It was possible to screen 224 ancient individuals (Fig. 1 and Table S1) for 20 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and two single nucleotide-deletions described to play a role in malaria resistance and distributed in twelve different genes: G6PD, HBB, ACKRQ, FCGR2B, TIRAP, ATP2B4, GRK5, IL-10, MARVELD3, CD36, CD40LG and ABO blood group system (Table 1). Here, CD40LG is linked to malaria.