authors: Luciana G. Simões, Torsten Günther, Rafael M. Martínez-Sánchez, Juan Carlos Vera-Rodríguez, Eneko Iriarte, Ricardo Rodríguez-Varela, Youssef Bokbot, Cristina Valdiosera & Mattias Jakobsson
Genomic data from bones and teeth found at archaeological sites across Morocco paint a picture of how Neolithic farmers and pastoralists spread into northwest Africa that is more complex than previously thought.
The shift in human cultures from hunter-gatherer lifestyles to those based on the cultivation and husbandry of domesticated plants and animals is known as the Neolithic or agricultural transition. How Neolithic lifestyles spread into northwest Africa has been unclear, with archaeological findings providing conflicting evidence for both the migration of farmers into the area (demic diffusion) and the adoption of a Neolithic lifestyle by local foraging groups (cultural diffusion)1. Ancient human DNA could help to settle the debate. Writing in Nature, Simões et al.2 describe human genomic data from three previously unsampled archaeological sites in Morocco, dated to between 7,600 and 5,700 years ago — around the time when farming became established in the region3. The data provide an opportunity to refine and expand previous perspectives on the arrival and spread of Neolithic and pastoralist lifestyles in Morocco.Ancient DNA reveals how farming spread into northwest Africa
Nature | 07 June 2023 | Louise Humphrey & Abdeljalil Bouzouggar
This was toward the end of the African Humid Period. This may account for the Levantine pastoralists.