The People of Roman Sitifis

Sitifis was founded around 97 CE under the emperor Nerva as a colony for retired soldiers and later became the capital of the province of Mauretania Sitifensis. These two people were buried in the city's eastern necropolis during its first century or so, and they are the first genomes of the historical period ever recovered from Algeria. The study that sequenced them looked across the Roman world and found that at least seven percent of historical-period individuals carried ancestry uncommon where they lay, a measure of how mobile life under Rome could be. They are simply the people buried at Roman Sitifis; one of them carried the paternal lineage G2a2b2a and the maternal lineage N1b1a.

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

• 01

  Who were the People of Roman Sitifis?

  The People of Roman Sitifis (1st-2nd century CE, Sitifis, Setif, Algeria) are one of the Iconic discoveries entries in our Notable Matches catalog, represented by 2 sequenced ancient genomes published in the study "Stable population structure in Europe since the Iron Age, despite high mobility".

• 02

  What does "matching" the People of Roman Sitifis 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 People of Roman Sitifis?

  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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