Ancient DNA Analyses and the Human Population of Western Europe during and after the Last Glacial Maximum: Major Contributions from El Mirón Cave (Cantabria, Spain)

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Interdisciplinary Research into the Late Pleistocene of Europe" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Pioneering genomic analyses of bone and dental calculus from the 19,000-year-old Magdalenian “Red Lady” skeleton in El Mirón Cave, along with DNA from other Late Upper Paleolithic human remains provide critical information supporting the archeologically based theory of human range southward contraction and northward reexpansion in response to the major environmental changes of the LGM. The existence of refugia during the Solutrean followed by recolonization during the Magdalenian, as proposed by Jochim and Straus, is confirmed genetically, with the addition of novel information on gene flow among the Balkans, Italy, Belgium, France, and Iberia, reinforcing the archeological evidence of interregion relationships, especially during the Magdalenian. Details on the oral biome of the El Mirón adult female, including connections to long-extinct Neanderthals provide insights into the lives of Late Glacial humans in northern Spain that complement classic evidence from artifact, faunal, and human paleontological analyses. DNA analyses of salmon and red deer—key food resources for Solutrean and Magdalenian foragers—confirm the role of the Cantabrian region as a refugium during the LGM and Oldest Dryas. The paleogenetic revolution led by Pääbo has both confirmed archeological models and provided extraordinary details on key aspects of Upper Paleolithic population history in Europe.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Interdisciplinary Research into the Late Pleistocene of Europe   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38359.0