Anna Louise Olsson has joined the group to work on her master’s degree project, Genomic History of Northwestern Africa since the Iron Age, under the mentorship of Luciana Simões.
Welcome to the team, Loiuse!
Project summary
North Africa has long been a crucial crossroads, connecting sub-Saharan Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Near East, facilitating cultural and population exchanges throughout history. In this project, we will extract and analyse aDNA from archaeological bone samples collected in Morocco, Northwest Africa. Some of the samples have already been radiocarbon dated (14C) to the Iron Age, Mauritanian, Phoenician and Roman periods. Considering these results, the focus of this project will be on the Iron Age and later.
This project aims to investigate the genetic structure, ancestry, and mobility patterns of ancient populations from modern-day Morocco during the Iron Age and subsequent time periods. By generating and analysing genome-wide data from archaeological bone samples, this study seeks to determine the extent and nature of population interactions in the western Maghreb, assess their genetic affiliations with contemporary and neighbouring populations, and explore their potential connections to the first inhabitants of the Canary Islands.