Morphological and genetic analyses of early-mid Holocene wild cereals from the Takarkori rockshelter (central Sahara,Libya): first result and prospects.

Abstract The paper presents the first data on plant macroremains from Takarkori, a large rockshelter located in the Acacus Mountains, south-western Libya. The site was occupied by hunter-gatherers, followed by pastoralists, and its deposits span from about 8900 14C bp to 4500 14C bp. During the 2004-2006 field seasons, accumulations of desiccated seed/fruit remains were observed and collected in their entirety. Nine of these, almost completely consisting of wild cereal spikelets, were selected for morphological examinations. Six samples were selected for aDNA studies which yielded sequence data for 5 samples extracted from Takarkori specimens. Morphometrical descriptions of Panicum, Echinochloa, and Sorghum were reported from records, and the aDNA sequences obtained from them matched the identifications. The recovery of aDNA from early-mid Holocene remains from a nowadays arid environment which may often have completely degraded ancient DNA is one major result of these analyses.