Scientists Found 7,000-Year-Old Mummies in the Desert That Don’t Share DNA With Modern Humans

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You will learn this story while reading:

• Two 7,000 -year -old mummies from Takarkori Rock Shelter in Sahara were found from a group of an unknown lineage.

• DNA analysis of mummies, which have been the remains of female shepherds since a time known as the more humid and green field of Sahara, did not show the expected sub -field genes.

• Takarkori individuals are closely related to other North African peoples who have been separated long before sub -field populations.

Although Sahara is now a great sand that the struggle for survival could be cruel, there was actually a green and developing time (how difficult).

14,800 and 5,500 years ago, during what Africa is known as the moist period, the desert, which is known to be one of the most dry places on earth, is actually enough This To support a lifestyle. At that time, it was a savannah where early human population settled to benefit from positive agricultural conditions. Among them were the mysterious people who are currently living in Southwest Libya and genetically under-Sahara-after a modern analysis, their genes did not reflect this.

The archaeogeneticist team of Nada Salem, a Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology, analyzed the genes of two naturally preserved mummies of neolithic female shepherds from the Takarkori rock shelter. Although genetic material is not well preserved in dry climates, so much about the old human population in Sahara continued to be a mystery, but it was sufficiently disintegrated. DNA to give an idea about their past.

“The majority of the descendants of the takarkori individuals are due to a previously unknown North African genetic lineage, separated from the under -Sahara African descendants and isolate people outside Africa at the same time and isolated for most of their existence. Nature.

Takarkori individuals are actually close relatives of sworn -up at the age of 15,000 at the Tafralt cave in Morocco. The same in both descendants genetic The distance to the sub -field groups that existed at that time shows that there was not much gene flow between the Sahara and Northen Africa at the time. The people of Taforalt have half of the Neanderthal genes of the Africans, while Takarkori has ten times less. The strange thing is that they still have more Neanderthal DNA, one of the other sub -Sahara peoples.

Although takarkori apparently provides less contact with the neanderthals than tafoalta, they should somehow contact more than other groups in their regions. There are also traces of evidence to contribute with farmers from Levant. Otherwise, takları genes reveal that they are mostly isolated. Genetically, it was close to northwest African feeds, such as tafalet, but different from sub -field populations.

This may mean that there is not much genetic change in the Green Sahara during the moist period of Africa. It used to be thought farming Applications spread to the region by migrations. Salem’s team has another explanation.

“Our findings show that pastoralism has spread to a distinctive, isolated North African lineage, probably in North Africa during the Late Pleistocene period through cultural diffusion. to work.

It is seen that farming is spread through exchange of application between cultures instead of contribution from migration. It is thought that Takarkori inherited the genes from a hunter-gatherer group found in a period before the domestication of animals and in a period before agriculture. Although they are hunter-topists, Takarkori’s ancestors, ceramicBaskets and wood and bone tools. They also stayed in one place for a longer time.

The reason why Takarkori remains isolated is probably about the diversity of the environments in the Green Sahara. These extended from lakes and wetlands to forested areas, to pastures, savannahs and even the mountains. These differences in habitats are obstacles to the interaction between human populations.

There may be hidden mummies or works waiting to give us more information about how life is in the desert before it is dried in the sand of Sahara and the sands of the time.

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