“It’s amazing how much we can tell about ancient episodes like this with this kind of data.”
Nearly 2500 years ago, two armies clashed outside the walls of Himera, a Greek colony on the northern coast of Sicily. Greek forces from Himera and the neighboring colonies of Agrigento and Syracuse battled their great rivals, the Carthaginians, who hailed from the African coast of the Mediterranean. Fighting raged across the city’s western necropolis, fallen warriors toppling among the tombs.
Ancient authors appear to have gotten the broad outlines of both battles right—with one glaring exception, according to a new study. DNA, chemical, and archaeological analyses of 30 skeletons excavated from mass graves in the necropolises of Himera, where the remains of nearly 13,000 people have been excavated since the early 1990s as part of a long-term research project, suggest the ancient Greeks may have had some help from outside mercenaries.
Genetic analysis of the remains buried in 480 B.C.E. confirmed the idea that the Himerans had help from other Greek colonies. Men buried in tombs connected to that battle had more diverse genetic backgrounds, and the chemical composition of their bones showedMass graves excavated near Himera, an ancient Greek colony on the island of Sicily, belonged to warriors who fought to defend the city from Carthaginian foes in the fifth century B.C.E.
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