Kehf el Baroud, sometimes mistakenly spelled Kelif el Boroud, is an archaeological site in
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...
. It is located to the south of
Rabat, near
Dar es Soltan.
Genetics
examined the remains of 8 individuals buried at Kelif el Boroud c. 3780-3650 BC during the Neolithic. The 1 sample of
Y-DNA
The Y chromosome is one of two sex chromosomes (allosomes) in therian mammals, including humans, and many other animals. The other is the X chromosome. Y is normally the sex-determining chromosome in many species, since it is the presence or abse ...
extracted belonged to the paternal haplogroup
T-M184, while the 6 samples of
mtDNA
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA or mDNA) is the DNA located in mitochondria, cellular organelles within eukaryotic cells that convert chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA ...
extracted belonged to the maternal haplogroups
X2b (two samples),
K1a1b1 (two samples),
K1a4a1 and
T2b3. The examined individuals were found to share genetic affinities with individuals buried at both the Early Neolithic sites of
Ifri N'Amr Ou Moussa in Morocco and the Early Neolithic
Cave of El Toro in Spain. They were modelled as being of about 50%
Early European Farmer
Early European Farmers (EEF), First European Farmers (FEF), Neolithic European Farmers, Ancient Aegean Farmers, or Anatolian Neolithic Farmers (ANF) are names used to describe a distinct group of early Neolithic farmers who brought agriculture to E ...
(EEF) ancestry and 50% local North African ancestry, suggesting substantial migration from Iberia into North Africa during the Neolithic. They had a lower amount of
sub-Saharan African admixture than earlier North Africans buried at Ifri N'Amr Ou Moussa. They also carried alleles associated with
light skin
Light skin is a human skin color that has a base level of eumelanin pigmentation that has adapted to environments of low UV radiation. Light skin is most commonly found amongst the native populations of Europe and East Asia as measured through ...
and light
eye color
Eye color is a polygenic phenotypic character determined by two distinct factors: the pigmentation of the eye's iris and the frequency-dependence of the scattering of light by the turbid medium in the stroma of the iris.
In humans, the ...
. They were found to be closely related to the
Guanches
The Guanches were the indigenous inhabitants of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean some west of Africa.
It is believed that they may have arrived on the archipelago some time in the first millennium BCE. The Guanches were the only nativ ...
of the
Canary Islands.
See also
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Capsian culture
The Capsian culture was a Mesolithic and Neolithic culture centered in the Maghreb that lasted from about 8,000 to 2,700 BC. It was named after the town of Gafsa in Tunisia, which was known as Capsa in Roman times.
Capsian industry was concen ...
*
Iberomaurusian
The Iberomaurusian is a backed bladelet lithic industry found near the coasts of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. It is also known from a single major site in Libya, the Haua Fteah, where the industry is locally known as the Eastern Oranian.The ...
*
Ifri N'Amr Ou Moussa
*
Kulubnarti Kulubnarti ("Kulb island") is a long island in northern Sudan. Located on the Nile, around south of the Egyptian border, it is part of the village of Kulb.
Until the fifteenth century, Kulubnarti was a remote area. It was one of the last known r ...
*
Luxmanda
*
Naqada
Naqada (Egyptian Arabic: ; Coptic language: ; Ancient Greek: ) is a town on the west bank of the Nile in Qena Governorate, Egypt, situated ca. 20 km north of Luxor. It includes the villages of Tukh, Khatara, Danfiq, and Zawayda. Acco ...
*
Cave of El Toro
*
Guanches
The Guanches were the indigenous inhabitants of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean some west of Africa.
It is believed that they may have arrived on the archipelago some time in the first millennium BCE. The Guanches were the only nativ ...
*
Taforalt
Taforalt or Grotte des Pigeons is a cave in the province of Berkane, Aït Iznasen region, Morocco, possibly the oldest cemetery in North Africa (Humphrey ''et al.'' 2012). It contained at least 34 Iberomaurusian adolescent and adult human skele ...
References
Sources
*
Archaeological sites in Morocco
4th-millennium BC establishments
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