Journal Article

Ancient West African foragers in the context of African population history

Oppenheimer, Jonas, Kennett, Douglas J., Orban, Rosine, Lalueza-Fox, Carles, López, Saioa, Bocherens, Hervé, Bradman, Neil, Hellenthal, Garrett, Semal, Patrick, Rohland, Nadin, Thomas, Mark G., Lipson, Mark, Mallick, Swapan, Asombang, Raymond Neba’ane, Culleton, Brendan J., Lavachery, Philippe, Crevecoeur, Isabelle, Adamski, Nicole, Prendergast, Mary E., Veeramah, Krishna R., Broomandkhoshbacht, Nasreen, Fomine, Forka Leypey Mathew, Mindzie, Christophe Mbida, Cornelissen, Els, Stewardson, Kristin, Reich, David, Ribot, Isabelle, Sawchuk, Elizabeth, Van Neer, Wim, Patterson, Nick, Olalde, Iñigo, MacEachern, Scott, de Maret, Pierre, Lawson, Ann Marie

2020

Overview

Our knowledge of ancient human population structure in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly prior to the advent of food production, remains limited. Here we report genome-wide DNA data from four children—two of whom were buried approximately 8,000 years ago and two 3,000 years ago—from Shum Laka (Cameroon), one of the earliest known archaeological sites within the probable homeland of the Bantu language group 1 – 11 . One individual carried the deeply divergent Y chromosome haplogroup A00, which today is found almost exclusively in the same region 12 , 13 . However, the genome-wide ancestry profiles of all four individuals are most similar to those of present-day hunter-gatherers from western Central Africa, which implies that populations in western Cameroon today—as well as speakers of Bantu languages from across the continent—are not descended substantially from the population represented by these four people. We infer an Africa-wide phylogeny that features widespread admixture and three prominent radiations, including one that gave rise to at least four major lineages deep in the history of modern humans. Genome-wide ancestry profiles of four individuals, dating to 8,000 and 3,000 years before present, from the archaeological site of Shum Laka (Cameroon) shed light on the deep population history of sub-Saharan Africa.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group
• Subject: 45/22 / 45/23 / 631/181/19/27 / 631/181/2474 / 631/208/457 / 631/208/728 / Alleles / Animals / Archaeological sites / Archaeology / Bantu languages / Biological research / Biology, Experimental / Black People - genetics / Black People - history / Burial / Cameroon / Child / Child, Preschool / Chromosomes / Chromosomes, Human, Y - genetics / Deoxyribonucleic acid / DNA / DNA, Ancient - analysis / Environmental aspects / Feeding Behavior - ethnology / Female / Food and nutrition / Food habits / Food production / Genetic aspects / Genetic Markers - genetics / Genetics, Population / Genome, Human - genetics / Genomes / Haplotypes - genetics / Historic sites / Historical structures / History, Ancient / Human Migration - history / Human population structure / Human populations / Humanities and Social Sciences / Humans / Hunter-gatherers / Language - history / Male / Mitochondrial DNA / multidisciplinary / Pan troglodytes - genetics / Phylogeny / Population / Population structure / Prehistoric peoples / Principal Component Analysis / Principal components analysis / Science / Science (multidisciplinary) / Statistics