Northwest African Neolithic initiated by migrants from Iberia and Levant

Luciana G. Simões, Torsten Günther, Rafael M. Martínez-Sánchez, Juan Carlos Vera-Rodríguez, Eneko Iriarte, Ricardo Rodríguez-Varela, Youssef Bokbot, Cristina Valdiosera () and Mattias Jakobsson ()
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Luciana G. Simões: Uppsala University
Torsten Günther: Uppsala University
Rafael M. Martínez-Sánchez: Universidad de Córdoba
Juan Carlos Vera-Rodríguez: Cultural y Natural, Facultad de Humanidades, Universidad de Huelva
Eneko Iriarte: Geografía y Comunicaciones
Ricardo Rodríguez-Varela: Centre for Palaeogenetics
Youssef Bokbot: Institut National des Sciences de l’Archéologie et du Patrimoine
Cristina Valdiosera: Geografía y Comunicaciones
Mattias Jakobsson: Uppsala University

Nature, 2023, vol. 618, issue 7965, 550-556

Abstract: Abstract In northwestern Africa, lifestyle transitioned from foraging to food production around 7,400 years ago but what sparked that change remains unclear. Archaeological data support conflicting views: (1) that migrant European Neolithic farmers brought the new way of life to North Africa1–3 or (2) that local hunter-gatherers adopted technological innovations4,5. The latter view is also supported by archaeogenetic data6. Here we fill key chronological and archaeogenetic gaps for the Maghreb, from Epipalaeolithic to Middle Neolithic, by sequencing the genomes of nine individuals (to between 45.8- and 0.2-fold genome coverage). Notably, we trace 8,000 years of population continuity and isolation from the Upper Palaeolithic, via the Epipaleolithic, to some Maghrebi Neolithic farming groups. However, remains from the earliest Neolithic contexts showed mostly European Neolithic ancestry. We suggest that farming was introduced by European migrants and was then rapidly adopted by local groups. During the Middle Neolithic a new ancestry from the Levant appears in the Maghreb, coinciding with the arrival of pastoralism in the region, and all three ancestries blend together during the Late Neolithic. Our results show ancestry shifts in the Neolithization of northwestern Africa that probably mirrored a heterogeneous economic and cultural landscape, in a more multifaceted process than observed in other regions.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06166-6

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