Scientists are studying the origins of the inhabitants of the ‘green Sahara’ through the DNA of two female mummies. Seven thousand years ago the Takarkori rock shelter in southwestern Libya was far lusher and filled with vibrant flora and fauna.
In the past the area was a savanna with lakes and rivers, and held large mammals including elephants and hippopotamuses. Early human communities also lived in the region. Archaeologists have found 15 women and children buried at the shelter.
Through their remains, scientists have learned that this community lived by fishing and herded goats and sheep. One of the authors of the study, Savino di Lernia, explained, “We started with these two mummies because they are very well-preserved—the skin, ligaments, tissues.” Indeed, thanks to how well preserved the remains are, scientists were able to sequence their entire unique genome for the first time.
The genomic analysis of the Sahara mummies revealed that the inhabitants of the area were an unknown group of humans that more probably than not occupied the region for tens of thousands of years.
The study also says that it is likely that the small human community that lived at the rock shelter migrated to the site after humans’ first big push out of Africa, more than 50,000 years ago.
We analyzed DNA from two naturally mummified women buried in Takarkori rock shelter in southwestern Libya. The DNA preservation in the Sahara is extremely rare, but we made it work with targeted SNP capture of modern archaeogenetics methods, including variant enrichment. (3/n) pic.twitter.com/czNY09gjlg
— Nada Salem (@NadaSa17) April 2, 2025
Additionally, the authors of the study noted that the level of genetic isolation found on both mummies is highly unusual, and allowed them to make some educated assumptions. According to the study, this level of genetic isolation suggests the region was not a migration corridor for ancient humans.
Well-documented analyses of ancient cave paintings and animal remains have suggested that the inhabitants of the ‘green’ Sahara were pastoralists who herded animals such as goats and sheep. Some researchers have suggested that the herder communities spread from the Near East.
The new study suggests that this hypothesis is very unlikely because of the extraordinary genetic isolation found in the mummies of the green Sahara. Instead, the study’s authors have hypothesized that pastoralism was adopted by the isolated community through interaction with other human groups that had mastered farming.
Di Lernia explained, “We know now that they were isolated in terms of genetics, but not in cultural terms. There are a lot of networks that we know from several parts of the continent, because we have pottery coming from sub-Saharan Africa. We have pottery coming from the Nile Valley and the like.”
According to another expert, the DNA extracted from the mummies reveals that most of their ancestry could be traced to a previously unknown variant of a North African genetic lineage.
