Brief Report: Carthaginian Affinities with Ancient and Recent Maghreban and Levantine Groups: Craniometric Analyses Using Distance and Discrimination

• Published in: The African archaeological review 2018-03, Vol.35 (1), p.133-137
• Main Author: Keita, S. O. Y.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ancient civilizations; Anthropology; Archaeology; Discriminant analysis; Native peoples; Regional and Cultural Studies; RESEARCH REPORT; Skeletal system; Social Sciences; Text analysis
• ISSN: 0263-0338; 1572-9842
• DOI: 10.1007/s10437-018-9285-3

Carthage was founded in northwestern Africa (in present-day Tunisia), by Phoenician settler colonists from the Levant in the first millennium and conquered by Rome in the second century This region had an indigenous population and was not terra nullius. Textual evidence suggests Carthaginians throughout their history ascribed prestige to Phoenician ancestry, which might suggest a predisposition to endogamy, although there is textual and archaeological evidence for interaction with the indigenous people. This brief report explores the relative craniometric affinities of a small pre-Roman Carthaginian series to ancient and modern ones from these two regions (the Levant and the Maghreb) using distance and discriminant analyses. The results indicate a craniometric pattern intermediate to the two ancient series (one Phoenician, the other Maghreban), but slightly closer to the one from the ancient Maghreb. Une petite série de crânes Carthaginois datant de la période pré-romaine a été analysée à l'aide de distance et de discrimination dans le de trouver des similitudes avec d'anciennes séries Phéniciens et Maghrébins (Amazigh). Les résultats indiquent que cette série carthaginoise est. un intermédiaire biologique entre les anciens crânes Phéniciens et Maghrébins. Notre étude comprend une revue des explications possibles pour ces résultats. Elle nous permet également d'examiner en détails la question de la nature des interactions entre Phéniciens et Amazigh.