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Scientists Analyzed The DNA Of Mummies About 7,000 Years Old Found In The Sahara And Discovered Indications Of A Previously Unknown Society. The Research Reveals Unique Genetic Characteristics And Helps To Reconstruct The Presence Of Ancient Civilizations That Inhabited The Region Before Its Transformation Into Desert
About 7,000 years ago, two women were buried in what is now southwestern Libya. They were not in a desert like today’s Sahara, but rather in a savanna. The location, filled with lakes and vegetation, allowed for fishing, agriculture, and herding. The bodies of these Sahara mummies were preserved by the dry climate.
Now, they have provided scientists with one of the most valuable genetic materials in history: almost complete genomes of a previously unknown human group.
The discovery was published in the journal Nature and brought a surprise. These women belonged to an isolated human lineage, different from anything known before.
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Ancient DNA In The Desert
The bodies were found in Takarkori, a rock shelter in the Tadrart Acacus Mountains. The site was already known from previous excavations. The researchers found 15 human burials there. Among them were the two women who would change the understanding of human presence in Northern Africa.
Using advanced techniques, scientists extracted DNA from the bones of these Sahara mummies. Even with the passage of time and conditions, they managed to recover hundreds of thousands of genetic markers. This allowed them to sequence the complete genome.
Geneticist Johannes Krause from the Max Planck Institute told Science Focus that the results were impressive. “At the time they were alive, these people were almost like living fossils — like something that shouldn’t be there. If you told me these genomes were 40,000 years old, I would have believed it.,” he stated.
An Isolated Lineage In The Green Sahara
The genomes of the women showed a lineage never identified before. It did not resemble that of current African populations. Nor was it identical to known ancient groups in the region.
Surprisingly, the closest genetic relatives were far away — among them, hunter-gatherers who lived 15,000 years ago in Morocco and even an individual from 45,000 years ago in what is now the Czech Republic.
This indicates that the Takarkori group remained isolated for millennia, even during a time when the Sahara was green and allowed movement between regions.
Cultural Contact, But Not Genetic
Despite genetic isolation, the Takarkori maintained contact with other groups. Archaeologists found ceramics from various regions. Objects from the Nile Valley and Sub-Saharan Africa were also present.
Savino di Lernia, an archaeologist at Sapienza University of Rome and co-author of the study, highlighted this contradiction. “We now know they were isolated in genetic terms, but not in cultural terms,” he told CNN.
That is, there was an exchange of ideas and technologies. But the Takarkori blood remained virtually untouched for millennia.
Connections With The Remote Past Of The Sahara
The researchers also analyzed the presence of genes inherited from Neanderthals. In the Takarkori women, this presence was small — about one-tenth of what is seen in modern populations outside Africa. Still, it was greater than in Sub-Saharan Africans.
This suggests that the group originated from a population that had already mixed with Neanderthals. Then, it would have migrated to the Sahara, where it became isolated.
This isolation only ended with climate change. When the African Humid Period came to an end, the Sahara became desert once more. Without water, local communities disappeared or migrated. The Takarkori lineage did not survive.
Clarifying Ancient Doubts
The discovery helps to understand the ancestry of another mysterious group: the Taforalt foragers from Morocco. Previously, scientists believed they had a mix of genes from the Levant and Sub-Saharan Africa.
But the new data indicate otherwise. The “African part” of the Taforalt may have come from a group similar to the Takarkori, not from peoples further south.
According to the study’s authors, this Takarkori lineage may have spread throughout Northern Africa at the end of the Pleistocene. Later, with desertification, these groups fragmented and disappeared.
Echoes Of A Lost World
The findings also provide a new perspective on enigmatic locations, such as the “Cave of Swimmers” in Egypt. In it, ancient artists painted figures swimming — something that seemed impossible in the middle of the desert. But it is now known that the region was once filled with lakes.
Carles Lalueza-Fox from the Spanish National Research Council emphasized the importance of this revelation. According to him, the study highlights a human lineage separated from other Africans for nearly 50,000 years.
Scientists believe that, even with the disappearance of the Takarkori community, part of their DNA still survives in modern populations of Northern Africa.
A Study, Many Questions
Despite its impact, the study analyzed only the two Sahara mummies. Therefore, the researchers urge caution. Mary Prendergast, an anthropologist at Rice University, reminded that even two people can change our view of the past. But she emphasized the need for more data to confirm the conclusions.
In the meantime, the discovery offers a new look at the Sahara. A region that was once alive, green, and inhabited by a people who exchanged culture but kept their genetic identity intact.
The Takarkori genomes reveal an almost forgotten chapter of human history. A chapter that begins in a rock shelter in the desert and echoes to this day in the genes of the peoples of Northern Africa.
With information from ZME Science.
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