It appears that a new discovery has led to more bewilderment as history reveals a jewel of DNA that could alter human history. As science and history collide, a newly discovered DNA from a Phoenician not only stunned the scientist but it has brought bewilderment to the world as well.
DNA taken from an ancient Phoenician could have shed new light on one of the great early civilizations of the Middle East, and researchers have sequenced the first complete genome of a 2,500-year-old body discovered in Carthage, Tunisia, and found the man had European heritage, reports Mail Online.
The man's maternal lineage is believed to have come from the north Mediterranean coast, which would be the first known evidence of a rare European genetic population in North Africa. Scientists claim discovery could give a new light on the history of human movement, as noted by the same post.
Given the fact that the Phoenicians are best known as the creators of the first alphabet, it is revealed that they have lived in the coastal cities, Tyre, Sidon, Byblos and Arwad, and those regions are the present Lebanon and southern Syria.
More report from Fox News revealed of how the research team, co-led by Professor Lisa Matisoo-Smith of the University of Otago in New Zealand, and the experts studied the remains of the "Young Man of Byrsa" or "Ariche," whose remains were taken from a sarcophagus in the ancient city of Carthage.
The findings offer the earliest evidence of the European mitochondrial haplogroup U5b2c1 in North Africa that dates back to the sixth century B.C., as further explained by the same post.
"U5b2c1 is considered to be one of the most ancient haplogroups in Europe and is associated with hunter-gatherer populations there," she explained in a press release. "It is remarkably rare in modern populations today, found in Europe at levels of less than one per cent. Interestingly, our analysis showed that Ariche's mitochondrial genetic make-up most closely matches that of the sequence of a particular modern day individual from Portugal."
