Populations genetically related to present-day Europeans first appeared in Europe at some point after 38,000-40,000 years ago, following a cold period of severe climatic disruption. These new migrants would eventually replace the pre-existing modern human ancestries in Europe, but initial interactions between these groups are unclear due to the lack of genomic evidence from the earliest periods of the migration. In a new study, scientists sequenced and analyzed the genomes of two 36,000-37,000-year-old individuals from the site of Buran-Kaya III in Crimea, Ukraine, and found that they belonged to this newer migration.
The genomes of two 36,000-37,000-year-old individuals from Buran-Kaya III in Crimea, Ukraine, share the highest similarity to Gravettian-associated individuals found several thousand years later in southwestern Europe.
Before anatomically modern humans settled definitively in Europe, other human populations left Africa for Europe beginning approximately 60,000 years ago, albeit without settling for the long term.
This was due to a major climatic crisis 40,000 years ago, combined with the Campanian Ignimbrite super-eruption near current-day Naples in Italy, which blanketed Southern and Eastern Europe in ash.
“Archaeological and genetic data show anatomically modern humans to be present in Europe by at least 45,000 years before present and possibly earlier,” said Dr. Eva-Maria Geigl from the Institut Jacques Monod at the Université Paris Cité and CNRS and her colleagues.
“Genomic analyses of anatomically modern human remains from Europe before 40,000 years ago have revealed several diverse and poorly characterized populations.”
“All of these showed evidence of admixture with Neanderthals either from the initial admixture present in all non-Africans or more recent, local events.”
“Only the individuals from Bacho Kiro in Bulgaria have demonstrated some genomic relationship with modern human populations, specifically those found in East Asia.”
“At some point after 40,000 years ago, these early ancestries appear to vanish from Europe as a new genomic profile appears, a timing concurrent with changing climatic and environmental conditions after the Campanian Ignimbrite super-eruption in Italy.”
To determine who the first modern humans to settle definitively in Europe were, Dr. Geigl and co-authors from France and Ukraine analyzed the genomes from two skull fragments from the Buran Kaya III site in Crimea.
Both genomes share the highest similarity to Gravettian-associated individuals found several thousand years later in southwestern Europe.
These genomes also revealed that the population turnover in Europe after 40,000 years ago was accompanied by admixture with pre-existing modern human populations.
According to the authors, European ancestry before 40,000 years ago persisted not only at Buran-Kaya III but is also found in later Gravettian-associated populations of western Europe and Mesolithic Caucasus populations.
“The Gravettian culture is known for producing female figurines referred to as Venuses, whose apogee in Europe came between 31,000 and 23,000 years ago,” they said.
“The stone tools found at the Buran Kaya III site also resemble some Gravettian assemblages.”
“These individuals from Buran-Kaya III therefore contributed both genetically and technologically to the population that gave rise to this civilization around 5,000 years later.”
The findings were publsihed in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.
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E.A. Bennett et al. Genome sequences of 36,000- to 37,000-year-old modern humans at Buran-Kaya III in Crimea. Nat Ecol Evol, published online October 23, 2023; doi: 10.1038/s41559-023-02211-9
