Ramazzotti

Proving history through science
"The Phoenicians are returning." That is what DNA research tells us through recent studies. Historical credence to their existence and their history is being restored through scientific means. What has been discovered indicates that the genetic make up of the Lebanese, especially those of the coastal areas, is Phoenicians. Further, it was discovered that various percentages of the inhabitants of the islands of Malta, Sardinia, as well as parts of ancient Carthage in Tunisia, Gibraltar, Spain and the islands of the Aegean are of Phoenician origin, also.

What's it all about?
Genetic research underway in Lebanon and other locations around the Mediterranean basin proves that the Lebanese carry Phoenician genetic identifiers and belong to both Muslims and Christian sects of the country. Further, preponderance of these identifiers is predominant among the people of the coastal areas. What is also evident is that there were three major genetic "waves" that had an impact on the population of Lebanon. These waves were European through the Crusades, Arab through the Conquest of Islam from the Arabian Peninsula and Turkish through the Seljuk Turks invasion from Central Asia.

There are unique and specific genetic distinctions that are evident in some regions or towns in Lebanon where their Christian or Muslim population maintained distinctive genetic identifiers.

The study is not, as yet, complete and is headed by Dr. Pierre Zalloua, geneticist at the American University of Beirut. His project is sponsored by the National Geographic Magazine to explore the truth about the origin of the Phoenicians.

The "curse" and the paradox
Among the historical trivia regarding the mysterious Phoenicians is, though they invented the alphabet and spread it around the ancient world, their written works were mostly lost. What the world knows about them is through their enemies or competitors – the Greeks and Romans.

Maybe, because of their lost records and to break that "curse", a new alphabet came about to resurrect them. That is through a different alphabet, the molecular letters of DNA. This special alphabet reads the Y chromosome.

The research study
Dr. Pierre Zalloua, who came up with the idea, and his research partner, National Geographic Emerging Explorer Spencer Wells started work two years ago on this study sponsored by the National Geographic Magazine with $1,000,000. The objectives of the study pursue the precise reading of the genetic makeup of the Lebanese and populations from the Mediterranean basin where they established colonies. The study, that extends over five or six years, attempts to prove the genetic relationship between Phoenicians of the colonies of Carthage, Malta, Sardinia Cadiz, Marseilles and others with those of the homeland of Tyre, Sidon, Byblos or the Phoenician homeland. Further, the study aims to prove that all these Phoenician Canaanites belong to the same genetic origin and are those that settled the eastern Mediterranean 5,000 years ago.

The way through which the objectives will be achieved is through tracing part of the Y chromosome that does not mutate. Men transmit it to their sons, generation after generation without any change. It is a fixed marker that does not break throughout history.

Points of reference
The reference of the genetic prototype for the Phoenician makeup is based on human remains discovered in Turkey, as well as a human jaw—perhaps up to 4,000 years old—found in a mountain cave at Raskifa, Lebanon. Additional human remains are used, as well, for constructing a clear image of the Phoenician genetic point of reference.

Zalloua and Wells had to go to the Turkey National Museum to get DNA samples from a Phoenician sarcophagus, since Lebanon’s National Museum shamfefully denied their request for a sample. Dr. Zalloua had to admit that he was disappointed in the lack of cooperation he received from the archaeologists in Lebanon. “They did not believe in our cause, that we are all one or at least have a common ancestral background, and hence, should not fight about that.”

Some details
This genetic work is relatively simple even though it is going to take many years to analyze after having gathered blood samples exclusively from males of the said population. Up this point, Dr. Zalloua has taken 2,000 blood samples of men in Lebanon in the coastal areas, on one hand, and from the mountains and the Beqaa, on the other hand.

Consequently, based on the bones of the ancients and the DNA of the living the texts of history are about to be verified.

Results and surprises
One of the biggest surprises discovered till now is the genetic relationship between the people of Malta and the people of the Lebanese coast. Genetic similarities between the two groups are so high that they are a cause of amazement and surprise. What this has proven, so far, is the validity of the accounts of Phoenician history, on one hand, against the results of genetic studies in geographical areas of Phoenician colonies, on the other.

Genetic studies underway will clear the mystery of the Phoenicians, and perhaps, embarrass many others. It is going to address a struggle over the history and ancestry of Lebanon which used to be thought of as a struggle over myths.

Shameful Lebanese Official Indifference
What remains to be ruminated with impunity is why do the authorities of Lebanese National Museum* continue to shamefully ignore Phoenician heritage, at the same time, the Lebanese Ministry of Culture continues to ignore the mission of the National Geographic Magazine and the work of Dr. Zalloua? In addition to declining to give Dr. Zalloua access to Phoenician DNA samples at the National Museum while the terms Phoenicia and the Phoenicians continue to remain anathematized by all official Lebanese government circles.

Acknowledgment
I am personally indebted to Mr. William Serfaty of Gibraltar, author of "Gibraltar, The Pillars of the Phoenicians," who, through my intervention, was so obliging as to assist the National Geographic team and crew in identifying and visiting Phoenician points of interest on Gibraltar. Sadly, William was not recognized by the team or the documentary film crew.

Related PBS documentary
PBS aired a documentary on October 20, 2004, that was shoot alongside collecting materials and photographs for the said issue by the National Geographic team.

* Shamefully, the word "Phoenicians" is banned anathema from the Lebanese National Museum where artifacts are dated and referrenced according to millennia or ages but never using the "forbidden name."

Older Mediterranean Substratum Genetic Origins of the LebaneseThe research
Researchers from the Department of Immunology and Molecular Biology, H. 12 de Octubre, at the "Universidad Complutense", from Madrid, Spain, and Tissue Typing Laboratory Institute of Blood Transfusion, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia, conducted the first genetic research on a number of groups of people from various areas around the Mediterranean, the Near East and Africa. Though their study focused on the Macedonians vis-à-vis other population, the result of the study brought about interesting and remarkable results regarding the origins of the Lebanese.

HLA (Human Leucocyte Antigens) alleles have been determined in individuals from the Republic of Macedonia by DNA typing and sequencing. HLA-A, -B, -DR, -DQ allele frequencies and extended haplotypes have been for the first time determined and the results compared to those of other Mediterraneans.

Samples studied
The study used the following samples for their calculations: 172 unrelated ethnic Macedonians from Skopje; 98 Moroccans; 98 Berbers; 94 Moroccan Jews; 176 Spaniards; 80 Basques; 228 Portuguese; 179 French; 102 Algerians; 91 Sardinians; 284 Italians; 80 Ashkenazi Jews; 80 non-Ashkenazi Jews; 135 Cretans; 85 Greeks from the Aegean; 95 Greeks from Attica; 101 Greeks from Cyprus; 59 Lebanese from Niha el Shouff; 93 Lebanese from Kafar Zubian; 100 Iranians; 228 Turks; 105 Armenians; 101 Egyptians from Siwa; 83 Oromo; 98 Amhara; 38 Fulani; 39 Rimaibe; 42 Mossi; 77 San (Bushmen); 192 Senegalese; and 86 South African Blacks.

Conclusion
The major conclusion reached that relates to the Lebanese indicates that they belong to the "older" Mediterranean substratum. This means that the Lebanese share the same genetic identifiers like the Macedonians*, Iberians (including Basques), North Africans, Italians, French, Cretans, Jews, Anatolians (aboriginal Turks), Armenians and Iranians.

Beirut!

THANK YOU RAMZI for posting this!

I hope this sets the record straight for everyone!

__________________

hassoun

YEAH
Thanx Ramzi

shayan

this cleares up a lot for me thanks hehehe i knew it,,,,

Alon

It also seems that the Egptyan copts are desendent of the Ancient
Egyptian. Their darker skkined and have more oriental eyes then
current inhabitants. Anyway, I would mind trading with some of them
Phoenician women.