Kehf el Baroud

Kehf el Baroud, sometimes mistakenly spelled Kelif el Boroud, is an archaeological site in Morocco. It is located to the south of Rabat, near the Aterian industry of Dar es Soltan.

Genetics
examined the remains of 8 individuals buried at Kelif el Boroud (c. 3780-3650 BCE) during the Neolithic. The 1 sample of Y-DNA extracted belonged to the paternal haplogroup T-M184, while the 6 samples of mtDNA extracted belonged to the maternal haplogroups X2b (two samples), K1a1b1 (two samples), K1a4a1 and lastly T2b3, with the other being undetermined.

The examined individuals were found to share genetic affinities with individuals buried at both the Early Neolithic sites of Ifri N'Amr Ou Moussa in Morocco and the Early Neolithic Cave of El Toro in Spain. They were modelled as being of about 50% Early European Farmer (EEF) ancestry and 50% local North African (Iberomaurusian) ancestry, suggesting substantial migration from Iberia into North Africa during the Neolithic era of human history. Moreover, they were found to have had a lower amount of Sub-Saharan African admixture than earlier North Africans buried at Ifri N'Amr Ou Moussa, as well as present North Africans. Furthermore, unlike the earlier Ifri N'Amr population, they were fairer skinned, and carried various alleles associated with light skin and light eye colors.

The Kelif el Boroud inhabitants were additionally found to be closely related to the native Guanches of the Canary Islands, and ancestral to todays North African populations. Geneticists who conducted these investigations concluded that: "We show that Early Neolithic Moroccans (c. ~5,000 BCE) are similar to Later Stone Age individuals from the same region and possess an endemic element retained in present-day Maghrebi populations, confirming a long-term genetic continuity in the region."