Ancient DNA Shows Stone Age Europeans Voyaged by Sea to Africa
Roughly 8,000-year-old remains uneed from present-day tunisia help a surprise: European Hunter-Gatherer Ancestry
Stone Age People Might Have Crossed The Mediterranean on Wooden Canoe, Navigating from island to island by sight.
Chronicle/Alamy Stock Photo
Thousands of Years Before Odysseus Crossed The 'Wine-Dark Sea' in Home's EPIC POEM The odysseyHunter-Gatherers might have Island-Hopped their way to Africa Across the Mediterranean.
The first genomic study of ancient people from the Eastern Maghreb Region-Present-Day Tunisia and Northeastern Algeria-Shows That Stone Age Populations who Lives There more than 8,000 years ago, in Part, in Part from European Hunter-Gatherers.
The discovery, reported on 12 March in NatureIs the first direct evidence of trans-Diditerranean Sea Voyaging this time, ALTHOUGH ARCHEALOGICAL Finds Have Hinted At Cultural Exchange Between European and North African Hunter-Government Hunter-Government Hunter-Government Hunter-Government.
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Using ancient genomes, researchers have mapped the emergence of Agriculture in the Middle East 12,000 years and its spread to europe, but the southern mediterranean has been brought.
“There's not been much of a North African Story,” Says David Reich, A Population Genticist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, Who Co-LED The Study. “It was a huge hole.”
Crossing from europe
Working with Researchers in Algeria and Tunisia, as well as europe, reich's team sequenced dna from the bones or teets of 9 individuals from eastern maghreb archaeological sites, who live And more than 10,000 years ago.
All Carriaged Local Hunter-Gatreer Ancestry, Similar to that of ancient people from what is now morocco, identified in earlier studies. But unlike that those western maghreb hunter-gatrers-whose ancestry was brought revised by european Farmers Probably Arriving through the Strait of Gibraltar-Local Ancestry Persisted in Tunisia and Algeria long after the Arrival of Farmers from Europe and the Middle East.
This Fits with Evidence that People in the Eastern Maghreb Continued to Hunt Local Animals Such as Land Snails and Forage Wild Plants, even while farming important sheep, goats and cattle. Agriculture Didn Bollywood off in the Region Until Much Later. Maybe, Says Reich, The Resilience of Local Ancestry is related to resistance to farming practices.
The genome of a man from a tunisian site called djebba help a Major Surprise: About 6% of his dna could be traced back to european hunter-gatrers. The Researchers Estimate that his Maghrebi ancestors mixed with european hunter-gatrers Around 8,500 years. There are weaker signs of these encounters in a woman from the site.
Canoe voyages
The precise source of the man's european ancestry could not be pinpointed, but sickle – several history Possibilities.
Obsidian from one such island, pantelleria, has been discovered in tunisian archaeological sites, notes study co-author giulio lucarini, an archaeologist who specializes in Africa at Italy's National Research Council Institute of Heritage Science in Rome.
Hunter-Gatrers from Europe and North Africa Block Haversed The Sicilian Strait in long wooden canoes, Navigating from island to island by sighted. Many Potential Stopovers are now submerged, Making it hard to find further evidence for these voyages, lucarini adds.
The discovery of European Hunter-Gathereer Ancestry in North Africa is important, say population geneticist rosa freedel, at the university of laguna in tenerife, Spain. It shows that the mediterranean was no great Barrier for Stone Age People. Future Studies, She Expects, Might Well Turn Up More Surprises on Bot Sides of the Sea.
This article is reproduced with permission and was First Published on March 12, 2025,
