Ancient DNA reveals Maghreb communities preserved their culture and genes, even in a time of human migration
For a long time, North Africa was seen as a passive participant in this transformation. The dominant narrative suggested that farming economies never fully took root there.
Some studies proposed that North African communities actively resisted agriculture, except perhaps in the Nile Delta and the western Maghreb (modern-day Morocco). They continued to rely on land snails, wild plants, and hunting for survival. Only later, they also began herding domesticated sheep, goats, and cattle, introduced from southwest Asia.
Genetic studies have only recently tested this reconstruction in North Africa. This has never been done in the eastern Maghreb (modern-day Tunisia and eastern Algeria) – until now.
As an Africanist archaeologist, I specialise in the study of ancient societies across Mediterranean Africa and the Sahara. My focus is on how humans adapted to their environments and the rise of food production in these regions. I recently conducted research in the eastern Maghreb alongside an international team of archaeologists, geneticists, and physical anthropologists to trace ancient population movements.
Our new study has just been published in Nature. We analysed the ancient genomes (complete DNA sequences) of nine individuals who lived in the eastern Maghreb between 15,000 and 6,000 years ago.
This may seem like a small sample. But, in the field of ancient DNA research, even a few well-preserved genomes can provide significant insights. They serve as reference points for tracing genetic lineages and identifying ancestral connections.
By adding genetic evidence to broader archaeological findings, we reconstructed patterns of population continuity, interaction and change over thousands of years.
Our results were striking. It's clear from these genomes that some influence from farmers did reach north Africa from across the Mediterranean. But much of the genetic makeup of the eastern Maghreb populations remained rooted in their ancient foraging heritage.
This challenges the long-held narrative about migration into and out of north Africa before and during the Neolithic. It deepens our understanding of the past and highlights the incredible complexity of human movement and cultural exchange.
As we continue to unravel the genetic legacy of our ancestors, studies like this remind us of the complexity of human history. They show that the history of agriculture in the Mediterranean was not merely one of population replacement. Rather, it was a tale of cultural exchange, adaptation and continuity.
And researching these ancient human movements is more than just a matter of understanding history. It also provides insights into the patterns of migration and adaptation that can help us understand similar processes today.
We worked with ancient genomes extracted from human skeletal remains housed in museum or heritage institution collections. They came from excavations at four sites Afalou Bou Rhummel, Djebba, Doukanet el Khoutifa and SHM-1 (Hergla), all in the eastern Maghreb.
We chose the specimens because they were well-preserved, which is not always the case with ancient DNA.
The analysis found that some of the sampled individuals possessed European farmer ancestry around 7,000 years ago. Europeans contributed some genes to the region – but no more than 20% per individual.
This is a modest genetic influence compared to ancient western Maghreb populations where, at some sites, European farmer ancestry can reach as high as 80%.
Our findings suggest that food-producing economies were introduced to the eastern Maghreb not by a large-scale replacement of the population (as seen in Europe) but more gradually. Change happened through sporadic migrations, mixing of cultures, and the spread of knowledge.
One of the most intriguing discoveries was the genetic trace of European hunter-gatherers found in one individual from Djebba, Tunisia, dating to around 8,000 years ago. This suggests that early European and north African populations could interact via seafaring routes across the Strait of Sicily.
Researchers have long known that cultural exchange took place across the Mediterranean. We see this from the spread of technologies such as the so-called pressure technique – a method of shaping stone tools by carefully applying force with a pointed implement rather than striking the stone directly.
The discovery in Tunisia of obsidian (volcano glass) from Pantelleria, a small island in the Strait of Sicily, strengthens the link between the Mediterranean's northern and southern shores.
Prehistoric wooden artefacts are seldom preserved over time. This may explain the absence of boat remains from this period in North Africa. However, dugout canoes from similar periods found in central Italy (Bracciano Lake) suggest that seafaring skills were well established around the Mediterranean. While there is no direct evidence linking these specific canoes to connections between Europe and North Africa, they support the idea that navigation was within the technological capabilities of the time.
Our study is the first time the connections suggested by this existing evidence have been substantiated genetically.
Read more:
Another exciting aspect of our study is the identification of early Levantine (modern southwest Asia)-related ancestry in the eastern Maghreb. This was detected in human remains dated to around 6,800 years ago. It's a genetic signature that postdates the arrival of European farmer ancestry by several centuries. It likely reflects the movement of people associated with early pastoralism, who introduced domesticated animals, such as sheep and goats, to the region.
It is especially rewarding to see the genetic evidence aligning with the archaeological record. This underscores the value of multidisciplinary research in uncovering past human dynamics.
What emerges overall is a region of strong genetic and cultural resilience, consistent with archaeological evidence.
This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Giulio Lucarini, National Research Council (CNR)
Read more:
Taung child: the controversial story of the fossil discovery that proved humanity's common origins in Africa – podcast
DNA detectives in Antarctica: probing 6,000 years of penguin poo for clues to the past
'Brain vitrification': new research shows how the Vesuvius eruption turned a man's brain to glass
Giulio Lucarini receives funding for this study from the National Research Council of Italy (CNR) and ISMEO – International Association for Mediterranean and Oriental Studies, Italy. He is affiliated with the National Research Council of Italy, Institute of Heritage Science (CNR-ISPC). This study resulted from a collaboration between the following institutions: Harvard University, USA; the Max Planck Institute, Germany; the National Research Council of Italy (CNR); the Institut National du Patrimoine (INP), Tunisia; the Centre National de Recherche Préhistorique, Anthropologique et Historique (CNRPAH), Algeria; the Institut de Paléontologie Humaine (IPH), France; the University of Vienna, Austria; Sapienza University of Rome, Italy; and ISMEO – International Association for Mediterranean and Oriental Studies, Italy.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
19 hours ago
- New York Times
How a Soggy Spring and Hot Summer Nights Made 2025 an ‘Exceptional' Year for Fireflies
'Every summer without fail,' said Adam Young, recalling summer nights chasing fireflies as a child in Iowa, 'I remember running barefoot in the grass at dusk, listening to the crickets and cicadas, chasing fireflies until it got too dark to see,' Mr. Young, who would later rise to fame as the musician behind the band Owl City and its song 'Fireflies,' still recalls those summers fondly. 'You learned to keep your mouth shut,' he said. 'There were thousands of them — you'd ride your bike around and they'd hit you in the face.' This summer, that childhood magic seems to have made a comeback. From city parks to suburban backyards, fireflies have been lighting up the evening sky across the northeastern United States in greater numbers than in recent years — making it feel as if the opening lines of Mr. Young's debut hit were the literal truth: 'You would not believe your eyes, if 10 million fireflies lit up the world as I fell asleep.' And the reason? The weather. Fireflies thrive in warm, humid conditions. Fireflies, or Lampyridae, are not flies or worms, but beetles, and ancient ones at that. 'They have been around for millions of years before humans evolved,' said Jessica Ware, a curator and the division chair of Invertebrate Zoology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. There are more than 2,200 known species worldwide, with 165 documented in the United States and Canada, according to the Xerces Society, which works to protect invertebrates and their habitats. New species are still being discovered. Fireflies are coldblooded insects, meaning their body temperatures are regulated by their environment. They thrive in warm, humid conditions — just the sort of setting Mr. Young recalls from his Iowa childhood. 'They produce an enzyme, luciferase, that interacts with a substance called luciferin, with oxygen, magnesium and a little energy to produce light,' said Sarah Lower, an assistant professor of biology at Bucknell University. The reaction that produces that magical-seeming light is more efficient in warmer air, which explains fireflies' increased activity during hot, muggy summers. Adult fireflies live only briefly. Their lives underground, however, span much longer. 'Fireflies spend up to two years in the larval stage before they emerge as adults,' said Professor Lower. But as adults, most only live about two weeks, she said. A couple of particularly soggy spring seasons in recent years might have given firefly larvae a boost, experts said. New York City received 16.64 inches of rainfall in spring 2024 and 15.35 inches in spring 2025 — both well above the seasonal average of 12.34 inches, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Meanwhile, Philadelphia got 13.07 inches in 2024 and 14.41 inches in 2025, also higher than its spring average, which is 10.77 inches. Zack Taylor, the branch chief at NOAA's Weather Prediction Center, noted that unusually warm summer nights this year may be another contributing factor. He explained that clouds, high humidity and light winds can trap heat near the earth's surface, keeping nighttime temperatures elevated. Because fireflies thrive on warm and humid conditions, these above-average overnight temperatures also could be fueling the noticeable increase. Overnight lows in Central Park are among the warmest on record, he said, and the same is true in Philadelphia. In fact, he added, since June 1, several locations east of the Mississippi River are experiencing their warmest average lows on record: Raleigh, Charlotte, and Wilmington in North Carolina; Huntington, and Kennedy Airport in New York. Gabriel Willow, a naturalist who leads nocturnal ecology tours in Central Park and Prospect Park, has also noticed the uptick. 'It's an exceptional year for fireflies,' he said. 'Last spring and summer, and this year as well, were both wetter than average, so that's helped the fireflies survive and thrive.' This is a bright year, but many species are at risk. Candace Fallon, a biologist at the Xerces Society, said it was uplifting to hear so many reports of larger firefly populations, but it was difficult to draw any conclusions from a single season of data. 'Because firefly populations can bounce up and down each year, depending on local conditions,' she said, 'we really need long-term data sets to understand how fireflies are doing over the long term.' The Xerces Society maintains a community science program called Firefly Atlas, which collects data on firefly distribution to produce rough estimates of abundance, habitat associations, phenology and threats. But Ms. Fallon said monitoring at established sites was still in its infancy in the United States. 'We lack base line data from prior decades to authoritatively speak to how populations are faring compared to the past,' she said. 'That said, anecdotal reports, documented threats to fireflies, local extirpations, and research on population trends of other insect groups all suggest that fireflies are declining.' At least 18 of the estimated 170 North American species are considered at risk of extinction, according an assessment the Firefly Atlas completed with the International Union for Conservation of Nature Firefly Specialist Group. Habitat loss, pesticide use, light pollution and climate change are the primary drivers. 'They need dark night skies as they flash a species-specific pattern of light to communicate and find a mate,' Dr. Ware said. 'Light pollution makes it hard for the species to find their mates which means fewer mating successes and smaller population the next year.' Mr. Willow said that the most abundant species in New York — Photinus pyralis, or the 'big dipper firefly' — is more resilient to light pollution than others. 'It generally is out for a couple of hours around sunset at dusk looking for a mate,' he said. 'Since it comes out and displays when it's lighter out relative to some other fireflies that prefer darkness, it's less sensitive to light pollution.' Counterintuitively, that means cities might offer safer conditions for fireflies than rural or suburban areas, as long as green spaces exist. 'Cities don't tend to have widespread insecticide use aside from spraying for mosquitoes,' Mr. Willow said. 'That can make them unexpectedly hospitable environments for insects like fireflies — especially where there's parkland, unmowed grasses, native wildflowers and trees.' Here's how to keep fireflies around for the future. So what can be done to keep the magic glowing for future summers? 'Lights out for lightning bugs,' said Professor Lower. 'Turn your outside lights off during the summer.' She also recommends leaving your leaves to decompose in the soil in the fall and not mowing at least part of your yard — 'devote it to fireflies,' she said. Moist, organic soil is critical. Creating a dark part of your garden by planting taller trees and shrubs can also help fireflies thrive, she added. For those tempted to relive childhood summer nights by catching fireflies in jars, there's a responsible way to do it. 'We recommend catch and release,' Professor Lower said. Most North American species only have a few nights of adulthood, 'so capturing them in a jar can prevent them from finding a mate,' she said. If you do capture them in a jar, she recommends skipping the holes. 'Fireflies dry out rapidly, and holes make that worse,' she said. 'Put them in an enclosed jar with a piece of damp paper towel or a piece of apple.' If you're going out to spot fireflies, Mr. Willow recommends seeking out grassy areas with scattered trees. 'Strawberry Fields in Central Park, the Long Meadow in Prospect Park, really any grassy areas in city parks and even patches of grass in backyards or abandoned lots,' he said. He added the best time is around sunset and two to three hours afterward. 'The fireflies start flashing earlier in shady areas under trees where it's darker, and then later in open areas when the light levels drop.'
CNN
21 hours ago
- CNN
Everyone hates wasps. But this scientist wants us to love them.
Animal storiesFacebookTweetLink Follow Six months after he published 'On the Origin of Species,' Charles Darwin wrote a letter to his friend, Asa Gray. He was troubled by a family of parasitic wasps, the ichneumonidae, that lays its eggs in the body of another insect, such as a caterpillar; when the young hatch, they devour the host. 'I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae,' he wrote. The creature is cited as one of the factors that led him to question divine creation. Hatred of wasps goes back thousands of years — Aristotle denigrated them as 'devoid of the extraordinary features' which bees possess. But Seirian Sumner, professor of behavioral ecology at University College London (UCL), wants to show there's more to wasps than meets the eye. She has devoted her career as a zoologist to studying the insects; she has written a book on them, and even her Instagram handle is 'waspprof.' She was involved in the recently opened World of Wasps exhibition at the UCL Grant Museum of Zoology in London, which hopes to 'reveal the unseen lives of wasps.' Speaking to CNN from the exhibition, Sumner gave her top five reasons why we should all love wasps as much as she does. Pest control 'Wasps are nature's pest controllers. A world without wasps would mean that we would be inclined to use more chemicals to control the populations of the other insects and creepy crawlies that we don't like: caterpillars, aphids, spiders, beetles – you name it – there is a wasp that hunts it. So wasps are really important top predators in regulating all of those insect populations within the ecosystem.' Pollination 'Bees sting and yet we tolerate that because we know what they do. We understand that they're important in ecosystems as pollinators. Wasps are equally important. 'Just like bees, they visit flowers to get nectar. Although they hunt, the prey is for their offspring, it's not for the adults themselves. They need to get some nutrition from somewhere, and they get that from flowers through nectar, just like bees do.' Medicines 'Some (wasp) venom may potentially be a cure for cancer. (Indeed, one study has shown that a Brazilian wasp can kill cancer cells without harming surrounding healthy cells.) Wasps also have lots of antibiotic in their venom and on their bodies that they use to keep their prey disease free. We should start tapping into the microbial defences that wasps have.' Food 'Wasps are a popular source of nutrition for humans around the world. Particularly in Asia, people love to eat wasps. They will boil up the larvae or freeze dry the pupae, mix it with a bit of chili – nothing is better. They're really high in protein, low in fat and there are even people in parts of the world who actively farm wasps in order to produce enough of these juicy, amazing larvae to eat because they're such an important source of food.' Paper makers 'They are supreme paper makers, and there is the idea that we got the idea of how to make paper by watching wasps. 'Most people have seen a wasp collecting a little bit of bark from a tree stump or a fence post. They mix it up with their saliva and smooth it out into this beautiful, thin paper that they then use to construct these huge football-sized societies that they live within. The paper inside these nests is truly remarkable. There are three different types. On the outside, you've got this envelope which is quick and dirty for them to build. Inside you've got the combs that are strong but light, like the layers inside a high-rise building. The combs are then strutted together with a third type of paper, which is really strong and squidgy. If you try and pull it apart with your hands, you simply can't do it. All of that just inside a single wasp nest.' Bonus point: A model society '(The polistes paper wasp) is like the insect version of a meerkat. Unlike the yellowjacket wasps and the honeybees, where (individuals) are committed during development to become a queen or a worker, these guys, when they hatch as adults, the whole world is their oyster. 'They can be a queen, they can be a worker, they can start life as a worker and switch to be a queen. That's just like a meerkat society where you have breeders and then you have non-breeders who will be looking out for predators or go out foraging. Everyone is helping together, and this is exactly what these (wasps) do. 'They help us understand the evolution of altruism, why any individual should give up its chance to reproduce in order to help another reproduce. These wasps have been really important in understanding why animals come together to live in groups.' The World of Wasps exhibition at the UCL Grant Museum of Zoology in London runs until January 24, 2026.
CNN
21 hours ago
- CNN
Everyone hates wasps. But this scientist wants us to love them.
Six months after he published 'On the Origin of Species,' Charles Darwin wrote a letter to his friend, Asa Gray. He was troubled by a family of parasitic wasps, the ichneumonidae, that lays its eggs in the body of another insect, such as a caterpillar; when the young hatch, they devour the host. 'I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae,' he wrote. The creature is cited as one of the factors that led him to question divine creation. Hatred of wasps goes back thousands of years — Aristotle denigrated them as 'devoid of the extraordinary features' which bees possess. But Seirian Sumner, professor of behavioral ecology at University College London (UCL), wants to show there's more to wasps than meets the eye. She has devoted her career as a zoologist to studying the insects; she has written a book on them, and even her Instagram handle is 'waspprof.' She was involved in the recently opened World of Wasps exhibition at the UCL Grant Museum of Zoology in London, which hopes to 'reveal the unseen lives of wasps.' Speaking to CNN from the exhibition, Sumner gave her top five reasons why we should all love wasps as much as she does. Pest control 'Wasps are nature's pest controllers. A world without wasps would mean that we would be inclined to use more chemicals to control the populations of the other insects and creepy crawlies that we don't like: caterpillars, aphids, spiders, beetles – you name it – there is a wasp that hunts it. So wasps are really important top predators in regulating all of those insect populations within the ecosystem.' Pollination 'Bees sting and yet we tolerate that because we know what they do. We understand that they're important in ecosystems as pollinators. Wasps are equally important. 'Just like bees, they visit flowers to get nectar. Although they hunt, the prey is for their offspring, it's not for the adults themselves. They need to get some nutrition from somewhere, and they get that from flowers through nectar, just like bees do.' Medicines 'Some (wasp) venom may potentially be a cure for cancer. (Indeed, one study has shown that a Brazilian wasp can kill cancer cells without harming surrounding healthy cells.) Wasps also have lots of antibiotic in their venom and on their bodies that they use to keep their prey disease free. We should start tapping into the microbial defences that wasps have.' Food 'Wasps are a popular source of nutrition for humans around the world. Particularly in Asia, people love to eat wasps. They will boil up the larvae or freeze dry the pupae, mix it with a bit of chili – nothing is better. They're really high in protein, low in fat and there are even people in parts of the world who actively farm wasps in order to produce enough of these juicy, amazing larvae to eat because they're such an important source of food.' Paper makers 'They are supreme paper makers, and there is the idea that we got the idea of how to make paper by watching wasps. 'Most people have seen a wasp collecting a little bit of bark from a tree stump or a fence post. They mix it up with their saliva and smooth it out into this beautiful, thin paper that they then use to construct these huge football-sized societies that they live within. The paper inside these nests is truly remarkable. There are three different types. On the outside, you've got this envelope which is quick and dirty for them to build. Inside you've got the combs that are strong but light, like the layers inside a high-rise building. The combs are then strutted together with a third type of paper, which is really strong and squidgy. If you try and pull it apart with your hands, you simply can't do it. All of that just inside a single wasp nest.' Bonus point: A model society '(The polistes paper wasp) is like the insect version of a meerkat. Unlike the yellowjacket wasps and the honeybees, where (individuals) are committed during development to become a queen or a worker, these guys, when they hatch as adults, the whole world is their oyster. 'They can be a queen, they can be a worker, they can start life as a worker and switch to be a queen. That's just like a meerkat society where you have breeders and then you have non-breeders who will be looking out for predators or go out foraging. Everyone is helping together, and this is exactly what these (wasps) do. 'They help us understand the evolution of altruism, why any individual should give up its chance to reproduce in order to help another reproduce. These wasps have been really important in understanding why animals come together to live in groups.' The World of Wasps exhibition at the UCL Grant Museum of Zoology in London runs until January 24, 2026.
