Ancient DNA Reveals: Iberian Farmers Brought Agriculture to Morocco 7,400 Years Ago

Led by an team of Moroccan, Spanish and Swedish researchers headed by evolutionary biologist Luciana G. Simões of Uppsala University, this study on the DNA of nine individuals whose remains were found at four sites in Morocco and dating back between 7,600 and 5,700 years ago, reveals that agriculture was introduced to Morocco by migrants from the Iberian peninsula at the beginning of the Neolithic period. The population of the region quickly adopted this way of life based on agriculture and livestock farming, reports El Español.

The analyses of the remains found at the oldest site, the Taforalt cave, dating back about 14,500 years, revealed an ancestry linked to sub-Saharan groups and Mediterranean Levantine hunter-gatherer populations. At Ifri n’Amr o’Moussa, the DNA found shows genetic continuity in the region for at least 7,000 years, while at Kehf el Baroud in the north, the remains found reveal the existence of a 5,700-year-old agricultural community.

In the Ifri Ouberrid cave, the remains found date back about 7,600 years, and have a genetic profile similar to those found at Taforalt and Ifri n’Amr o’Moussa, confirming the demographic and cultural continuity of the region over a long period. On the Kaf Taht el-Ghar site, evidence of cereal cultivation, livestock farming and impressed cardial ceramics, characteristic of the Neolithic period, were discovered.

According to the researchers, 75% of the DNA of four of the remains of individuals found comes from Neolithic European populations. The remains of three individuals found in Skhirat Rouazi, in western Morocco, dating back about 6,400 years, and at Kehf el Baroud were also analyzed. "This research highlights a more complex and dynamic model of human migration and genetic admixture in Morocco," says Abdeljalil Bouzouggar, a researcher at the National Institute of Archaeology and Heritage Sciences in Rabat.