Archaeologists Unearth Bones from More than 10 Human Skeletons Inside a Cave, Shed Light on Prehistoric Migration Patterns and Cultures

In a path-breaking discovery rewriting the history of prehistoric human migration, an international team of scientists has found spectacular evidence of ancient human movement across North Africa, stated the University of Oxford. According to a comprehensive study, archaeologists have discovered an extraordinary collection of human skeletal remains in the Taforalt cave of eastern Morocco that shows complex migration patterns existing thousands of years ago.

Excavations deep inside the Grotte des Pigeons have yielded remains from more than 10 human skeletons and offer an unprecedented glimpse of how ancient hunter-gatherers, known as Iberomaurusians, lived. It also put paid to the suggestion that such people, from approximately 15,000 years ago, could live in isolation—the findings point out the involvement of a very much connected and sophisticated population.

Advanced genetic analysis of those remains has produced genetic diversity quite contrary to the surprise and previous archaeological assertions. The genetic makeup represented is quite astonishing, as about 63.5% is related to Near Eastern ancestry, while sub-Saharan African populations contribute about 36.5%. These revelations showing such a complex mix indicate that human migrations in that region were dynamic and far more complex than scholars previously assumed.

As Professor Nick Barton of Oxford University, who codirected the excavations for years, said, the outcome is not so straightforward: "The results of this study are intriguing and call for a re-think of ideas," he said, according to the University of Oxford. That means both archaeologically dated and genetically dated evidence provide somewhat conflicting information in each other's context, which itself shows that knowledge about human migration in prehistorical ages is still continuously evolving. The Iberomaurusians were sophisticated hunter-gatherers who developed advanced technologies, including microliths—small, pointed bladelets used as projectile points and arrowheads, as per Science.

That is what gives the discovery its importance in context. Grotte des Pigeons has been considered to be one of the earliest places of burials in the world, even one of the very ancient cemeteries with remains buried seated but wearing personal ornaments comprising beads and horns of animals. This is considered a practice indicative of a sophisticated spiritual or cultural undertaking beyond survival, thus de facto showing the richness underpinning elements of social strata. Evolutionary geneticist Sarah Tishkoff from the University of Pennsylvania described the findings as "really exciting," emphasizing that North Africa had been a crucial crossroads for human migration much earlier than previously understood, as per Science.

The research team, made up of experts from Oxford University, the Natural History Museum in London, and the Max Planck Institute, applied state-of-the-art techniques to extract and analyze ancient DNA—a task by no means easy, considering the poor preservation conditions of warm African climates. These DNA samples of ear bones date to the oldest human genetic material ever recovered on African remains so far. As the work continues, the archaeologists and geneticists are eager for further excavation into more sites and the collection of more genomic information.