The Byzantine Villagers of Chhîm

Chhîm sits in the Chouf hills of Mount Lebanon, in the hinterland of Sidon: a Roman and Late Antique village with a second-century temple, olive-oil presses and a mosaic basilica dated to 498 CE, abandoned about the late seventh century. Nearby, Ej-Jaouze was a Byzantine wine-producing estate that burned around the middle of that century. These nine villagers and estate workers lived through the last Roman centuries and the arrival of Islam. Two of the men carry the paternal lineages R1b and E1b1b, and one woman stands apart from the rest as an ancestry outlier. They were farmers and pressers of oil and wine in the Christian countryside of Late Antique Lebanon.

The genome-wide data behind this entry was published in Stable population structure in Europe since the Iron Age, despite high mobility.

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 Byzantine Villagers of Chhîm are your ancestor. See how it looks in the live demo or read about Ancestry Map, the full Global25 report.

• 01

  Who were the Byzantine Villagers of Chhîm?

  The Byzantine Villagers of Chhîm (c. 430-760 CE, Chhîm, Chouf, Mount Lebanon, Lebanon) are one of the Historical figures entries in our Notable Matches catalog, represented by 9 sequenced ancient genomes published in the study "Stable population structure in Europe since the Iron Age, despite high mobility".

• 02

  What does "matching" the Byzantine Villagers of Chhîm 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.

• 03

  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 Byzantine Villagers of Chhîm?

  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:

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