A recent genetic analysis linked eight Stone Age farmer remains to modern day Basques. The findings reveal similar groups that migrated to northern and central Europe first brought farming to Iberia and mixed with local hunter-gather groups for two millennia.
Past studies have focused on the early days of central and northern Europe, but Iberia has been largely overlooked. To make these new findings a team of researchers looked at eight human remains from the El Portalón cave Anthropological site Atapuerca in northern Spain, Uppsala University reported.
"The El Portalon cave is a fantastic site with amazing preservation of [artifact] material," said Cristina Valdiosera of Uppsala University and La Trobe University, one of the lead authors. "Every year we find human and animal bones and artifacts, including stone tools, ceramics, bone [artifacts] and metal objects, it is like a detailed book of the last 10,000 years, providing a wonderful understanding of this period. The preservation of organic remains is great and this has enabled us to study the genetic material complementing the archaeology."
