In northwestern Africa, lifestyle transitioned from foraging to food production around 7,400 years ago but what sparked that change remains unclear. Archaeological data support conflicting views: (1) that migrant European Neolithic farmers brought the new way of life to North Africa^1,2,3 or (2) that local hunter-gatherers adopted technological innovations^4,5. The latter view is also supported by archaeogenetic data⁶. Here we fill key chronological and archaeogenetic gaps for the Maghreb, from Epipalaeolithic to Middle Neolithic, by sequencing the genomes of nine individuals (to between 45.8- and 0.2-fold genome coverage). Notably, we trace 8,000 years of population continuity and isolation from the Upper Palaeolithic, via the Epipaleolithic, to some Maghrebi Neolithic farming groups. However, remains from the earliest Neolithic contexts showed mostly European Neolithic ancestry. We suggest that farming was introduced by European migrants and was then rapidly adopted by local groups. During the Middle Neolithic a new ancestry from the Levant appears in the Maghreb, coinciding with the arrival of pastoralism in the region, and all three ancestries blend together during the Late Neolithic. Our results show ancestry shifts in the Neolithization of northwestern Africa that probably mirrored a heterogeneous economic and cultural landscape, in a more multifaceted process than observed in other regions.

在非洲西北部，大约 7,400 年前，生活方式从采集转变为粮食生产，但引发这种变化的原因仍不清楚。考古数据支持相互矛盾的观点：(1) 欧洲新石器时代农民移民给北非带来了新的生活方式^1,2,3或 (2) 当地狩猎采集者采用了技术创新^4,5。后一种观点也得到了考古数据的支持⁶。在这里，我们通过对 9 个个体的基因组进行测序（基因组覆盖度在 45.8 至 0.2 倍之间），填补了马格里布从旧石器时代到新石器时代中期的关键年代学和考古学空白。值得注意的是，我们追溯了从旧石器时代晚期，经过旧石器时代，到一些马格里布新石器时代农业群体的 8000 年人口连续性和隔离性。然而，最早的新石器时代的遗骸大多显示出欧洲新石器时代的血统。我们认为农业是由欧洲移民引入的，然后迅速被当地群体采用。新石器时代中期，马格里布出现了来自黎凡特的新祖先，恰逢该地区畜牧业的到来，所有三个祖先在新石器时代晚期融合在一起。