Oldest DNA from Africa offers clues to ancient cultures

One of the Taforalt skeletons under excavation by Louise Humphrey of the Natural History Museum and part of the frontal of a LSA human skull. Photo Credit: Ian Cartwright, School of Archaeology. The discovery of DNA - the oldest ever obtained from ancient African remains, has shed light on the continent's prehistoric migration patterns and cultures. Archaeologists have long puzzled over the origins and spread of Later Stone Age culture in ancient Morocco. However details of their ancestry. The findings suggest that the bones have substantial Near Eastern and sub-Saharan African-related ancestries (63.5% and 36.5%, respectively). As the oldest human DNA evidence discovered in Africa, to date, the findings provide genomic evidence of contacts between North Africa and the Near East, as well as areas south of the Sahara, suggesting that more people were migrating in and out of North Africa 15,000 years ago, than previously believed.
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