https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00764-2 Skip to main content Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript. Advertisement Advertisement Nature * View all journals * Search * Log in * Explore content * About the journal * Publish with us * Subscribe * Sign up for alerts * RSS feed 1. nature 2. news 3. article * NEWS * 12 March 2025 Ancient DNA shows Stone Age Europeans voyaged by sea to Africa Roughly 8,000-year-old remains unearthed from present-day Tunisia held a surprise: European hunter-gatherer ancestry. By * Ewen Callaway 1. Ewen Callaway View author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar * Twitter * Facebook * Email Illustration of early humans during the Stone Age, using using fire to hollow out a tree trunk to form a dugout canoe. Stone Age people might have crossed the Mediterranean on wooden canoes, navigating from island to island by sight.Credit: Sheila Terry/Science Photo Library Thousands of years before Odysseus crossed the 'wine-dark sea' in Homer's epic poem The Odyssey, hunter-gatherers might have island-hopped their way to Africa across the Mediterranean. The first genomic study of ancient people from the eastern Maghreb region -- present-day Tunisia and northeastern Algeria -- shows that Stone Age populations who lived there more than 8,000 years ago were descended, in part, from European hunter-gatherers. The discovery, reported on 12 March in Nature^1, is the first direct evidence of trans-Mediterranean sea voyaging during this time, although archaeological finds have hinted at cultural exchange between European and North African hunter-gatherers. Using ancient genomes, researchers have mapped the emergence of agriculture in the Middle East 12,000 years ago and its spread to Europe, but the southern Mediterranean has been largely neglected. "There's not been much of a North African story," says David Reich, a population geneticist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, who co-led the study. "It was a huge hole." Crossing from Europe Working with researchers in Algeria and Tunisia, as well as Europe, Reich's team sequenced DNA from the bones or teeth of 9 individuals from eastern Maghreb archaeological sites, who lived between 6,000 and more than 10,000 years ago. Elevated view of team members at work at the dig site at Doukanet el Khoutifa, Tunisia. An archaeological dig site at Doukanet el Khoutifa, Tunisia, in the eastern Maghreb region.Credit: Giulio Lucarini All carried local hunter-gatherer ancestry, similar to that of ancient people from what is now Morocco, identified in earlier studies^2^,^3. But unlike those western Maghreb hunter-gatherers -- whose ancestry was largely replaced by European farmers probably arriving through the Strait of Gibraltar -- local ancestry persisted in Tunisia and Algeria long after the arrival of farmers from Europe and the Middle East. This fits with evidence that people in the eastern Maghreb continued to hunt local animals such as land snails and forage wild plants, even while farming imported sheep, goats and cattle. Agriculture didn't take off in the region until much later. Maybe, says Reich, the resilience of local ancestry is related to resistance to farming practices. The genome of a man from a Tunisian site called Djebba held a major surprise: about 6% of his DNA could be traced back to European hunter-gatherers. The researchers estimate that his Maghrebi ancestors mixed with European hunter-gatherers around 8,500 years ago. There are weaker signs of these encounters in a woman from the site. Canoe voyages Enjoying our latest content? Login or create an account to continue * Access the most recent journalism from Nature's award-winning team * Explore the latest features & opinion covering groundbreaking research Access through your institution or Sign in or create an account # Continue with Google # Continue with ORCiD doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-00764-2 References 1. Lipson, M. et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/ s41586-025-08699-4 (2025). Article Google Scholar 2. Fregel, R. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 115, 6774-6779 (2018). Article PubMed Google Scholar 3. Simoes, L. G. et al. Nature 618, 550-556 (2023). 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