Ancestry populations · Hunter Gatherer and Neolithic Farmer
Natufian
Epipalaeolithic foragers of the Levant who lived in the first permanent villages and whose ancestry became the deep Levantine and North African layer. One of the 13 curated source populations in the Hunter Gatherer and Neolithic Farmer era of the Ancestrify qpAdm ancient-DNA analysis.
Who they were
- Period
- 12000 – 8000 BC
- Era in the analysis
- Hunter Gatherer and Neolithic Farmer
- Region
- Southern Levant
- Role in the model
- Source (left) population — a reference qpAdm tests against
The Natufians were the foragers of the southern Levant who, before farming existed, built some of the first year-round settlements, harvesting wild cereals and burying their dead beneath their houses. Their genomes, from Raqefet Cave in Mount Carmel, revealed a distinct West Eurasian lineage without the Ancient North Eurasian or 'basal' components that mark the Zagros farmers, and with an affinity to North Africa not seen in Anatolia (Lazaridis et al. 2016).
Natufian-related ancestry is the foundation of the Levantine Neolithic and, through it, of the Bronze Age Levant and the Arabian Peninsula. It also reaches west: the Iberomaurusians of Morocco were modelled as largely Natufian-related, and it remains a deep layer in North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula today (van de Loosdrecht et al. 2018). In the model it forms a triangle with the Anatolian and Iranian farmer sources, and a genome from the eastern Mediterranean or the Gulf may draw on all three.
In Ancestrify's qpAdm service, Natufian is a source in the "Hunter Gatherer and Neolithic Farmer" era. The report shows its weight with a standard error and a Z-score, so you can see not only how much of the model it carries but how confidently that share is separated from zero, and a model that cannot support it is rejected rather than published. Its weight is best read against the Anatolian and Iranian farmer sources and against the Iberomaurusian, which shares much of its ancestry from the North African side.
Y haplogroup E1b1b, including E-Z830 lineages, and mtDNA J2, N1b and R0a occur among Natufian samples. A haplogroup alone is never evidence of a share.
In your reportArtwork is an AI-generated artistic interpretation informed by the archaeological record — not documentary evidence.Represents the Epipaleolithic hunter-gatherer culture of the Levant (~15,000–11,500 cal BP), considered among the earliest sedentary communities and precursors to Neolithic agriculture. Ancient DNA reveals that Natufians derived roughly half their ancestry from a Basal Eurasian lineage with minimal Neanderthal admixture, indicating deep divergence from other non-African populations. Genetic continuity between Natufian and early Levantine farming populations suggests that agriculture in the southern Levant arose from local foragers rather than incoming migrants. By the Bronze Age, admixture from Iranian, Anatolian, and European hunter-gatherer sources had substantially reshaped Levantine ancestry. Natufian-related genetic signatures persist as a foundational component in modern Near Eastern and parts of North African populations.
Where this population sits in the model
The Ancestrify qpAdm analysis models your genome once per era. The Hunter Gatherer and Neolithic Farmer era has 13 curated source populations, and Natufian is one of them: every candidate model for that era is a combination of these sources, tested against a fixed set of outgroup populations, and only a model that passes the statistical fit check is published — with a p-value, and a standard error on every proportion.
A reference, not a verdict: every population on this page is a source the model tests your genome against — a well-sampled point in ancient genetic space that a mixture of ancestries can be expressed in terms of. A weight on it means your genome is well described as partly resembling those people; it is never a statement that they, specifically, were your ancestors, and a population that fits well is not the only one that could.
Read how the method works on the qpAdm analysis page, or the definitions in the glossary.
Model it yourself for free
The Ancestrify Lab runs in your browser, with no account. Paste a Global25 row into an admixture calculator that covers the Hunter Gatherer and Neolithic Farmer era, rank the closest ancient populations in the distance tool, or run f4, qpWave and qpAdm on the public panel in the AdmixTools 2 workbench. These are Global25 fits and exploratory statistics, not the formal qpAdm model of the paid analysis.
Questions
Who were the Natufian (12000 – 8000 BC)?
Natufian is one of the 13 curated source populations in the Hunter Gatherer and Neolithic Farmer era of the Ancestrify qpAdm analysis: a group of published ancient genomes from one archaeological context, pooled as a single reference the model can test your genome against.
Does Natufian in my result mean they were my ancestors?
No. A source population is a reference the model tests against, never a statement about who your ancestors were. A coefficient on this source means the ancestry those burials represent helps explain your genome to within statistical noise — similar ancestry composition, not descent from those individuals. Ancestrify never claims a population is your ancestor.
What does a Natufian percentage in a qpAdm model mean?
qpAdm estimates the mixture proportions that best explain your genome as a combination of the chosen sources, given a fixed set of outgroup (right) populations, and reports a p-value for whether the model is statistically acceptable together with a standard error for every proportion. The percentage is that estimated share, with its uncertainty published beside it.
How do I get a qpAdm model that uses Natufian?
Order the Ancestrify qpAdm analysis (€29.99, one-time) and upload the raw file you already have from a consumer test. Your genome is merged into the AADR reference panel and modelled across both eras; each era's model is built from that era's source populations, so a model for the Hunter Gatherer and Neolithic Farmer era draws on Natufian where it improves the fit.
Can I model Natufian ancestry for free first?
Yes. The Ancestrify Lab runs Global25 admixture calculators, a nearest-populations distance tool and an AdmixTools 2 workbench in your browser with no account, and several calculators cover the Hunter Gatherer and Neolithic Farmer era. Those are G25 fits, not formal qpAdm models — the paid analysis is the one with a p-value.
More populations from the Hunter Gatherer and Neolithic Farmer era
Browse the full directory of source populations, or continue with another population from the same era:
Anatolian Neolithic Farmer8500 – 6000 BC
Ancestral South Indian10000 – 2000 BC
Caucasian Hunter Gatherer13000 – 7000 BC
Eastern Hunter Gatherer12000 – 5000 BC
Iberomaurusian15000 – 8000 BC
Iranian Neolithic Farmer8000 – 5000 BC
Native American15000 – 1500 BC
North African Farmer5200 – 4000 BC
Northeast Asian6000 – 2000 BC
Sub Saharan African
Western Hunter Gatherer12000 – 6000 BC
Western Steppe Herder5000 – 2800 BC