The woman had lighter skin than other hunter-gatherers living in Western Europe at the time, suggesting that Stone Age people in the area had a wider range of skin tones than scientists had previously thought.
Reconstructions by Kennis and Kennis. 3D reconstruction of a Stone Age woman's face and skull.
Scientists were not surprised by the fact that the woman had dark skin, as most ancient people in Europe, including the famous “Cheddar Man”, also had dark skin. However, the Stone Age woman had a slightly lighter skin tone than other finds from the same period, which the researchers found significant and interesting.
“Her skin colour is a 'subtle but important detail,'” Ghent University's lead geneticist Maite Rivolla said in a statement.
Rivolla added: “Previously, phenotypic diversity among European hunter-gatherers was known only from a limited number of fossils and was thought to be fairly uniform.”
According to the university's Regional Overview of Ancient Migration (ROAM) project, which oversaw the reconstruction, the woman's skin tone suggests that “a diversity of colour spectrum existed before the advent of agriculture” and that such differences could have been influenced by “factors such as diet, migration and climate.”
However, skin tone was ultimately only a small part of this woman's life.
Life of a Stone Age woman 10,500 years ago.
Sourse: www.allthatsinteresting.com
