Tunisian DNA: what the genome studies show

Taforalt: the oldest genomes of North Africa

~15,000 years ago · Iberomaurusian culture · Taforalt, Morocco

The oldest DNA recovered in North Africa, from Taforalt cave in northeastern Morocco (not Tunisia), shown here as the Maghreb's deep-time reference. In 2018 these Late Stone Age hunter‑gatherers were modelled as about two‑thirds Levantine (Natufian‑related) and one‑third sub‑Saharan‑related ancestry. A 2025 study of 7,000‑year‑old genomes from Takarkori, in Libya, fits that second part better as an ancient North African lineage, long isolated, than as a sub‑Saharan one: the data are the same, the interpretation is revised.

Model-based estimate (qpAdm) from van de Loosdrecht et al. (2018), Science, reinterpreted by Salem et al. (2025), Nature. These are statistical proportions from a fitted admixture model, the only figures in this section.

Sources: van de Loosdrecht et al. (2018) · Salem et al. (2025)

The Neolithic: newcomers from Europe and the Levant

~7,000–5,000 years ago

Ancient genomes show the local "Maghrebi" ancestry continuing, then receiving new gene flow: European Neolithic farmers, arriving via Iberia from about 7,000 years ago, and Levantine groups soon after. In the eastern Maghreb, in Tunisia and Algeria, these inputs stayed modest and local ancestry remained the majority (Simões et al. 2023; Lipson et al. 2025). Some studies find the local component thinning from west to east (Henn et al. 2012; Serra-Vidal et al. 2019); others find no clear geographic gradient (Arauna et al. 2017).

Bar order and labels follow the cited studies (each bar lists its basis). Bar lengths are illustrative, not measured percentages.

Sources: Simões et al. (2023) · Lipson et al. (2025) · Fregel et al. (2018) · Serra-Vidal et al. (2019)

Modern Tunisians, a Mediterranean mosaic

Present day

Present-day Tunisian ancestry is best read as a spectrum, not a single figure. Most North African samples show a substantial Near-Eastern share beside the local North African one, and smaller sub-Saharan and European shares (Henn et al. 2012). Some small, long-isolated Amazigh (Berber) communities, such as Chenini and Douiret, show the highest share of the local component, which the studies link partly to isolation and genetic drift; other Berber-speaking groups and most Arabic-speaking populations are more admixed, and no genetic line separates Berbers from Arabs (Arauna et al. 2017). In worldwide comparisons Tunisians form a distinct cluster of their own (Cherni et al. 2016).

Datable admixture signals

from ~1st c. BCE

sub-Saharan gene flow begins, consistent with the Roman-era slave trade

~7th c. CE

Near-Eastern admixture peak, coincident with the Arabization of the region

~17th c. CE

a strong pulse of sub-Saharan gene flow, linked to the trans-Saharan slave trade

Dates: Arauna et al. (2017)

Bar order and labels follow the cited studies (each bar lists its basis). Bar lengths are illustrative, not measured percentages, and the shares vary from one community to another: the local and Near-Eastern layers are drawn equal because the studies do not rank one above the other for Tunisians as a whole. Ancestry components are statistical, not ethnic identities. The retracted 2020 southern-Tunisia paper is deliberately excluded.

Sources: Henn et al. (2012) · Arauna et al. (2017) · Serra-Vidal et al. (2019) · Cherni et al. (2016) · Frigi et al. (2017) · Hamdi et al. (2024)