After an intensive bibliographic search, we compiled all the available data on allele frequencies for classical genetic polymorphisms referring to North African populations and synthesized the data in an attempt to reconstruct the populations’ demographic history using two complementary methods: (1) principal components analysis and (2) genetic distances represented by neighbor-joining trees. In both analyses the main feature of the genetic landscape in northern Africa is an east-west pattern of variation pointing to the differentiation between the Berber and Arab population groups of the northwest and the populations of Libya and Egypt. Moreover, Libya and Egypt show the smallest genetic distances with the European populations, including the Iberian Peninsula. The most plausible interpretation of these results is that, although demic diffusion during the Neolithic could explain the genetic similarity between northeast Africa and Europe by a parallel process of gene flow from the Near East, a Mesolithic (or older) differentiation of the populations in the northwestern regions with later limited gene flow is needed to understand the genetic picture. The most isolated groups (Mauritanians, Tuaregs, and south Algerian Berbers) were the most differentiated and, although no clear structure can be discerned among the different Arab- and Berber-speaking groups, Arab speakers as a whole are closer to Egyptians and Libyans. By contrast, the genetic contribution of sub-Saharan Africa appears to be small
Population History of North Africa Evidence from Classical Genetic Markers
Attested presence of Caucasian people in Northern Africa goes up to Paleolithic times. From the archaeological record it has been proposed that, as early as 45,000 years ago (ya), anatomically modern humans
Mitocondrial DNA transit between West Asia and North Africa inferred from U6 phylogeography
Around 39,000–52,000 years ago, the western Asian branch spread radially, bringing Caucasians to North Africa and Europe, also reaching India, and expanding to north and east Asia. More recent migrations have entangled but not completely erased these primitive footprints of modern human expansions
Major genomic mitochondrial lineages delineate early human expansions
Mitochondrial genetic data from North Africa are documented by two groups of populations: one composed of populations of the Nile Valley, and the other by populations of the Maghreb. The Nile Valley has been shown to be a migration corridor with populations connected by gene flow (Krings et al . 1999), and phylogeographical analysis of mitochondrial lineages of populations from the Maghreb suggests that modern humans appeared from the Near East following at least two migrations around 50 000 years and 10 000 years ago. A possible migration from Europe may also have occurred during the Neolithic period
Mitochondrial DNA Sequence Diversity in a Sedentary Population from Egypt
the oldest mtDNA lineages in North Africa came from outside Africa, most probably the Near East. M1 dates to *26 ka and U6 to *35 ka (Soares et al. 2009). These dates provide a lower bound for their entrance in North Africa. Since they both appear to have arisen within North Africa (Pennarun et al. 2012), the age of M (55–50 ka:Soares et al. 2009) and the age of haplogroup U (*55 ka: Soares et al. 2009), the ancestors of M1 and U6, respectively, provide upper bounds for the timing of the “back migration”. North Africa was therefore probably recolonized between 55 and 35 ka, assuming that the arrival of U6 and M1 was a single process (Fig. 18.4c (Olivieri et al. 2006), which seems plausible but is not entirely clear (Pennarun et al. 2012). Genome-wide data also suggest that North Africa was recolonized in the Pleistocene from a Southwest Asian source, with a similar time frame for the “indigenous” North African lineages (Henn et al. 2012)
Sacha C. Jones: Africa from MIS 6-2 Population Dynamics and Paleoenvironments – P. 394
After the dispersal of modern humans (Homo sapiens) Out of Africa, hominins with a similar morphology to that of present-day humans initiated the gradual demographic expansion into Eurasia. The mitogenome (33-fold coverage) of the Peştera Muierii 1 individual (PM1) from Romania (35 ky cal BP) we present in this article corresponds fully to Homo sapiens, whilst exhibiting a mosaic of morphological features related to both modern humans and Neandertals. We have identified the PM1 mitogenome as a basal haplogroup U6*, not previously found in any ancient or present-day humans. The derived U6 haplotypes are predominantly found in present-day North-Western African populations. Concomitantly, those found in Europe have been attributed to recent gene-flow from North Africa. The presence of the basal haplogroup U6* in South East Europe (Romania) at 35 ky BP confirms a Eurasian origin of the U6 mitochondrial lineage. Consequently, we propose that the PM1 lineage is an offshoot to South East Europe that can be traced to the Early Upper Paleolithic back migration from Western Asia to North Africa, during which the U6 lineage diversified, until the emergence of the present-day U6 African lineages.
The mitogenome of a 35,000-year-old Homo sapiens from Europe supports a Palaeolithic back-migration to Africa
Afro- Asiatic populations in North Africa who likely entered the continent toward the end of the Pleistocene are distinct from all other African groups, although their genetic history is intertwined with Nilo Saharans to some degree.
G. Richard Scott: The Anthropology of Modern Human Teeth – P. 257
Ancient Egypt 