Hannah Moots 🏺🧬

This is absolutely not what we said. We showed that before the imperial expansion of Rome, central Italy was home to people from all over the Mediterranean. This may have been an important factor in the rise of Rome.

Excited to co-organize a session with @mootspoints at @TRAC_conference 2025! 🧬 Integrating Ancient DNA with Archaeological Theory and Practice We welcome papers on mobility, migration, & identity in the Roman world and beyond. 📢 Call for abstracts now open! #TRAC2025 #aDNA

Fantastic conversation with Dr Hannah Moots @mootspoints about her research into the genetics of ancient Rome, and the misinterpretations that exist on social media Re-posted from the #RealArchaeology lvestreami, in case you missed it! youtube.com/watch?v=FhaMC4…

@HaraldRingbauer @iosif_lazaridis And I worry a bit about restricting certain ancestries to certain continents/regions. For instance, I don’t think anyone would say Western hunter-gatherer (WHG) is the only indicator of “European” ancestry

@HaraldRingbauer @iosif_lazaridis Definitely, but I'm not sure this ancestry profile disappearing and then re-appearing is more parsimonious than continuity.

New paper on Punic people ancient DNA led by @HaraldRingbauer nature.com/articles/s4158…

@HaraldRingbauer @iosif_lazaridis Thanks for your reply, Harald! We also observed this trend of clines with the center of the PCA in plots w/ more data. This one is primarily Iron Age & Roman period individuals from Antonio et al 2024 (again, made a long time ago, and would look better if I had used shrinkmode)

@mootspoints @iosif_lazaridis @HannahWells_13 3) The second PCA cline you claim to find is based on very scarce data - did you formally fit it? Because I think starting a cline from the center of Iberia points more towards Algeria IA ⬇️🤔 But it all feels like a Rorschach test to me, based on so few outliers.

@iosif_lazaridis @HaraldRingbauer Thanks so much for the reply, Iosif! I think more than trying different competitive qpAdm models, it would be important to study how the diversity of North African ancestries are represented at a given site. And I totally agree you that with more data, it becomes more feasible!

@mootspoints @HaraldRingbauer Ideally we would want to simultaneously estimate ancestry from both sources in a single model (if standard errors don't blow up when including similar sources); alternatively when either source alone is considered, the model's resilience can be tested by placing the other->Right.

@iosif_lazaridis @HaraldRingbauer ...and only 1 from North Africa. My concern being that this might lead to an underestimation of local, North African ancestries identified at these sites, especially when this is a conservative modelling approach, as you mention in the supplement.

@iosif_lazaridis @HaraldRingbauer Of course, the scarcity of data is a challenge, but I think it’s important to investigate and discuss multiple North African ancestries (plural), in a way that’s in-line with how other regions are treated. For instance, your qpAdm modelling has 5 sources from Southern Europe

While the presence of people, including multi-generational families, from across the empire should come as little surprise, given the diverse range of architecture, religious infrastructure, and written languages found at the ports of Ostia and Portus...

Individuals with non-local ancestry profiles and local isotopic values had most likely grown up in central Italy, and were descended from individuals who had previously emigrated to Ostia from other parts of the empire and settled there

Had a great time speaking w/ Anthony Kaldellis about studying the people of ancient Rome using archaeogenetics and allied disciplines. At Isola Sacra, the necropolis for Rome’s primary port, genetic ancestry and mobility isotopes tell *very* different, but complementary, stories