Modern humans began to spread across Eurasia about 45,000 years ago, but previous research showed that the first modern humans that arrived in Europe did not contribute to later populations. A new study published in Nature ...
Climatic refugium or dead end?
Surprisingly, the research team found that populations from different regions associated with the Gravettian culture, which was widespread across the European continent between 32,000 and 24,000 years ago, were not closely related to each other. They were linked by a common archaeological culture: they used similar weapons and produced similar portable art. Genetically, however, the populations from western and southwestern Europe (today's France and Iberia) differed from contemporaneous populations from central and southern Europe (today's Czech Republic and Italy).
Furthermore, the gene pool of the western Gravettian populations is found continuously for at least 20,000 years: their descendants who are associated with the Solutrean and Magdalenian cultures stayed in southwestern Europe during the coldest period of the last Ice Age (between 25,000 and 19,000 years ago) and later spread north-eastward to the rest of Europe.
"With these findings, we can for the first time directly support the hypothesis that during the Last Glacial Maximum people found refuge in the climatically more favorable region of southwestern Europe," says first author Cosimo Posth.
Reconstruction of a hunter-gatherer associated with the Gravettian culture (32,000–24,000 years ago), inspired by the archaeological findings at the Arene Candide site (Italy). Credit: Tom Bjoerklund
The prehistoric human groups that archaeologists refer to as Gravettian were widespread in Europe about 32,000–24,000 years ago. Despite sharing several similar cultural traits, Gravettian populations from western and eastern/southern Europe were genetically different. The west Gravettian population (left) survived during the Last Glacial Maximum while the eastern and south Gravettian populations disappeared. Credit: Michelle O'Reilly and Laurent Klaric, inspired by the original work by Benoit Clarys
From Maszycka Cave in southern Poland: a human jaw, bone and antler artefacts from the Magdalenian culture, which was widespread in large parts of Europe between 19,000 and 14,000 years ago. Credit: Agnieszka Susuł, Paweł Iwaszko, Dawid Piątkiewicz, Archaeological Museum Krakow
Oldest evidence of migration during a climate warming: Male and female skull buried in western Germany (Oberkassel) about 14,000 years ago. Genetically those individuals derived from the south. Credit: Jürgen Vogel, LVR-LandesMuseum Bonn
Human fossils that were genetically analysed in this study were found on the Dutch coast and dated from about 11,000 to 8,000 years ago. They originally came from Doggerland, a now submerged land under the North Sea, where European hunter-gatherers lived. Credit: National Museum of Antiquities (RMO) modified by Michelle O‘Reilly