"Crossing the sea": una prospettiva paleogenomica sulle principali isole italiane

The Mediterranean has long played a key role in population processes and cultural transitions that have shaped Europe over centuries and millennia. Among the areas of particular interest for studying these dynamics, the large Mediterranean islands represent a privileged context, owing to their strategic position and the abundance of archaeological evidence. However, despite the significant role they have played in population processes, their contribution to the genetic history of the Mediterranean still requires further investigation. It is therefore necessary to overcome the inherent limitations of currently available studies by expanding both the quantitative scope of sampling and the temporal range, as well as by increasing the informational potential of the genetic data produced. In this context, the present study involved the generation and preliminary analysis of paleogenomic data obtained from the skeletal remains of a large number of individuals from Sicily (n = 87) and Sardinia (n = 187), with the ultimate aim of gaining insight into the population dynamics that have characterized the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea since the Upper Paleolithic. To this end, given the intention to employ high-resolution bioinformatic analytical approaches, it was necessary to generate genomes that were as complete as possible for the largest number of samples, within the constraints imposed by the preservation state of ancient genetic material.