TY - JOUR
T1 - Identifying Genetic Traces of Historical Expansions
T2 - Phoenician Footprints in the Mediterranean
AU - Zalloua, Pierre A.
AU - Platt, Daniel E.
AU - El Sibai, Mirvat
AU - Khalife, Jade
AU - Makhoul, Nadine
AU - Haber, Marc
AU - Xue, Yali
AU - Izaabel, Hassan
AU - Bosch, Elena
AU - Adams, Susan M.
AU - Arroyo, Eduardo
AU - López-Parra, Ana María
AU - Aler, Mercedes
AU - Picornell, Antònia
AU - Ramon, Misericordia
AU - Jobling, Mark A.
AU - Comas, David
AU - Bertranpetit, Jaume
AU - Wells, R. Spencer
AU - Tyler-Smith, Chris
PY - 2008/11/17
Y1 - 2008/11/17
N2 - The Phoenicians were the dominant traders in the Mediterranean Sea two thousand to three thousand years ago and expanded from their homeland in the Levant to establish colonies and trading posts throughout the Mediterranean, but then they disappeared from history. We wished to identify their male genetic traces in modern populations. Therefore, we chose Phoenician-influenced sites on the basis of well-documented historical records and collected new Y-chromosomal data from 1330 men from six such sites, as well as comparative data from the literature. We then developed an analytical strategy to distinguish between lineages specifically associated with the Phoenicians and those spread by geographically similar but historically distinct events, such as the Neolithic, Greek, and Jewish expansions. This involved comparing historically documented Phoenician sites with neighboring non-Phoenician sites for the identification of weak but systematic signatures shared by the Phoenician sites that could not readily be explained by chance or by other expansions. From these comparisons, we found that haplogroup J2, in general, and six Y-STR haplotypes, in particular, exhibited a Phoenician signature that contributed > 6% to the modern Phoenician-influenced populations examined. Our methodology can be applied to any historically documented expansion in which contact and noncontact sites can be identified.
AB - The Phoenicians were the dominant traders in the Mediterranean Sea two thousand to three thousand years ago and expanded from their homeland in the Levant to establish colonies and trading posts throughout the Mediterranean, but then they disappeared from history. We wished to identify their male genetic traces in modern populations. Therefore, we chose Phoenician-influenced sites on the basis of well-documented historical records and collected new Y-chromosomal data from 1330 men from six such sites, as well as comparative data from the literature. We then developed an analytical strategy to distinguish between lineages specifically associated with the Phoenicians and those spread by geographically similar but historically distinct events, such as the Neolithic, Greek, and Jewish expansions. This involved comparing historically documented Phoenician sites with neighboring non-Phoenician sites for the identification of weak but systematic signatures shared by the Phoenician sites that could not readily be explained by chance or by other expansions. From these comparisons, we found that haplogroup J2, in general, and six Y-STR haplotypes, in particular, exhibited a Phoenician signature that contributed > 6% to the modern Phoenician-influenced populations examined. Our methodology can be applied to any historically documented expansion in which contact and noncontact sites can be identified.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=55249104277&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ajhg.2008.10.012
DO - 10.1016/j.ajhg.2008.10.012
M3 - Article
C2 - 18976729
AN - SCOPUS:55249104277
SN - 0002-9297
VL - 83
SP - 633
EP - 642
JO - American Journal of Human Genetics
JF - American Journal of Human Genetics
IS - 5
ER -