Khoisan in Morocco 200-40kya

The arcaheological data support a migration of probable Khoisan migration from Southern Africa to North Africa. You have to remember that many populations have settled Morocco, so their might not always be a one-to-one correspondence between contemporary Khoisan haplogroups and haplogroups found among contemporary Berbers in Morocco and the Atlas mountains. But given the geography, we would expect to see elements of Khoisan relic population genes among Atlas Mountain Berbers.


Figure S1. Map Showing Location of the Population Samples Considered in This Study

Populations are represented by circles and numbered as in Table S5. Sectors within circles are proportional to the frequency of haplogroup A1a (green), A1b (red) and A2-T (black). Green asterisks indicate countries were haplogroup A1a has previously been observed.


See:

Table S1. Haplogroup Affiliation of the Seven Chromosomes that Were Re-sequenced


Table S5: Populations considered for the mutations defining major clades A1b, A1a and A2-T.

http://www.cell.com/cms/attachment/1088206/8032906/mmc1.pdf

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The hominids and tool kits common to South Africa also appear in Morocco. It is no secret that the earliest Y-chromosome haplogroups have been found in Morocco and among the Khoisan (see map).


These haplogroups belong to hg A (M91); among the Moroccans we find A1b and A1a.The Khoisan mtDNA was named originally L1a,L1d and L1k, these clades are called LoD and LoK today.

Morocco has yielded impotant new data on African prehistory. Here we find a complex and rich set of early hominids from Jebel Irhoud, Dar es-Soltan and Contrebandiers Cave.

A pan-African Middle Stone Age (MSA) culture existed that united South Africa and Morocco.The Moroccan tools are Levallois technology and Mousterian industries were used in South Africa,North Africa and western Eurasia.


 Dibble et al (2013) has shown that Pan-African industries included cognate scrapers, Levallois tools, Nassarius beads and engraved ostrich shells. The Moroccans and South Africans shared Levallois tools and the use of ochre, bone tools and ostrich shells.  Bouaouggar et al (2007) has shown how the shell beads from Grotte des Pigeons (Taforalt,Morocco) and South Africa's Blombos Caves.




The archaeological evidence is clear the Khoisan in Morocco and South Africa shared behavioral , cognitive and technological styles. The major behavioral indicators shared by the Moroccan and South African Khoisan was mining,beads, blades, ochre and bone tools between 200-40kya.




 It is important to note that Moroccan tools are Levallois technologies and Mousterian industries used in North Africa and Western Eurasia. We also should note that Neanderthals also used Mousterian tools.


References:
 
Dibble H L, et al (2013). On the industrial attributions of the Aterian and Mousterian of the Maghrib. J of Human Evolution, 64:194-210.