Genetic and cultural resilience in the Neolithic transition of North Africa: an unprecedented trajectory

A new study, carried out by an international team coordinated by Sapienza University, presents the first genetic reconstruction of ancient populations in the Eastern Maghreb region (present-day Tunisia and eastern Algeria), revealing how local hunter-gatherer groups maintained their genetic identity despite the arrival of Neolithic groups from Europe and south-western Asia, and offering a novel perspective on the Neolithic transition in North Africa.

The Neolithic period, which began around 12,000 years ago, marked a crucial transformation in human history, with the transition from hunting and gathering-based economies to the earliest forms of food production (agriculture and animal husbandry). While much of Europe underwent drastic genetic changes due to the migratory waves of farming communities from Southwest Asia, the role of North Africa in this transition has always remained less clear, partly due to the scarcity of genetic studies conducted in these regions.

Now, this new research challenges the idea that North Africa was merely a passive receptor of Neolithic influences, showing how, although some genetic contributions from early farmers reached the eastern Maghreb via the Mediterranean, local populations retained strong ties to their hunter-gatherer traditions.

Traces of the past in ancient DNA

Analysing the genetic data of individuals who lived between 15,000 and 6,000 years ago in the eastern Maghreb, scholars found a high degree of genetic continuity. Analysis of individuals from around 7,000 years ago showed that although European farmers contributed less than 20% to the local genetic heritage, their impact was much more limited than in other areas of the northern Mediterranean, where farming communities largely replaced indigenous hunter-gatherer groups. In this area,  it seems that agriculture did not completely replace previous traditions: on the contrary, the communities of the Eastern Maghreb showed extraordinary resilience, both cultural and genetic, allowing them to persist largely unaltered despite the dramatic changes taking place elsewhere.

One of the most fascinating aspects of this study was the discovery of an ancient European hunter-gatherer ancestry in some Tunisian individuals, some 8,000 years old: this is the first clear genetic evidence of contact between southern European and North African populations. This data suggests that some maritime routes, probably through the Strait of Sicily, facilitated human interactions in the Mediterranean much earlier than previously thought. Although this hypothesis had already been put forward following the discovery at Hergla - one of the sites where the human remains analysed in this study were discovered - of obsidian from Pantelleria, this is the first time that genetic studies confirm these contacts.

Resilience and adaptation in the face of change

However, while other regions of the Mediterranean experienced extensive genetic mixing with the expansion of agriculture - a process that also involved the western Maghreb - the local populations of the eastern Maghreb retained much of their genetic baggage until the full development of the Neolithic period. Unlike the territories of present-day Morocco, where genetic ancestry linked to European farmers reached 80% in some populations, the Eastern Maghreb experienced a much more limited genetic impact from the incoming Neolithic communities.

 ‘The Eastern Maghreb was an area of strong genetic and cultural resilience, unique in the Mediterranean, where the introduction of food production seems to have occurred not by large-scale replacement of local populations, but through a combination of sporadic migrations, cultural exchanges and a gradual diffusion of knowledge,’ says Alfredo Coppa, one of the corresponding authors and Co-Director of the Northern Tunisia Archaeological Project (NoTAP). This discovery opens new perspectives on the complexity of the Neolithic transition in the Mediterranean, showing how the transition to food production was not a uniform process, but rather a dynamic and regionally differentiated phenomenon'.

‘Archaeological evidence shows that unlike communities in the western Maghreb (Morocco), north-east Africa (Egypt) and southern Europe, agriculture did not become firmly established here until the 1st millennium BC, and the local communities continued to base their economy mainly on rearing sheep, goats and, to a lesser extent, cattle, and practising the gathering of land molluscs, hunting and gathering wild plants,' says Giulio Lucarini of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) other corresponding author and Co-Director of NoTAP.

 ‘By analysing these ancient human movements, we will gain valuable insights into the dispersal and adaptation patterns of human groups in the past, clarifying the processes that have shaped and continue to shape contemporary societies,’ concludes David Reich of Harvard University.

The study was carried out thanks to the collaboration between international institutions such as: Sapienza University of Rome (Italy), Harvard University (USA), the University of Vienna (Austria), the Max Planck Instiute (Germany), the National Research Council (CNR, Italy), the Institut National de Patrimone (Tunisia), the Centre National de Recherche Préhistorique, Antropologique et Historique (Algeria), the Institut de Paléontologie Humaine (France) and ISMEO - International Association for Mediterranean and Oriental Studies (Italy).

References:

High continuity of forager ancestry in the Neolithic period of the eastern Maghreb (2025) Mark Lipson, Harald Ringbauer, Giulio Lucarini, Nabiha Aouadi, Louiza Aoudia, Lofti Belhoucet, Olivia Cheronet, Ariane-Rym Dahmani, Francesco Genchi, Francesco La Pastina, Michaela Lucci, Henry de Lumley, Nabila Mansouri, Alessia Nava, Fatma Touj, Swapan Mallick, Nadin Rohland, Alfredo Coppa, Ron Pinhasi &David Reich NATURE, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08699-4

Further Information:

Alfredo Coppa

Co-Director of the Italian Archaeological Mission in Tunisia

(+39) 333-3321087

alfredo.coppa@uniroma1.it

Michaela Lucci

Department of Environmental Biology

michaela.lucci@uniroma1.it

Alessia Nava

Department of Oral and Maxillo-Facial Sciences

alessia.nava@uniroma1.it

Francesco Genchi

Italian Institute of Oriental Studies - ISO

francesco.genchi@uniroma1.it