Who were the Pontic (300 – 50 BC)?

Pontic 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 Pontic 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 Pontic 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 Pontic?

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 Pontic where it improves the fit.

Can I model Pontic 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.

Pontic — ancient DNA source population (qpAdm)

Who they were

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

Period: 300 – 50 BC
Era in the analysis: Classical Antiquity
Region: Northern Black Sea coast
Role in the model: Source (left) population — a reference qpAdm tests against

The northern Black Sea coast in the Hellenistic centuries was a meeting ground of Greek colonial cities such as Olbia, Chersonesus and Panticapaeum with the Scythian and then Sarmatian nomads of the steppe behind them, joined in the Bosporan kingdom and the empire of Mithridates of Pontus. Ancient genomes from the region show the nomads to have been a western steppe population with a marked East Asian-related admixture that grew through the Iron Age, while the coastal towns preserved a more Aegean-like ancestry, and the two mixed at the frontier (Järve et al. 2019; Gnecchi-Ruscone et al. 2021).

This ancestry is a layer in present-day Ukrainians, southern Russians, Crimean Tatars and the Pontic Greek communities, and the steppe side of it reached the Carpathian basin and the Balkans with later nomadic migrations. In the model it is the north-eastern pole of the era, distinct from the Early Slavic source in its East Asian-related component and from the Aegean source in its high steppe-related share.

In Ancestrify's qpAdm service, Pontic 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 genomes from Ukraine, southern Russia and the Caucasus foothills it is the source that captures the Iron Age nomadic component; its weight should be read against the Early Slavic and Aegean sources, which describe its two ingredients separately.

Y haplogroups R1a-Z93, R1b-Z2103 and J2, and mtDNA H, U5, T2 and the East Asian lineages C and D, are reported from these samples. A haplogroup alone is never evidence of a share.

In your report
Represents the Greek colonial populations established along the Black Sea coast of Anatolia beginning around 700 BCE, including major settlements at Sinope, Trapezus (modern Trabzon), and Amisos. These colonies formed part of the broader Hellenistic cultural sphere that persisted through the Kingdom of Pontus (281–63 BCE) and into the Roman provincial period. Genomic studies of ancient Anatolian populations indicate remarkable genetic continuity from the Neolithic through the Roman and Byzantine periods, with local Anatolian populations forming the demographic core of the region. Pontic Greek communities likely carried a mixture of Aegean Greek ancestry and local Anatolian genetic contributions accumulated through centuries of settlement and intermarriage. The genetic legacy of Pontic Greeks persisted through the Byzantine era and is reflected in modern Pontic Greek diaspora communities.

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 Pontic 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 Pontic (300 – 50 BC)?
Pontic 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 Pontic 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 Pontic 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 Pontic?
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 Pontic where it improves the fit.
Can I model Pontic 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.