Who were the Phocian (700 – 600 BC)?

Phocian is one of the 37 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 Phocian 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 Phocian 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 Phocian?

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 Phocian where it improves the fit.

Can I model Phocian 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.

Phocian — ancient DNA source population (qpAdm)

Who they were

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

Period: 700 – 600 BC
Era in the analysis: Classical Antiquity
Region: Phocis, central Greece
Role in the model: Source (left) population — a reference qpAdm tests against

Phocis was the mountainous region of central Greece around Parnassus and the sanctuary of Delphi, a land of herdsmen and small towns that fought its neighbours for control of the oracle. The Phocian source is built from three seventh-century BC burials at Kastrouli, the same hill that had carried a Mycenaean citadel five centuries earlier, sequenced by Lazaridis and colleagues in 2022. Their genomes carry the Mycenaean ancestry of that citadel essentially unchanged, which is the genetic continuity that ties the world of the Greek city-states to the palace age.

This ancestry is the closest ancient reference for present-day central Greeks and a near relative of the Corinthian and Epirote sources of the following centuries. In the model it sits between the Mycenaean source of the same hill and the Corinthian source to its south, and a genome from the Greek mainland may divide one signal among them.

In Ancestrify's qpAdm service, Phocian 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. Its weight is best read against the Mycenaean and Corinthian sources, which describe the same population at different dates; the model may prefer one, the other or a mixture depending on the genome.

Y haplogroups J2, G2a, R1b and E-V13, and mtDNA H, K and T2, are reported from Archaic Greek sites. A haplogroup alone is never evidence of a share.

In your report
The Phocians of Archaic central Greece, the people of the Parnassus foothills around the sanctuary of Delphi, known here from three seventh-century BC burials at Kastrouli above the Gulf of Corinth, sequenced by Lazaridis and colleagues in 2022. Their genomes carry the Mycenaean ancestry of the same hill five centuries earlier essentially unchanged, Anatolian farmer at its base with the Caucasus and Iranian related and steppe related contributions of the Bronze Age mainland, which is the continuity that ties the Greek city-state world to the palace age. Phocian ancestry is the closest ancient reference for present-day central Greeks and a near relative of the Corinthian and Epirote sources of the following centuries. This is the source a central Greek genome is tested against for its Archaic era share.

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 37 curated source populations, and Phocian 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 Phocian (700 – 600 BC)?
Phocian is one of the 37 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 Phocian 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 Phocian 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 Phocian?
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 Phocian where it improves the fit.
Can I model Phocian 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.

More populations from the Classical Antiquity era

Browse the full directory of source populations, or continue with another population from the same era: