JOHANNESBURG: Researchers have reconstructed the oldest human genomes ever found in South Africa from two people who lived around 10,000 years ago, allowing a better understanding of how the region was populated, an author of the study said on Sunday.

The genetic sequences were from a man and a woman whose remains were found at a rock shelter near the southern coastal town of George, about 370 kilometres (230 miles) east of Cape Town, said University of Cape Town (UCT) biological anthropology professor Victoria Gibbon.

They were among 13 sequences reconstructed from people whose remains were found at the Oakhurst shelter and lived 1,300-10,000 years ago. Prior to these discoveries, the oldest genomes reconstructed from the region dated back around 2,000 years.

A surprise finding from the Oakhurst study was that the oldest genomes were genetically similar to those from San and Khoekhoe groups living in the same region today, UCT said in a statement.

“Similar studies from Europe have revealed a history of large-scale genetic changes due to human movements over the last 10,000 years,” said lead author of the study, Joscha Gretzinger, in the statement.

“These new results from southernmost Africa are quite different, and suggest a long history of relative genetic stability,” said Gretzinger, from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropo­logy in Leipzig, Germany, which participated in the study.

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2024