The Taforalt Iberomaurusians

In the Grotte des Pigeons at Taforalt, Ice Age North Africans were buried wearing the world's oldest known shell-bead jewellery. Their genomes — for years the oldest ever recovered in Africa — revealed a people woven from two threads: one linked to the Near East, the other to sub-Saharan Africa, mixing on the Mediterranean's southern shore fifteen thousand years ago.

The genome-wide data behind this entry was published in Pleistocene North African genomes link Near Eastern and sub-Saharan African human populations.

Every Ancestrify Global25 report includes the free Notable Matches lens: your coordinates are compared to every sequenced member of every catalog entry, and the distance to the closest member is reported — a Euclidean distance in the same 25-dimensional space the Distance lens uses. Because these are a small group of real individuals, not a population average, distances naturally run larger than population distances — that is expected, not a poor result. And one thing is never claimed: a small distance means similar ancestry composition, not that the Taforalt Iberomaurusians are your ancestor. See how it looks in the live demo or read about the full G25 analysis.

• 01

  Who were the Taforalt Iberomaurusians?

  The Taforalt Iberomaurusians (c. 13,000 BCE, Taforalt, Morocco) are one of the Deep time entries in our Notable Matches catalog, represented by 6 sequenced ancient genomes published in the study "Pleistocene North African genomes link Near Eastern and sub-Saharan African human populations".

• 02

  What does "matching" the Taforalt Iberomaurusians mean?

  Your Global25 coordinates are compared to the entry's sequenced members and the distance to the closest one is reported — a Euclidean distance in the same 25-dimensional reference space the Distance lens uses. A notable entry is one person or one small burial group, not a population average, so distances naturally run larger than population distances.

• 03

  Are they my ancestor?

  No — and no DNA test can show that. A small distance means your genome sits near theirs in a shared reference space: similar ancestry composition, not descent. Ancestrify never claims a notable individual is your ancestor or relative.

• 04

  How do I see my own distance to the Taforalt Iberomaurusians?

  Notable Matches is a free lens on every Ancestrify Global25 report — never sold separately. Order the G25 analysis (29.99 EUR), and your report ranks your coordinates against the full catalog, with a portrait, dossier and map for every entry. The public demo shows the lens with example data.

The catalog holds every published entry across three tiers — browse the full Notable Matches directory. Nearby entries:

• La Braña Manc. 5900 BCE

• Mal'ta Boyc. 22,500 BCE

• The Dolní Věstonice Triple Burialc. 29,000 BCE

• The Salkhit Womanc. 32,000 BCE

• The Sunghir Burialc. 32,000 BCE

• The Peștera Muierii Womanc. 33,000 BCE

• Goyet Q116-1c. 33,000 BCE

• Kostenki Manc. 36,000 BCE

• Tianyuan Manc. 38,000 BCE

• Oase 1c. 38,000 BCE

• Ust'-Ishim Manc. 43,000 BCE

• The Bacho Kiro Pioneersc. 43,000 BCE