A team of researchers from the University of Cape Town (South Africa), the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig and the University of Valencia has analysed human remains from the Oakhurst rock shelter in the far south of Africa and has reconstructed the genomes of thirteen individuals who died between 1,300 and 10,000 years ago, including the oldest human genome recovered from southern Africa to date. The study has been published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.
"The Oakhurst rock shelter is an ideal site for studying human history, as it contained more than 40 human graves and well-preserved layers of human artefacts, such as stone tools, dating back 12,000 years", says Victoria Gibbon, professor of Biological Anthropology at the University of Cape Town and co-author of the study. "Sites like this are rare in South Africa, and Oakhurst has allowed a better understanding of the movements and relationships of the local population in its environment for almost 9,000 years".
"The decoding of Africa’s wonderful genetic heritage has begun. This and future studies of ancient DNA in the continent, which witnessed the emergence of humankind, will undoubtedly contribute to greater knowledge about human evolution and what makes us special as humans", says CIDEGENT researcher Domingo Carlos Salazar García, from the University of Valencia and author of the study.
Ancient DNA has provided spectacular insights into human history, particularly in Europe and Asia, where researchers have reconstructed the genomes of thousands of people. Prior to this study, fewer than two dozen ancient genomes had been recovered from southern Africa (Botswana, South Africa and Zambia), with the oldest genomes dating to around 2,000 years ago. However, this area holds some of the world’s oldest evidence of anatomically modern humans.
The genetic sequencing of thirteen individuals from the site was not without challenges, explains Stephan Schiffels, also an author of the study: "Such ancient and poorly preserved DNA is quite difficult to sequence, and it took several attempts using different technologies and laboratory protocols to extract and process the DNA". The genomes represent a timeline from 10,000 to 1,300 years ago.
A key finding was that the oldest genomes from the Oakhurst rock shelter are genetically quite similar to the San and Khoekhoe groups who live in the same region today. This was a surprise, as Joscha Gretzinger, the lead author of the study, explains: "Similar studies conducted in Europe have revealed a history of large-scale genetic changes due to human movements over the last 10,000 years. These new results from the southern tip of Africa are quite different and suggest a long history of relative genetic stability". This only changed about 1,200 years ago, when people arrived and introduced livestock herding, farming and new languages to the region and began to interact with local hunter-gatherer groups.
: Gretzinger, J., Gibbon, V.E., Penske, S.E. et al. 9,000 years of genetic continuity in southernmost Africa demonstrated at Oakhurst rockshelter. Nat Ecol Evol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559’024 -02532-3
Annex photo caption :
The human genome over the last 10,000 years is similar to that of current ethnic groups in southern Africa
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