The San and Kho indigenous peoples of southern Africa can trace much of their genetic ancestry to prehistoric hunter-gatherers who lived in the region 10,000 years ago. This degree of genetic continuity over thousands of years is “unusual in the world’s archaeological record,” the authors of the new study say.
Researchers reached this surprising conclusion after sequencing the genomes of nine ancient humans buried at the Oakhurst Rock Complex near the city of George in the Western Cape. Estimated to be between 10,000 and 1,300 years old, these long-dead Bushmen provide a ‘traverse in time’ of the genetic changes that occurred in the region from the early Holocene to the end of the Stone Age. Masu.
Incredibly, the oldest individuals included in the study “exhibited a genetic makeup indistinguishable from later inhabitants of the Oakhurst rock shelter.” This suggests that the local gene pool remained unchanged by outside lineages for about 9,000 years. Study author Joscha Gretzinger emphasized the uniqueness of these findings, saying, “Similar studies in Europe have revealed a history of large-scale genetic changes due to human migration over the past 10,000 years. These new results in southernmost Africa are quite different.” , and suggests a long history of relative genetic stability. ”
The researchers note in their paper that the area occupied by the southern San and Kho peoples throughout the Holocene is one of the world’s largest regions on Earth in that it does not appear to have experienced multiple waves of migration, genetic mixing, or replacement. It is described as being different from most other regions in the world. of ancient lineage. But this rare period ended “rather abruptly” around 1,300 years ago, the researchers continued, as pastoralists and farmers from East and West Africa began migrating into southern Africa.
As a result of this influx, all modern San and Kho peoples derive at least 9 percent of their genetic heritage from origins outside South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana. But researchers have nevertheless found that some southern San people maintain direct relationships with Oakhurst’s 10,000-year-old residents, and that these early Holocene ancestors’ “ancient The study continues to preserve “genetic characteristics derived from the Pleistocene era.”
“Particularly among the Khomani, Koragemense, and Nama, who are among the most mixed San and Koe groups in southern Africa, some individuals trace most of their ancestry back to these (Late Stone Age) hunter-gatherers.” write the study authors. .
The study is published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.
