#popgen #PopulationGenomics

📄Read the open-access paper for methods, results & context

Thanks to all collaborators and institutions involved!

#AncientDNA #Archaeogenetics #RomanRepublic #CentralItaly #GenomeHistory #VillaFalgari #Etruria #EasternMediterranean
#aDNA #genpop #populationgenetics

🧬 Takeaway:
The transformation of the Central Italian gene pool didn’t start with Empire.
It began with earlier, gradual processes during the Republican phase—some driven from within Italy itself.

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📊qpAdm models suggest Imperial Roman groups derive ~70–80% of ancestry from individuals like Villa Falgari or other oEMs.
This implies a continuity of Eastern influence from Republic to Empire.

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⬅️Other Republican samples with similar ancestry (“IA/Republic oEM”) support this pattern.
These are not outliers—they likely represent an early wave of gene flow that shaped the Imperial gene pool.

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🗝️Key evidence:
▶ PCA and f3-MDS place the individual close to Phoenician and Anatolian BA/IA groups
▶ High Iran_Neolithic / CHG component
▶ Y-DNA haplogroup R1b-Z2105 clusters with Eastern individuals

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🧿Instead, we show that the genetic shift began ~200 years earlier, during the Late Roman Republic, likely linked to:
– Early Roman influence in the eastern Med
– Internal mobility from Southern Italy (Greek colonies)

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🔴This challenges the common view that such ancestry entered the region only after the rise of the Roman Empire via large-scale migration to Rome from eastern provinces.

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🇮🇹Our study centers on a Late Republican individual (341–53 BCE) from Villa Falgari (Tarquinia). aDNA analysis reveals a strong Eastern Mediterranean ancestry—unexpected for this period.

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Congratulazioni!!! 🎊🎊🎊