The origin of the Gravettians: genomic evidence from a 36,000-year-old Eastern European

Abstract

The Gravettian technocomplex was present in Europe from more than 30,000 years ago until the Last Glacial Maximum, but the source of this industry and the people who manufactured it remain unsettled. We use genome-wide analysis of a ~36,000-year-old Eastern European individual (BuranKaya3A) from Buran-Kaya III in Crimea, the earliest documented occurrence of the Gravettian, to investigate relationships between population structures of Upper Palaeolithic Europe and the origin and spread of the culture. We show BuranKaya3A to be genetically close to both contemporary occupants of the Eastern European plain and the producers of the classical Gravettian of Central Europe 6,000 years later. These results support an Eastern European origin of an Early Gravettian industry practiced by members of a distinct population, who contributed ancestry to individuals from much later Gravettian sites to the west.