Thread by @AfricanWorldH

Neolithic Kiffian
Reconstruction of Ancient Saharan Skeletal remains from Gobero, Niger 7500 BC.

They were 6 feet tall and Craniometric analysis indicates that they were closely related to the Late Pleistocene Iberomaurusians and early Holocene Capsians of the Maghreb.

"sub-Saharan DNA in the Iberomaurusian genome, Iberomaurusians may have gotten it from migrants from the south who were their contemporaries. Or they may have inherited the DNA from much more ancient ancestors" - Oldest DNA from Africa offers clues to mysterious ancient culture

"Bantu-speaking populations living throughout sub-Saharan Africa are relative new-comers to this vast area....their origins lie to the northwest. Specifically, ca. 8,000 BP the desiccating Western Sahara"

- Professor Joel D Irish

"One small sample from Niger (ca. 7600 BC) was used to explore the purported proto-Bantu Saharan origins. The remaining samples, dating to the Iron Age and historic periods, are from west, west-central (i.e., western Bantu), and central (eastern Bantu) Africa"

"The Niger sample’s affinity to west Africans supports the possibility that it is representative of proto-Bantu ancestors...... All told, these results seem supportive of the hypothesized migrations."
- Professor Joel D Irish

Skeletal remains and possibly rock art from the pre historic southern Sahara reveal the practice of skull deformation.

Dr. Jitka Soukopova found them to be similar to neolithic Nigerian skulls, which can also be seen among cultures of the Congo.

"The Tin Hanakaten shelter in the lower part of the Tassili-n-Ajjer.......Another skeleton of a child dating to 7,900-120 BP (cal BP 8,771+168), was laying on a bed of wild plants in a chamber made of big flat stones, covered with a pile of stone blocks"

- Dr. Jitka Soukopova

"Remains of the skin confirmed that the child was dark-skinned. This individual had an abnormally shaped skull with a narrow face and a long nape of the neck, which possibly resulted from an illness. However, similar deformation has been noted amongst Nigerian Neolithic people"

"Which suggests a deformation deliberately inflicted for cultural reasons, for example from the application of bandages or other compressive material to the head"
- Dr. Jitka Soukopova

"Ceramics emerged in sub-Saharan Africa and seem to have spread toward the central Sahara during the early Holocene at the end of the 10th and the beginning of the 9th millennium cal BC, while the desert zone became increasingly greener."

- Professor Eric Huysecom

"In the sub-Saharan Africa where we find impressive affinities between the still used masks and those represented in the Round Head art. Such similarities cannot be accidental since we never find them in the modern culture north of the Central Sahara"

- Dr Jitka Soukopova

"Comparative studies of the Round Head motifs with the art in the regions south of the Tassili, mainly Chad, Niger and Mali, may find similarities rooted possibly in the same artistic tradition"

- Dr. Jitka Soukopova

"The large majority of nodes joining northern and sub-Saharan patrilineages date back to the Green Sahara period."

- Dr. Eugenia D’Atanasio

"These data suggest that the presence in northern Africa of sub-Saharan patrilineages was not due to
recent contacts but probably occurred in more ancient times, possibly during the Green Sahara period considering the coalescence ages of the clades"

- Dr. Eugenia D’Atanasio

"The multifurcated structure of the E-M2 is suggestive of a first demographic expansion, which occurred about 10.5 kya, at the beginning of the last Green Sahara"

- Dr. Eugenia D’Atanasio

"Very likely, the Round Head paintings are the work of the same hunter- gatherers who produced the early Saharan ceramics and who were responsible for the first manipulations and management of animal and plant species"

- Professor Barbara E. Barich