Latest genetic news: West Africa, 6000-1000 BC. h/t hbdchick, as ever. And Razib.
They claim in an offhand remark that the Iron Age started 1500 BC there. That is news to me. I'd always thought the iron smelter was a Late Antique innovation on that side of Sahara. If not, then someone needs to write an article about that.
[UPDATE: 1/23 8 PM MST - Wiki points to Nok and Djenné-Djenno, in the Nigeria region = 500ish BC. Hardly late Antique - so, mea culpa. In interest of selfdefence this the Bagastan, intermittent Aztec apologetic site, is not such a site as makes civilisational judgements based on metal-preference. China, for one, entered "the Iron Age" later than Africa because it never lost bronze so didn't need iron. I might say the same for Perú. Still - back on track - I retain an interest in claims for iron smelting anywhere 1500 BC.]
I am impressed that the scientists could get any premodern genetics at all from the swamps of Cameroon, but that's the revolution in this science we're living in.
The tale being told is of a population 1/3 huntergatherer, 2/3 paraBantu. They were (probably) not Bantuphone themselves. But I'd bet they spoke a Niger-Kongo language, related to that.
The hunter-gatherer third survives in more undiluted fashion to this day: as pygmies. These are a different branch, who speak Bantu now. [UPDATE 1/23 again: Steve Sailer says some don't.] In recent times they were on the fringe of Cameroon Bantu society, and adopted their language. I suspect it went similar in the Bronze Age.
I'll also go out on the limb that this group weren't a strong group, mentally or culturally. They later would get swamped by the iron-wielding Bantu.
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