An international research team has successfully sequenced the first ancient genomes from the "Green Sahara," revealing a previously unknown and now-extinct North African genetic group. The study, published in *Nature*, was conducted by researchers from the Archaeological Mission in the Sahara of Sapienza University of Rome and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig.
The research analyzed DNA from two 7,000-year-old naturally mummified individuals discovered in the Takarkori rock shelter in southwest Libya. These individuals belonged to a North African genetic lineage that diverged from sub-Saharan African populations approximately 50,000 years ago, around the same time modern human lineages began dispersing out of Africa.
This group, primarily cattle herders, remained largely isolated, exhibiting genetic continuity in North Africa from the end of the last ice age. The study suggests that the spread of cattle breeding in the Green Sahara occurred mainly through cultural exchange rather than large-scale migrations, indicated by a minimal non-African genetic component.
The Takarkori individuals possessed less Neanderthal DNA than humans outside Africa but more than contemporary sub-Saharan Africans. According to Johannes Krause, director at the Max Planck Institute, this suggests that ancient North African populations received traces of Neanderthal DNA through gene flow from outside Africa, despite their isolation.
Savino di Lernia, director of the Archaeological Mission in the Sahara, highlighted the Takarkori site's ongoing significance, noting previous discoveries such as the oldest traces of milk processing in Africa (over 7,000 years old) and the earliest evidence of livestock farming on the African continent (around 8,000 years ago). The findings offer valuable insights into the genetic history and cultural evolution of North Africa during the African Humid Period.