ABSTRACT HG2-005
Genomes from Pastoral Neolithic Sahara reveal ancestral north African lineage
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany
Co-authors: Marieke van de Loosdrecht1,2, Arev Pelin Sümer1, Stefania Vai3, Alexander Hübner1, Kay
Prüfer1, Raffaela Bianco1, Marta Burri4, Mary Anne Tafuri5, Giorgio Manzi5, Harald Ringbauer1, David
Caramelli3, Savino di Lernia5,6, Johannes Krause1
1 Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany
2 Wageningen University, the Netherlands
3 University of Florence, Italy
4 Swiss Ornithological Institute, Switzerland
5 Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
6 University of Witwatersrand, South Africa
Abstract:
Known as one of the most arid areas on the planet today, the Sahara Desert was, in fact, a green savannah in the Holocene, dotted by forests and water bodies that promoted human occupation and fostered pastoralism. Due to the present-day climatic conditions, ancient DNA does not preserve well in the region, resulting in limited knowledge of the Sahara’s demographic past. Here, we report the first ancient human genome-wide data from the Saharan Pastoral Neolithic. We obtained genomic data from two ca. 7000-yearold female pastoralists buried in the Takarkori rock shelter at the heart of the Tadrart Acacus massif in southwestern Libya, which was used as a burial ground by pastoral communities. We find that the majority of the Takarkori individuals’ ancestry stems from a previously unknown lineage that appears to have remained isolated for most of its existence. Both individuals are most closely related to the preceding 15,000-year-old foragers from Morocco associated with the Iberomaurusian techno-complex, whereas both Takarkori and Iberomaurusian individuals are distantly related to sub-Saharan African lineages. The quality of one of the genomes from Takarkori is sufficient to detect prospective Neandertal ancestry and we find evidence for few segments of ancestry that sum to a total comparable to that detected in the genomes of sub-Saharan Africans. Our results therefore support a model of cultural diffusion, rather than human migration, for the emergence of pastoralist subsistence in the Sahara region.
Genomes from Pastoral Neolithic Sahara reveal ancestral north African lineage
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany
Co-authors: Marieke van de Loosdrecht1,2, Arev Pelin Sümer1, Stefania Vai3, Alexander Hübner1, Kay
Prüfer1, Raffaela Bianco1, Marta Burri4, Mary Anne Tafuri5, Giorgio Manzi5, Harald Ringbauer1, David
Caramelli3, Savino di Lernia5,6, Johannes Krause1
1 Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany
2 Wageningen University, the Netherlands
3 University of Florence, Italy
4 Swiss Ornithological Institute, Switzerland
5 Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
6 University of Witwatersrand, South Africa
Abstract:
Known as one of the most arid areas on the planet today, the Sahara Desert was, in fact, a green savannah in the Holocene, dotted by forests and water bodies that promoted human occupation and fostered pastoralism. Due to the present-day climatic conditions, ancient DNA does not preserve well in the region, resulting in limited knowledge of the Sahara’s demographic past. Here, we report the first ancient human genome-wide data from the Saharan Pastoral Neolithic. We obtained genomic data from two ca. 7000-yearold female pastoralists buried in the Takarkori rock shelter at the heart of the Tadrart Acacus massif in southwestern Libya, which was used as a burial ground by pastoral communities. We find that the majority of the Takarkori individuals’ ancestry stems from a previously unknown lineage that appears to have remained isolated for most of its existence. Both individuals are most closely related to the preceding 15,000-year-old foragers from Morocco associated with the Iberomaurusian techno-complex, whereas both Takarkori and Iberomaurusian individuals are distantly related to sub-Saharan African lineages. The quality of one of the genomes from Takarkori is sufficient to detect prospective Neandertal ancestry and we find evidence for few segments of ancestry that sum to a total comparable to that detected in the genomes of sub-Saharan Africans. Our results therefore support a model of cultural diffusion, rather than human migration, for the emergence of pastoralist subsistence in the Sahara region.
