🏜️ A deep North African lineage in the Green Sahara

Ancient DNA from two ~7,000-year-old pastoralist women at Takarkori (SW Libya) reveals a previously unknown North African lineage that split early and stayed largely isolated.

Pastoralism in the Sahara likely spread by culture, not by large population movements. The genomes show only a tiny Neanderthal signal (much less than in non-Africans) plus a small Levantine input, while ties to sub-Saharan groups during the Green Sahara were minimal.

This helps reframe Taforalt (15,000 years ago) as a mix of Levantine and deep North African ancestry rather than “Levantine + sub-Saharan.”

Takeaway: North Africa harbored a distinct, long-isolated ancestry through the Green Sahara — with herding practices arriving mainly through cultural diffusion, not mass migration.

Source: Salem et al., 2025. Ancient DNA from the Green Sahara reveals ancestral North African lineage.