Bonus monologue: ancient North Africans and the Green Sahara
Apr 30, 2025
Dive into the fascinating world of ancient North African genetics as a new study reveals insights from the Green Sahara. Discover how this once-lush region supported human life and shaped pastoralist cultures. Learn about the distinct lineage of inhabitants diverging from sub-Saharan ancestors and the intricate migration patterns that influenced genetic diversity. Uncover the legacy of the Pleistocene-to-Holocene transition and the mysterious connections between early human populations across the continent.
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Green Sahara's Ancient Genetic Isolation
The Sahara was lush and habitable during the African Humid Period between 14,500 and 5,000 years ago.
Ancient DNA shows a distinct North African lineage isolated through much of its existence, unrelated closely to sub-Saharan Africans.
insights INSIGHT
Sahara's Harsh Ice Age Barrier
During the last Ice Age, the Sahara was extremely dry and forbidding, reducing population movement across the region.
This isolation explains little sub-Saharan admixture in ancient North African populations during the Green Sahara period.
insights INSIGHT
Sub-Saharan Gene Flow Post-Islamic Period
Most sub-Saharan African ancestry in North Africa occurred during the Islamic period due to trade and slavery.
Ancient populations in North Africa prior to Islam showed minimal sub-Saharan African genetic influence.
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Although it is one of the most arid regions today, the Sahara Desert was a green savannah during the African Humid Period (AHP) between 14,500 and 5,000 years before present, with water bodies promoting human occupation and the spread of pastoralism in the middle Holocene epoch1. DNA rarely preserves well in this region, limiting knowledge of the Sahara’s genetic history and demographic past. Here we report ancient genomic data from the Central Sahara, obtained from two approximately 7,000-year-old Pastoral Neolithic female individuals buried in the Takarkori rock shelter in southwestern Libya. The majority of Takarkori individuals’ ancestry stems from a previously unknown North African genetic lineage that diverged from sub-Saharan African lineages around the same time as present-day humans outside Africa and remained isolated throughout most of its existence. Both Takarkori individuals are closely related to ancestry first documented in 15,000-year-old foragers from Taforalt Cave, Morocco2, associated with the Iberomaurusian lithic industry and predating the AHP. Takarkori and Iberomaurusian-associated individuals are equally distantly related to sub-Saharan lineages, suggesting limited gene flow from sub-Saharan to Northern Africa during the AHP. In contrast to Taforalt individuals, who have half the Neanderthal admixture of non-Africans, Takarkori shows ten times less Neanderthal ancestry than Levantine farmers, yet significantly more than contemporary sub-Saharan genomes. Our findings suggest that pastoralism spread through cultural diffusion into a deeply divergent, isolated North African lineage that had probably been widespread in Northern Africa during the late Pleistocene epoch.