An international team of geneticists has successfully sequenced the DNA of 11,000-year-old remains from the Klimonas site in Cyprus. The results indicate that the island was colonized by a specific group of Pre-Pottery Neolithic farmers from the mainland Levant who were already skilled mariners by the early Holocene.
The genomic mapping suggests that the transition to agriculture was accompanied by rapid seafaring expansion, establishing the foundational genetic pool for Mediterranean island populations. This study provides the earliest evidence for organized maritime migration associated with the spread of farming.