Ancient DNA reveals earliest known dogs lived alongside Ice Age humans

 

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University of York

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14,300-year-old dog jawbone from Gough’s Cave, UK © The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London

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The bond between humans and dogs is one of nature’s most enduring partnerships, but exactly when it began has long been a mystery. Now, a new study has turned back the clock. 

By uncovering the earliest genetic evidence of domestic dogs to date, researchers have found that our 'best friends' were already living alongside us more than 14,000 years ago - redefining our understanding of how this ancient relationship first took root.

The international research team uncovered the earliest genetic evidence for the existence of dogs, suggesting they were already living alongside humans more than 14,000 years ago.

Researchers analysed ancient DNA from animal remains found at archaeological sites in the UK and Türkiye, dating to the Late Upper Palaeolithic period, long before the advent of farming.

They found that bones recovered from Gough’s Cave and Pınarbaşı belonged to early dogs, pushing back confirmed evidence of domesticated dogs by more than 5,000 years.

Professor Oliver Craig, from the University of York’s Department of Archaeology and Director of the BioArch Centre, explains: “We have long believed dogs evolved from grey wolves during the last Ice Age, but physical evidence of their association with humans has been difficult to confirm.

“During the earliest stages of domestication, dogs and wolves looked almost identical, and behavioural differences do not show up in the archaeological record.”

Previous studies relied on small DNA fragments and skeletal measurements. This new study, however, was able to reconstruct whole genomes from remains more than 10,000 years old and compared them with over 1,000 modern and ancient canids.

The findings confirmed that dogs were already widespread across Europe and western Asia by at least 14,000 years ago.

At the University of York, scientists conducted a dietary analysis of dog, human and wolf remains from the same archaeological sites.

By measuring carbon and nitrogen isotopes preserved in bone collagen – chemical signatures that reflect long-term diet – they were able to reconstruct what these animals and people ate.

Lizzie Hodgson, PhD student from the University of York’s Department of Archaeology, said: “A key finding came from Pınarbaşı, where the data showed that domestic dogs consumed a diet rich in fish, closely matching that of local humans.

“It is unlikely dogs were catching significant amounts of fish themselves, suggesting they were being actively fed by people.”

This shared diet provides strong evidence of a close and cooperative relationship between humans and dogs during the Ice Age.

Dr William Marsh, from the Natural History Museum, said: “These specimens allowed us to identify additional ancient dogs from sites in Germany, Italy and Switzerland, showing they were already widely dispersed across Europe and Türkiye by at-least 14,000 years ago.”

The study suggests that dogs were present among different hunter-gatherer groups, including Epigravettian and Magdalenian communities, towards the end of the Ice Age.

Genetic analysis revealed that these early dogs were more closely related to the ancestors of modern European and Middle Eastern breeds than to Arctic dogs.

Dr Lachie Scarsbrook, from LMU Munich, said this indicates that major dog lineages were already established around 15,000 years ago. He said: “Dogs with very different ancestries already existed across Eurasia, from Somerset to Siberia.”

Experts say this raises the possibility that dogs were domesticated more than 10,000 years before any other animals or plants.

Alongside the genetic work, researchers also examined how these early dogs and humans may have lived together. While the exact role of these early dogs remains unclear, researchers believe they were closely integrated into human communities.

Further evidence, including intentional burial of dogs, points to possible emotional or cultural significance.

A dog jawbone from Gough’s Cave – dating to around 15,000 years ago – is now considered the earliest known domesticated dog in the UK.  Researchers say the discovery highlights the deep and long-standing relationship between humans and dogs, stretching back to the end of the last Ice Age.

Dr Sophy Charlton, from the University of York’s Department of Archaeology, said: “This study reveals the beginnings of a human and canine bond that continues to this day. It’s a narrative that began towards the end of the Ice Age but was foundational to many of the modern breeds we see today.”

The study, titled Dogs were widely distributed in Western Eurasia during the Palaeolithic, is published in the journal Nature, alongside related research exploring the genetic history of early dogs across Europe.

Samuel Pepys censored his links to slavery

 

 

Fear of corruption allegations drove Samuel Pepys to censor official correspondence connecting the Royal Navy, slave trading companies and his own slaves, new research shows.

 

‘your meriting well of the thing is the only present that shall ever operate with me’

(Samuel Pepys to John Howe, 1675)

 

That Samuel Pepys owned at least two enslaved people in 17th-century London is no secret. In some of his personal letters he was unashamedly open about this. In September 1688, he told a ship’s captain that neither ‘whipping or fetters’ had reformed a ‘mischievous’ slave in his household. He asked the captain to feed the man on ‘hard meat, till you can dispose of him in some plantation as a rogue’.

But in a study published today in The Historical Journal, Cambridge University historian Dr Michael Edwards shows that Pepys both erased and preserved details of his connections to slavery to protect his reputation and political career. In a particularly high-stakes episode, Pepys carefully recorded rejecting the offer of an enslaved boy as a bribe.

“Pepys had so many connections within England’s African trading companies as well as in the Navy,” says Dr Edwards, a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge. “Combined, these connections put him in a privileged position to acquire enslaved people. This part of the story has gone mostly untold.”

Dr Edwards examines, for the first time, how Pepys and his trusted clerks carefully ‘curated’ his official and personal correspondence to shape and limit our knowledge of his slave dealings. The historian consulted hundreds of records in The Pepys Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge; The National Archives; and the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

One of the study’s most startling findings concerns the loan of a ship and the subsequent offer of a human bribe.

 

The boy bribe

 

As part of his senior roles in the Royal Navy in the 1670s and 80s, Pepys arranged the loan of ships to support the Royal African Company’s (RAC) mercantile operations, including slave trading, off the west coast of Africa. This brought Pepys into frequent contact with RAC officers and with the captains of ships transporting enslaved people from Africa to the Caribbean.

Pepys arranged for the navy ship Phoenix to be lent to the RAC and dispatched to the west African coast in the summer of 1674. It then took enslaved people to Barbados. Arriving in November 1674, its log records the deaths of 19 enslaved people, all of whom were thrown overboard. The ship returned to England in April 1675.

At this point, the ship’s naval officer John Howe complained to the Navy commissioners that he had been unjustly deprived of the ship’s command following the death of its captain. Pepys agreed and on 23rd April he confirmed Howe’s command. Unaware of this decision, however, Howe took steps to win Pepys over.

An ally, Richard Rowe, wrote to Pepys on 24th April recommending Howe as ‘a man deserving and knows how to acknowledge favours’. Rowe suggested that Howe wished to give Pepys ‘An hon[our]able present for you and I hope worth your acceptance’.

The nature of this present was revealed six days later. Now aware that Pepys had favoured him, Howe wrote directly to ‘crave your acceptance’ of a ‘small’ enslaved boy, which ‘I brought home on board for your honour, & intend to present you with at the first conveniency … Hoping he is so well seasoned to endure the cold weather as to live in England.’

Pepys indignantly rejected Howe’s offer and Rowe’s intervention. On 5th May he rebuked Howe for ‘your thinking that any consideration of benefit to my self, or expectation of reward from you should be of any inducement with me’. Without describing the gift, Pepys asked Howe to ‘reserve that sort of argument for such as will be guided by it, and know that your meriting well of the thing is the only present that shall ever operate with me.’

Dr Edwards argues that Pepys’ sensitivity may have been provoked by an unnerving recent experience in parliament. After taking his seat as MP for Castle Rising in late 1673, Pepys had been attacked by the Earl of Shaftesbury and his allies for alleged Catholic sympathies.

“Responding to this offer of a bribe, Pepys felt he needed to demonstrate his probity, but he also wanted evidence of this recorded in his archive,” Dr Edwards says.

Pepys’ clerk, William Hewer, indexed and organised the correspondence on this matter in such a way that Pepys’ innocence was preserved while the enslaved child at the heart of the bribe was erased as an irrelevance.

“Pepys wasn’t concerned about the morality of slavery. He’s only interested in his reputation at a time when he’s under scrutiny for corruption,” Dr Edwards says.

“He had good reason to be cautious. Pepys was Secretary to the Admiralty, so he was running one of the biggest parts of the state in this period. The Navy involved enormous amounts of money and was highly politicised. Pepys had lots of political enemies and a few years later, in 1679, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London, following charges of corruption and popery.”

 

Did Pepys accept the bribe?

 

Pepys appears to have accepted many bribes during his career and biographers have generally assumed that he did accept Howe’s enslaved boy. It has been assumed that this was the same individual Pepys arranged to be sold in Tangier in the summer of 1680.

“It’s really hard to tell,” Edwards says, “but my instinct is that Pepys did not accept Howe’s bribe and that these were different people. I think Pepys might have been too worried about being caught out. But unless new documents come to light, we’ll never know for sure.”

 

Selling a slave after time in the Tower

 

In late 1679 Pepys arranged to sell an enslaved male through another of his naval contacts, Captain John Wyborne, a friend.

In his personal correspondence to Wyborne on the matter, Pepys felt able to speak openly.

On 4th December 1679, while his slave was onboard Wyborne’s ship, the Bristol, Pepys wrote: ‘Pray not my black-boy add any thing to your care, your kindness to me on my own score having been already too burthensome to you.’

Pepys had been released from the Tower in July the same year and was no longer secretary to the Admiralty commission. Pepys moved to the house of his friend and former clerk William Hewer in Buckingham Street. In these comfortable but reduced circumstances, Pepys may not have felt he needed a slave but Dr Edwards believes political prudence may also have played a part.

“After his 1679 arrest, in which a resentful former butler played a key role, Pepys may have wanted to remove an unwilling member of his household to avoid further trouble.”

Once Wyborne had arranged the sale in Tangier, Pepys wrote: ‘I am much obliged to you for the bargain you have made for me, & if I may choose, could be well contented you would at your return from Spain buy me a little good sherry with the proceed of it, & a little good chocolaty against winter.’

Dr Edwards says: “In some ways this is a very 17th-century story. Pepys would be bemused about our attitudes to enslavement. But powerful people have always thought about their image and tried to shape their reputation.”

Tropical archaeology: advanced dating method reveals age of Pacific coral architecture

 

Precise timescales make a big difference for interpreting the past

A team of archaeologists has used an advanced dating technique to establish the first precise construction timeline for houses built out of  in French Polynesia. The findings reveal previously hidden patterns of architectural development and cultural life in Pacific societies. 

The University of Sydney-led study, published in the prestigious journal Antiquity, marks the first time uranium–thorium dating, also known as U-Th dating, has been applied to date historical coral architecture. This method produces precise age estimates without the need for extensive excavation, enabling archaeologists to better understand how European colonisers impacted local cultures across diverse landscapes worldwide. 

Associate Professor James Flexner, an ARC Future Fellow in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and member of the Vere Gordon Childe Centre, led the research on Mangareva, a group of islands in French Polynesia in the South Pacific, where coral was the main material for houses before timber became dominant in the 1870s. 

“Mangarevan people learned the building technique from French Catholic missionaries who arrived on the island in the 1830s and commenced a large construction program,” Associate Professor Flexner said. “They built cathedrals, churches, schools, communal bread ovens, watch towers and small stone cottages out of locally sourced coral from nearby shore reefs, as well as beach rock corals from exposed formations on land.” 

Europeans kept detailed records of their own buildings but wrote almost nothing about the everyday homes constructed by local Mangarevan families. 

“Using the uranium-thorium dating method, we can date the construction materials used in the buildings with remarkable accuracy, giving us more clues to cultural and domestic life in the Pacific and deepening our understanding of colonial heritage,” he said. 

“Smaller timescales can make a big difference for interpreting the past.” 

Coral and culture 

Mangareva sits within an archipelago of ancient volcanic peaks, located within a lagoon surrounded by a fringing reef that includes several long and narrow motu, or coral islets. 

Ten coral samples from the Mangarevan structures were dated by the University of Queensland’s Radiogenic Isotope Facility. The results open new avenues for understanding how Pacific people adapted building technologies introduced by the Europeans. 

“What surprised us was that several coral blocks returned dates earlier than expected,” Associate Professor Flexner said. “A few even pre-dated European arrival, suggesting the builders may have reused older coral taken from nearby sites. But none of the examples showed centuries long age differences, challenging earlier theories that coral from ancient structures was widely repurposed for 19th century buildings.” 

Composite of detail photos of branch coral samples. Photo: James Flexner 

Dating the coral helped the researchers track how everyday life in the Pacific evolved following European contact and continues to be shaped by ongoing colonial influences. 

“Some of the evidence we found within the walls of the coral structures, including glassware, cooking pots and ceramics, indicated activities such as feasting events, whereas others pointed to changes in habits of everyday domestic life, from how a family prepares and eats meals together, to how people move throughout the home, how they might pray and worship, or how they sleep. 

“These coral cottages are a microcosm of life itself. They are a huge potential source of information on the social, cultural and cosmological ways of being for Pacific peoples.” 

An untapped archive 

The U-Th dating method was originally used in Polynesia to date prehistoric coral and cave formations, including the initial discovery of the Tonga archipelago and Mangareva Islands, Hawaiian sacred sites, and coral blocks from marae, ancient temples in Mo’orea. 

Unlike radiocarbon dating, which is unreliable for materials less than 500 years old, uranium–thorium dating yields results accurate to within a few years. 

“Expanding the U-Th method to date coral houses as we have done in Mangareva could revolutionise the study of undocumented architecture and people in other pre-European as well as colonial contexts beyond Oceania, including Africa and the Caribbean,” Associate Professor Flexner said. 

Precisely dating coral buildings may also eventually help researchers understand historical reef conditions. 

“People think of coral mainly in the context of bleaching and climate change today, but each coral block used for the construction of these houses retains a chemical record of the environment in which the coral grew, offering a historical archive of coral reefs and past ecological change,” he said. 

“Along with uncovering the cultural histories of colonial landscapes, accessing this archive could prove invaluable for understanding changes to reef systems over time, particularly those resulting from human impact. 

Associate Professor Flexner hopes future collaborations will extend the work to neighbouring archipelagos where coral construction also flourished. 

"We are actively partnering with communities and local authorities to strengthen conservation and heritage protection in these regions so we can continue to piece together the stories of the past and build a more informed and sustainable future,” he said. 

-ENDS- 

RESEARCH 

Flexner, J. ‘Direct dating of colonial-era building materials using the U-Th method in the Mangareva Islands, French Polynesia’ (Antiquity, 2026) 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2026.10325 (this link will go live when the embargo lifts) 

English history’s biggest march is a myth – King Harold sailed to the Battle of Hastings

 

New research from the University of East Anglia (UEA) reveals that King Harold’s legendary 200‑mile march to the Battle of Hastings in 1066 never happened.

Instead, the journey was made largely by sea.

The findings overturn one of the most iconic stories in English history – altering how the Norman Conquest is understood in classrooms, museums, and public memory.

The news comes as the Bayeux Tapestry prepares to travel from France to the UK for display at the British Museum later this year.

For more than two centuries, historians have repeated a misinterpretation of the Anglo‑Saxon Chronicle - one of the earliest and most complete written records of English history.

The Chronicle seems to imply that Harold dismissed his fleet in early September 1066, leaving him no choice but to rush his troops south from Stamford Bridge in Yorkshire on foot.

It records that the ships “came home” - a phrase Victorian historians mistakenly interpreted as meaning he disbanded the navy. And it was this narrative that shaped later accounts of the Norman Conquest.

Prof Tom Licence, Professor of Medieval History and Literature at UEA has now shown that the ships returned to London, their home base, and remained operational throughout the year.

He said: “I noticed multiple contemporary writers referring to Harold's fleet, while modern historians were dismissing those references or trying to explain them away.

“I checked the evidence for him having sent the fleet home and found that it was just a misunderstanding. I went looking in the sources for evidence of a forced march and found there wasn't any.”

Prof Licence is keen to present King Harold’s actions in a new light in the face of William’s invasion.

He said: “Harold’s campaign was not a desperate dash across England, it was a sophisticated land‑sea operation. The idea of a heroic march is a Victorian invention that has shaped our understanding, or misunderstanding, of 1066 for far too long.”

Contemporary sources describe Harold sending hundreds of ships to block Duke William after the Norman landing. These references previously caused confusion because historians assumed Harold had no fleet left.

Prof Licence said: “Harold's ‘missing’ fleet was used to defend the south coast, then to support his campaign against Harald Hardrada, and finally to rush back south after the Battle of Stamford Bridge ready to face Duke William of Normandy.”

Prof Michael Lewis, Head of the Portable Antiquities Scheme at the British Museum, and Curator: Bayeux Tapestry Exhibition, said: “With the Bayeux Tapestry coming to the British Museum later this year, Prof Tom Licence's research shows there is much still to be learned about the events of 1066.

“It is clearly a fascinating discovery that following the Battle of Stamford Bridge, Harold took an easier, more logical, trip south by ship to meet Duke William in battle, rather than a long trek overland, as has long been supposed.

“Hopefully this new research inspires people to also come and see the Tapestry whilst it is in London.”

Why the new research matters

The findings challenge one of the best‑known narratives in English history, altering how the Norman Conquest is understood in classrooms, museums, and public memory.

Prof Licence said: “Harold was not a reactive, exhausted commander, he was a strategist using England’s naval assets to wage a coordinated defence.

“This reframes the events of 1066 and highlights a previously overlooked aspect of Anglo‑Saxon maritime capability.”

Prof Licence re‑examined the Anglo‑Saxon Chronicle, which survives today in nine manuscript versions, alongside other 11th‑century sources, correcting the error popularised by Edward Augustus Freeman in the 19th century.

By restoring the fleet to its central role, the research reconstructs Harold’s real strategic choices - from his northern campaign against Harald Hardrada to his planned naval interception of William before Hastings.

Roy Porter, English Heritage Senior Curator of Properties, who oversees Battle Abbey and the Hastings battlefield, said: “Professor Licence’s research shows the immense value of testing received wisdoms, and his conclusions are certain to sustain debate about the circumstances of England’s most famous battle.

“What we know about Harold’s previous military campaigns fits with the idea that he used naval forces to transport soldiers, and threaten William, and there are references in accounts of the Norman invasion which also lend weight to that possibility.

“It’s exciting to consider that Harold’s response may have been far more sophisticated than previously understood, and William’s awareness of this may have informed when he chose to fight.”

Key findings:

Harold never disbanded his fleet

The research demonstrates that Harold’s ships were not dismissed in early September 1066, as long believed. The Anglo‑Saxon Chronicle states that Harold himself returned to London “off ship,” that is, from the south coast, when he heard of Harald Hardrada’s arrival.

The famous 200‑mile march is a Victorian invention

No contemporary source describes a forced march. The term was introduced by Victorian historians and became received wisdom. A sea voyage from the Humber to London was faster, safer, and far more consistent with the Chronicle’s account.

Comparative evidence shows the march is unrealistic, with even well‑equipped American Civil War forces only covering around 100 miles in five days under exceptional conditions.

Prof Licence said: “Harold’s weary, unmounted men covering nearly 200 miles in ten days and then continuing straight to the Hastings peninsula is implausible given medieval roads and the aftermath of battle.

“Only a mad general would have sent all his men on foot in this way if ship transports were available.”

Past criticism of Harold marching south with ‘reckless and impulsive haste’, as one historian puts it, is therefore unfounded. His men had time to rest.

Harold used the fleet against Harald Hardrada

The Chronicle uses the Old English term lið, normally translated as “fleet” to describe the force Harold gathered at Tadcaster before marching on Stamford Bridge.

This indicates the English king deployed both naval and land forces against Harald Hardrada – a detail that has caused much confusion because historians wrongly believed the fleet was already scattered.

Harold attempted a naval pincer movement against Duke William

Early accounts describe Harold sending hundreds of ships south after William’s landing. Far from marching alone, Harold was coordinating a land‑sea pincer designed to trap the Normans in the Hastings peninsula.

The fleet likely arrived too late, costing Harold his archers and cutting‑edge troops.

Evidence suggests a naval battle in early October 1066

The study also revives evidence for a forgotten naval clash. Both Domesday Book and the Annales Altahenses hint at an English sea engagement during the campaign.

These references were previously hard to explain, but now, reconsidered alongside this research, become plausible and historically significant. The English fleet arrived too late to save the day but may have clashed with William’s ships guarding his base at Hastings.

Making the findings public

Prof Tom Licence will present his findings at the University of Oxford on 24 March at The Maritime and Political World of 1066 conference.

In his talk, he will explain how a series of misunderstandings gave rise to the famous “forced march” story, reveal new evidence for Harold’s active fleet, and discuss how these findings reshape the story of 1066 taught in classrooms, displayed in museums, depicted in the recent BBC drama King and Conqueror, and told in the Bayeux Tapestry

New study challenges the age of a key human occupation site in South America

 

Following the first independent investigation in fifty years of Monte Verde – a landmark archaeological site in Chile – researchers report it may be much younger than previously believed. According to the study, Monte Verde dates from ~8000 to 4000 years old, not 14,500 years, as previously thought. The findings reshape the story of the continent’s first settlers (though they don’t rule out pre-Clovis human presence in South America, as supported by other sites); they also highlight the need for independent verification of old archeological sites. Monte Verde is one of the most important archaeological sites for understanding when humans first reached South America, the last continent colonized by humans. Excavations of the site’s Monte Verde II component uncovered stone tools and well-preserved organic materials, such as wooden artifacts, cordage, and fossil remains of extinct Pleistocene fauna. Earlier dating suggested that the site was occupied roughly 14,500 years ago, making it nearly 1,500 years older than the Clovis culture – the once-dominant benchmark for earliest human settlement in the Americas. Although widely accepted as key evidence of a pre-Clovis human presence in southern South America, the findings from Monte Verde have long been debated. Critics have questioned whether the artifacts, sediment layers, and radiocarbon dates are truly associated, raising possibilities such as redeposited ancient material or dating inaccuracies that could exaggerate the site’s age.

 

Now, Todd Surovell and colleagues show that the antiquity of Monte Verde may have been overestimated. Surovell et al. reexamined the age and geological context of Monte Verde II by describing, sampling, and dating nine sediment exposures along the banks of the nearby Chinchihuapi Creek. The analysis shows that the abandoned floodplain on which the site resides is far more complex than previously understood. According to the findings, the area contains layers of sand and gravel deposited by glacial meltwater between about 26,000 and 15,500 years ago, followed by deposits of ancient wood, marsh sediments, and a volcanic ash layer identified as the regionally widespread Lepúe Tephra, which is well-dated to roughly 11,000 years ago. The authors argue that because the floodplain deposit containing the archaeological site sits above this ash layer, it must be younger than 11,000 years. Further radiocarbon dating of wood and peat from the floodplain sediments produced ages between ~8200 and 4100 years, indicating that the deposit formed during the Middle Holocene. The authors suggest that earlier dates previously reported for the site were likely influenced by Late Pleistocene-age materials from older sediments that were redeposited into the site via erosion. The findings suggest that Monte Verde II is Middle Holocene in age or younger, challenging earlier interpretations that placed the site much earlier in the late Ice Age.

 

In a Perspective, Jason Rech discusses the study as well as the implications of the findings. “Although Monte Verde grounded chronologies for early colonization of the Americas for decades, the landscape is different now, with more sites that appear to be older than the Clovis culture,” Rech writes. “Yet as Surovell et al. conclude, their findings highlight the need for independent verification of old archeological sites.”

---

Journal

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.adw9217 

How Southern Andean communities adopted farming and endured crises

 

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Illustration representing population movements within the Southern Andes as a resilience strategy to face crises. Credit: Mauricio Álvarez - studio FIEL®   

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Credit: Credit: Mauricio Álvarez - studio FIEL®

A new interdisciplinary study published in Nature reconstructs over 2,000 years of population history in Argentina’s Uspallata Valley (UV), a southern frontier of Andean farming spread in ancient times, with broader lessons on how agriculture shaped societies and how communities endured crises. By combining ancient human and pathogen genomics with isotopic analyses, archaeology and paleoclimate records–and working in close collaboration with Huarpe Indigenous communities–, the research reveals how local hunter-gatherers adopted agriculture, how more recent intensive maize farmers experienced prolonged stress, and how kinship-based mobility may have helped communities persist through instability. 

A central question in studies of farming’s spread is whether agriculture expanded mainly as farmers moved into new regions, or as local hunter-gatherers adopted crops and techniques through cultural transmission. Archaeology by itself often cannot distinguish the two with confidence, since both can leave comparable traces in material culture. The Uspallata Valley, at the southern margin of Andean farming spread, offers a key setting to disentangle these scenarios, because agriculture arrived in this region much later than in major domestication centres across South America. 

This work, led by the Microbial Paleogenomics Unit (MPU) at Institut Pasteur, generated genome-wide ancient DNA data from 46 individuals spanning the earlier hunter-gatherer period to later farming populations. The results reveal strong genetic continuity between hunter-gatherers (~2,200 years ago) living in the region before farming was adopted and those living more than a millennium later as maize farming–and other crops– expanded. 

The study also helps unravel long-term population history in the southern Andes. “Beyond the local story of Uspallata, we are also filling a gap in South American human genetic diversity by documenting a genetic component that was previously only suggested by analysing present-day populations, and that now proves to have a very deep divergence and current persistence in the region” explains Pierre Luisi, co-first author of the study, researcher in CONICET, Argentina, who started this work as postdoc in the MPU at Institut Pasteur, France. “The persistence of this ancestral genetic component in populations today has important implications, since it argues against narratives claiming the extinction of indigenous descendants in the region since the establishment and growth of the Argentine state-nation.” 

To reconstruct how people lived, the team combined genetics with chemical signals preserved in bones and teeth, called stable isotopes. Carbon and nitrogen isotopes reveal an average of the foods eaten over a lifetime, while strontium isotopes reflect the area where a person lived, and can thus indicate whether individuals moved during life. These analyses show that maize consumption fluctuated in UV over time, consistent with flexible farming rather than a progressive transition into strong farming dependence. But between ~800 and 600 years ago, the record shows a different story at one major cemetery site called Potrero Las Colonias: most individuals show an exceptionally high maize reliance–among the highest documented for the southern Andes and non-local strontium signatures, indicating that they were migrants. Who were these non-local farmers and where were they coming from? 

Isotopic and genetic data indicated that these migrations occurred within a constrained geographic range rather than across distant, previously unrelated areas. Migrants were genetically close to local groups and belonged to the same metapopulation. Yet genomic analyses show that this migrant group experienced strong and sustained demographic decline, suggesting a shrinking population under persistent stress over many generations. 

Multiple lines of evidence indicate that these farmers faced a multidimensional crisis. At a larger temporal scale, paleoclimate records point to prolonged climatic instability, coinciding with the demographic decline. At shorter temporal scales (individual’s lives), skeletons show markers consistent with nutritional stress during childhood and infection. Indeed, ancient DNA revealed the presence of tuberculosis in the site, with the detected strain falling within a lineage known from pre-contact South America. Its presence far south of previously documented contexts in Peru and Colombia raises new questions about routes of spread and the ecological conditions that sustained this infectious disease. “Detecting tuberculosis this far south in a pre-contact context is striking,” says Nicolás Rascovan, head of the Microbial Paleogenomics Unit at Institut Pasteur. “It expands the geographic frame for understanding how tuberculosis circulated in the past and highlights the value of integrating pathogen genomics into broader reconstructions of human history.” 

Genomic kinship analyses add another key layer: many of the migrants were closely related but not buried at the same time–consistent with sustained, concerted and transgenerational movement into UV over decades. A large kinship network is structured mainly through maternal links and a single mitochondrial lineage dominated across migrants, suggesting an important role of women by maintaining family continuity and organizing mobility. Importantly, there is no evidence of violence, and locals and migrants were occasionally buried within shared mortuary contexts, pointing to peaceful coexistence between groups in the region. 

Together, these findings suggest that kinship-based migration and strong family bonds functioned as resilience strategies during a period of concurring pressures–environmental instability, food insecurity and disease. “No farming community abandons fields and homes lightly,” says the archaeologist and co-first author Ramiro Barberena, a researcher at CONICET. “Our results are most consistent with people moving under force majeure, relying on family networks to navigate crisis.” Barberena adds: “Understanding how these transitions unfolded and what they meant for demography, economy, and health helps us better grasp the pathways that shaped today’s societies–and to think about risks and challenges of climate change and demographic pressures.” 

The study also highlights the ethical and integrative value of the research, which was done in close interaction with indigenous communities. Huarpe community members were actively involved throughout the project, contributed to interpretation and narrative framing, and three of them co-authored the article (Claudia Herrera, Graciela Coz and Matías Candito). Regular meetings with the research team allowed discussing permissions, uncertainties and how results would be communicated. A Spanish translation with non-specialist explanations accompanies the study to facilitate local access. 

“Archaeology and paleogenomics are not neutral when they involve the ancestors of living people,” says Rascovan. “Working with communities changes how we do science: it shapes the questions we ask, how we interpret evidence, and how we communicate what we can–and cannot–conclude.” 

More broadly, the study highlights that one of the most transformative processes in human history–the adoption of agriculture–did not unfold in a single, universal way, but followed diverse paths shaped by local environments and social networks. By combining genetics, isotopes, archaeology, climate records and pathogen evidence, this work shows how past communities coped with overlapping pressures of environmental instability, food stress and disease. Understanding how people navigated crisis in the past–including the role of family ties and cooperation networks–offers a deep-time and wider perspective that can inform how we think about resilience in the face of today’s climate and health challenges. 
 

Neanderthals used birch tar for its anti-bacterial properties

 Neanderthals probably used birch tar for multiple functions, including treating their wounds, according to a study published March 18, 2026 in the open-access journal PLOS One by a team of researchers led by Tjaark Siemssen of the University of Cologne, Germany, and the University of Oxford, U.K.

Birch tar is commonly found at Neanderthal archaeological sites, and in some cases this tar is known to have been used as an adhesive to assemble tools. Recently, some researchers have raised the question of whether Neanderthals had multiple uses for this substance. For instance, Indigenous communities in northern Europe and Canada use birch tar to treat wounds, and there is growing evidence that Neanderthals also employed a variety of medical practices.

To investigate the medicinal potential of birch tar, Siemssen and colleagues extracted tar from modern birch tree bark, specifically targeting species known from Neanderthal sites. They used multiple extraction methods, including distillation of tar in a clay pit and condensation of tar against a stone surface, both of which would have been methods available to Neanderthals. When exposed to different strains of bacteria, all of the tar samples were found to be effective at hindering the growth of Staphylococcus bacteria known to cause wound infections.

These experiments not only support the efficacy of Indigenous medicinal practices, but also reinforce the possibility that Neanderthals used birch tar to treat wounds. The authors note that there are other potential uses of birch tar, such as insect repellent, as well as other plants to which Neanderthals had access. Further exploration of the multiple potential uses of these natural ingredients will enable a more thorough understanding of Neanderthal culture.

The authors add: “We found that the birch tar produced by Neanderthals and early humans had antibacterial properties. This has important implications for how Neanderthals may have mitigated disease burden during the last Ice Ages, and adds to a growing set of evidence on healthcare in these early human communities.”

“By bringing together research on indigenous pharmacology and experimental archaeology, we begin to understand the medicinal practices of our distant human ancestors and their closest cousins. Additionally, this study of 'palaeopharmacology' can contribute to the rediscovery of antibiotic remedies whilst we face an ever more pressing antimicrobial resistance crisis.”

“The messiness of birch tar production deserves a special mention. Every step of the production is a sensory experience in itself, and getting the tar off our hands after spending hours at the fire has been a challenge every time.”