Scientists reconstruct 10,500-year-old woman’s face using DNA

Researchers studying the remains of a prehistoric woman who lived around 10,500 years ago in what is now Belgium have produced a reconstruction of her face using ancient DNA.

A team led by scientists from Ghent University found that the woman would have had blue eyes and slightly lighter skin than most other people from the Mesolithic period in Western Europe who have been analyzed to date, according to a statement from the university on Tuesday.

Isabelle De Groote, an archaeologist at Ghent University who leads the research project on Mesolithic Belgium, told CNN that the woman came from the same population group as the Cheddar Man, who lived in what is now the United Kingdom at around the same time, but had lighter skin.

The findings challenge previous assumptions that European hunter gatherers shared the same genetic makeup, and demonstrates that there was already considerable variation in skin color among different populations, said De Groote.

“From the skull we could also tell that she was somewhere between 35 and 60 years old,” De Groote told CNN on Wednesday.

“She also had a nose with a high nasal bridge, which is similar to Cheddar Man,” De Groote added. “She also has strong brow ridges despite being a female.”

The woman’s remains were found in the Margaux cave in Dinant during an archaeological dig in 1988-1989 alongside the bodies of eight other women, said De Groote.

This was “an unusual finding” as most Mesolithic burial sites contain a mixture of men, women and children, she added.

Credit: cnn.com

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