec. 950 CE

• The Vikingsc. 750-1050 CE

• The Settlers of Icelandc. 870-1100 CE

• The Hungarian Conquerors10th century CE

• The Christians of Sigtunac. 900-1050 CE

• The Guanchesc. 300-1500 CE

• The Medieval Docleansc. 800-1100 CE

• The Gaels of Kilteasheenc. 700-1300 CE

• The Tiwanaku of the Akapanac. 870-1150 CE

• The Muslims of Segestac. 870-1170 CE

• The Ceramic Age Islanders of Hispaniolac. 250-1500 CE

• The Komani-Kruja Culturec. 800-950 CE