TY - JOUR
T1 - Entwined African and Asian genetic roots of medieval peoples of the Swahili coast
AU - Brielle, Esther S.
AU - Fleisher, Jeffrey
AU - Wynne-Jones, Stephanie
AU - Sirak, Kendra
AU - Broomandkhoshbacht, Nasreen
AU - Callan, Kim
AU - Curtis, Elizabeth
AU - Iliev, Lora
AU - Lawson, Ann Marie
AU - Oppenheimer, Jonas
AU - Qiu, Lijun
AU - Stewardson, Kristin
AU - Workman, J. Noah
AU - Zalzala, Fatma
AU - Ayodo, George
AU - Gidna, Agness O.
AU - Kabiru, Angela
AU - Kwekason, Amandus
AU - Mabulla, Audax Z.P.
AU - Manthi, Fredrick K.
AU - Ndiema, Emmanuel
AU - Ogola, Christine
AU - Sawchuk, Elizabeth
AU - Al-Gazali, Lihadh
AU - Ali, Bassam R.
AU - Ben-Salem, Salma
AU - Letellier, Thierry
AU - Pierron, Denis
AU - Radimilahy, Chantal
AU - Rakotoarisoa, Jean Aimé
AU - Raaum, Ryan L.
AU - Culleton, Brendan J.
AU - Mallick, Swapan
AU - Rohland, Nadin
AU - Patterson, Nick
AU - Mwenje, Mohammed Ali
AU - Ahmed, Khalfan Bini
AU - Mohamed, Mohamed Mchulla
AU - Williams, Sloan R.
AU - Monge, Janet
AU - Kusimba, Sibel
AU - Prendergast, Mary E.
AU - Reich, David
AU - Kusimba, Chapurukha M.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank N. Adamski, R. Bernardos, B. Culleton, I. Greenslade, D. Kennett, M. Mah, A. Micco and Z. Zhang for contributions to data generation, processing and curation. E.S.B. was supported by EMBO Postdoctoral fellowship ALTF 242-2021. The work of C.M.K., S.B.K., S.R.W. and J.M. in Kenya was supported by the National Museums of Kenya and the Republic of Kenya. The bulk of the research at Manda, Mtwapa, Faza and Makwasinyi was carried out when C.M.K. was at the Field Museum of Natural History. We acknowledge financial support from the US National Science Foundation SBR 9024683 (1991–1993); BCS 9615291 (1996–1998); BCS 0106664 (2002–2004); BCS 0352681 (2003–2004); BCS 0648762 (2007–2009; BCS 1030081 (2010–2012), the US National Endowment for the Humanities (2012–2014), the US IIE J. W. Fulbright Sr Scholars Program 2002–2003; 2012), and the National Geographic Society (1996–1997). The research of S.W.-J. and J.F. at Songo Mnara was supported by the Antiquities Division of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, Tanzania, and also by the National Science Foundation (BCS 1123091) and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AH/J502716/1). The Madagascar modern sample collection was supported by the MAGE consortium. D.R. is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the ancient DNA laboratory work and analysis were also supported by National Institutes of Health grant HG012287, by John Templeton Foundation grant 61220, by the Allen Discovery Center program, which is a Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group advised program of the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, and by a gift from J.-F. Clin. S.W.-J. and all co-authors are grateful to UK Research and Innovation for enabling fully Open Access publication of this study via financial support to the York Open Access Fund.
Funding Information:
We thank N. Adamski, R. Bernardos, B. Culleton, I. Greenslade, D. Kennett, M. Mah, A. Micco and Z. Zhang for contributions to data generation, processing and curation. E.S.B. was supported by EMBO Postdoctoral fellowship ALTF 242-2021. The work of C.M.K., S.B.K., S.R.W. and J.M. in Kenya was supported by the National Museums of Kenya and the Republic of Kenya. The bulk of the research at Manda, Mtwapa, Faza and Makwasinyi was carried out when C.M.K. was at the Field Museum of Natural History. We acknowledge financial support from the US National Science Foundation SBR 9024683 (1991–1993); BCS 9615291 (1996–1998); BCS 0106664 (2002–2004); BCS 0352681 (2003–2004); BCS 0648762 (2007–2009; BCS 1030081 (2010–2012), the US National Endowment for the Humanities (2012–2014), the US IIE J. W. Fulbright Sr Scholars Program 2002–2003; 2012), and the National Geographic Society (1996–1997). The research of S.W.-J. and J.F. at Songo Mnara was supported by the Antiquities Division of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, Tanzania, and also by the National Science Foundation (BCS 1123091) and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AH/J502716/1). The Madagascar modern sample collection was supported by the MAGE consortium. D.R. is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the ancient DNA laboratory work and analysis were also supported by National Institutes of Health grant HG012287, by John Templeton Foundation grant 61220, by the Allen Discovery Center program, which is a Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group advised program of the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, and by a gift from J.-F. Clin. S.W.-J. and all co-authors are grateful to UK Research and Innovation for enabling fully Open Access publication of this study via financial support to the York Open Access Fund.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s).
PY - 2023/3/30
Y1 - 2023/3/30
N2 - The urban peoples of the Swahili coast traded across eastern Africa and the Indian Ocean and were among the first practitioners of Islam among sub-Saharan people1,2. The extent to which these early interactions between Africans and non-Africans were accompanied by genetic exchange remains unknown. Here we report ancient DNA data for 80 individuals from 6 medieval and early modern (ad 1250–1800) coastal towns and an inland town after ad 1650. More than half of the DNA of many of the individuals from coastal towns originates from primarily female ancestors from Africa, with a large proportion—and occasionally more than half—of the DNA coming from Asian ancestors. The Asian ancestry includes components associated with Persia and India, with 80–90% of the Asian DNA originating from Persian men. Peoples of African and Asian origins began to mix by about ad 1000, coinciding with the large-scale adoption of Islam. Before about ad 1500, the Southwest Asian ancestry was mainly Persian-related, consistent with the narrative of the Kilwa Chronicle, the oldest history told by people of the Swahili coast3. After this time, the sources of DNA became increasingly Arabian, consistent with evidence of growing interactions with southern Arabia4. Subsequent interactions with Asian and African people further changed the ancestry of present-day people of the Swahili coast in relation to the medieval individuals whose DNA we sequenced.
AB - The urban peoples of the Swahili coast traded across eastern Africa and the Indian Ocean and were among the first practitioners of Islam among sub-Saharan people1,2. The extent to which these early interactions between Africans and non-Africans were accompanied by genetic exchange remains unknown. Here we report ancient DNA data for 80 individuals from 6 medieval and early modern (ad 1250–1800) coastal towns and an inland town after ad 1650. More than half of the DNA of many of the individuals from coastal towns originates from primarily female ancestors from Africa, with a large proportion—and occasionally more than half—of the DNA coming from Asian ancestors. The Asian ancestry includes components associated with Persia and India, with 80–90% of the Asian DNA originating from Persian men. Peoples of African and Asian origins began to mix by about ad 1000, coinciding with the large-scale adoption of Islam. Before about ad 1500, the Southwest Asian ancestry was mainly Persian-related, consistent with the narrative of the Kilwa Chronicle, the oldest history told by people of the Swahili coast3. After this time, the sources of DNA became increasingly Arabian, consistent with evidence of growing interactions with southern Arabia4. Subsequent interactions with Asian and African people further changed the ancestry of present-day people of the Swahili coast in relation to the medieval individuals whose DNA we sequenced.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41586-023-05754-w
DO - 10.1038/s41586-023-05754-w
M3 - Article
C2 - 36991187
AN - SCOPUS:85151212403
SN - 0028-0836
VL - 615
SP - 866
EP - 873
JO - Nature
JF - Nature
IS - 7954
ER -