Remarkable discovery: 7,000-year-old unusual mummies reveal not only the Sahara’s past but humanity’s history too

Researchers have uncovered the remains of two 7,000-year-old female herders in the Takarkori rock shelter in the southwestern Sahara. These unusual mummies belonged to a previously unknown North African genetic lineage, and their DNA casts a completely new light on the story of the ancient inhabitants of the Green Sahara.

While the word “desert” may immediately conjure images of barren wastelands for many, there were periods in Earth’s history when these now inhospitable regions teemed with life. Hard to imagine as it may be, the Sahara was once such a place — a verdant landscape with lakes, vegetation, and human communities.

The most exciting evidence of this lost world may be these 7,000-year-old unusual mummies, remarkable not only because of their age but also because they completely rewrite what we thought we knew about the ancient peoples of North Africa.

The story of the Green Sahara

As noted in a study published in Nature, between 14,800 and 5,500 years ago, the Sahara looked very different. During the so-called African Humid Period, the region received sufficient rainfall to support savannas, lakes, and marshlands, creating environmental conditions that allowed human communities to settle, farm, and live in one place for extended periods.

Part of this world may have been the mysterious population now revealed through these unusual mummies. In the Takarkori rock shelter, located in present-day southwestern Libya, the remains of two Neolithic female herders were discovered, offering previously unknown insights into their lives.

The unusual mummies and a previously unknown genetic lineage

The genetic analysis of the mummies was carried out by archaeogeneticist Nada Salem and her team at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Although the arid climate is extremely unfavourable for DNA preservation, the remains contained enough fragmented genetic material to allow the researchers to draw important conclusions.

The results were surprising: the unusual mummies did not carry the expected sub-Saharan genetic traits. Instead, they belonged to a previously completely unknown North African genetic lineage, which appears to have diverged from sub-Saharan populations around the same time as the ancestors of modern non-African populations migrated out of the region.

Relation to the Taforalt hunter-gatherers

The closest known genetic relatives of the Takarkori mummies were probably the 15,000-year-old hunter-gatherers of Morocco’s Taforalt Cave. Genetically, both groups were at roughly the same distance from contemporary sub-Saharan populations, suggesting that there was minimal genetic mixing between North and sub-Saharan Africa during this period.

Interestingly, the genetic makeup of the unusual mummies also included Neanderthal DNA — far less than in the Taforalt population, but still significantly more than in other contemporary sub-Saharan groups.

A new perspective on the spread of pastoralism

This genetic isolation has important implications for interpreting the region’s history. It was previously believed that farming and herding spread across North Africa through migrating populations, but the Takarkori findings suggest a different story.

According to the researchers, pastoralism spread not through genetic mixing but via cultural diffusion within a deeply isolated North African population. The ancestors of the unusual mummies were originally hunter-gatherers who, even before domesticating animals, used relatively complex tools: pottery, baskets, as well as wooden and bone implements, and lived in one place for extended periods.

Reasons for isolation

The varied environment of the Green Sahara — lakes, marshes, forests, grasslands, savannas, and mountains — created natural barriers between human groups. These geographical factors likely made regular contact between communities difficult, contributing to the prolonged genetic isolation of the Takarkori population.

The unusual Takarkori mummies therefore preserve not just the memory of a lost people, but also the traces of an era when the Sahara was full of life — and when human communities were far more complex than previously thought.

For more on similar topics, read our article about the first humans who left Africa, or click here to learn more about the secrets of the Giza pyramids.