Oldest human DNA from South Africa decoded

A team of researchers from the University of Cape Town (UCT) and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig have reconstructed the oldest human genomes ever found in South Africa from two people who lived about 10,000 years ago, the AFP news agency reported on Sunday.

The genetic sequences were from a man and a woman whose remains were found at a rock shelter near the southern coastal town of George, about 370 kilometers (230 miles) east of Cape Town, according to Victoria Gibbon, a professor of biological anthropology at the UCT.

They were among 13 sequences reconstructed from people whose remains were found in the Oakhurst rock shelter and who lived between 1,300 and 10,000 years ago. Prior to these discoveries, the oldest genomes reconstructed from the region dated back about 2,000 years.

Genetic stability in southernmost Africa

Surprisingly, the Oakhurst study found that the oldest genomes were genetically similar to the San and Khoekhoe groups living in the same region today, UCT said in a statement. 

Similar studies from Europe have revealed a history of large-scale genetic changes due to human movements over the past 10,000 years, according to Joscha Gretzinger, lead author of the study.

"These new results from southernmost Africa are quite different and suggest a long history of relative genetic stability," he said.

This only changed about 1,200 years ago, when newcomers arrived. They introduced pastoralism, agriculture and new languages to the region, and began interacting with local hunter-gatherer groups.

Although some of the world's earliest evidence of modern humans can be traced to southern Africa, it tends to be poorly preserved, the UCT's Victoria Gibbon told AFP. Newer technology allows that DNA to be obtained, she said. 

Material from AFP was used for this article.

Edited by: John Silk