Mechta-Afalou, also known as Mechtoid or Paleo-Berber, are a population that inhabited parts of North Africa during the late Paleolithic and Mesolithic. They are associated with the Iberomaurusian archaeological culture. The name Mechta-Afalou comes from the large number of skeletons found in the Afalou bou Rhummel site in Béjaïa in Algeria.

Mechtoids are believed to have been assimilated during the Neolithic and early Bronze Age by the makers of the ensuing Capsian culture. In 1999, the anthropologists Colin Groves & Alan Thorne in studying three Northern African samples from the Pleistocene/Holocene, found Taforalt was morphologically "Caucasoid" and resembled late Pleistocene Europeans, while Afalou was more intermediate in traits. In contrast to both, the Sudanese remains from Jebel Sahaba included in the study was described as "Negroid". The populations of Taforalt and Afalou were tall (176 - 179 cm), very facially robust, had large craniums, and showed strong sexual dimorphism. Moreover, in contrast to Upper Paleolithic relationships of Natufians in the Levant, the North African remains indicated a possible sub-Saharan African influence, likely from the earlier Aterian industries. The similarity between Iberomaurusians and Upper Paleolithic European crania could be interpreted as a retention of a morphology from early modern humans in the circum-Mediterranean, or contacts between the Maghreb and Southern Europe.

A craniometric analysis by Sereno et al. (2008) indicates that Iberomaurusians were closely related to the early Holocene Capsians of the North West Africa, as well as to the early Holocene Kiffians of the Sahara.

Iberomaurusian fossils excavated at the Afalou site were found to carry the Eurasian mtDNA haplogroups H or U (3/9; 33%), J (2/9; 22%), H103 (1/9; 11%), H14b1 or JT (1/9; 11%), R0a1a (1/9; 11%), and T2b (1/9; 11%).

Iberomaurusian fossils excavated at the Taforalt site were found to carry the African Y-DNA haplogroups E-M78* (4/6; 66%), E-L618* (1/6; 16%), and E-M35 (1/6; 16%). Majority of individuals carried the mtDNA haplogroups U6 (6/7; 85%), while one carried M1 (1/7; 14%).

Loosdrecht et al. (2018) analysed genome-wide data from seven ancient individuals from the Iberomaurusian Grotte des Pigeons site near Taforalt in north-eastern Morocco. The fossils were directly dated to between 15,100 and 13,900 calibrated years before present. The scientists found that all males belonged to haplogroup E1b1b, common among Afroasiatic males. The male specimens with sufficient nuclear DNA preservation belonged to the paternal haplogroup E1b1b1a1 (M78), with one skeleton bearing the E1b1b1a1b1 parent lineage to E-V13, one male specimen belonged to E1b1b (M215*). These Y-DNA clades, 24,000 years BP, had a common ancestor with the Berbers and the E1b1b1b (M123) subhaplogroup that has been observed in skeletal remains belonging to the Epipaleolithic Natufian and Pre-Pottery Neolithic cultures of the Levant. Maternally, the Taforalt remains bore the Eurasian markers U6a and M1b mtDNA haplogroups, which are common among modern Afroasiatic-speaking populations in Africa. A two-way admixture scenario using Natufian and modern sub-Saharan samples (including West African and East African samples) as reference populations inferred that the seven Taforalt individuals are modeled genetically as of 63.5% West Eurasian (Natufian-related) and 36.5% "sub-Saharan" African ancestry (with the latter having both West African-like and East African-like affinities), with no apparent gene flow from the Epigravettian culture of Paleolithic southern Europe. The scientists indicated that further ancient DNA testing at other Iberomaurusian archaeological sites would be necessary to determine whether the Taforalt samples were representative of the broader Iberomaurusian gene pool. The Sub-Saharan African DNA in Taforalt individuals was not found to have a good proxy in any present-day or ancient Holocene African groups. Jeong (2020) indicated that the Sub-Saharan African DNA of the Taforalt population has similarity with the remnant of a more basal Sub-Saharan African lineage (e.g., a basal West African lineage shared between Yoruba and Mende peoples).

Iosif Lazaridis et al. (2018), as summarized by Rosa Fregel (2021), contested the conclusion of Loosdrecht (2018) and argued instead that the Iberomaurusian population of Upper Paleolithic North Africa, represented by the Taforalt sample, can be better modeled as an admixture between a Dzudzuana-like [West-Eurasian] component and an "Ancient North African" component, "that may represent an even earlier split than the Basal Eurasians." Iosif Lazaridis et al. (2018) also argued that an Iberomaurusian/Taforalt-like population contributed to the genetic composition of Natufians "and not the other way around", and that this Iberomaurusian/Taforalt lineage also contributed around 13% ancestry to modern West Africans "rather than Taforalt having ancestry from an unknown Sub-Saharan African source". Fregel (2021) summarized: "More evidence will be needed to determine the specific origin of the North African Upper Paleolithic populations."

Martiniano et al. (2022) later reassigned all the Taforalt samples to haplogroup E-M78 and none to E-L618, the predecessor to EV13.