36,500-Year-Old Human Genomes From Crimea Suggest Early Periods of Migration, Shed Light on First European Settlers

The questions of where we come from and how we are related are among the mysteries that baffle humans. Through genetic advances, human genome sequencing has allowed scientists to study genomic changes in various populations over time, providing a more powerful way to unveil the stories of human origins and ancestry.

(Photo: Wikimedia Commons/ Yuliya S.)

Who Were the First Europeans?

It was widely accepted that human populations genetically related to modern Europeans first appeared in Europe about 38,000 - 40,000 years ago. These new migrants, who traveled to the continent after a cold period of severe climatic disruption, eventually replaced the pre-existing modern human ancestries in Europe. However, the initial interactions between these groups remain unclear because of the lack of genomic evidence from the earliest migration periods.

Before modern humans settled in the continent, other human populations left Africa for Europe beginning approximately 60,000 years ago. However, they did not settle for the long term due to a major climatic crisis 40,000 years ago. It was even made worse by the Campanian Ignimbrite super-eruption near modern-day Naples in Italy, which covered Southern and Eastern Europe in ash.

Archeological and genetic data suggest that anatomically modern humans were present in Europe at least 45,000 years ago and possibly earlier. According to Dr. Eva-Maria Geigl from the Institut Jacques Monod at the Université Paris Cité, modern human remains before 40,000 years ago showed diverse and poorly characterized populations.

This serves as evidence of admixture with Neanderthals either from the initial admixture in all non-Africans or more recent, local events. Only the populations from Bacho Kiro in Bulgaria showed genomic relationships with modern human people, particularly those from East Asia.

At some point 40,000 years ago, early European ancestries vanished as a new genomic profile appeared. This event is concurrent with changing climatic and environmental conditions after the Campanian Ignimbrite super-eruption in Italy.

Searching for More Clues

To determine the first modern humans that definitively settled in Europe, Dr. Geigl and her co-authors from France and Ukraine studied the genomes from two skull fragments discovered at the Buran Kaya III site in Crimea. Both share the highest similarity to Gravettian-linked individuals found several thousand years later in southwestern Europe.

The genomic study revealed that the population turnover in Europe 40,000 years ago was accompanied by admixture with pre-existing populations of modern humans. The authors also believed that European ancestry before this period persisted in Crimea and the tribes of Western Europe and Mesolithic Caucasian populations.

The Gravettian culture is known for making female figurines called Venuses, whose European apogee came from 31,000 to 23,000 years ago. There is also a resemblance between stone tools found at the Buran Kaya III and some Gravettian assemblages. From these discoveries, the experts concluded that the individuals from Buran-Kaya III contributed to the genetics and technology of the populations that gave rise to this civilization 5,000 years later.