The Carthaginians

Carthage was Rome's great rival, the maritime empire of Hannibal, whose elephants crossed the Alps and nearly ended Rome. Genomes from its cemeteries revealed a stunningly cosmopolitan port: people of Sicilian, Greek, North African and Levantine ancestry all buried as Carthaginians. The city Rome burned in 146 BCE was less a bloodline than an idea, a citizenship of the sea.

The genome-wide data behind this entry was published in Punic people were genetically diverse.

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

• 01

  Who were the Carthaginians?

  The Carthaginians (c. 600-146 BCE, Carthage, Tunisia) are one of the Iconic discoveries entries in our Notable Matches catalog, represented by 12 sequenced ancient genomes published in the study "Punic people were genetically diverse".

• 02

  What does "matching" the Carthaginians 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.

• 04

  How do I see my own distance to the Carthaginians?

  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 Pazyryk Horse-Lordsc. 500-300 BCE

• The Greeks of Ambraciac. 550-150 BCE

• The Pastoral Neolithic Herders of East Africac. 1300 BCE-500 CE

• The Phoenicians of Beirutc. 550-300 BCE

• The Punic Town of Kerkouanec. 600-250 BCE

• The Vergina Royal Tombsc. 400-350 BCE

• The Thraciansc. 800-100 BCE

• The Gauls of the Aisnec. 500-400 BCE

• The Bog People of Denmarkc. 800 BCE-100 CE

• The La Tène Celts of Bohemiac. 430-230 BCE

• The Shell-Mound Builders of Jabuticabeirac. 750-200 BCE

• The Soldiers of Himera480 BCE