An ancient DNA study co-authored by Brown archaeologist Peter van Dommelen illustrates the complexity of human migration and identity shifts over time.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] - Identity is complicated. People develop a sense of self not just from ancestry but also from language, cultural traditions, environment and personal experiences.
For Peter van Dommelen, a professor of anthropology and archaeology at Brown University's Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, that's the timeless takeaway from a recent analysis of ancient DNA he co-authored with 70 other researchers.
The study, published in the journal Nature, was led by scientists at Harvard University and Germany's Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. The researchers conducted the largest ever DNA analysis of people who lived in ancient Punic communities across the Mediterranean, from the Iberian Peninsula to North Africa to the Middle East.
Their analysis revealed something that seems counterintuitive: Despite the fact that Punic people originally came from the eastern Mediterranean, an area called the Levant, those who were living in Punic settlements several centuries later showed almost no trace of Levantine ancestry.
International news headlines claimed that the finding upended the world of archaeology and challenged long-held historical assumptions. But van Dommelen doesn't think the study's finding is all that surprising.
