8 August 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Earliest Modern Human Genome Identified

The fossilized skull of a woman in the Czech Republic provided the oldest modern human genome to date, which has been reconstructed to represent a population that arose before the ancestors of today’s Europeans and Asians split.

Ancient DNA from Neanderthals and early modern humans has recently shown that these groups likely interbred crossed somewhere in the Middle East after modern humans left Africa some 50,000 years ago. As a result, everyone outside of Africa carries 2% to 3% of Neanderthal DNA. In the modern human genome, these Neandertal DNA fragments become shorter and shorter with the passage of time, and their length can be used to estimate a person’s survival time. The archaeological data released last year further showed that modern humans already existed in Southeast Europe 47-43,000 years ago, but due to the lack of fairly complete human fossils and the lack of genomic DNA, people do not know who these early human colonists were. -Or their relationship with ancient and contemporary human groups.

In a new study published in “Nature Ecology and Evolution”, an international research team reported the oldest possibility to date to reconstruct the modern human genome. Researchers call it Zlatýkůň (the golden horse of the Czech Republic). It was the first female discovered in the Czech Republic. Its Neanderthal DNA fragments are longer than the 45,000-year-old Ust’-Ishim in Siberia, the oldest modern human genome to date. Analysis shows that she is part of a part of the population, and these populations were formed before the split between Europeans and Asians today.

A recent anthropological study based on the shape of the Zlatýkůň skull shows that the species is similar to people who lived in Europe before the last glacier peak at least 30,000 years ago, but radiocarbon dating has produced sporadic results, irregular of which 15,000 years ago. It wasn’t until Jaroslav Brůžek from the Faculty of Science, Prague and Petr Velemínský of Prague’s National Museum collaborated with the genetics laboratories of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History that a clearer picture came into view.

“We found evidence of cow DNA contamination in the analyzed bone, which suggests that a bovine-based glue used in the past to consolidate the skull was returning radiocarbon dates younger than the fossil’s true age,” says Cosimo Posth, co-lead author of the study. Post was formerly a research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and is currently a Professor of Archaeo- and Palaeogenetics at the University of Tübingen.

Initial attempts to date Zlatý kůň based on the shape of her skull suggested she was at least 30,000 years old. Researchers now believe she lived more than 45,000 years ago.
Initial attempts to date Zlatý kůň based on the shape of her skull suggested she was at least 30,000 years old. Researchers now believe she lived more than 45,000 years ago. Photo: Martin Frouz

However, it was Neandertal DNA that led the team to reach the main conclusions about the age of the fossil. Zlatýkůň carries the same amount of Neandertal DNA in her genome as Ust Ishim or other modern humans outside of Africa, but the fragments of Neandertal descent are longer on average.

“The results of our DNA analysis show that Zlatý kůň lived closer in time to the admixture event with Neanderthals,” says Kay Prüfer, co-lead author of the study.

The scientists were able to estimate that Zlatý kůň lived approximately 2,000 years after the last admixture. Based on these findings, the team argues that Zlatý kůň represents the oldest human genome to date, roughly the same age as – if not a few hundred years older than – Ust’-Ishim.

“It is quite intriguing that the earliest modern humans in Europe ultimately didn’t succeed! Just as with Ust’-Ishim and the so far oldest European skull from Oase 1, Zlatý kůň shows no genetic continuity with modern humans that lived in Europe after 40,000 years ago,” says Johannes Krause, senior author of the study and director at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

One possible explanation for the discontinuity is the Campanian Ignimbrite volcanic eruption roughly 39,000 years ago, which severely affected climate in the northern hemisphere and may have reduced the survival chances of Neanderthals and early modern humans in large parts of Ice Age Europe.

As advances in ancient DNA reveal more about the story of our species, future genetic studies of other early European individuals will help to reconstruct the history and decline of the first modern humans to expand out of Africa and into Eurasia before the formation of modern-day non-African populations.

Source: MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN HISTORY

Related Articles

Archaeologists Unearth Exceptionally Preserved Roman Wicker Well in Norfolk, England

4 July 2025

4 July 2025

A team of archaeologists from Oxford Archaeology has uncovered a remarkably intact Roman-era well in Norfolk, England, revealing new insights...

Lead Glass Jewelry was Mass-Produced in Medieval Poland from Local Raw Material

7 April 2025

7 April 2025

Recent archaeological research has unveiled significant insights into the mass production of lead glass jewelry in medieval Poland, confirming that...

Hidden Treasure from WWII: 500,000 Phantom Ceramic Coins Found

8 November 2024

8 November 2024

About 500,000 Maboroshi (phantom) ceramic coins manufactured due to metal shortages during World War II were discovered in a warehouse...

Excavations in and around Yazıkaya, one of the monumental works of the Phrygians, start again after 71 years.

23 July 2022

23 July 2022

Archaeological excavations at Midas Castle in Yazılıkaya Midas Valley in the Han district of Eskişehir, located in northwest Turkey, will...

Researchers decipher enigmatic ancient ‘Unknown Kushan Script’

13 July 2023

13 July 2023

A research team at the University of Cologne’s Department of Linguistics deciphered a writing system belonging to the Kushan Empire,...

The 1,800-year-old ‘Iron Legion’ Roman Legionary Base uncovered at the foot of Tel Megiddo

14 February 2024

14 February 2024

The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced that a recent excavation at the foot of Tel Megiddo, near the ancient village...

Poland’s oldest copper axe discovered in the Lublin region

30 March 2024

30 March 2024

A copper axe from the 4th to 3rd millennium BC identified with the Trypillia culture was found in the Horodło...

Samen Underground City Getting Prepared for Public Visits

6 June 2021

6 June 2021

Samen Underground City is a unique structure in Iran and the extent of such a structure has not been observed...

Falaj al Misfah: Working for a thousand years

26 September 2021

26 September 2021

The village of Al Misfah Abriyeen is known for its lush oasis, magnificent orchards, and year-round water source, the ‘aflaj.’...

Found in Spain a poem by Virgil engraved in a Roman amphora

22 June 2023

22 June 2023

Archaeologists have deciphered a verse by Virgil, the greatest poet of Rome’s Golden Age, carved into the clay of a...

Early Female Emperors in Japan “Empress Kōken”

2 July 2021

2 July 2021

Born into the aristocratic Fujiwara clan, this extraordinary woman first ascended to the throne as Empress Kōken and became the...

Mystery ax discovered off the coast of Arendal of Norway

26 July 2021

26 July 2021

Researchers have discovered a find that could be a first for Norwegian archeology. A hollow ax, which researchers believe dates...

Archaeologists Uncover Evidence of British Rule in Florida

29 March 2025

29 March 2025

A recent archaeological excavation in St. Augustine, Florida, has revealed a British redoubt dating back to 1781, offering valuable insight...

An extraordinary medieval belt loop found near Kamień Pomorski in Poland

18 March 2024

18 March 2024

A late medieval belt loop for hanging keys or a bag was found near the town of Kamień Pomorski in...

Researchers find the earliest record of aurora in old Chinese documents

15 April 2022

15 April 2022

Researchers have found the oldest known reference to a candidate aurora in a celestial event, described in an ancient Chinese...