8 August 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

The Entire Genome Of 35,000-Year-Old Skull From Romania Sequenced “Peştera Muierii 1”

Researchers have successfully sequenced the whole genome from the skull of Peştera Muierii 1, women who lived in today’s Romania 35,000 years ago, for the first time.

Her high genetic variety demonstrates that the migration out of Africa was not the major bottleneck in human history, but rather happened during and after the most recent Ice Age. This is the conclusion of new research headed by Uppsala University’s Mattias Jakobsson and published in Current Biology.

“She is a bit more like modern-day Europeans than the individuals in Europe 5,000 years earlier, but the difference is much less than we had thought. We can see that she is not a direct ancestor of modern Europeans, but she is a predecessor of the hunter-gathers that lived in Europe until the end of the last Ice Age,” says Mattias Jakobsson, professor at the Department of Organismal Biology at Uppsala University and the head of the study.

Other experts have found that the form of her cranium is comparable to both contemporary people and Neanderthals in prior investigations. As a result, they concluded she had a higher proportion of Neanderthal heritage than other contemporaries, making her stand out from the crowd. However, the present study’s genetic examination reveals that she has the same low level of Neanderthal DNA as most other people alive at the time. When compared to the bones of people who lived 5,000 years ago, such as Peştera Oase 1, she had barely half as much Neanderthal heritage.

The skull of Pestera Muierii 1. Now researchers have successfully sequenced
the entire genome from the skull of Pestera Muierii 1, a woman who lived
 in today’s Romania 35,000 years ago [Photo: Mattias Jakobsson]

The exodus of modern humans from Africa around 80,000 years ago was a watershed moment in human history, and it is commonly referred to as a genetic bottleneck. Populations migrated from Africa to Asia and Europe. The consequences of these migrations may still be observed today. Outside of Africa, genetic diversity is lower than in Africa. The fact that Peştera Muierii 1 has a high genetic diversity suggests that the largest loss of genetic variety happened during the last Ice Age (which ended around 10,000 years ago) rather than during the out-of-Africa migration.


“This is exciting since it teaches us more about the early population history of Europe. Peştera Muierii 1 has much more genetic diversity than expected for Europe at this time. This shows that genetic variation outside of Africa was considerable until the last Ice Age and that the Ice Age caused the decrease in diversity in humans outside of Africa.”

The researchers were also able to follow the genetic variation in Europe over the last 35,000 years and see a clear decrease in variations during the last Ice Age. The reduced genetic diversity has previously been linked to pathogenic variants in genomes being more common among populations outside of Africa, but this is in dispute.

“Access to advanced medical genomics has allowed us to study these ancient remains and even be able to look for genetic diseases. To our surprise, we did not find any differences during the last 35,000 years, even though some individuals alive during the Ice Age had low genetic diversity.

Now we have accessed everything possible from these remains. Peştera Muierii 1 is important from a cultural history perspective and will certainly remain interesting for researchers within other areas, but from a genetic perspective, all the data is now available.”

Source: Uppsala University 

Related Articles

1000-Year-Old Tomb Found in Perre Ancient City in southeast Turkey

1 July 2021

1 July 2021

A 1,000-year-old tomb was unearthed in the ancient city of Perre in Adiyaman province. Perre is one of the five...

A 1,300-year-old necklace is the ‘richest of its type ever uncovered in Britain’

6 December 2022

6 December 2022

Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) archaeologists have found a “once-in-a-lifetime” 1,300-year-old gold and gemstone necklace dating back to 630-670 AD...

Ceremonial meals may have been served in the 4500-year-old structure unearthed in the Yumuktepe Höyük in Southern Turkey

3 November 2021

3 November 2021

A 4,500-year-old structure containing a jar, many pots, and food fossils has been unearthed at the Yumuktepe Höyük (mound) in...

Bronze Age Treasure Found in Swedish Forests

30 April 2021

30 April 2021

A man who studied the forest to make a map for the orienteering club in western Sweden made an incredible...

A Roman sarcophagus containing two skeletons was found in Bath, England

29 June 2021

29 June 2021

Stone walls, a Roman sarcophagus, and a cremation burial have been unearthed in a renovation project at the Bathwick Roman...

Iron Age port discovered on Swedish island of Gotska Sandön

21 September 2023

21 September 2023

Archaeologists have discovered an Iron Age port on Gotska Sandön, an island and national park in Sweden’s Gotland district. In...

The discovery of a 380-million-year-old heart sheds new light on our bodies’ evolution

16 September 2022

16 September 2022

Researchers from Curtin University have discovered the world’s oldest heart in a ‘beautifully preserved’ ancient jawed fish fossil 380 million...

New suspect in greatest act of vandalism in the history of dinosaur study

29 May 2023

29 May 2023

Researchers from the University of Bristol are rewriting the history of paleontology’s darkest and most bizarre event. Vandals with sledgehammers...

A Gold Mourning Ring Found on The Isle of Man

21 April 2021

21 April 2021

The ring found with a metal detector on the Isle of Man in December 2020 will be exhibited in the...

From Bronze Age to Buddhism: Xinjiang’s Archaeological Journey Through Time and Recent Discoveries

4 March 2025

4 March 2025

Recent archaeological investigations in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region have significantly enhanced our understanding of the area’s historical context and...

Archaeologists in eastern Newfoundland unearth the oldest English coin ever found in Canada

14 November 2021

14 November 2021

Archaeologists in eastern Newfoundland have unearthed a rare two-penny piece minted between 1493 and 1499 more than 520 years ago....

Human Relief Found at Million Stone Excavation Site in İstanbul

18 July 2021

18 July 2021

The Milion Stone (also known as the Million Stone) from the Eastern Roman period is one of important the historical...

Torrential Rain Reveal 2500-Year-old Small Bull Statue

19 March 2021

19 March 2021

After heavy rains near the ancient Olympia site, a bronze bull statue of a bull believed to be at least...

12,000-Year-Old Grid-Plan Structures and Water Channel Discovered at Çayönü Mound

29 July 2025

29 July 2025

New Neolithic-era discoveries at Çayönü in southeastern Türkiye, dating back to approximately 10,200–6,500 BCE, include four grid-plan buildings and a...

2,500-Year-Old Phoenician Shipwreck Being Rescued By Spanish Archaeologists

6 July 2023

6 July 2023

A 2,500-year-old Phoenician shipwreck has been found underwater in the southeastern Spanish region of Murcia. An extraordinary Phoenician shipwreck dating...