Between 14,500 and 5,000 years ago, the Sahara Desert, now a vast arid expanse, was a lush, green paradise teeming with life and water. During this “Green Sahara” period, a mysterious and isolated human group thrived in complete genetic seclusion from surrounding populations, as revealed by groundbreaking genetic research.
Scientists have now recovered the first complete genomes from the remains of two women buried at Takarkori, a rock shelter in southwestern Libya, dating back 7,000 years. These skeletons offer a rare window into a previously unknown chapter of human prehistory, unveiling a distinct branch of the human family tree.
The Takarkori site was once home to early human communities, with at least 15 women and children found buried within the shelter. These people sustained themselves by fishing and herding domesticated sheep and goats, livestock introduced from outside Africa. Artifacts unearthed at the site, including stone, wood, and bone tools, pottery, woven baskets, and carved figurines, highlight their sophisticated culture and reliance on herding rather than local domestication.
Genetic analysis shows that the Takarkori people evolved separately from both sub-Saharan African populations to the south and Eurasian groups to the north for thousands of years. “The Takarkori people show no significant genetic influence from sub-Saharan Africans or prehistoric populations of the Near East and Europe,” said Johannes Krause, a leading archaeogeneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. “This suggests they remained genetically isolated, even though herding—a major cultural innovation—originated outside Africa.”
The genomes confirm that the Takarkori group descended from a unique North African lineage that diverged from sub-Saharan populations around 50,000 years ago, around the same time other early humans migrated out of Africa to become the ancestors of non-African peoples. Krause noted that this group likely preserved a remnant of the genetic diversity once widespread in North Africa between 50,000 and 20,000 years ago. “After 20,000 years ago, new groups arrived from the Eastern Mediterranean, followed by migrations from the Iberian Peninsula and Sicily about 8,000 years ago. Yet, for reasons we don’t fully understand, the Takarkori remained isolated far longer than expected,” he added.
The Sahara’s habitability, which began around 15,000 years ago, raises questions about the Takarkori people’s true homeland. Their genetic isolation persisted until the African Humid Period—a warm, wet era—ended around 3,000 BCE, when the region reverted to desert. Unlike early humans who left Africa and interbred with Neanderthals in Eurasia, leaving genetic traces in modern non-African DNA, the Takarkori people show minimal signs of such mixing, indicating limited contact with other groups.
For decades, researchers faced challenges extracting viable DNA from Takarkori remains due to harsh preservation conditions. In 2019, they recovered only mitochondrial DNA, which traces maternal ancestry but provides limited insights. A breakthrough came when advanced techniques at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig enabled scientists to sequence the full genomes of two mummies, illuminating the ancestry and genetic history of this lost Saharan population.
The discovery of the Takarkori people reshapes our understanding of ancient human diversity in North Africa, revealing a resilient and isolated community that thrived in a once-verdant Sahara until the sands reclaimed their world.