About our Ancient Italian Report
1) What is the Ancient Italian Report?
Ancient Italian is an Italy-focused ancestry experience that combines two complementary lenses:
- an Italian regional breakdown using modern place-based anchors (not “modern ethnicity”), and
- Ancient DNA Matches that connect your DNA to excavated individuals and burial-site clusters across key time periods.
2) How is this different from standard ethnicity estimates (AncestryDNA, 23andMe)?
Most ethnicity estimates are designed around modern reference populations and recent ancestry. Ancient Italian zooms in on Italy specifically, uses a finer Italy-tailored regional grid as map anchors, and adds direct affinity ranking to curated ancient individuals/sites—so you get both a regional composition view and an archaeological “who you’re closest to” view.
3) Is this a “modern ethnicity” report?
No. The regional labels are modern-named geographic anchors (for map readability), not claims about modern ethnic identity. Your percentages reflect genetic similarity to region-linked patterns that have persisted over long timescales, interpreted through an ancient lens.
4) Which areas of Italy does the report cover?
The report uses the following Italy-focused anchors:
- Sardinian
- Southwest Italian (Sicily & Calabria)
- Tyrrhenian–Adriatic Southern Italian (Campania, Apulia & Basilicata)
- Central Italian (Marche, Umbria, Lazio, Abruzzo, Molise)
- Tuscan (Tuscany)
- Ligurian–Po Valley Northern Italian (Liguria & Emilia-Romagna)
- Northeastern Italian (Veneto, Trentino-Alto Adige & Friuli-Venezia Giulia)
- Lombard (Lombardy)
5) How are the Italian regions defined?
Regions are built from modern administrative/geo-cultural groupings that act as stable genetic “anchors” within Italy. These anchors are interpreted using Italy-specific ancient DNA time-transects, archaeological/historical context, and curated reference panels from published datasets.
6) What do the Italian region percentages mean?
Your percentages show how strongly your genome clusters with each Italian regional pattern within the Italian anchor set. Higher % = your DNA is more similar to people whose ancestry is anchored there over long timescales. These percentages are not a literal list of where your recent relatives were born.
7) My documented family is from X, but it shows 0% (or low %). How is that possible?
This can happen because genetic clustering doesn’t perfectly follow modern borders, adjacent regions can look similar genetically, and recent family history can be more complex than records suggest. The model captures broad genetic similarity patterns, not certificates for (or against) specific family stories.
8) Do the Italian percentages always add up to 100%?
Within the Italian anchor set, yes, your Italian regional shares are normalized to 100% of your “Italian-assigned” portion. If you have substantial non-Italian ancestry, the overall fraction assigned to Italy may be smaller; the Italian breakdown describes only that Italian portion.
9) What are “Ancient DNA Matches from Burial Sites”?
Ancient matches show which excavated individuals or burial-site clusters your DNA is most similar to across key eras (e.g., Mesolithic foragers, Neolithic farmers, Copper/Bronze Age transitions, Iron Age, Roman-era contexts, and Early Medieval layers where data permit). Each match includes site/region, date range, archaeological context, and a short description.
10) How are the ancient matches scored?
Matches are ranked using a composite score that can include PCA/UMAP proximity (genetic distance in a multi-dimensional space) plus IBS/allele-sharing metrics. Lower-quality or sparse genomes are down-weighted; higher-quality individuals and well-defined site clusters are weighted more in ranking.
11) How do you choose which ancient individuals to include?
We prioritize peer-reviewed, well-dated ancient genomes relevant to Italy across broad time coverage; individuals with sufficient data quality; samples with clear archaeological context (site/date/culture); and balanced representation across geography and time to reduce over-weighting one region or era.
12) Why not build the regional breakdown purely from ancient DNA?
Ancient genomes are unevenly sampled, sometimes degraded, and not dense enough everywhere to reliably give province-level precision on their own. Instead, the report uses living/modern-proxy anchors for fine-scale structure and validates/interprets them using curated ancient genomes and Italy-specific historical context.
13) How do you handle sensitive historical periods (Roman era, migrations, Early Medieval, etc.)?
We treat these periods with historical sensitivity and scientific caution. Signals can be influenced by which sites have been sampled and DNA quality. We avoid over-interpreting single individuals or small outlier clusters, and we frame narratives as probabilistic, evidence-based summaries, not claims about “identity.”
14) How accurate is the Ancient Italian Report?
All results are probabilistic estimates, not absolute truths. Precision is limited by uneven sampling across Italy and time, variable DNA quality, historical migrations that blur boundaries, and statistical noise in clustering. We aim for a conservative, robust interpretation, but no fine-scale ancestry product is 100% precise.
15) Can this report prove (or disprove) my family stories?
It can support, refine, or sometimes complicate family stories by showing how your DNA aligns with Italian regional and ancient patterns, but it cannot definitively prove a specific ancestor, surname, or document. Use it alongside records-based genealogy, local history, and relative matching.
16) Why do I have strong “Sardinian” or “Tuscan” signals even without known ancestry there?
Some Italian anchors can be genetically distinctive and may capture deeper shared ancestry or continuity signals that extend beyond recent birthplace histories. Also, “closest anchor” can reflect where your DNA best fits within the reference grid, not where your most recent relatives lived.
17) Will the report change over time?
Yes, it can. As new ancient Italian genomes are published and your reference panels are expanded or re-balanced, your ancient matches and the interpretation of anchors may update.
18) Is this a medical or health test?
No. This report is for educational, anthropological, and genealogical purposes only. It does not diagnose disease, estimate medical risks, or replace clinical testing or medical advice.
19) What DNA data do you use, and how is my privacy handled?
Your results are computed from your genotype data compared to curated reference panels. We do not publish your raw data in the report. Outputs are summarized estimates and ranked matches, designed for interpretation without exposing personal-level raw variants.
20) What should I do if results don’t match what I expected?
Start by reading the region definitions and the “0% can happen” explanation. Then look at neighboring anchors and ancient matches, they often clarify whether your ancestry aligns with an adjacent region or with a particular historical layer (e.g., Bronze Age vs Roman-era affinities).
