Stone Age European DNA Found in North African Remains, Study Reveals

European hunter-gatherers from the Stone Age would have crossed the Mediterranean to join the Maghreb, researchers report in an article published on March 12 in the journal Nature. Human remains of nine individuals dating back to the Neolithic period, discovered between Tunisia and Algeria, confirm this thesis.

The DNA analyses carried out by the scientists made it possible to determine that one of the bodies exhumed from the Djebba site in Tunisia is that of a man of European origin. These European ancestors who joined North Africa during the Stone Age would have lived between 4,000 and 8,000 BC.

The other bodies were found at the Doukanet el Khoutifa site, south of Tunis, but also in western Morocco and Algeria, according to Futura-Science. Regarding Morocco, the hypothesis is that these European hunter-gatherers would have crossed the Strait of Gibraltar from Spain to join the kingdom.

These European ancestors were already "colonizing" the Africans with their culture and know-how, the researchers note. This new study represents a real advance for archaeologists, as it reveals a relatively unknown part of the history of Africa.