The Hellenistic and Roman Lebanese

After Alexander's conquest the Levant passed into the Hellenistic world and then under Rome. These eleven come from salvage excavations in Beirut and from Qornet ed-Deir on Jabal Moussa, where a massive-walled way station guarded the road from the coast into the mountains and a chamber tomb held at least ten burials. Their genomes carry a small but real signature of the new age: Hellenistic and Early Roman Beirutis derive 88 to 94 percent of their ancestry from the preceding local population, and 6 to 12 percent from a Central and South Asian-related source that appears only after Alexander's conquest. Beyond that, six centuries of Roman rule left essentially no genetic trace in Lebanon.

The genome-wide data behind this entry was published in A Genetic History of the Near East from an aDNA Time Course Sampling Eight Points in the Past 4,000 Years.

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

• 01

  Who were the Hellenistic and Roman Lebanese?

  The Hellenistic and Roman Lebanese (c. 350 BCE-640 CE, Beirut and Qornet ed-Deir, Lebanon) are one of the Iconic discoveries entries in our Notable Matches catalog, represented by 11 sequenced ancient genomes published in the study "A Genetic History of the Near East from an aDNA Time Course Sampling Eight Points in the Past 4,000 Years".

• 02

  What does "matching" the Hellenistic and Roman Lebanese 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 Hellenistic and Roman Lebanese?

  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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• The Romans of Viminacium1st-6th century CE

• The People of Imperial Romec. 100-300 CE

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• The Xiongnu Imperial Elitec. 100 BCE-100 CE

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• The Sarmatians of the Lower Danubec. 100-400 CE

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