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Into Africa: Ancient skeleton sheds light on reverse migration

4,500-year-old Ethiopian provides baseline for measuring Eurasian DNA in modern Africans

Mota Cave

HOME SWEET GENOME  A 4,500-year-old man’s skeleton found in Ethiopia’s Mota Cave has yielded the first ancient human genome from Africa. Rocks placed over the man’s burial were cleared away before excavating the skeleton.

Both: Kathryn and John Arthur

By Bruce Bower

- More than 2 years ago

DNA from a man who lived about 4,500 years ago in what’s now Ethiopia has illuminated a surprisingly influential migration of Eurasians into Africa 1,500 years after his death.