Chapters
00:00 Europe’s Into Africa migration
02:43 Sponsorship
04:35 Neolithic European Migrations
10:10 Into Africa Migration
15:29 European Lineages in Africa
Transcript
Europe’s Into Africa migration
Over 7,000 years ago, Neolithic farmers crossed the Mediterranean from Europe and established communities on the northwest coast of Africa. They introduced domesticated plants and animals to the huntergatherer societies of the Magghreb, transforming the region forever. The Neolithic into Africa migration was actually part of a much larger and quite incredible maritime expansion that had begun centuries earlier. Its roots lay in the movement of farmers from Anatolia across the Aian into southeastern Europe after about 7,000 BC carrying domesticated cereals, pulses, sheep, goats, and other elements of an agricultural way of life.
After about 6,000 BC, related farming populations making impressed ware pottery began expanding rapidly westwards along the coasts and islands of the Mediterranean. Along the way, they mixed with the local European hunter gatherers, forming a new distinctly European population. This was one of the most remarkable series of migrations in all human history, seeing rapid colonization of new lands generation after generation. And some of these courageous, intrepid people decided to make the crossing from Iberia to colonize North Africa.
Recent ancient DNA analysis from a cave site in coastal Morocco confirms that people made this crossing and established communities here. Most of their ancestry came from Neolithic farming populations in Mediterranean Europe. After reaching North Africa, they also mixed with local people. Perhaps surprisingly, a trace of Neolithic European movements into Africa may survive in the paternal lineage we call R1B V88. The earliest known carriers of this lineage were European hunter gatherers in the Balkans.
Through mixing, this lineage was later seen in Neolithic men in Iberia and Sardinia before the lineage entered Africa and expanded through the green Sahara. Today it’s concentrated among certain populations of the central Sahel, particularly around Lake Chad, including in northern Nigeria and Cameroon.
But who were the indigenous inhabitants encountered by these farmers? What kind of boats did they use to make these epic voyages? And how did a paternal lineage with ancient European origins eventually become concentrated south of the Sahara? This is the incredible story of Europe’s Neolithic migrations into Africa.
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My, how times have changed.
6,000 BC...This was one of the most remarkable series of migrations in all human history, seeing rapid colonization of new lands generation after generation. And some of these courageous, intrepid people decided to make the crossing from Iberia to colonize North Africa.Where were the shrieking AWFLs and pink haired keffiyeh-wearing kooks complaining about these "colonizers"? And they were "colonizing" Africa!