Phoenicians and Moors Were Caucasoid

Afrocentrists claim that Phoenicians and Moors were black, but most of these ancient samples from colonies in Iberia are a mix of North African, Levantine and Southern European (Local Iberian), clustering very close to Europeans because North Africans are Caucasoid. Only two samples from the later Muslim period have Sub-Saharan African admixture (37% and 48%) and they cluster far away from the rest. Modern Iberians have much less of all this admixture (~7% North African and 0% Sub-Saharan African) and cluster with other Europeans.

In the southeast, we recovered genomic data from 45 individuals dated between the 3rd and 16th centuries CE. All analyzed individuals fell outside the genetic variation of preceding Iberian Iron Age populations (Fig. 1, C and D, and fig. S3) and harbored ancestry from both Southern European and North African populations (Fig. 2D), as well as additional Levantine-related ancestry that could potentially reflect ancestry from Jewish groups (21). These results demonstrate that by the Roman period, southern Iberia had experienced a major influx of North African ancestry, probably related to the well-known mobility patterns during the Roman Empire (22) or to the earlier Phoenician-Punic presence (23); the latter is also supported by the observation of the Phoenician-associated Ychromosome J2 (24). Gene flow from North Africa continued into the Muslim period, as is clear from Muslim burials with elevated North African and sub-Saharan African ancestry (Fig. 2D, fig. S4, and table S22) and from uniparental markers typical of North Africa not present among pre-Islamic individuals (Fig. 2D and fig. S11). Present-day populations from southern Iberia harbor less North African ancestry (25) than the ancient Muslim burials, plausibly reflecting expulsion of moriscos (former Muslims converted to Christianity) and repopulation from the north, as supported by historical sources and genetic analysis of present-day groups (25). The impact of Muslim rule is also evident in northeast Iberia in seven individuals from Sant Julià de Ramis from the 8th to 12th centuries CE who, unlike previous ancient individuals from the same region, show North African–related ancestry (Fig. 2C and table S19) and a complete overlap in PCA with present-day Iberians (Fig. 1D).

Olalde et al. "The genomic history of the Iberian Peninsula over the past 8000 years". Science, 2019.

Related: Moors Expelled from Sicily and Southern Italy