Nov 28, 2025 05:59 PM
Ancient DNA reveals most Europeans had dark skin until just 3,000 years ago
https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-...dark-skin/
EXCERPTS: The textbook assumption is that when the first modern humans arrived in Europe, around 45,000 years ago, they quickly evolved pale skin to adapt to the region’s dimmer sunlight relative to Africa. The logic seemed straightforward: lighter skin allows more ultraviolet light to penetrate, helping the body produce vitamin D, a nutrient essential for human health.
However, a study of ancient DNA challenges this long-held assumption. By analyzing the genomes of 348 individuals who lived between 45,000 and 1,700 years ago, researchers have uncovered a surprising truth for some: for most of Europe’s history, the majority of its inhabitants had dark skin. Only around 3,000 years ago did lighter skin tones become dominant.
[...] The first signs of lighter pigmentation appeared in the Mesolithic, around 14,000 to 4,000 years ago, with a few individuals in Sweden and France showing light skin and blue eyes. By the Bronze Age (7,000 to 3,000 years ago), the proportion of dark-skinned individuals had dropped to about half. It wasn’t until the Iron Age (3,000 to 1,700 years ago) that lighter skin tones began to dominate.
But the real turning point came with the spread of Neolithic farmers from Anatolia around 10,000 years ago. These early agriculturalists carried genes for lighter skin, which likely gave them an evolutionary advantage in the less sunny climates of Europe. Over time, their genes spread, but the process was slow and uneven. In some regions, dark skin persisted for thousands of years longer than in others.
[...] The question remains: why did lighter skin become more common in Europe? The traditional explanation—that pale skin evolved to maximize vitamin D production in low-light environments—may not tell the whole story. Instead, dietary changes may have played a key role.
As humans transitioned from small, nomadic groups to larger, agricultural communities, their diets shifted. They relied less on vitamin D-rich wild game and more on cultivated crops, which lacked the vitamin. This change, combined with the need to absorb more sunlight in northern latitudes, may have driven the evolution of lighter skin.
The Neolithic expansion and the massive waves of migration further east out of Anatolia may have contributed greatly to Europe’s transition to pale skin through the mixture of populations.
But what about Neanderthals, who occupied Europe for tens of thousands of years before modern humans came into the picture? Interestingly, the study confirms that modern Europeans did not inherit pale skin from Neanderthals. Previous research has shown that the two groups interbred, but the genetic evidence suggests that lighter skin evolved independently in modern humans... (MORE - missing details)
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If vitamin D need compelled evolving lighter skin within a revised period of only a few thousand years or even centuries, then indigenous people in North America could have similarly made such a transition, especially in areas where agriculture dominated (less organ meat from wildlife). So the transition in Europe (facilitated by farming) seemed almost wholly dependent on having an external, pale-skinned population group (in this case from Anatolia) migrating into the continent, which a parallel ancient North America lacked. No intrinsic adaptation occurring in the "native" inhabitants to it, as previously entertained and possibly still in a mitigated or slight, lingering manner with respect to Europe.
https://www.zmescience.com/science/news-...dark-skin/
EXCERPTS: The textbook assumption is that when the first modern humans arrived in Europe, around 45,000 years ago, they quickly evolved pale skin to adapt to the region’s dimmer sunlight relative to Africa. The logic seemed straightforward: lighter skin allows more ultraviolet light to penetrate, helping the body produce vitamin D, a nutrient essential for human health.
However, a study of ancient DNA challenges this long-held assumption. By analyzing the genomes of 348 individuals who lived between 45,000 and 1,700 years ago, researchers have uncovered a surprising truth for some: for most of Europe’s history, the majority of its inhabitants had dark skin. Only around 3,000 years ago did lighter skin tones become dominant.
[...] The first signs of lighter pigmentation appeared in the Mesolithic, around 14,000 to 4,000 years ago, with a few individuals in Sweden and France showing light skin and blue eyes. By the Bronze Age (7,000 to 3,000 years ago), the proportion of dark-skinned individuals had dropped to about half. It wasn’t until the Iron Age (3,000 to 1,700 years ago) that lighter skin tones began to dominate.
But the real turning point came with the spread of Neolithic farmers from Anatolia around 10,000 years ago. These early agriculturalists carried genes for lighter skin, which likely gave them an evolutionary advantage in the less sunny climates of Europe. Over time, their genes spread, but the process was slow and uneven. In some regions, dark skin persisted for thousands of years longer than in others.
[...] The question remains: why did lighter skin become more common in Europe? The traditional explanation—that pale skin evolved to maximize vitamin D production in low-light environments—may not tell the whole story. Instead, dietary changes may have played a key role.
As humans transitioned from small, nomadic groups to larger, agricultural communities, their diets shifted. They relied less on vitamin D-rich wild game and more on cultivated crops, which lacked the vitamin. This change, combined with the need to absorb more sunlight in northern latitudes, may have driven the evolution of lighter skin.
The Neolithic expansion and the massive waves of migration further east out of Anatolia may have contributed greatly to Europe’s transition to pale skin through the mixture of populations.
But what about Neanderthals, who occupied Europe for tens of thousands of years before modern humans came into the picture? Interestingly, the study confirms that modern Europeans did not inherit pale skin from Neanderthals. Previous research has shown that the two groups interbred, but the genetic evidence suggests that lighter skin evolved independently in modern humans... (MORE - missing details)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
If vitamin D need compelled evolving lighter skin within a revised period of only a few thousand years or even centuries, then indigenous people in North America could have similarly made such a transition, especially in areas where agriculture dominated (less organ meat from wildlife). So the transition in Europe (facilitated by farming) seemed almost wholly dependent on having an external, pale-skinned population group (in this case from Anatolia) migrating into the continent, which a parallel ancient North America lacked. No intrinsic adaptation occurring in the "native" inhabitants to it, as previously entertained and possibly still in a mitigated or slight, lingering manner with respect to Europe.