The Ancient People of the Sahara

BETWEEN 14,800 AND 5,500 YEARS AGO, the Sahara—known for being one of the driest places on Earth—actually had enough water to support a way of life. Back then, it was a savanna that early human populations settled to take advantage of the favorable farming conditions. Among them was a mysterious people who lived in what is now southwestern Libya and should have been genetically subSaharan—except, upon a modern analysis, their genes didn’t reflect that.

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A team of researchers analyzed the genes of two 7,000-year-old naturally preserved mummies from the Takarkori rock shelter. Though genetic material does not preserve well in arid climates, there was enough fragmented DNA to give insights into their past.

“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,” the team wrote in a study published in Nature.