An ancient Middle Eastern civilization that developed an early alphabet spread its culture far and wide—but not its DNA, finds a 23 April Nature study of hundreds of ancient human genomes.

Phoenician civilization emerged more than 3,000 years ago, centred around what is now Lebanon, before expanding across the Mediterranean Sea. Middle Eastern Phoenician city-states eventually fell to other groups, but the culture thrived farther west—most notably in Carthage, in what is now Tunisia, until its destruction in 146 BC.

Phoenician city-states shared languages—recorded with an alphabet that was a precursor to Greek and Latin letters—religious practices and maritime trading economies. Many researchers have presumed that their inhabitants also shared ancestries connected to the culture’s Middle Eastern origins.