28 March 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

3D Scans reveal details of ‘unusual’ Roman burial ritual

6 June 2023

6 June 2023

Archaeologists at the University of York, have used 3D scans to study the Roman burial practice of pouring liquid gypsum...

The Largest Circular Tomb of the Ancient World Is Opening

16 February 2021

16 February 2021

The restoration of Augustus’ colossal tomb, which is expected to be opened in 2014, has been completed. The Augustus mausoleum...

The Mysterious Origins of the Cerne Abbas Giant Finally Revealed

3 January 2024

3 January 2024

There’s a huge chalk image of a man with a powerful erection and no clothes on his butt located in...

New discoveries at the Sanxingdui Ruins demonstrate ancient China’s creative ability

9 September 2021

9 September 2021

Chinese archaeologists revealed fresh important finds at the Sanxingdui Ruins site in southwest China’s Sichuan Province on Thursday, from pits...

2000-year-old ancient Roman Road, described as the most important in Scottish history, has been discovered

3 November 2023

3 November 2023

A 2000-year-old ancient Roman road was unearthed in Old Inn Cottage’s garden near Stirling, Scotland. The site is located a...

Zeugma of the Black Sea to be will Restore

8 February 2021

8 February 2021

Hadrianaupolis Antique City is located 3 km west of Eskiyapar district of Karabük. This ancient city has been known as...

The altar of Zeus Temple discovered in western Turkey

1 September 2023

1 September 2023

Archaeological excavations in the ancient city of Magnesia, located in the western province of Aydın’s Germencik district, have uncovered the...

The 5,000-Year-Old Beaded Burials that Reveal Women’s Power in Copper Age Iberia: Over 270,000 Beads

6 February 2025

6 February 2025

Archaeologists investigating the Montelirio tholos burial site in southwestern Spain, dating back approximately 5,000 years, have uncovered that the women...

A Royal Legacy? The Discovery of a Monumental Longhouse from the 3rd Century in Norway

2 February 2025

2 February 2025

Archaeologists have made a groundbreaking discovery at Øvre Eiker near Oslo, Norway unearthing a longhouse that surpasses any known structures...

Buddha statue discovered in ancient city of Berenice, Egypt

29 April 2023

29 April 2023

Archaeologists excavating in the ancient Egyptian seaport Berenice Troglodytica on the western shore of the Red Sea have unearthed a...

An inscription containing 15 headless falcons and unknown ancient rituals found in an ancient Egyptian temple

8 October 2022

8 October 2022

Archaeologists have discovered a shrine containing previously unknown ancient rituals during excavations at Berenike, a Greco-Roman port in Egypt’s eastern...

Storms uncover precious marble cargo from a 1,800-year-old Mediterranean shipwreck in Israel

15 May 2023

15 May 2023

Numerous rare marble artifacts have been found at the site of a 1,800-year-old shipwreck in shallow waters just 200 meters...

Researchers believe mass immigration to Orkney during the Bronze Age was mostly led by women

8 February 2022

8 February 2022

Researchers believe mass immigration to Orkney during the Bronze Age was mostly led by women.  Mass migration to Orkney during...

Excavations at Körzüt Castle unearth 2 cuneiform inscriptions and a new Urartian Susi temple

25 October 2023

25 October 2023

During the rescue excavations carried out at the Körzüt Castle in the Muradiye district of Van province in eastern Turkey,...

Staging of religion on rock paintings that are thousands of years old in southern Egypt desert

10 May 2023

10 May 2023

Egyptologists at the University of Bonn and the University of Aswan want to systematically record hundreds of petroglyphs and inscriptions...