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| Map of Morroco showing Grotte des Pigeons (c) MailOnline/Johny Reading |
About 15,000 years ago, in the
oldest known cemetery in the world, people buried their dead in sitting
positions with beads and animal horns, deep in a cave in what is now
Morocco. These people were also buried with small, sophisticated stone
arrowheads and points. Archaeologists assumed they were
part of an advanced European culture that had migrated across the Mediterranean
Sea to North Africa.
Recent studies of their ancient
DNA show that they had no European ancestry. Instead, they were related to
both Middle Easterners and sub-Saharan Africans, suggesting that more people
were migrating in and out of North Africa than previously thought.
First Fossil Evidence
of Modern Humans
The first fossil evidence for any
modern humans outside Africa comes from the Middle East, from the
archaeological sites of Skhul and Qafzeh in Israel, dating to around 120,000
years ago. However, this early expansion of modern humans was not maintained. Until
recently, the expansion of our own species out of Africa that eventually led to
the colonisation of the globe was thought to have occurred after 100,000 years
ago.
A re-evaluation of early human remains and artefacts also from Morocco
has pushed back the advent of Homo sapiens by 100,000 years.
Archaeologists and palaeontologists now think that the oldest of the fossils
comes from 300,000 to 350,000 years ago. Skulls, teeth, and long bones
of at least five Homo sapiens, along with stone tools and
animal bones, have been found at Jebel Irhoud, Morocco.
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| Teeth from skeletons unearthered at Grotte des Pigeons cave revealing extensive tooth decay. Credit: Isabelle De Groote |
Analysis of deposits from the
front of the cave revealed the ancient people indulged on snails, pine nuts
and, significantly, carbohydrate-rich acorns, which may have contributed to the
tooth decay found in these early people. The new findings suggest that the
concept of a ‘sweet tooth’ may be much older than believed. Nevertheless, it is
estimated that less than 2% of Stone Age foragers had cavities in their teeth
in marked contrast to later populations on a diet high in carbohydrates.
Oldest human DNA
evidence from Africa
The oldest human DNA evidence yet
from Africa has come from the cave known as the Grotte des Pigeons, near
the village of Taforalt in northeast Morocco. Humans occupied this cave on and
off from at least 80,000 years ago till about 10,000 years ago. These people lived in the front of the cave
and buried their dead in the back.
During recent excavations at
Grotte des Pigeons, archaeologists saved the inner-ear petrous bones, which
provides an excellent source for ancient DNA. Researchers at the Max Planck
Institute for the Science of Human History, in Jena, Germany, extracted ancient
mitochondrial DNA, which is passed on only from mothers to their children, from
seven individuals.
The researchers found no genetic
tie to ancient Europeans. Known as the Iberomaurusians, they seem to be related
to Middle Easterners and other Africans. These people shared about two-thirds
of their genetic ancestry with Natufians, hunter-gatherers who lived in the
Middle East 14,500 to 11,000 years ago, and one-third with sub-Saharan Africans
who were most closely related to today’s West Africans and the Hadza of
Tanzania.
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| Grotte des Pigeons Cave at Taforalt Photo: Wikipedia |
Iberomaurusians and
Natufians
Further studies will search for
the people who gave rise to both the Iberomaurusians, found throughout North
Africa, and the Natufians. The Natufian culture existed in the Levant, a region
in the Eastern Mediterranean. The culture was unusual in that it supported a
sedentary or semi-sedentary population even before the introduction of
agriculture. Natufians founded Jericho which may be the oldest city in the
world (Wikipedia).
The theory that Europeans from
Sicily or the Iberian Peninsula were buried at Grotte des Pigeons was not
supported by DNA analysis. The fact that the Natufian culture existed in the
Middle East suggests the Grotte des Pigeons people and the Natufians shared
common ancestors from North Africa or the Middle East.
These findings provide new evidence of early
contacts between North Africa and the Near East, and regions south of the
Sahara Desert. Further DNA studies on other Iberomaurusian sites will be
required to establish whether the evidence from the Grotte des Pigeons is
representative of the Iberomaurusian gene pool.
Conclusion
The number of ancient DNA studies
has increased dramatically over the past two decades, covering a period of
human history going back 40,000 years. The oldest human DNA evidence yet from
Africa has come from the cave known as the Grotte des Pigeons, in
northeast Morocco. Archaeologists had assumed that these ancient people were
part of an advanced European culture that had migrated across the Mediterranean
Sea to North Africa. Recent studies of the ancient DNA of these people shows
that they had no European ancestry. Instead, they were related to both
Middle Easterners and sub-Saharan Africans.
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