The so-called Koma Land people once lived in western Africa in what is today Ghana. If it hadn’t been for their one quirk, archaeologists might have overlooked their culture completely. All the Koma Land people left behind were strange terra-cotta figures. The imaginative sculptures depict animal and human characters, sometimes merging the two as hybrids, and were found squirreled away in mounds.
Researchers considered lifting DNA from the artifacts to determine their purpose. However, nobody got too excited because the arid environment and the burial of these artifacts for centuries in the hot sand meant that any DNA was most likely too degraded to be of any use. Incredibly, the clay vessels still contained usable traces of genetic material of what they once held. Most surprising was finding plantain, banana, and pine tree residue, none of which were indigenous during that time (600–1300 CE). The Koma must have had well-established trade routes spanning West Africa and the Sahara, the biggest hot desert on the planet.
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