Mummies found in Saharan Takarkori reveal that vast expanses of today’s desert were a verdant paradise thousands of years ago, and their DNA uncovers traces of a previously unknown African group.
For millennia, the Sahara concealed one of the greatest mysteries of prehistoric humanity. Only now, thanks to the latest genetic research, are we beginning to uncover the marvelous history of people who dwelled where only desert sands now stretch.
In the Libyan portion of the Sahara, scientists managed to achieve what was considered impossible until recently. They decoded the complete genomes (the set of genetic information of an organism) of two 7000-year-old mummies, preserved in the extremely harsh conditions of the hot, arid desert.
This is a genuine breakthrough in archaeogenetics (the science studying the past using genetic material extracted from ancient remains), opening a new chapter in the study of ancient societies.
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50 Thousand Years of Genetic Isolation
It all began in 2003 when archaeologists reached the hard-to-access Takarkori rock shelter in southwestern Libya.
The Takarkori rock shelter, an archaeological site in the Tadrart Acacus mountains in Libya
The journey required the use of four-wheel-drive vehicles, but the efforts were worthwhile. Among the finds were the remains of 15 women and children who constituted a community 7000 years ago, subsisting on fishing and raising sheep and goats.
The two best-preserved female mummies became the subject of detailed investigations. Savino di Lernia, one of the archaeologists involved in the project, explains:
“We started with these two skeletons because they were very well preserved—skin, ligaments, tissues.”
The result achieved is impressive also because the hot and dry desert climate usually destroys genetic material. Previous attempts in 2019 only managed to restore mitochondrial DNA (passed down only through the maternal line).
The results of the genetic analysis became a real sensation. It turned out that the inhabitants of the once-green Sahara belonged to a previously unknown population that had been in genetic isolation for tens of thousands of years.
Scientists took samples from the mummified remains of two 7000-year-old women, including the skeleton seen here, discovered in the Takarkori rock shelter.
This lost branch separated from the ancestors of sub-Saharan Africans about 50,000 years ago and remained isolated up until the death of the examined mummies.
Scholars term this group a “ghost population” (a term for a population whose direct fossil evidence is absent, but genetic traces are discovered in other ancient or modern groups), since until now, its traces were only fleetingly observed in the genes of contemporary people.
Professor Johannes Krause compares the significance of the discovery to finding a living fossil:
“At the time they lived, these people were almost like living fossils—like something that shouldn’t be there. If you had told me these genomes were 40,000 years old, I would have believed you.”
Interestingly, 7000 years ago, the Sahara looked completely different from today. It was a green savanna with trees, lakes, and rivers that served as a refuge for large animals, including hippos and elephants.
The inhabitants of this region maintained a varied economy, combining fishing with animal husbandry.
Saharan Mummies Belonged to a Mysterious Population
One of the greatest unsolved puzzles remains the fate of this population in the period between 50,000 and 15,000 years ago.
Professor Krause draws attention to this issue:
“The greening of the Sahara only occurred 15,000 years ago. Before that, it was also a desert. What we really don’t know is where they were situated between 50,000 years ago, when they split from the southern African population.”
One of the most intriguing aspects of this finding is the visible contradiction between genetic isolation and active cultural exchange. Prolonged genetic isolation suggests that the “Green Sahara” did not serve as a migration corridor between Northern and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Meanwhile, archeological findings paint a vastly different picture culturally. Savino di Lernia emphasizes:
“Now we know they were genetically isolated, but not culturally. There are many connections we know about from different parts of the continent because we have pottery from Sub-Saharan Africa. We have pottery from the Nile Valley, and so forth.”
The Takarkori rock shelter is one of many Sahara archaeological sites.
The artifacts discovered attest to broad networks of cultural exchange. Pottery from different African regions proves that the inhabitants of Takarkori maintained trade and cultural connections with distant communities.
This discovery is fundamental to understanding how innovations spread in the prehistoric era.
Livestock herding spread through cultural diffusion (the process of mutual incorporation of cultural traits from one society to another), rather than population replacement—people adopted new technologies from neighbors instead of being displaced by them.
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