The Iberomaurusian enigma: North African progenitor or dead end?
Abstract
Data obtained during an ongoing dental investigation of African populations address two long-standing, hotly debated questions. First, was there genetic continuity between Late Pleistocene Iberomaurusians and later northwest Africans (e.g., Capsians, Berbers, Guanche)? Second, were skeletally-robust Iberomaurusians and northeast African Nubians variants of the same population? Iberomaurusians from Taforalt in Morocco and Afalou-Bou-Rhummel in Algeria, Nubians from Jebel Sahaba in Sudan, post-Pleistocene Capsians from Algeria and Tunisia, and a series of other samples were statistically compared using 29 discrete dental traits to help estimate diachronic local and regional affinities. Results revealed: (1) a relationship between the Iberomaurusians, particularly those from Taforalt, and later Maghreb and other North African samples, and (2) a divergence among contemporaneous Iberomaurusians and Nubian samples. Thus, some measure of long-term population continuity in the Maghreb and surrounding region is supported, whereas greater North African population heterogenity during the Late Pleistocene is implied.
- Publication:
-
Journal of Human Evolution
- Pub Date:
- October 2000
- DOI:
- 10.1006/jhev.2000.0430
- Bibcode:
- 2000JHumE..39..393I
- Keywords:
-
- Late Pleistocene;
- Africa;
- Maghreb;
- Nubia;
- dental anthropology;
- morphological variation;
- biological affinity estimation