The Takarkori Mummies

Seven thousand years ago the Sahara was green — a land of lakes, herds and pastoral villages. Two women naturally mummified in the Takarkori rock shelter lived in that vanished world, and their genomes revealed a deeply ancient North African lineage that had remained isolated for tens of thousands of years. They are the voice of the Green Sahara, a homeland that turned to sand.

The genome-wide data behind this entry was published in Ancient genomes from a humid Green Sahara.

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 this is a single real individual, 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 Takarkori Mummies is your ancestor. See how it looks in the live demo or read about the full G25 analysis.

• 01

  Who was the Takarkori Mummies?

  The Takarkori Mummies (c. 5000 BCE, Acacus Mountains, Libya) is one of the Iconic discoveries entries in our Notable Matches catalog, represented by one sequenced ancient genome published in the study "Ancient genomes from a humid Green Sahara".

• 02

  What does "matching" the Takarkori Mummies 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

  Is the Takarkori Mummies my ancestor?

  No — and no DNA test can show that. A small distance means your genome sits near this individual's 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 Takarkori Mummies?

  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:

• The Vinča Culturec. 5300–4500 BCE

• The First Farmers of the Linearbandkeramikc. 5500–4900 BCE

• The Ertebølle Fisher-Foragersc. 5400–4300 BCE

• The Varna Gold Elitec. 4600 BCE

• The Neolithic Peloponnesiansc. 6000–3200 BCE

• The Fall of Yunatsitec. 4500–4400 BCE

• The Copper Lords of Gumelnițac. 4500–4250 BCE

• The Tren Cave Dwellersc. 4250–4150 BCE

• The First Farmers of Starčevoc. 6200–5500 BCE

• The Shum Laka Childrenc. 6000 BCE and 1000 BCE

• The Hòabìnhian of Pha Faenc. 6000 BCE

• Loschbour Manc. 6100 BCE