Well, that might very well be the case. However as that BBC article states it is probably only due to very recent (compared to the earliest) migration back into Ethiopia (Horn of Africa as a whole) from the Arabian Peninsula and wider Middle East to a smaller degree. This might explain why, in particular, the Semitic-speaking populations of the Ethiopian (Eritrea too) highlands such as the Amhara, Tigray, Tigrinya, Tigre and Gurage (collectively known as Habesha people) have a lot of Caucasian/Euroasian (West Asian) admixture in their DNA genome. They also often have West Asian (Arab) facial features and do in general look different on average than the Cushitic speakers of Ethiopia.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2011/01/the-genetic-affinities-of-ethiopians/#.V7M9p1eYU00
Many of our Afro-Arabs are Habesha people.
If you ask me they are some of the most beautiful women in the world but that is another topic, lol.
However I have a hard time believing that native African populations in Central Africa and Southern Africa have much Neanderthal DNA if any.
BTW have you ever taken a DNA test? Is there a interest for such a thing in Iran?
Anyway 3000-5000 years is not that many generations if you think about it. That's around 150-100 generations back.
You should tell your fried to contact the authorities (SCTH) immediately so those artifacts can be returned.
10.000 artifacts were returned not that long ago by a few American expats alone.
JEDDAH: ARAB NEWS | Published — Monday 31 December 2012
Seven US citizens have taken the initiative to return a number of Saudi artifacts, which they possessed for decades and were of great value, to the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA).
The Americans were copiously honored by Prince Sultan bin Salman, SCTA president, at the opening ceremony of the three-month-long exhibition “Roads of Arabia: Archaeology and History of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia”, which was opened on Nov. 15.
The citizens who returned the artifacts are “Sons of Aramco”, said Janet Smith, wife of the US Ambassador to the Kingdom James Smith. “They were born and lived in the Kingdom with their parents, who were working for Saudi Aramco, and are now part of the Alumni Association Aramco families and retirees, which includes people between the ages of 5-90 years,” she said.
Barbara Denis Martin, one of the honorees, said that she was born in the Kingdom and lived there until she was 20, so she considers it to be her second homeland.
“When I was a child, I used to go camping with my family out of the urban area. The desert was fascinating with its wild flora and fauna. Moreover, there were wide ranges of thousand-year pottery spread. We used to spend hours exploring, and managed to find many artifacts that emerged due to wind erosion. We could gather a collection of 60-70 pottery and glass pieces, some intact, others shriveled. We were aware of their archaeological value, but they wouldn’t be given much appreciation by nationals back then, so we kept them at our homes. Years later, we went back to America and took them to boastfully show them in our America-based houses,” Martin declared.
Louis Wolfram, speaking about her story with Saudi monuments, said: “I was accustomed to collecting pottery items from the Kingdom’s prairies, where I used to go to on excursions when I was a child. One day I went with my family to Jubail on a trip, and I found there a green pottery piece that was half sunk in the sand, so I dug it out and then removed more sand layers in the same location to find a two-handled ceramic pot. We took both pieces with us home and kept them in care for years.”
Lucile Lynn, from Florida, recalled her memories in the Kingdom, when they used to spend hours with her two daughters out of Aramco employees’ residential area. They were hiking around freely, when they found a number of historical artifacts.
About retrieving the artifacts, Barbara Martin said: “I was not aware of the real number of all artifacts we found, until I visited my father’s house last year to clean it and found out that they were too many, feeling happy that I could get them back home.”
Arthur Clark, associate editor of Aramco World magazine, said: “Our invitation for retrieval of Saudi artifacts was widely responded, encouraged by the initiative of Prince Sultan bin Salman. We could contact Aramco sons and organized several meetings with them to inform them about the initiative for returning and restoring these artifacts to be displayed in the Kingdom’s under-construction museums.”
This invitation was addressed to Saudis and non-Saudis all over the world to restore these monuments to their homeland, Clark said.
“Sons of Aramco” could take care of them for years before the modern Saudi urban development. Now, with all the regulations and laws issued by the SCTA, theses artifacts will be well appreciated and taken more care of in their homeland.
The agreement got its fruit by encouraging numerous governmental associations and individuals to retrieve more than 3,000 artifacts from within the country and more than 14,000 from all over the world. The returned treasures were exhibited in the Riyadh National Museum, as a feature of an exhibition was held under the aegis of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah.
http://www.arabnews.com/saudi-arabia/americans-honored-returning-saudi-treasures
Check out this
great article from AramcoWorld
http://www.aramcoworld.com/en-US/Articles/March-2016/Returning-Treasures-to-the-Kingdom
Author
P.K. Abdul Ghafour | Arab News
Publication Date:
Thu, 2009-12-24
JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia has retrieved more than 10,000 of its artifacts from other countries, Prince Sultan bin Salman, chairman of Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA), said on Wednesday.
“Retrieving antiquities has now become a national issue,” he said, adding that the government would continue its efforts to bring back Saudi artifacts scattered across the world.
He said an exhibition of the recovered antiquities would be held soon.
Prince Sultan said the SCTA with the cooperation of other government agencies would prevent the theft of antiquities, especially the ones from the Islamic heritage sites in Makkah and Madinah.
He disclosed plans to establish a major Islamic and national museum at Al-Khozam Palace in Jeddah and a Qur’an museum in Madinah.
Efforts are also under way to establish 12 new museums in other parts of the country, he said.
“We have so far licensed more than 70 private museums in the Kingdom and will soon start providing financial support to such museums in association with banks and other public and private agencies,” he told a gathering at the residence of Abdul Maqsood Khoja, a prominent Jeddah businessman.
Prince Sultan said the Kingdom would host the first international conference on architectural heritage on April 18.
“We have received requests from at least eight world exhibition centers to display Saudi antiquities,” he pointed out. He also said that the SCTA was working on setting up a company with the private sector to develop heritage hotels.
“The commission is committed to bringing about a qualitative change in people’s perception of national heritage and antiquities,” the prince added.
“Saudi Arabia is replete with a large number of valuable antiquities and protection of these artifacts is a national duty,” he said, adding that the Kingdom would not tolerate smuggling of antiquities.
He said registration of heritage sites at UNESCO would take years, adding that the registration of Madain Saleh took four years.
“We have presented an application to UNESCO to register the historical area of Jeddah and we hope it would be voted on after two years,” he said. “We are now working on a number of programs to develop Old Jeddah into an architectural heritage site of international importance. We are facing a lot of challenges.”
Efforts are under way to renovate old palaces built during the Saudi era.
“We have completed renovation of 90 percent of these palaces and turned them into cultural centers and museums,” he pointed out.
http://www.arabnews.com/node/331666
Considering the "lawlessness" on this field we can easily conclude that this number is many, many times higher. I believe that locals have not returned 20 times that number. At least. If such things are not even fixed today what can we then expect?
He found them during the construction (not finished) of the Makkah-Madinah railway, right? Even more pathetic if true.