Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, led by archaeogeneticist Nada Salem have made a shocking discovery in the harsh climate of the Sahara desert. The discovery of two 7,000 year old mummies from the Takarkori rock shelter were revealed to be the remains of Neolithic female herders who lived in the Sahara at a time when the Sahara was known as the Green Sahara and was a lush, green and humid place. The catch is that these two mummies don’t share any DNA with modern humans and have virtually no sub-Saharan heritage despite the fact that the remains were found in what is now southwestern Libya – They belonged to a group with previously unknown ancestry.
The African Humid Period
About 14,800 to 5,500 years ago, the Sahara was actually a savannah where farming was possible and humans could settle due to favourable conditions. This era was known as the African Humid Period and one of the driest places on Earth had enough water to sustain a way of life for thousands of years. Within that timeframe, a mysterious group of people settled and flourished there and though they were supposed to be genetically sub-Saharan, modern analysis did not reflect that. It is also to be noted that though genetic material does not preserve well in dry, arid regions, which is why we don’t know much about the ancient human populations in the Sahara, there was enough fragmented DNA to paint a picture of the past.
In a study published in the journal Nature, the scientists said, ““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,”
Close genetic ties
The Takarkori mummies shared close genetic ties with 15,000-year-old foragers from Taforalt Cave in Morocco. Both groups were equally distant from Sub-Saharan populations of the same era, suggesting minimal genetic exchange between North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa at the time. Interestingly, both groups carried traces of Neanderthal DNA: the Takarkori had about ten times less than the Taforalt, who themselves had only half as much as non-Africans. Yet, even this limited amount was still more than what Sub-Saharan populations of the period carried, making the finding all the more intriguing.
Though genetically close to the Taforalt, the Takarkori remained largely isolated and distinct, showing only limited contact with Neanderthals and some admixture with Levantine farmers. This indicates that during the African Humid Period, genetic exchange in the Green Sahara was minimal. Pastoralism, the study suggests, spread not through large-scale migrations but through cultural diffusion into a deeply divergent North African lineage that had existed since the late Pleistocene. Descended from hunter-gatherers who predated farming and animal domestication, the Takarkori’s ancestors nevertheless developed pottery, baskets, and wooden and bone tools, and lived more settled lives than earlier groups.
The Takarkori likely remained isolated because the Green Sahara’s diverse environments – ranging from lakes and wetlands to woodlands, grasslands, savannas, and mountains – created natural barriers to interaction between groups. The scientists working on this case may yet unlock more secrets to the past yet unresolved, The sands of the Sahara with its mysteries may reveal more about its ancient inhabitants in time. For now all anyone can do is wait.