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Researchers studying the remains of a prehistoric woman who lived in today’s Belgium 10,500 years ago, used ancient DNA to create a reconstruction of her face.
A team led by scientists at Ghent University found that women had blue eyes and slightly lighter skin than most other people in the Mesoslithic Age of Western Europe, which have been analyzed so far, according to a university statement Tuesday.
Isabel de Grucci, an archaeologist at the University of Ghent, who leads the Mesolicic Belgian research project, said the woman came from the same group of groups as Cheddarman, who now lives in the UK.
The findings challenge the previous assumption that European hunter gatherings shared the same genetic makeup, indicating that there is already considerable variation in skin tone among different populations, De Groote said.
“I also learned from the skull that she was between 35 and 60 years old,” De Groote told CNN on Wednesday.
“She also had a nose with a high bridge of nose similar to that of a Cheddarman,” added de Grute. “She also has a strong brow ridge despite being a woman.”
The woman’s body was found in Margaux Caves in Dynant during an archaeological excavation between 1988 and 1989, along with the bodies of eight other women, De Groote said.
This was a “unusual discovery” as most Mesoslithic burial sites contain a mixture of men, women and children.
“Many of the skeletons were scattered with orchers, practices related to ritual or symbolic behavior,” de Groot said.
Most of the body was carefully covered with pieces of stone, but one individual had cut marks on the skull made after her death, she added.
“What’s interesting is that the burial caves have been in use for hundreds of years, making them a place of memory where people can return despite the lifestyle of mobile hunter gatherers,” De Groote said.
“These findings refer to complex burial practices and raise interesting questions about the social structure and cultural practices of this early hunter-gatherer community,” she added.
Philip Crombe, a university archaeologist who is part of the project team, said that the skin colour of ancient women was “a little surprise,” but the pool of Messelsitic people to compare is limited.
“To date, all individuals analyzed with ancient DNA in Western Europe belonged to the same genetic group,” he said.
“That’s a bit surprising, but on the other hand, we can expect some variation in the wider parts of Western Europe, as we do today.”
When the bodies were recovered, there was no way to study ancient DNA, Kronbe said.
“The technique has been developed since the drilling,” he told CNN on Wednesday, adding that the interdisciplinary project is “reanalysis of old excavations using cutting-edge methods.”
Crombé detailed how “very good quality” DNA was collected from a female skull, allowing for the creation of “very detailed reconstructions.”
Her skin tone, hair color and eye color are all based on ancient DNA, but other elements such as her jewelry and tattoos are based on archaeological data obtained from other excavations in the Meuse River Basin, allowing you to build pictures of everyday life.
In one excavation, a former campsite on the banks of the river, scientists have discovered stone tools, wild games, fish bones, and the fish remain, providing evidence that these people were nomads.
“They are still moving around because they are completely dependent on natural resources, such as wild games, wild plants, fish,” he said. “It forced them to move the landscape and move their settlements.”
Many questions remain about these Mesoslithic communities, who were the last hunter-gatherer in Western Europe, said Kronbe.
He added that the team is currently analyzing plans to piece together relationships between those buried together and study the extent to which they ate fish.
