This complex interaction of cultures between 5500 and 4500 BC in the Maghreb region led to exchanges of knowledge, cultural changes and mutual genetic influences
A new study recently published in the journal Nature shows that the transition to the Neolithic period in North Africa was significantly influenced by the mixture between African hunter-gatherers, European farmers and nomadic shepherds from the Middle East. This complex interaction of cultures between 5500 and 4500 BC in the Maghreb region led to exchanges of knowledge, cultural changes and mutual genetic influences.
Until recently, archaeologists debated the origins of agriculture and domestication in North Africa - whether they developed independently or as a result of cultural transfer dynamics from other regions such as the Middle East and the Mediterranean.
The new study, led by Uppsala University and Burgos University, shows that neither of these approaches is completely accurate. Instead, the beginning of the Neolithic period in North Africa was the result of a complex and multidimensional process, as evidenced by the archaeological findings.
The innovation of the research stems from the integrated genetic sequence reading of Neolithic remains from three key sites: the Kef Takht al-Ghar cave in Tetouan; Ifri is spoken or spoken in the province of Misat; and Sakhirat-Roissy, south of Rabat in Morocco.
In the first site, the remains of a small group of individuals descended from European farmers who settled in the area around 7400 BC were identified and studied. In the second, the existence of a cemetery in a cave where individuals of pure local origin were buried hundreds of years later - farmers with pottery descended from native hunter-gatherers who adopted New techniques from the immigrants. And on the third, a prehistoric cemetery dating back a thousand years was identified More, with genomes related to the spread of pastoral peoples from the Euphrates.
The dating of the remains and their genetic investigation allowed the international research team to verify that the biological and cultural diversity of the people who lived in the territory more than 7000 years ago can explain the success of the Neolithic process in North Africa.
The study specifically states that long before the Romanization of the western end of the Mediterranean and before the Islamization of the region, human groups on both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar already shared knowledge, cultural aspects and of course genes.
The work represents a turning point in understanding the Neolithic expansion processes in the region, and indicates the direction of the process - probably from the Iberian island towards the Maghreb. This find places the earliest printed decorations on Moroccan pottery in the broader context of the first decorated pottery in the western Mediterranean basin.
Luciana Simoas, a Portuguese researcher at Uppsala University and the lead researcher of the paper, said: "The fact that the Berber and Semitic languages belong to the Afro-Asiatic linguistic stock may be a result of the genomic history we find in the research sites."
More of the topic in Hayadan:
