Ancient Phoenician recreated and on show among his Lebanese descendents

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• published: 03 Aug 2015
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LEADIN Mentioned in the bible, the Phoenicians were an ancient civilisation in an area of what is now Southern Lebanon. DNA testing has linked this ancient culture directly with the people still living around Tyre. Now a new exhibition is recreating Lebanon's heritage from a civilisation dating back two-thousand, six-hundred years. STORYLINE The calm Mediterranean waters off the port city of Tyre. It's here the Phoenicians - an ancient Semitic civilisation - lived. Today fisherman Mikhail Jouni continues to work the waters where his ancestors fished centuries ago. Jouni was part of a project to map people's DNA, to establish links between now and the ancient civilisation of Phoenicia. As he explains he has the same genetic markers that date back to the time of the Phoenicians: "A group of foreigners came here to Tyre and selected around seventy men and they did a DNA test. Only fifteen men were matched, the DNA test took place in 2004, and we were happy because there is still continuity from an ancient civilisation till now." Now a museum in Beirut is bringing to life the ancient culture. For the first time in Lebanon, the Archaeological Museum at the American University of Beirut (AUB) in collaboration with the National Museum of Carthage is exhibiting "The Young Phoenician Man of Carthage - Arish." The 2,500 year old skeleton of a young Phoenician man, "Arish" has been rebuilt, and offers people from Lebanon the opportunity to come face to face with the antiquities of the past. Laila Badre, Director of the American University of Beirut Museum says creating a genetic blueprint between peoples in Lebanon can help to heal divides. " I thought it is very important for the Lebanese to see a real shape of their ancestors and this why it is attracting so many people because everyone, every Lebanese wants to be identified, or wants to identify himself with this person who is his ancestor." Visitor, Yolla Al-Jamil says she likes to be able to connect with her history. "You feel it is something wonderful, you refer to you roots, you wonder about how human beings can really relate to something that you know from the history, from the literature, you see it in front of you developing into this real model when I looked at it I thought it is something real, a real person standing and you are shooting a film about it." Arish is a model of young man who lived in Carthage around the sixth century BC. He was discovered in Tunis in 1994, but it was not until 2010 that he was given a human appearance. Arish - whose name means "the loved one" in the Punic language - is thought to be about 19 to 24 years-old and bares physical features that have come to be associated with Phoenician ancestry. He is of average height - 170 centimetres tall - with curly hair, a broad forehead, and a long skull. He is shown wearing a white linen tunic, a necklace, and Roman sandals, and holds a rosary in his hand. Back on the boat in the port of Tyre, Mikhail Jouni says he was surprised and astonished when he saw the model of Arish. "I was so happy when I saw Arish, I was surprised when I saw its model, I felt it is a real life human being, he is just missing speech. There is a lot of resemblance in my face, eyes, nose and mouth but perhaps my face is longer than his, really it is an amazing job." For the people of Lebanon, the recreated skeleton is crossing cultural, and genetic divides. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/a85eefd36d5ffb3ac2b75042e9da43b0 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork