Once, between 12,000 and 5,000 years ago, the Sahara was populated and covered with dense greenery, according to DNA, where the history of human migrations through what is now one of the largest deserts in the world is written. , according to a study conducted by an international group of biologists led by Fulvio Cruciani, of the "Sapienza" University in Rome, and published in the scientific journal "Genome Biology".
To reconstruct the path of human evolution in the Sahara, the researchers used a modern technique of genetic segmentation, with which they analyzed more than three million letters of DNA in 104 individuals.
According to the authors of this research, more than 5,000 years ago, in the Holocene period, the Sahara was a fertile land and did not constitute a geographical barrier for possible movement towards the shores of the Mediterranean.
For Beniamino Trombetta, of the "Charles Darwin" biotechnology department at "Sapienza" and co-author of this study, "this analysis has evidenced significant relocations that occurred throughout the Mediterranean basin, involving ancient human population movements from Europe." in Africa and vice versa".
"This is a data that shows how the contacts between these two regions have existed since prehistoric times", he concluded.