Who were the Aegean (BC 200 – 600 AD)?

Aegean is one of the 27 curated source populations in the Classical Antiquity era of the Ancestrify qpAdm analysis: a group of published ancient genomes from one archaeological context, pooled as a single reference the model can test your genome against.

Does Aegean in my result mean they were my ancestors?

No. A source population is a reference the model tests against, never a statement about who your ancestors were. A coefficient on this source means the ancestry those burials represent helps explain your genome to within statistical noise — similar ancestry composition, not descent from those individuals. Ancestrify never claims a population is your ancestor.

What does a Aegean percentage in a qpAdm model mean?

qpAdm estimates the mixture proportions that best explain your genome as a combination of the chosen sources, given a fixed set of outgroup (right) populations, and reports a p-value for whether the model is statistically acceptable together with a standard error for every proportion. The percentage is that estimated share, with its uncertainty published beside it.

How do I get a qpAdm model that uses Aegean?

Order the Ancestrify qpAdm analysis (€29.99, one-time) and upload the raw file you already have from a consumer test. Your genome is merged into the AADR reference panel and modelled across both eras; each era's model is built from that era's source populations, so a model for the Classical Antiquity era draws on Aegean where it improves the fit.

Can I model Aegean ancestry for free first?

Yes. The Ancestrify Lab runs Global25 admixture calculators, a nearest-populations distance tool and an AdmixTools 2 workbench in your browser with no account, and several calculators cover the Classical Antiquity era. Those are G25 fits, not formal qpAdm models — the paid analysis is the one with a p-value.

Aegean — ancient DNA source population (qpAdm)

Who they were

Artistic interpretation of the Aegean (AI-generated artwork, not documentary evidence)

Period: BC 200 – 600 AD
Era in the analysis: Classical Antiquity
Region: Aegean islands and coasts
Role in the model: Source (left) population — a reference qpAdm tests against

The Aegean in the Hellenistic, Roman and early Byzantine centuries was a sea of Greek-speaking cities connected by trade and imperial administration. Ancient genomes from the islands and mainland show a population that had remained broadly continuous with the Bronze Age Greeks — largely Anatolian-farmer ancestry with smaller Iranian- or Caucasus-related and steppe-related contributions — while absorbing a modest eastern Mediterranean and Anatolian inflow as Roman rule tied the region to the Levant (Lazaridis et al. 2017; Clemente et al. 2021).

This ancestry is the closest ancient reference for present-day Greeks of the islands and of western Anatolia's former Greek communities, and it is related to the populations of southern Italy and Cyprus that shared the same maritime world. In the model it sits close to the Ancient Greek and West Anatolian sources, and the three form a continuum that the standard errors will often reflect.

In Ancestrify's qpAdm service, Aegean is a source in the "Classical Antiquity" era. The report shows its weight with a standard error and a Z-score, so you can see not only how much of the model it carries but how confidently that share is separated from zero, and a model that cannot support it is rejected rather than published. For Greek and southern Balkan genomes it is often the source that carries the largest weight; read it together with the Ancient Greek and West Anatolian sources, since the model may divide one signal among them.

Y haplogroups J2, E-V13, G2a and R1b, and mtDNA H, K and T2, are common in these samples. A haplogroup alone is never evidence of a share.

In your report
A predominantly Greek & Latin-speaking population of the eastern Mediterranean during the Hellenistic and Roman periods, inhabiting the Aegean basin, western Anatolia, and surrounding coastal regions. These populations were rooted in earlier Aegean Bronze and Iron Age Greeks, particularly Mycenaean-derived groups, and were subsequently shaped by gene flow from Anatolian, Levantine, Mesopotamian, and Caucasian populations following the conquests of Alexander and the integration of the region into the Roman Empire. Ancient DNA from Hellenistic and Roman-era individuals in the Aegean reveals a genetic profile combining local Greek ancestry with varying degrees of eastern Mediterranean and Near Eastern admixture, reflecting extensive mobility, trade, and urbanization. This period marks a transition from relatively homogeneous Classical Greek populations to more cosmopolitan Aegean communities, forming the genetic foundation for later Byzantine-era populations.

Artwork is an AI-generated artistic interpretation informed by the archaeological record — not documentary evidence.

Where this population sits in the model

The Ancestrify qpAdm analysis models your genome once per era. The Classical Antiquity era has 27 curated source populations, and Aegean is one of them: every candidate model for that era is a combination of these sources, tested against a fixed set of outgroup populations, and only a model that passes the statistical fit check is published — with a p-value, and a standard error on every proportion.

A reference, not a verdict: every population on this page is a source the model tests your genome against — a well-sampled point in ancient genetic space that a mixture of ancestries can be expressed in terms of. A weight on it means your genome is well described as partly resembling those people; it is never a statement that they, specifically, were your ancestors, and a population that fits well is not the only one that could.

Read how the method works on the qpAdm analysis page, or the definitions in the glossary.

Model it yourself for free

The Ancestrify Lab runs in your browser, with no account. Paste a Global25 row into an admixture calculator that covers the Classical Antiquity era, rank the closest ancient populations in the distance tool, or run f4, qpWave and qpAdm on the public panel in the AdmixTools 2 workbench. These are Global25 fits and exploratory statistics, not the formal qpAdm model of the paid analysis.

Questions

Who were the Aegean (BC 200 – 600 AD)?
Aegean is one of the 27 curated source populations in the Classical Antiquity era of the Ancestrify qpAdm analysis: a group of published ancient genomes from one archaeological context, pooled as a single reference the model can test your genome against.
Does Aegean in my result mean they were my ancestors?
No. A source population is a reference the model tests against, never a statement about who your ancestors were. A coefficient on this source means the ancestry those burials represent helps explain your genome to within statistical noise — similar ancestry composition, not descent from those individuals. Ancestrify never claims a population is your ancestor.
What does a Aegean percentage in a qpAdm model mean?
qpAdm estimates the mixture proportions that best explain your genome as a combination of the chosen sources, given a fixed set of outgroup (right) populations, and reports a p-value for whether the model is statistically acceptable together with a standard error for every proportion. The percentage is that estimated share, with its uncertainty published beside it.
How do I get a qpAdm model that uses Aegean?
Order the Ancestrify qpAdm analysis (€29.99, one-time) and upload the raw file you already have from a consumer test. Your genome is merged into the AADR reference panel and modelled across both eras; each era's model is built from that era's source populations, so a model for the Classical Antiquity era draws on Aegean where it improves the fit.
Can I model Aegean ancestry for free first?
Yes. The Ancestrify Lab runs Global25 admixture calculators, a nearest-populations distance tool and an AdmixTools 2 workbench in your browser with no account, and several calculators cover the Classical Antiquity era. Those are G25 fits, not formal qpAdm models — the paid analysis is the one with a p-value.