The Punic people were the first cosmopolitan civilization of the Mediterranean.
A genetic study with Catalan participation confirms that this people had no contact with the Phoenicians.
BarcelonaIn the Mediterranean Sea, the cradle of so many civilizations, the Punic was the first truly cosmopolitan civilization and the one that made the first attempt at globalization. This is reflected in a study published this Tuesday in the journal Nature, promoted by the Barcelona Museum of Natural Sciences, which analyzed the genomes of 210 individuals from 14 sites in Spain, North Africa, and the Italian islands of Sicily and Sardinia.
The researchers discovered that the Punic people had very little genetic relationship with the Phoenicians, although both civilizations shared cultural, economic, and linguistic roots. This means that the Phoenicians transmitted their culture to people of completely different ancestry, but without mass migration. The assimilation of Phoenician culture took place through a dynamic process of transmission.
Phoenician culture emerged in the Bronze Age city-states on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, where today are located, among other countries, Lebanon and Syria, and developed transcendental innovations such as the first alphabet. In the 6th century BC, Carthage—a city in present-day Tunisia—became one of the main centers of Phoenician influence, and all the communities associated with it became known as Punic. Communication networks were established between them, facilitating cultural and commercial exchanges along the entire coastline.
First attempt at globalization
Based on their research, the researchers affirm that, despite the cultural similarities, there is a "genetic disconnect" between the Phoenicians and the Punic, according to Carlos Lalueza-Fox, director of the Barcelona Museum of Natural Sciences and paleogeneticist at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology in Barcelona, who co-led the study. Unlike the Romans, who based their expansion on military conquests, the Punic civilization spread along the coasts of the sea in the "first attempt at globalization or a trans-Mediterranean empire" through trade. Carthage did expand and mix genetically with the rest of the Mediterranean populations, while there was no very extensive genetic relationship between the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, he points out.
Researchers have used ancient DNA techniques, such as sequencing and analyzing the genomes of human remains buried at Phoenician and Punic sites around the Mediterranean, to characterize the ancestry of these peoples and search for genetic links. All of the Punic sites from which DNA samples have been studied have a North African ancestry that was not previously present, a genetic expansion that "represents this globalization." These sites contain local, North African individuals, and others who are a mixture of both ancestries.
Another sign of globalization, according to Lalueza-Fox, is that they found a pair of close relatives, roughly second cousins, buried on both sides of the Mediterranean, one in North Africa and the other in Sicily, implying the existence of a maritime connection. The genetic profile of the Punic world "was extraordinarily heterogeneous," according to David Reich of Harvard University and another of the co-authors of the research, reports Efe.
From now on, Lalueza-Fox suggests that the results could help paleogenetics reinterpret part of the history of Phoenician civilization, since its voice has survived through the accounts of its Roman enemies. In fact, there are no chronicles, no writings, "although it was, logically, a very advanced civilization." In this way, it is possible to "give a certain voice to these people and this civilization," about which we only have the version "of those who destroyed it," the Catalan researcher emphasizes.
