Our knowledge of ancient human population structure in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly prior to the advent of food production, remains limited. Here we report genome-wide DNA data from four children—two of whom were buried approximately 8,000 years ago and two 3,000 years ago—from Shum Laka (Cameroon), one of the earliest known archaeological sites within the probable homeland of the Bantu language group^{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11}. One individual carried the deeply divergent Y chromosome haplogroup A00, which today is found almost exclusively in the same region^12,13. However, the genome-wide ancestry profiles of all four individuals are most similar to those of present-day hunter-gatherers from western Central Africa, which implies that populations in western Cameroon today—as well as speakers of Bantu languages from across the continent—are not descended substantially from the population represented by these four people. We infer an Africa-wide phylogeny that features widespread admixture and three prominent radiations, including one that gave rise to at least four major lineages deep in the history of modern humans.

我们对撒哈拉以南非洲古代人口结构的了解，特别是在粮食生产出现之前，仍然有限。在此，我们报告了来自 Shum Laka（喀麦隆）的四个儿童的全基因组 DNA 数据，其中两个儿童埋葬于大约 8,000 年前，另外两个儿童埋葬于 3,000 年前，Shum Laka 是班图语族可能的故乡内已知最早的考古遗址之一^{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11}。一个个体携带严重分歧的 Y 染色体单倍群 A00，今天几乎只在同一区域发现该单倍群^12,13。然而，所有四个人的全基因组祖先谱与当今中非西部狩猎采集者的谱系最为相似，这意味着今天喀麦隆西部的人口以及整个非洲大陆讲班图语的人并不是这四个人代表的人口的显着后裔。我们推断出一种非洲范围的系统发育，其特征是广泛的混合和三种显着的辐射，其中一种在现代人类历史深处产生了至少四个主要谱系。