Human genetics: Message from the Mesolithic

All modern humans come from Africa, from where they started spreading across the globe about 100,000 years ago, reaching Europe by about 40,000 years ago. But to what extent modern Europeans are the descendants of these early hunter-gatherers, or of farmers that immigrated from the Near East at a later time is not entirely clear. A possible answer could come from comparisons of the DNA of present-day Europeans with that of prehistoric occupants. However, when a person lived tens of thousands of years ago, isolating their DNA becomes challenging, and indeed for many years our ancestors’ genetic buildup could only be inferred (very approximately) from the DNA of contemporary people. A big leap forward came with reliable methods to characterize ancient DNA from fossil remains. Now, in this issue of Current Biology, the first genetic analysis of two individuals from the Mesolithic may contribute significantly to a better understanding of the genealogical relationships between current and prehistoric inhabitants of Europe